Creating a computer based collaborative studio

[HelloSound]

Creating a computer based collaborative studio

I’m looking for advice to setup and run all of our gear with the optimal workflow. The goal is to create a creative environment where anybody could walk into the room and be able to find, play, and record ideas quickly. We also want this room to be collaborative so a handful of people could use different gear simultaneously.

General Questions:

What is your ideal setup and workflow with the given gear? Would you need other gear?
How can we make our setup simple for non producers to use?
How can we utilize the best features of each piece of gear?
Any other “out of the box” ideas?

Gear List:

Mac Pro

• OS 10.12
  3.5 GHz 6 Core
  32 GB Ram
  1 TB Internal Drive
  2 TB External Drive
  8 TB External Drive

DAWS

• Pro Tools 12 - native
  Ableton Live 9 Suite
  Reason 8
  Maschine 2
  MPC

Instrument Browsers and Keyboard Controllers

• VIP
  Komplete Kontrol

Plug-ins and Others

• Komplete 11 Ultimate
  UVI Workstation
  Omnisphere
  Melodyne
  Soundminer

Controllers:

• Komplete Kontrol S61
  Akai Advance 61
  Maschine Studio
  MPC Touch
  Ableton Push

Other Gear:

• Yamaha Montage 8
  Moog Sub 37
  Roland JD-Xi
  Roland V-drums
  Roland VT-3

Mixer and Audio interface

• Behringer X32

Other Assets

• Various Sample Packs
  SFX Libraries
  Software Specific Expansions

TL;DR
We have a bunch of gear from different manufacturers and getting them to talk together in an intuitive way is causing problems in our workflow. Advice?

[Mystic38]

You really don't have a hope of having non producer (read DAW & recording familiarity) folk walking in and recording stuff.

Even with a skilled person in the room I suggest you dramatically cut down the gear that you are using, particularly on the DAW side.. but also the connected synths and VSTs offered to be used.. I would also backup the hell out of everything and expect to restore after every session when strangers are running your gear.