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Music Technology Lab
"I love the MuseLab" -Euterpe, muse of music


Tutorial I: Project Studio Basics

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This tutorial is designed to give you a tour of the Project Studio (PS) and provide some basic references that you may access from later tutorials. This is a very visual tutorial.

Black Rack
The first rack on your right when you enter the studio is called the Black Rack.

The most useful items to take note of on this rack are:

  • Patchbays - These work very similarly to the patchbay on the lab rack. There are diagrams located around the Project Studio explaining the paths of the patches.
  • Grace Preamp Controls - Control the Grace Preamp in Camp.
  • Power supply - Power switch for Black Rack and O2R Boards.







O2R boards
The next station you encounter is the table with the two O2R boards

These are the digital mixing consoles used in the studio. The board on the right is the master board and the one on the left is the slave board. You will use the master most.
  • Located at the top of the boards are the Peak Meter Bridges. The peak meters for all the channels can be visually observed here.
  • There are 4 switches on the right side of the bridge. The first 3 let you view the levels of the different inputs. The fourth is the Peak Hold. The table below describes what each button does.
  • Bus/Aux - Mic - Line This button allows you to switch the display of each meter. Depending on which is selected, the meters display the level for the channel that is on the same parallel as the button that is lit up. For example, with the "MIC" button lit, the first fader on the far left will display the level for Mic Input 1.
    Peak Hold This button causes the board to hold the highest level each channel has reached. One bar in the meter will stay lit, revealing the highest peak. You can clear the peak hold by toggling the Peak Hold button off, and then on again.


    Below is a diagram of the O2R board:

    The two diagrams below are close-ups of the "Digital Display Panel" and the "Selected Channel Access Control Panel."



    The Digital Display Panel controls what is seen on the O2R Display Screen.

    The Selected Channel Access Control Panel allows you to change the specific details of a particular channel. You select a channel by pressing the Select button located just above the channel fader. More details to come in later tutorials.





PS Rack

The next rack, to the left of the O2R boards, we will call the PS Rack. This rack contains all of the recording units used in the Studio, as well as sync modules that help each piece of digital gear talk to one another effectively.

Each module will be discussed in further tutorials.
PS Computer

This is where all the editing, mixing, and mastering takes place.

The two speakers behind the computer are the Alesis speakers.
  • The unit at the bottom of the PS rack controls these speakers - the power switch is in the middle of the unit.
  • The two dials on the left and right sides of the unit control the volume for the left and right speakers, respectively.
CD copier is located to the left of the computer screens.

There is an extra external hard drive (Green Glyph) and CD burner located on top of the desktop unit to the right beneath the table.