The Lantern Room
And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
Through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light
With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!
Not one alone; from each projecting cape
And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge,
Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,
Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge.
The Lantern Room follows the concept of a single-room, multipurpose studio space. It is built to feel like a large living room. Much has been done to make it an excellent space for live jams and improvisation. It is equally suitable for live tracking, production, and mixing.
Every instrument in the Lantern Room is live and self-sounding—they all make sound when played, without touching the desk. Each has at least one dedicated channel for recording; some have multiple dedicated mics.
A few floater mics (a vintage U67, AEA R88, piezo) are always live and on hand to capture anything else that happens in the room.
A one-hour retrospective recorder is recording audio in the room at all times.
The Lantern Room has a custom monitor controller and macros to make monitoring, recording, and overdubbing easy for guests who wish to helm the studio themselves.
All outboard gear can be easily patched through the monitor mixer, or inline as inserts in the DAW.
A dedicated secondary computer handles additional DSP (such as a second DAW rig, softsynths, and other experiments), with the lowest possible tracking latency to the main machine.
It has a secondary interface and mixer for integrating guest laptops and other gear, with access to any input in the studio. Guest loops are easy to patch in.
Every audio and midi connection in the Lantern Room can be patched anywhere else.
The studio can be wirelessly controlled by a dedicated laptop, and wireless headphones allow musicians to move around freely.
The Lantern Room has been built in the downtown of historic Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. Hiking, shopping, and the experiences of rural Vermont life are all within a short walk.
keyboards
1969 Kawai 500 grand piano
Mustel 4-octave celeste
1972 Fender Rhodes “Buz Watson” Suitcase 73
Yamaha CP-70B
Wurlitzer 200A
RMI Electra 368x
Dulcitone
Farfisa chord organ
1860s Melodeon
Harmonium
Optigan
Weltmeister Basset 2
Toy piano
synths and samplers
Yamaha VL1
Minimoog
Omnichord
Expressive E Osmose
Mellotron M4000D
Oberheim OB-X8
Yamaha DX7
Korg Wavestation EX
Yamaha CS-01
Omnisampler (custom sampler)
Korg Trinity (TR-Rack)
drums and percussion
1950s Slingerland Gene Krupa Radio King and snare (22x14 16x16 13x9 14x5.5)
1972 Ludwig Supraphonic LM400 (14x5)
1960s Slingerland maple student snare (14x5)
Deagan Organ Chimes
Xylophone
Glockenspiel
Bongos
Tuned agogo bells
Tuned temple blocks
Metallophone (metal balafon)
Kalimba (4 octave chromatic)
Congas (Slingerland and Gon Bops)
Bodhrán
Frame Drum
Noah bells
Lots of jingles, shakers, tambourines, etc.
mics
Vintage Neumann U67
AEA R88
Sony C-38B (2)
Coles 4038 (2)
Beyerdynamic M160 (2)
Beyerdynamic M201 (3)
Electro-Voice 635a (2)
Electro-Voice RE20
Zeppelin Cortado MkIII contact mic
Advanced Audio CM47
Advanced Audio CM12se
Sennheiser MD421
AKG D12 VR
SM57 (2)
SM7B
monitors
ATC SCM25A
AIAIAI wireless headphones (3)
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x wired headphones (3)
guitars
1978 Ibanez GB10
Old Style 12 string rubber bridge
Classical guitars (2)
Parker Nitefly
Silvertone 1448
1969 Fender Precision Bass
amps
Roland JC-120
Fender Blues Jr.
Tonex amp and cab
outboard
Eventide H3000 (2)
Deltalab Effectron II
BAE 1073 (2)
Vintage API 312 (2)
AEA TRP3
Retro Instruments 500PRE (2)
Chandler TG2 (2)
Burl B2 ADC
Audient ASP800
Uher Report Monitor and varispeed
Marantz PMD-221 cassette
VoiceLive 3 (2)
Hawk spring reverb
Roland VX-66 echo amplifier
Mac Mini (separate DSP machine)
Remote MacBook Air
other
Dulcimer
Bamboo flutes
ChromaHarp
Orchid
OP-1/OP-Z
Balalaika
Sampler iPad
A88 MKII controller
Console 1 and Fader
Roto-Control
Breath controllers
Student clarinet
Roland VG-99 and hex guitar
Onde Magnétique