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EarthWalk Studio started out as a room filled with my touring gear. It was set up so that I could either write new music or program my rig for upcoming tours. It was really a collection of rack mounted "synths du jour", keyboards and the requisite sound reinforcement to make lots of noise. It eventually evolved into a recording space independent of my road equipment.

Since the advent of more powerful computer systems and the bigger sound design capabilities that these new systems offered, the studio has slimed down in size but increased ten-fold in power.

All the connections coming from the various computer systems are strictly digital. No conversion, just straight LightPipe, AES/EBU or SPIDIF into the Spirit 328. Yeah, there's an analog patchbay there. There are still mics, basses, guitars and a few pieces of hardware to contend with, but the signal path is so much cleaner now. I remember what the ground floor noise coming from my old D550s sounded like
and I do not miss it.

I wanted to keep everything within reach while maintaining a mixers perspective with the Event monitors. The CME UF80 has enough midi controllers to really get into programming and/or performing with the virtual instruments. The Kore Hardware picks up where the CME leaves off, absolutely excelling at performance style editing. To the right of the Kore is the Alphatrack. A "must" for any editing or automation within the DAW. The less mousing, the better.

There are five computer systems in the studio all linked together by either MIDI or ethernet. Two Macs, 2 PCs and the Receptor Muse. Everyone is clocked by the 328 and capable of being bussed in any direction. The more I found I was depending on Giga and Kontakt libraries along with virtual instruments the more I realized that I needed discrete systems for different functions. Fortunately, they all behave with one another.

EarthWalk has been put to work on over 20 albums to date.