Studio
Between late 1996 and 1997, Mark built his studio from the ground up. Everything was crafted with precision to make Mark’s environment completely conducive to creating music. Here’s a look at Mark’s main writing room, called Studio A.
Main writing console:
Mark writes on a dual 2.0 G5Powermac computer running Apple Logic Pro. Mark has been a Logic user from the very early Emagic days, and for the super old school guys, Mark was a StudioVision user before that. A second computer, a dual 1.42 Powermac G4, also sits at this console running Pro Tools 7HD. This computer runs the video that Mark will score to. Mark uses a very, very long list of plugins, and he is always experimenting with new sounds. Some of Mark’s favorite plugins come from Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, M-Audio, East-West, Rob Papen,Camel Audio, Synful, U-He, and Synthogy, among many others. Mark uses an M-Audio keyboard called a Pro-Keys 88, and M-Audio speakers called BX8a’s. Mark’s G5 writing computer uses Motu 2408 and 24i/o interfaces, and the G4 video computer uses a Digidesign/Avid 96i/o and 192 Digital.
Connected via MIDI, Mark also has five PC’s running in a closet behind him. These PC’s run sampling software created by E-Mu called Emulator X. Packed inside of these PC’s is an entire orchestra at Mark’s disposal. Four of the PC’s run a section of the orchestra, with the fifth running various percussive and exotic instruments. Four of the PC’s are connected to E-Mu 1820m interfaces, with the fifth being connected to an M-Audio Delta 1010.
Mark uses a number of outboard effects as well, including a number of classic effects like the LA-2A, Eventide H3000, Urie Limiters, and Lexicon reverbs.
All audio in Mark’s studio is routed through a Euphonix CS3000 console.
Standing behind the Euphonix console, Mark watches his newly written film compositions on his Sony flat panel plasma TV.
Behind Mark’s writing computer is the infamous Wall of Synths Museum. Laid to rest here are Mark’s analog synths of days past. The Arp2600, Prophet-5,JD-800, Korgs, Oberheims, aMoog. It’s truly a synth geek’s heaven.
When recording live players and his own Trumpet performances, Mark likes to use an M-Audio Sputnik tube microphone, aRoyer ribbon mic, and aNeumann tube mic.
If you have any studio or gear related questions for Mark or his staff, don’t hesitate to write! We’ll try to answer any questions you may have!
