ACOUSTICS

Probably the largest single difference between a 'project' studio and a truly professional studio lies in the acoustics - the combined costs of decent sound-proofing and properly designed acoustic treatment often comes to substantially more than the equipment itself. Recording Architecture, the UK's premier studio designers, were retained to assist with all aspects of soundproofing and acoustic design, and elements of their BlackBox and EggBox proprietory acoustic treatment ranges were used in both the control room and the live room. Finally, positioning, phase and balancing of the monitors and bass traps were tweaked over an extended period using FuzzMeasure software in conjunction with our Earthworks QTC30s. You can also read more about acoustic treatment here.

	CONTROL ROOM The control room follows a Live End/Dead End model which creates a reflection free zone around the mix position, and prevents early reflections from reaching your ears and smearing the sound - we can promise you that a quick listen to your favourite CD in our control room will be extremely revealing! (Feel free to bring your own material down to audition the studio by appointment.) We're also particularly proud of our control room's very low noise floor, both acoustically and electronically - attention to detail at the soundproofing stage and moving anything with a fan in it into our machine room has made it uncannily silent, to the point where transformer hum is now the only real problem  :-)
	BASS TRAPS Bass is always the most problematic area of acoustics, and although it can seem counter-intuitive, trapping bass to eliminate unwanted resonances or 'modes' in the room actually cleans up bass response, and often makes it louder by avoiding phase cancellation. In short, you can almost never have too much, so we've crammed in as much as possible! Although regular velocity absorbers require huge air gaps to work at low frequecies, our custom-made 'limp mass resonator' pressure-type bass traps use sheets of Revac over hermetically sealed Rockwool enclosures, effective down to at least 40Hz (a bass guitar's low E-string has a fundamental frequency of around 42Hz). The traps either side of the main monitors are themselves mounted inside large 'velocity' traps, already effective down to around 100Hz by virtue of the large cavity behind them. The sofa also soaks up a lot of low end!
	SCRAMBLERS These ceiling mounted units from Recording Architecture's Black Box range combine absorption and diffusion into a single unit. The holes are not just for decoration, but are of carefully calculated size and spacing to act as a 'Helmholz Resonator' and further improve their absorption characteristics.
	ABSORBERS Also from the Recording Architecture Black Box range, these are effective across almost the entire frequency spectrum thanks to the limp mass resonators placed behind the high-qualty acoustic foam, whose efficacy is further improved by allowing sound waves into the back of the units via specially cut holes. In conjunction with the scrambler above the console and the deliberate angling down of the console itself, these elements create a 'reflection-free zone'. Additionally, we have custom-made mid-high absorbers between our shelving units, which in combination with the diffusive effect of the shelves themselves and their contents, serve to nicely tidy up the rear end of the room, as they are directly opposite the window.
	DIFFUSERS To prevent sound bouncing straight off the back walls and into the engineer's ears, they are both carefully angled to avoid this, and fitted with Celestial Acoustics wooden diffusers which scatter the sound in all directions to produce a diffuse sound-field.
	AIR! Good soundproofing also means that virtually no air or heat leaves or enters the room. To this end, we've run specially constructed fresh air ducting into both rooms with a throttled-down fan through a labyrinth of acoustic foam-lined high-density pipes, and have installed high-quality Daikin air conditioning which features a virtually inaudible 'night mode'.
	LIVE ROOM Careful design of our live room's acoustics has produced a space with an excellent basic sound free of nasty resonances, and tons of flexibility thanks to different treatments around the room, and a big focus on variable acoustics.
	FLOATING FLOOR The entire floor of the live room is 'floated', which means that it is acoustically isolated from both the ground beneath it and the walls. In this case, this has been achieved with bonded layers of RW6 Rockwool, concrete, plywood, barrier mat and finally solid oak, separated from the walls by medium-density neoprene. The result is that external vibration is completely isolated, and instruments are given a real solidity of sound, particularly evident with drums and bass.

Variable Acoustics

	CEILING One half of the room is fitted with Recording Architecture's Black Box Scramblers which provide absorption and diffusion in one for a rich smooth sound, while the other half has alternate strips of custom made absorbers and bare ceiling, giving a slightly less refined sound.
	WALLS There are 6 sets of hangers for our 4 Black-Box reversible panels which were originally designed for Annie Lennox. These can be reversed or removed in seconds to provide absorption, diffusion or reflection from the bare walls. They can also be used as 'gobos' around or between instruments in the room.
	FOLDING VOCAL BOOTH Our folding vocal booth is another Recording Architecture innovation, originally designed for Sade's private studio. The absorption inside is specifically tuned to the vocal range, and as well as opening up the full area of the room when not in use, varying the angle of the doors has a significant affect on acoustics outside the booth. Tie lines inside mean that it can also be used to isolate guitar amplifiers in addition to our dedicated amp chamber.
	CLEARSONIC ACOUSTIC PANELS We have 4 of these panels which can be used either alone or in conjunction with our Black Box panels. Great around drums, and also to separate off the piano when being recorded alongside other instruments.
	AMP CHAMBER The sound of the amp and nothing else is what you get in this hovel! Perfect for full-band recordings where it can be played from either the live room or the control room - as well as audio ties, there is also provision for MIDI, USB and Ethernet connection, allowing amps to be controlled remotely.
	SE REFLEXION FILTERS SE Reflexion filters are designed to be placed around microphones to cut out room reflections from the rear. They can be used to eliminate phase cancellation, 'dry out' the sound, or change the polar response pattern of a microphone - a favourite technique is to use figure-of-eight ribbon mics for their unique sound (e.g. on drum overheads) without picking up too much ambience, or an omni in place of a cardioid to avoid proximity effect when recording an acoustic guitar for instance. We have 2 of their original design, suitable for use with large diaphragm mics, and 5 of the newer model for small diaphragms.
	SE POP Traditional nylon mesh pop-shields work better with some singers, and metal ones work better with others. Our 4 SE POPs offer both types on a convenient gooseneck, and you can even use both simultaneoulsy for particularly difficult situations.
	AURALEX GRAMMA It might seem unlikely, but put a guitar or bass amp on this, and it will instantly sound more defined and focused thanks to its acoustic decoupling action.
	RUG Our rug not only 'really ties the room together' (does it not?), but was also specially selected for its acoustic properties (really!) as well as its looks. Keeps a drum kit in one place, but careful placement also has a significant effect on the sound of the room, and can completely change the tone of many acoustic instruments when placed underneath. And there are blankets.