Ras Iron Teeth [aka Jay Cyrus] hails from New England and produces a music that blends styles ranging from dancehall to hip hop to jazz to rock. He also records and works with other artists on their recording projects as his new recording studio. When he works with other artists he feels he gets as much as they do.

"In working with others to complete their own projects, I gain from the mechanics of the interaction, but have yet to gain anything more," says Cyrus. "But as my companies' span of collaborations increases, I'm certain that more will be gained [friendships, new ways to tweak hardware/software, fusion ideas, etc.]"

Earlier we spoke with him about the DAWs he uses and about what he is looking to do sonically. Now we chat about some of the gear in his new studio and how he chooses it.

"I merely find what works for me, and I strongly suggest that anyone spending a great deal of time in gear search mode 'SET THEIR HEARTS' on one thing - sit and ask yourself, 'what will help me bring my vision to fruition -- as close to what I hear in my head as possible?'," he says. "Many others are obviously seeking to clone the latest trend styl'a click -- finding gear for such is easy enough."

Cyrus' outboard gear includes Lexicon, Presonus and Tapco pieces.

"I use a Lexicon MPX model; it works for me -- it's intuitive enough, high enough bit rate and frequency response rate for the last project -- a basic dual channel processor with enough options. But as with so many, much of my signal processing is done 'in the box'," says Cyrus. "ProSonus TubePre has worked for warmth in certain situations; but Mackie pre amps are fine for me. I also throw a simple Tapco Squeez compressor / gate into the tangible / virtual chain for guitar, bass, misc.; it fits."

He also uses an old drum machine.

"{It's} an old Zoom Rhythm Trak -- basic RT223 type of 13 pad deal with small LCD display, drum kits, bass -- compressor, EQ, effects, touch-sensitive pads, polyphony = 18, L/R lines out [1/4 in. stereo phone jacks], line in [1/4 in. stereo phone jack], MIDI in," says Cyrus. "It was local [I try to buy locally as often as possible] and adequate for the raw cut and dry 'urban sound in a black box' I sought."

When it comes to microphones Cyrus says you cannot go wrong with Shure.

He also likes the Studio Projects C, a large diaphragm condenser, for its noticeable low end, high-pass filter switch. Cyrus says these mics are "work mules."

All of Cyrus' recording gear now resides in a brand new control room he recently put together in a new building. He even handled the carpentry [which is a skill worth having if you plan to build your own pro studio].

"I designed and built everything myself. I enjoy carpentry -- it comes in handy with my real estate activities," says Cyrus. "The particular space within my building used for the control room and small live room/vocal booth, initially, was quite open [approx 1200 sq.ft. without a single wall] and so it was perfect for erecting rooms from scratch."

A sub box installed helps eliminate ground loop hum and electric surges. He also has a power conditioner for the latter purpose. But better safe than sorry.

"The framing for the walls was accomplished with mechanical separation in mind -- wide sole and top plates, both regular studs and cripple studs were installed in such a manner that created significant dead space within each wall for r-32 insulation and sound barrier sheets. The sheet rock inside the rooms is connected to inner studs; the sheet rock outside the rooms to outer studs, which aids with preventing sound from permeating beyond the walls. Using different densities of sheet rock and offsetting the walls helps me prevent phase cancellation," he says. "Sheet rock was doubled everywhere; floating floors and ceilings create more dead space between the actual rooms and the supporting structure. All spaces and cracks [for example, where sheet rock meets floor] are insulated, foamed and/or silicon sealed. A 'split system' heating/cooling system will be used for air flow and temp. control -- the compressor located outside the rooms to eliminate heating/cooling system hum; the computers will be located in a separate maintenance room, again to eliminate all non-music production sounds. Auralex will be our acoustic treatments provider; and if there's any sound leakage, which I truly doubt, they can help pin-point design flaws."

Upcoming for Ras Iron Teeth are a lot of fundraising activities. One of these is for Nourish the Children, a fund raiser that consists of an evening of performances to raise money for children's education supplies [a dvd of the event will be released].

"Before the end of the year, my max audience count is 10K+ people, nothing really major. I'll be performing here and there (everything listed on either/or www.ras-ironteeth.com or on our MySpace page, but should have an actual mini-tour organized and initiated by Fall of this year," he says. "As far as recording, i am ALWAYS recording; again, it's a chief pleasure to soak up the near-field rendered phantom image with a couple of colorful monitors displaying the 'visual representation' of what's going on from vision to ear's reach."