Hi EDMProd. I've been hired by a new school (opening next year) to set up a comprehensive digital production suite. They're looking for a unified system for producing digital art, film, music and possibly game design (at least environmental design). A steep order obviously, but certainly achievable. I have [more than] enough experience to be confident that I know what's what in terms of digital art, film and simple computing, but thought it'd be a good idea to get some feedback from this community about the set up I'm recommending for audio production since I'm still learning that side of things myself.
So, I thought it might help to describe what the school is up to, and what we are anticipating the kids doing with it all before explaining my current plan.
The school isn't the traditional structure in Western education, it's an experimental school that will run for kids from ages 5 to 18 with very limited spaces (they're only accepting 24 students in the first year and will be having class sizes capped at 20). Instead of subject teachers, the children will have learning coaches (experts in pedagogy - learning theory/technique) who facilitate the children in a self-learning process while ensuring that necessary skills are imparted during the course of education. The intention of the school is to eschew formal assessment (exams) as much as possible, instead relying on its staff to perform consistent progress evaluation through in-class observation in a highly personalised learning environment. It is also intended that the school will embrace its local community, organising knowledge/skill/service exchanges where possible that encourage direct engagement between community and school. An example of this is the intention to allow local musicians to have uncharged access to the production studio in exchange for allowing the kids to watch what they're doing, ask questions and engage with real processes.
Ideologically the school is being constructed to cater to a group of children who are increasingly being group under the banner of 2-E (Twice Exceptional - I know, the term makes me shudder a bit too). These are kids that have demonstrated exceptional gifts in specific fields, yet also struggle with specific learning disabilities or experiential syndromes. Such syndromes include dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, dysplacia, synaesthesia, asbergers, autism, and any number of other neuro-atypical conditions (I myself have both dyslexia and synaesthesia). Often in standardised education systems, these kids are treated as disabled and really let down by the system, when the issue is really that their talents have taken them beyond anything that the system is capable of helping them with and continually fails to communicate adequately with these kids as a result.
On to the technical stuff: The school's concept is that these kids should have access to tools that are physically/visually inviting enough to be "fun" to "play" with but also be capable of delivering professional results through workflows that are relevant to real-world experiences/methods. So I'm basically thinking in terms of intuitive operation and lots of exciting feedback (flashing lights, big pads, safe from spilled juice, etc). The school is being funded privately by an absurdly wealthy philanthropist, so we have enough funding to get some quite powerful tools, but he's also a businessman that counts his coins so we can't be too excessive (No DSI Prophet 6 for me). The computer that everything will be running off will have a Xeon 8-core/16-thread 3.4ghz processor, 64gb ram, 1080ti (not that that's relevant to audio) and software will load from a 1tb SSD, maybe 2tb if I can swing it. I'm thinking that having a second 1tb SSD in there to act purely as a sample and/or plugin bank would also be a good idea. I'm recommending an expandable external 64tb server for permanent storage. It will be running a 4k 42" screen, potentially with touch capability. Windows system because, given the hardware listed, it kind of has to be.
Okay, after all of that here's the audio gear I've recommended, any feedback you have would be very welcome:
- Monitors: JBL LSR308 8" 2-WAY POWERED STUDIO MONITOR x2
- Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro, 80 ohms version
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Mixing Desk: Behringer X32 32 Channel, powered digital mixing desk
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DAW: I'm recommending that they purchase multiple DAWS. Since the intention is to encourage the kids to work with their skills, I feel like providing options is best. Reaper: Because it's what I'm most familiar with personally, it has an excellent audio engine, it's easy to use and it's cheap. Ableton Suite: Because it's what "everyone" uses, so there's a lot of educational material and it's good prep for professional environment. And Max. Bitwig: Because its GUI is wonderfully designed for people with colour blindness, and also for dyslexics. Its workflow is also very toy-like, while still being incredibly deep, which will make it fun and productive for kids I think.
Control Interfaces: I've decided to recommend the NI equipment due to its general high quality, visual appeal, workflow accessibility and fairly full functionality. - Control Surface: NI Maschine Studio B. I've been going back and forth between this and the Mk3, but I feel like the extra buttons still make this more useful for this purpose given that the Mk3's audio interface would be fairly irrelevant. - Performance Controller: NI Maschine Jam. - Midi Keyboard: NI Komplete Kontrol Mk2 S49 - Upgrade Komplete from Select to Ultimate. - DJ Controller: Either a Traktor S4 or S8. I'm very undecided, I'd love to see a debate between the benefits of the power of the S8 and depth of tweakability versus the turntables of the S4.
I'm also recommending that they purchase a range of microphones and possibly an electric drum kit. We've decided that guitars and other more accessible instruments should be something that the kids source for themselves.
That's pretty much everything I think. Any feedback/suggestions/horrible swearing abuse would be great. Cheers.
TL;DR: I'm setting up a bedroom style studio for a new experimental school. Please critique my recommendations.
Submitted November 26, 2017 at 05:15PM by forgetdeny https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/7fpfzi/bedroom_production_studio_for_a_school/?utm_source=ifttt