New Control Room in my studio-AudioCzar Productions 2026
Original Studio setup in 2002
When I built my studio way back in 2002, I wanted to build an analog studio with a digital complement. My idea was to have an analog front end coupled with the latest digital audio workstation software. A perfect world? At the time, maybe. I searched and found a multi input/output audio console that I felt would give me the sound and the warmth of some of the best recordings ever made. That console was an MCI JH636af/lm 36 channel beast. The console I’d found had been the television production console for WLS television in Chicago. MCI offered this console in several different formats when it was manufactured new in 1982. This particular one was the top of the line with the best equalizers and options offered by the company. I knew it was a good one because WLS had it’s own in-house repair team that kept the board up to spec and working perfectly. I also knew that the board had probably never been smoked around or had things spilled into it. The console had it all, fully parametric equalizers on every channel, 72 Jensen microphone preamps (two on each of the 36 channels), fader automated mixing, five cue sends, headphone amps, you name it, it had it. So, I purchased it and hired a moving company to ship it to me. I had already been using the digital audio workstation Pro Tools and had pretty much mastered the software and had been recording with it since 1989, but to complete the analog with digital idea, I needed a really good analog multitrack recorder to complete the package. I found an MCI/Sony JH24 24 channel 2” tape recorder that had been one of two units at Streeterville Studio in Chicago that was used primarily with the band, Styx. Again, I had another freight company ship it to me. It worked great! I had the analog warmth and depth coming off the console going into the tape machine that added it’s own particular warm sound to my recordings. I would dump that out of the tape machine after everything had been recorded into Pro Tools for any additional overdubbing and mixing. It really was a perfect world. But, as times changed, computers got faster, tape manufacturers went out of business and DAW software became really good at emulating what I was chasing after, I sold some of those units. It was a sad day for me. I had used that combination of gear up until 2012. I kept the console but sold the multitrack recorder. Nobody, besides me, wanted to pay the cost of tape which had quadrupled over the years or felt there was any advantage to recording that way so, it was time to move on. In 2025 the audio console had started to show it’s age. Rather than spend a bunch of money for it’s upkeep I decided to downsize and sold it. Surprisingly, I was able to totally recoup my initial investment costs. It’s true, really good gear will depreciate in value over time but those of us that have made great recordings with that gear know it’s value, and it proves that the good stuff never really goes away, it just gets new life in the hands of another gear aficionado that will love it as much as I did. I decided that it was time to go fully digital that year. I had done some mixing on live shows and had heard the sound of the preamplifiers on the Midas consoles. The Midas brand of preamplifiers are the closest thing to the Automated Processes, or API consoles that have been around since the 60’s. They are warm, bright, tight and yet very musical without outputting any colorization like some consoles will. I purchased the model in the photo above and am VERY happy with my choice. My MCI was around eight feet wide and the Midas is three feet wide. I gained some valueable space in my control room. At the same time I purchased several multi channel headphone mixers to give the musicians the ability to dial in their own personal headphone mixes while tracking. I also purchased a pair of Barefoot Audio Footprint 03 three way studio monitors to complement my JBL monitors. I’ve always enjoyed and sought out not only the best gear for my studio but also the best gear that suits my particular tastes. MOVIN ON!