STUDIO TOUR 2022 - Riff Audio is OPEN!!!
I'm Riff, owner of Riff Audio, and I want to show you my 2022 dream home studio in Los Angeles, California. It’s taken about 4 months to build but the concept started years ago! I’m excited to share with you what a studio can look like when it’s done correctly!
The live room was designed by John H. Brandt, who is responsible for some of my favorite studios in the world. The amazing team over at Nyback Builds was able to construct this for us. And on top of that, iO Acoustics furnished all the acoustic treatment with the wiring installed by Rodney at Lovett Audio.
We used QRD diffusers because I have a smaller space. John figured out that this would be the best solution for my room and not every studio is built this way. A QRD diffuser consists of different depths of wood, causing a mixture of phase shifts that diffuse reflected sound. They are used to control reflections in the listening environment and disperse sound evenly, getting rid of any standing waves, or frequency that cancel themselves out that may be present in your room.
If you don’t treat a wall, you lose out because you're not determining what that wall does. This doesn’t mean that you have to dampen every inch of your studio, but it means that you’re leaving out a lot of variables that can potentially cause standing waves in your room which in return will affect the frequency response of your room.My back wall behind the kit is a spine wall, this diffracts sound causing sound pressure waves to disperse evenly throughout the room. Whenever you play any type of acoustic instrument in this room, it sounds like it's right here in front of you.
That's a mic panel and it's sick. There are 24 inputs of just microphone cables running underground to get to the control room as this room is its own building and the control room is part of the house. There are video lines, data lines, and headphone lines. On the opposite mic panel, we even have speaker lines. That means that you can play any instrument in the live room and monitor it in the control room.
Some of my favorite cabs to record any type of hardcore punk bands are, my Mesa 4x12 oversized cabinet, we use a SM57 and a beyerdynamic M160. On the Marshall 4x12 cab, we have a SM57, but we also have a Royer R-121 microphone. The mix of those two microphones is classic and timeless. You can record anything from Guns N' Roses to something more modern and punk like NOFX.
I've been a drummer for a very long time and this is my favorite drum setup:
K Custom Hi-Hats 14”
K Custom Sweet Crash 18”
K Custom Sweet Crash 20”
A Custom Ping Ride 22”
DW Collectors series 6 piece kit - ebony stain
Gretsch Bell Brass Snare
DW 5000 Kick Pedal & Hi Hat Stand
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with a music video by the punk band Cheap Sex and they had these exact same K Custom 14” Hi-Hats. Later, I found out that wasn't even his kit, but they're dark, heavy, they sound incredible.
I mic up my hi-hats with an ELA M 260 microphone by Telefunken. It’s warm and detailed, it does everything a tube microphone and small diaphragm condenser mic would do.
The snare drum is a Gretsch Bell Brass Snare and it's my all time favorite snare. I use Josephson e22s mic for my snare, it is by far one of my favorite microphones in the world. It's a small diaphragm, it sounds so fucking good. My dynamic microphone is a Beyerdynamic M201. Together the M201 givse you the fatness and the e22s gives you the bright details of the snare. I don't use 57s because they bleed too much and get a lot of sound from the Hi-Hat. Honestly, I'm bored of hearing 57s on the snare. The bottom snare mic is a Blue Mouse, the homie Sam Pura over at Panda Studios recommended it to me and it's been on my kit ever since.
My crash is a K custom sweet crash, the perfect cymbal for any type of rock music. It's dark enough that it's not shrill, but it's not dark enough that it only works for jazz. I use Violet Design Amethyst microphones as overheads. They're unfortunately not around anymore, but they sound unbelievable. It's probably the closest thing to a U67 that I could come up with that's not a tube microphone. If you ever find one on Reverb or eBay, snatch it up. You will not regret it.
My DW Kit is my pride and joy. It sounds fucking awesome.
My choice to mic up toms is an Audix D6 kick drum mic. Anyone that uses the Sennheiser 421 mic, just scoops the shit out of the low mids with an EQ. The Audix D6 kick mic has a similar frequency response so no need to reach for another EQ!
My right hand side cymbal is the exact same thing as my left cymbal, but bigger. It's a 20 inch crash. I love the 20 inch Crashes, especially for anything that you need wailing on. My China is an Oriental Trash. I got it when I was a teenager because it’s what Travis Barker was using.
My ride, is a 22 inch Ping Ride, it’s a direct rip off from our beautiful friends over at The Blasting Room. We’re micing it up with an ELA M 260 by Telefunken, same mic I had on the Hi-Hat. This microphone is detailed, warm, beautiful, gorgeous.
My kick drum is a DW Collector Series and the kick in mic is a e602. It’s my favorite mic for punk, pop punk, anything that's fast. Anything that needs a little bit of click, but not too much it works perfectly for.
Our kick out mic is a gorgeous SuperFET 47. I'm obsessed with low end and this mic has so much sub low end. On top of that, we've got our trustee Subkick Yamaha. It's official name for all you nerds out there is SKR 100. Tell your mother.
My favorite room mic are Coles 4038 they’ve gotten me through a lot of hard times. Sometimes we use them as overhead, designed by the BBC.
We have a beautiful Supraphonic by Ludwig is my go-to for snare drums, for fast punk.The DW Edge a perfect mix between wood and brass. It’s the one you want for more warmth in your sound. A second DW Edge snare was just brought in from The Go-Go's! If you want a more high pitched sound, go with a 13 inch snare.
The DW Concrete Snare. It's called the Concrete Snare, because it's made out of concrete. It sounds fucking rad. Perfect for thrash or metal when you want a really static transient.
I got a Copperphonic snare by Ludwig, 8 inch deep because I saw Kurt Ballou recording Bane with it and I was like, "Fuck." So, I got it.All Maple DW collector series snare drum. This is the drum that came with my drum kit. It sounds fat and woody –great for any psychedelic rock or garage stuff.
If you're on a tight budget and need one snare, that's going to do it all, I recommend the Ludwig Black Beauty. It’s the most recorded snare drum in the world. It’s made out of brass and sounds amazing.
This Jericho Walnut Fusion is the workhorse of our studio. It always stays in tune. This is great for punk bands, especially the punk bands that hold the cord and bend it because they're too excited. Split coil pickups so you can do a humbucker which gives you a nice thick tone or a single coil pickup which gives you a brighter thinner sound.
The legend, Adam Pero at Peartree Guitar set all my guitars up, so they are in the best shape and feel super comfortable to play.
Next is what you might think is Gibson Les Paul, but it is actually a Greco. These aren’t allowed to be sold in the US so, I got this one from Japan when I was out there. Adam Pero sanded down the neck to take off the gloss now it’s just butter smooth! This guitar is so-so for punk but rips for hardcore.
The Gibson SG Standard is one of the most angry sounding guitars ever. It’s the one I always wanted when I was a kid.
Up next is my Jericho Alpha Blacker bass guitar. It has the PJ set up. So, it's got a P-Bass set up which gives you that thick rock bass sound and it also has that J pickup which is common for metal bands for that bright string sound. The combination of the two sounds so good! Check out Jericho Guitars from Austin TX.
—Thanks for touring my studio! Looking forward to sharing more info on music production, engineering techniques!
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQnvdHC4bzEoydthKQu8iUg
Visit RiffAudio.com/Contact to book studio time or 1:1 with me.