Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has come up with a new idea for location recording and songwriting. With a little help from his co-producer, Nick Griffith, Waters has assembled three identical compact recording rigs that can be easily transported and assembled anywhere in the world.
At the center of his three traveling rigs are a Mackie Digital 8 Bus recording console and an Apple Titanium PowerBook running Logic Audio.
Griffith, who has worked with Pink Floyd since the ’80s, was frustrated by problems he often encountered when setting up sophisticated studios in Rogers’ homes around the world: “When Roger was in Barbados, it could often be a problem to find technical people to set up and sort out problems onsite. I wanted a foolproof system that could be unpacked and setup by anyone. Having worked with Roger for years, I know his exact requirements. The Mackie D8B was our first choice for a mixer because it’s a very powerful tool, operates just like a traditional desk, has fully re-settable automation and sounds fantastic. Mackie also provides tremendous support throughout the world, which was essential.”
Water’s rigs contain a varied selection of tools including Amek/Neve RN9098 mic preamps, Apogee 888 digital I/Os, Neve and dbx compressors. For recording mediums, there are CD burners, DAT machines and Glyph 18 and 80GB hard drive systems. Keyboard control is via a custom-made, fully weighted classical keyboard from Manga Music, controlling a fully loaded Emu E4, which contains complete orchestra and band setups.
