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Building mine in a bus.

4K views 44 replies 17 participants last post by  Soup Kitchen Studios 
#1 ·
...a studio that is. You see, I bought an Eagle bus, like the entertainer coaches bands bum around in. It's 40 feet long. I am driving it home in a couple weeks. I am so excited! The mechanic we hired to check it out said it was the best Eagle he has seen in 10 years. I said, 'cool'.

Now I have to work out some problems. The studio will primarily be used for my production/voice-over stuff, but recording/mixing music is also one of its functions. I am putting an AC/Heat Pump unit in one of the cargo bays and wiring up a breaker box that can be plugged into 240 or 120 volts. The living space in the front will be separated from the studio space in back by a bathroom, so there will be double walls. An air lock, if you will. The AC ducting will be large, designed to move large volumes of air at slow speed.

My main concern is sound proofing the studio. I don't want to hear that AC unit at all. (it will be in the front bay-studio in the back section) I would love to hear some suggestions about thin sound proofing materials I can use under the floor covering and the wall treatments in the studio section. Also, sound and heat proof lining for the bay with the unit in it. and after buying this thing, I don't have a lot of money to spend. Note: The entire floor will be hardwood.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Coming soon: bobsbus.com The company, the web site, the band. Check the site for the new logo (coming soon). I think it turned out really cool. Kinda like the Rat Finks of the 60s and 70s. Here's the look so far.

 
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#28 ·
The Madness Begins

Well, we leave Thursday for Portland. We expect to arrive, sign the papers, meet up with Gabe and be on the road in the bus by 5 PM. Our intensions are to drive straight through to Vegas. We'll probably sleep and fool around on the strip for a while. Then head east on I-10, straight into Houston.

I wanted to travel down the coast of California, but the state will not honor the permits I have. We would have to waist 10 hours waiting for a California DMV to open and get a California Permit. Unacceptable. All the other states will honor my Texas permit, so southeast through Oregon to Nevada we go.

To honor TX Mini-jemfest tradition which dictates that whenever two or more Jemsite members get togeather a guitar must be present, there will be a guitar along on the trip. Our goul is to kill the batteries in Gabe's Pignose, if that is possible. It may not be, as they have lasted through 3 Jemfests and are still going strong.

We will document the trip by photo and video. I'll try to post them on my web site when we return. I have tried to do some things on the site already, but I am so clueless that I haven't been able to get it done. I have all the programs, but have never done it before. It is rather frustraiting. I have been trying to get a site up for like 3 years now. i must learn how to do this quickly now. Thankfully I have a couple people offering to help me, so there should be something up soon... If I can just find that damn password. :oops:

Wish us luck.
 
#32 ·
bob oakman said:
Wanna' put it back in Scott? :)

The first photos are up on the bus documentation page.
http://www.bobsbus.com/bus.html

I'll try to get the trip photos up when we return on Tuesday.
Sure!
why not.
just lemme know when;-)

Mags called way back to see if i had a class c license to drive it back with ya.. what ever happened to all that?
did you have to take a test or just get special transport permits??
 
#35 ·
The gear is all purchased and operating in my present home studio. It looks like the bus may be far enough along to start installing the gear by mid Feb. The studio part of the bus should be up and running before we complete the "living section".

With some luck it may be ready to roll by Jemfest. At this point it is questionable weather she will be ready for the fest, but that's what I'm shooting for.
 
#37 ·
Yup, Pro Tools is the main thing. I have a 40 channel, 8-buss console, outboard gear from TC Electronics, Eventide and DBX. Also all the stuff like CD players, DATs, Reels and all that jazz.

I am thinking about putting my analog, multi-track gear in the bus as well. I just don't trust Pro Tools to track a long session with a number of simltanious tracks recording. One computer glitch and I could miss a whole song. Know what I mean? If that happens while I'm transfering later, it's not the end of the world.

In the future I will be adding some kind of video editing software and hardware to it as well. First I have to bear the financial burden of converting the bus, which is, as expected, costing me a lot more than anticipated.

The interior is now stripped. We are cutting the roof of and raising it 8 inches. I expect to do that in Jan. We have ordered the new end caps and side skin. It's all pre-fab stuff. My favorite part is the camera built into the back cap. There is a small TV monitor on the dash, so I can see what is behind me when backing up.
 
#38 ·
I recorded the first serious song in my home studio this weekend. This is all the studio gear that is going in the bus. I was quite pleased with the way everything worked and out of something like 338 solder connections, I only found two wired out of phase. One was on the input to the distribution amp, bad, but there could have been a lot more. I can't see those small connections so well any more.

I have a lot of tweaking to do on various input levels, etc. but over all it sounds pretty good. My guitar amp sound bad though. That is a micing and amp-tweaking problem though. The studio is working fine and I am very excited.

I posted in the multi-media section if you want the link to hear the song.
 
#40 ·
Hi Dave,

All the sounds came from the Acid "Drum Tools" library. Most out of the "one shots" folder. I assembled the entire song with individual beats, except for a couple Hi Hat loops, and made wav files of each seperate track and imported into Pro Tools. The toms were individual ride and floor samples I borrowed from a song I mixed for a friend. That seems to be working well for me these days. It helps that, in the old days, I memorised every beat Neil Peart did. Assembling drums that way is second nature to me.

I just used a clean setting on the POD for bass and a Sure SM58 in front of a Marshall 4 X 12 cab for the gits. The rythm guitar is Marshall hard panned left and right and Rivera at low volume in the center. The lead is POD, but only for now. I recorded it while the family was sleeping and couldn't fire up the amps.
 
#42 ·
Ha ha!! That's true Dave. :lol: I am on Windows 2000 on my work Pro Tools rig. I also have a Windows machine at home. It's old and weak, but it is dedicated to Acid and those rare occations when I have compatability issues with the Mac.

My Mac at home is like half the processing speed of the windows machine at work, but Pro Tools still runs faster on the Mac. It is also a tough box and can stand the pounding it will get in the bus, so I think I'll keep it.
 
#43 ·
I'm probably going to look into Bitheadz Phrazer, which is most often referred to as "Acid for the Mac." Have any of you Mac guys used it yet?

I'm pretty sure i should be getting a modest project studio set up at home based around Logic Audio before the end of the year, so i'm looking at good, affordable stuff to get me started.
 
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