We had the first session in the studio last night using my new Arrangement Display idea. Pretty much, since I started recording a cappella, eleven years ago, I’ve had issues with singers using music in the booth. A cappella arrangements can be fairly complex and the singers often need to follow along with their part as they record. Music stands are a pain in the butt, plus the sound of page turns drives me nuts!

In the new studio, I’ve setup an Arrangement Display LCD that is positioned right near the mic. The group provides me with PDF files of the arrangements (they all have them made already anyways) and we pull up the PDF of the song they’re singing. The singer holds a tiny remote control that allows them to silently click forward/back through the pages of the arrrangement. Beautiful!

The session last night went flawlessly with the new Arrangement Display. The singers liked that the music is now larger than a regular sheet of paper too!

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I got the second LCD installed, just below the main 52″ LCD. It’s a Sceptre 32″ 1080p and looks pretty nice underneath the bigger one. So now I can put plug-in windows, email, browsing, etc on the lower screen and keep ProTools on the main screen. I can also switch the lower screen over to a video-feed from the booth.

We finally got the Modex Plates installed on the ceiling this past weekend. Modex Plates are made by RPG and are designed to do a very large amount of bass trapping (absorption) in a relatively small amount of space. They’re made of steel and contain an absorbing material inside as well.

We have three plates in the Control Room, two Type 2 and one Type 1. The Type 2 plates absorb 35hz-100hz (weighs 85lbs) and the Type 1 absorbs 50hz-500hz (weighs 70lbs). Since they’re mounted on the ceiling, they’re a bit difficult to get up there (being so heavy). It took three of us to really get them up there, two to climb ladders holding it, and one to screw it into place on the mounting brackets.

I can definitely hear the difference in the room, and it’s starting to tighten up the bottom end nicely now. We also finally mounted the front-wall absorber panels and installed the cove lighting behind the front panels. It’s a bit hard to see in the pics below, but the corners of the room are now lit up.

Next up: The ceiling clouds get mounted just below the Modex Plates and then the track lights mount in between the clouds. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get those up this week.

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I’ve been working in the new studio for about a month now and it’s awesome! Mostly tracking a few different groups but also finishing up some mixes. Everything is working pretty well (just upgraded to ProTools 8 too!) and I’m loving it so far!

It’s always that last 10% of the construction that you’ll get stuck on. Everything is completely functional, but the finishes still need to get done (base-board molding, ceiling treatment, custom diffusor, etc). We’ll be putting up the Modex Plates next weekend. I’m going to try and get the LCD swing-arm mounted in the ISO Booth today before my 1pm session, but might have to do it tomorrow.

So I finally got the big 52″ LCD working properly. I had some problems related to the 70ft HDMI cable that is necessary to get the video from the computer in the Machine-Closet up to the front of the Control Room. Apparently, it was a bad extension cable that was causing sync problems. I got a new, shorter extension today and it did the charm! The picture looks excellent on the LCD now!

I already had to tracking sessions with Brown Sugar this week and will be spending the entire weekend tracking then gentlemen of Fundamentally Sound again (2nd out of 3 weekends). This is now MUCH more comfortable than the temporary studio space I’ve been using for the past six months.

Everything is definitely setup enough to record parts, but we’re still not finished with the construction! I still have to get the big Modex Plates mounted to the ceiling, mount the ceiling clouds below the Modex Plates, secure the fabric-wrapped panels to the front-wall, hang the clouds in the Iso-Booth, hang all the track lights from the clouds, and put in the floor molding/trim. It will be another couple weeks until all of that is really finished. Then we’ll have the real professional photos taken, do the press release, and have the Grand Opening Party!!!

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John Storyk was in town this weekend and he came by the studio to see how things are going. He seemed very happy with how it came out. I gave him a quick tutorial in how I record & mix a cappella music and I think he was really amazed at how it all comes together. It was really neat to meet him in person and hang out for a little while.

I got all the gear racked up this weekend too (see pics below) and we even got our new Bricasti M7 Reverb unit!! I’m crazy excited to try it out today!

There is a small issue with the custom fabric-wrapped absorber panels we had made for the front of the Control Room. It appears that some of them are a bit too tall (but like 1/4″). HUFF is supposed to come back today to cut those down a bit so they will fit. Then we can get them in place and put up the cove lights behind them tomorrow.

The Modex Plates arrived on Friday! A 325lb crate arrived (the crate itself was pretty serious) and a buddy of mine was able to help me get the plates out of there. They’re sitting in the hallway right now until I can figure out how to mount them on the ceiling. Should be up this week though.

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NoiseBarriers sent a couple guys over yesterday to fix the issue with the dirt inside the glass door panes. They took the window frame off, took out one pane, and began cleaning furiously. They had to use a razor blade to remove some of the stuff. Looks like there was some sort of adhesive used, someone got it on their finger, and then touched the glass. Had to scrape the fingerprint off the glass, heh. The glass door looks awesome now!

The HVAC guys came back yesterday to turn on the heat/AC units too. It’s nice and toasty in here now. The friggin’ thing is SILENT. AC or heat, it’s reallllly quiet. Awesome!

I put the LCD on the floorstand and went to hook it up to the studio computer and….the cables are too short! I ordered extensions, should be here in a day or so.

I got a call from FedEx today that they are delivering the three Modex Plates tomorrow. Once again, a 250lb delivery! Each plate weighs like 75lbs. Not sure how I’m going to mount them on the ceiling yet. They come with mounting brackets, but will need some hands to hoist them up. HUFF tells me that my custom absorber panels should be delivered here tomorrow afternoon too.

…and John Storyk is coming by the studio on Sunday to see how it’s going.

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We finally got our ComEd electrical hookup today! I got to flip the big-ass circuit breaker outside beneath the meter. Pretty satisfying GA-THUNK! when I did it. Here are just a couple quick pics with the recessed-lighting turned on. You’ll notice the big LCD is still on the floor, but I’ve put the new monitors on the stands. Getting there!

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The custom-built rack arrived last week, but we had no place to put it until the flooring/carpet was installed. It had been sitting out in the kitchen until this weekend. The guys from Fundamentally Sound (client here recording all weekend) helped me move it into the studio. Thanks guys!

It’s a 3-bay, 18RU rack/Producers Desk made by Sound Construction & Supply in Nashville. Now I need to move all the gear into the racks!

The electrican was in today doing the trim out (installing outlets, switches, can-light trim, pulling some audio wire). We’re supposed to get our electrical hookup tomorrow. We’ll see if ComEd comes through!

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HUFF Company came today and installed the glass NoiseBarrier isolation door for the sound booth. The thing weighs almost 300lbs and it took three guys to maneuver and install this monster. It took them a couple hours to install and they filmed it for an instructional video explaining how to install this door.

Now, when you’re in the booth, it’s REALLY quiet (it better be!). The door has a magnetic seal (similar to how a refrigerator seals) and lifts up as you open it. It’s already primed grey, and I was thinking of just leaving it as is (matches the walls fairly well) but the door is scuffed in a bunch of places and I can’t leave it like that. So I’m going to have to paint it. Probably black to match the other doors.

One problem I found when I went to clean the glass is that there is dirt (schmutz!) on the inside of the two panes of glass! WHAT?!? The window has two panes of glass separated by like 1″ of space. There is dirt, spots, a hair/filament of some kind, and other streaks on the inside of these panes. Permanently dirty. Lovely. I’ve got an email in to the manufacturer to see what we can do about that.

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