We’ve always seen it in the back of his videos for us but now we finally get our own tour and inside look into our friend Joe Carrell’s own mix room!
It’s not all for show on camera Joe has a to of outboard gear ad is using it for his mixes and overdubs in his mix studio. The tour kicks off with a collection of favorite pedals that Joe calls his “fun box” or “tower of terror”. These are mostly effects pedals to re-amp audio, manipulate it and bring it back into the box.
Highlights include the Big Sky, ODR-1, TC electronics Echobrain delay, MXR pedals but his pride and joy is the original Boss Chorus Ensemble.
Over to Joe’s nearest rack of gear we find his outboard FX rack, which Joe admits he doesn’t go to often anymore as he’s now finding what he needs inside of the box. This collection includes: PCM70, Round SRV-330, SPX900 and what he does use still to this day the Lexicon 480L.
What you’ll find in joe’s “Command Center” is his favorite speakers the Adam Audio S3V, his custom painted blue Yamaha NS10s, Neumann NDH30 for headphones and in the center ALWAYS playing on the screen will be Napoleon Dynamite, a must for Joe.
As for the gear we now get into Joe’s stereo bus chain, this includes the SSL Fusion which is always hit first then spending on what is needed in the mix next Joe will go to either the Bettermaker Stereo Passive EQ or the Audioscape EQP-A. For Compression Joe decides on either the SSL Bus+ or the Manley Vari-Mu. A shoutout piece is the MAAG PREQ2 as a choice of EQ that will add its own flavor.
At the center of Joes desk is the SSL UF8 Controller and UC1 allowing Joe to control plugins and faders inside of protools using physical faders and knobs. The desk itself is brand new for Joe, made by Sessiondesk it is the Trapez model and Joe LOVES it
Off to the side is Joe’s next rack of EQ and compressors. This rack includes a variety of gear that includes: Avalon VT-737, API 550Bs, Audioscape V3A, Manley ELOP+, a vintage LA-2A from Phil Spector’s own studio, Stam audio STAMChild, Distressors, Audioscape D-Comp, API 2500, Heritage Audio Successor, Warm Audio Bus Comp, Drip Audio Gates Sta-Level, Locomotive Audio 14B Compressor, Audioscape 1176’s, a Warm Audio 1176 and DBX160. Safe to say Joe has tons to choose from for his mixes.
Something very important about Joe’s room is he custom built for extreme isolation and separation from outside noise not to mention keeping noise in so to not disturb those on the outside.
Joe wraps up the tour showing his two iso rooms that’s just the perfect space needed for an overdub of any kind keeping the artist comfy and a window between the two iso rooms if there are two musicians performing together.