About VOCOMOTION:
VOCOMOTION is an award-winning a cappella production facility based just outside of Chicago. Since 1998, we have produced only a cappella albums for groups all over the US, Canada, UK, Denmark, Venezuela, etc.

The New Facility
For the first ten years, we were located in Evanston, IL and now we’re building a new facility in Skokie, IL (just three miles away from the current studio). I hired the Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) to design the new space. John Storyk is the architect and Matt Ballos is the Project Manager. We’re building in the Historic Bronx Building in Skokie, IL, which was built in 1926/1927 and has some interesting challenges for us, being such an old building.

Goals
The goals of the new space are to keep the design very modern, sleek, and streamlined for how we record & mix a cappella music. At the same time, we are trying to be as “green” as possible by using recycled, reclaimed, renewable, and efficient materials and systems.

The studio will have a mix room and an iso booth. The building also has mens/womens bathrooms, kitchen, rec room (pool, ping pong, pinball, futons), conference room, parking lot, etc. As for layout, I wanted as little between me and the monitors (almost like a mastering studio), so all my rack gear will sit behind me and will only have the smallest-possible desk right in front of me (just big enough to hold my tiny bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and Avocet controller). There will be a 52″ LCD display on a stand between the monitors, as well as a 20″ LCD displaying a video-feed from the iso-booth. The iso-booth will have an LCD mounted on the wall for singers to follow their sheet music (a cappella groups usually write out their arrangements and have to follow in the studio). To turn pages silently, they will wave their hand in front of a sensor (the sound of pages turning drives me nuts).

The Team
Architect - John Storyk, Walters-Storyk Design Group
General Contractor - Irwin Axelrod Construction
Electrical Contractor - Kimbar Electric Company
Acoustic Materials Supplier - The HUFF Company