For the Disciples the need for their own studio was paramount, having tried a local professional studio and finding the lack of the resident engineers knowledge of reggae and its experimentation of sound, the use of reverbs, delays, phasing and sweeping equalization, together with the prohibitive costs of hiring studio time, led them to building their own studio.
The Disciples studio has come a long way from its humble beginnings, starting with in 1985 one of the early cassette based 4 track portastudio..s the Tascam 244 supplemented with a Hammond DPM drum machine a Roland spring reverb and an Aria DEX2000 delayer, bass and electric guitars, a cheap casio keyboard and some percussion instruments, this set up resulted in the recording of their first album for Jah Shaka, the next step up was the acquisition of a Seck 12/8/2 mixer a Fostex M80 8 track recorder and the Alesis HR16 drum machine which featured on their next L.P.
At first being shy of anything new fangled like computers or MIDI sequencers, it was seeing Jah Shaka in a studio in Brixton in 89..surrounded by around seven Yamaha DX7s all controlled by a sequencer and issuing a new clean and full sound, this made them see that MIDI and sound modules were the way to go. At the time computers and their programs were still rather expensive, but new on the market was the Roland MC50 a hardware sequencer with full editing features and operating in a not too dissimilar way to a multitracker, this and the Roland U220 sound module were purchased and the next phase of the Disciples sound was borne resulting in the all synthesized - Addis Ababa - album for Shaka.
The Disciples studio has evolved numerous times over the years, its first inception was just as a bedroom studio but in the early 90s a small purpose built studio was constructed in the back garden of thier home, construction was of concrete block with a chipboard facing internally (which was removed in later years) and measuring just 3m x 2m, this was added to in 2006 with the construction of a small voicing room about 1m x 2m. In recent years more attention has been given over to acoustics with the inclusion of acoustic tiles and bass traps to aid overall monitoring.
In 2006 the purchase of a new mixer, or rather an old but more professional one, with the Soundcraft Sapphyre, this formerly belonged to A-Class / Fashion Studio, so has some long time reggae pedigree, which is hoped will surface again in all Disciples productions !
Studio Kit List:Soundcraft Sapphyre 28tr
Adam P11s - Main Monitor
Event TR8 Active Monitors - 2nd Monitor
Alesis Masterlink Stereo Mastering
Recorder with version 2.14
Samson C-Que 8 Headphone Amp
Beyer Dynamic DT100
and AKG Headphones
Computer System - AMD XP2200+
RME Multiface ad/da x 2
Behringer ADA8000 ad/da
Cubase Studio 4
2 x UDA 1 DSP Card with Pultec Eq,
Neve 1073 Eq, Neve 88r Channel,
Plate 140 Reverb, LA2A Comp.,
Precision EQ & Limiter
VSTi Plugins Inc:
NI B4 II
NI Battery 3
NI Electrik Piano
NI Acoustic Piano
Legacy Bass
Universal Audio 2-610 Tube Pre-amp
Audio Technica AT 4031 Large Capsule Mic
SE Electronics SE1A Small Capsule Condensor Mic
Drawmer 1968 ME Tube Compressor
SSL Mynx EQ & Compressor
TLA 5051 Tube Compressor
Lexicon MPX1 Multifx
TC M3000 Multifx
Roland SDE1000 Delay
TC Electronics D-Two Delay
Line 6 Echo Pro Delay
Fostex Spring Reverb
Alesis Air FX
Korg Microkorg Synth
Akai MPC 1000
Roland JV1080 Module
Emu Vintage Keys Plus Module
Novation Bass Station Keyboard
Novation Bass Station Rack
Roland DM5 Drum Module
Fender Precision Bass
Fender Squire Stratocaster
Grafter Acoustic Guitar
Boss Dynamic Wah Pedal
Boss Phaser Pedal
Tech 21 Guitar Amp Simulator
Bongos, Guiros, Shakers
Woodblocks, Cowbells
Agogo Bells, Vibraslap
Chimes, Tambourines
Snare Drum, Kette Drum,
Hi Hat.