Studio Makeover Month: The Axeman Studio Setup

 

“The Axeman” is a guitar driven musician that has an appreciation for the heavier side of the music spectrum. He has a solo project they’ve been working on for years and years – slowly perfecting tone, demos, and musical compositions. He is always up for doing freelance work- so it’s important that he has a vast selection of gear and instruments to keep his clients coming back for more.

 

The gear:

The Axeman has a surprisingly mobile setup for the home studio. He lives a nomadic recording lifestyle because a lot of production these days involves traveling to various musician’s homes to work on preproduction and other intricacies of the record process. His expenses have gone into purchasing a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Mark II to keep from carting around various amplifiers and cabinets. With this digital guitar pre-amp/interface he can capture a client’s favorite guitar sound and use it in their production later for reamping and further tweaking.

 

His go-to computer is his Dell M2800 Precision Laptop that runs SONAR X3 Producer. With this setup he can run an unlimited amount of audio tracks at once with tons of effects and experimentations. The Dell Laptop is maxed out at a whopping 16GB of Memory so he can depend on his system to haul just about any size production task. To improve the real-estate of his sessions the Axeman grabbed a big touch screen monitor for the center of his desk giving him the ability to navigate and mix in SONAR without reaching for his distortion pedal mouse. SONAR supports touch in both Windows 8 and 8.1 so it was a no brainer.

 

Overloud’s TH2 is a part of his default template the second SONAR is opened so that he can get right into an idea with zero setup. TH2 comes with SONAR right out of the box – something that caught the Axeman’s eye when seeking a recording solution for his home studio. Having an all-in-one solution for guitar tones is much more portable and easier when it’s available in your DAW. At home his monitors are a pair of KRK Rokit 8’s. These speakers are the best solution for guitarists that need to track in the studio because hey push and pull all the right frequencies in all the right places. Frequencies in the low rumbling sound of a kick drum cut through this type of system with the 8” driver and their aggressive top-end.

 

The Instruments:

The Axeman has at least three guitars setup and ready to rock at all the times. The Les Paul grasps the chunky low end and screaming leads that most rock and metal songs are known for these days. If there’s a need for some hard rock-enabled riffing then the SG is ready and waiting at a moments notice. Lastly, the Firebird is his go-to choice for experimenting with those vintage productions that bring a whole new realm of grit and distortion to blues, punk, indie, and other styles outside of his typical style.

Check out SONAR X3 free for 30 days here.