Take a look inside Timbaland's $1.3million mobile recording studio
Custom-fitted inside his tour bus, the studio boasts specially designed Augsperger monitors and a gold-plated Neumann microphone
Timbaland is one of the biggest names in 21st-century pop production, having worked with an all-star cast of artists that includes everyone from Drake and Jay-Z to Björk, Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Beyoncé.
We imagine that the life of a world-renowned super-producer is a pretty busy one, so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that Timbaland wants to be able to make music while on the move. For most of us, that might mean taking an OP-1 and a pair of studio headphones on the train, but Timbaland is taking mobile music-making to a whole new level.
His $1.3million tour bus is fully kitted out with a pro-grade recording studio, pictured below. Designed by Vulcan Coaches and Pro Audio Nerds, the bus-based studio boasts custom-built, soffit-mounted Augspurger monitors (engineered and fitted with the supervision of George Augspurger himself, we're told) and two Genelec 7380A subwoofers, alongside a humble pair of KRK VXT4s for more lightweight mixing duties.
The fully soundproofed, room-within-a-room mobile studio is centred around an SSL Matrix console, which is hooked up to an SSL 24-in/24-out interface and seven SSL XLogic X-Racks populated by SSL pre-amp, EQ and compressor modules. There's also a soundproofed vocal booth on board, equipped with a gold-plated Neumann U87 microphone. All of this is running into Pro Tools. We can't quite make out exactly what the three synths/controllers are on either side - if you think you've got an idea, drop us an email.
As you can see in the video above, the bus is equipped with headphone controls and mic inputs fitted directly adjacent to the passenger seat, so Timbo can quite literally record on-the-go.
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I'm MusicRadar's Tech Editor, working across everything from product news and gear-focused features to artist interviews and tech tutorials. I love electronic music and I'm perpetually fascinated by the tools we use to make it. When I'm not behind my laptop keyboard, you'll probably find me behind a MIDI keyboard, carefully crafting the beginnings of another project that I'll ultimately abandon to the creative graveyard that is my overstuffed hard drive.