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Walter Afanasieff Studio  

1993 (David Carroll Electronics, Inc.)

A complete, world class recording studio, built for top Sony Music producer Walter Afanasieff (Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, etc.) in his backyard. Two control room sharing a common live studio. Studio A was outfitted with a 96-input SSL 8K. Studio B was outfitted with a Sony console (I think he gave that up later). A central machine room supported the entire facility with multipin patchable ties. Two Sony 48 track digital machines were installed.  

As a part of the design and construction team from the beginning, we acted as liaison with the architect and acoustician to ensure that the technical needs of the project were met. We also provided complete systems integration, including racks, cabinets, patching, wiring, and custom interfaces. 

Customer: Walter Afanasieff
Project Engineer: Steve Sutter
Installation supervisor:  Gary Schneider
Date Started:  May 1993
Completed:  Sept. 1993

swing down.jpg (56008 bytes) The front view of the outboard effects credenza we built, showing the special "swing down" racks. These racks are not just rack rail pivoting on a nail! Like everything else we do, they are totally solid, professional racks built from welded tubular steel, pivoting on adjustable delrin bushings. 
double swing.jpg (38506 bytes) At the rear of the control room at both sides are custom, double-wide swing racks. All of Walters midi synth voice boxes and samplers are located here. Swing-mounting them allowed maximum efficiency of floor space usage, while still allowing good rear access for patching and changes. 
mpp 1.jpg (67094 bytes) The central machine room patch bay. At the left is the TT bay and at the right is the multipin patch bay. The multipin patch bay (MPP) carries all of the tape I/O from both consoles, the tape machine bays, as well as tie lines. Each cable patches 8 channels at a time and makes for rapid reconfiguration. 
mpp 2.jpg (63941 bytes) Close up on MPP. This is a concept we worked on at many facilities (remember the elco 90 MPP at Skywalker). I think it was the best refinement, as an 8-channel uni-directional path is the most modular and most flexible. It is based on a sub-D25 connector. We had molded patchcords made up for looks and reliability. A quick-release latch is included. This MPP system is high density (192 circuits per 2RU panel) inexpensive (compared to a TT bay) and highly flexible. 
mps_1.jpg (29801 bytes) Also located in the central machine room is an example of a wall mounted tape machine bay, built from DCE's Modular Panel System. Here the tape I/O goes to Elco 56's, 8 channels of input and output on a connector. 

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