Manifold Recording - Studio Construction Thread

[polloymedio]

wow 3 days and no bump! cant wait to see the next update!!

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by polloymedio

wow 3 days and no bump! cant wait to see the next update!!

Yep--not feeling good about that. But I've got about 5 jobs to do right now, and time enough for two, so the photos are still on the digital media card, not yet uploaded.

Soon you'll see that we have three walls framed, dividing Booths A and B, B and C, C and the Utility room, and we have rafters over Booth C. Use your imagination ;

[muziekschuur]

I'm here, in ZENN Position, creating that innerpicture of Manifold Recording......

Floating away, rendering starts.....

Offcourse I'm holding the helm behind that big mixingdesk.... Though everytime I touch the faders I feel a somewhat cardboard sensation, and an error message displays in the monitor..... saying ERROR PICTURE NOT CLEAR.....

So I looked it up online on the ERROR webpage some nerd put together as Microsoft nor other manufacturers do wanna display those in public..... (send him a donation over Paypall.)

Guess what it says;

NEED MORE PICTURES; DATABASE ERROR Occurance due to picture database not complete. Needs more input to create full rendering.......

Go figure....

[Clueless]

This is just a tease of what's happening, but it's the best I can do right now...

The Booth framing is up:







Various components for the next phase of framing are either here or being installed. The spring isolators:





When all is said and done those springs will be able to carry our 6-ton ceiling with a good 4 tons of safety margin.

Insulation fill:



Hat Channel:



And the steel showed up. Here are the welders finalizing the joint between two pieces of W10x77 wide flange steel:



According to the head of the framing crew, in his 20+ years of building large residential estates in North Carolina, he's never seen such large steel in any of his plans. The beam that's being welded tips the scales at nearly 2-1/2 tons...which is just about the limit of the crane that came to deliver them!

More details this weekend, when I have a chance to blog!

[locutus]

Great work and thanks for the detailed thread!

Question: I noticed the booths were framed with staggered studs instead of independent. With all the real-estate and great isolation I found this suprising. Do you not expect to need the extra isolation in the booths or do you think you will get the higher isolation even with this technique?

Nathan

[matskull]

Originally Posted by locutus

Great work and thanks for the detailed thread!

Question: I noticed the booths were framed with staggered studs instead of independent. With all the real-estate and great isolation I found this suprising. Do you not expect to need the extra isolation in the booths or do you think you will get the higher isolation even with this technique?

Nathan

Yeah I was expecting a "room in a room" approach.
Curious to hear more details about that too.

[LaLaFaV]

Are there separate slabs for the separate booths?

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by locutus

Great work and thanks for the detailed thread!

Question: I noticed the booths were framed with staggered studs instead of independent. With all the real-estate and great isolation I found this suprising. Do you not expect to need the extra isolation in the booths or do you think you will get the higher isolation even with this technique?

The isolation difference between double walls (room-in-room) and staggered studs is not very large, and the staggered studs provides us with the ability to fit the diagonal wall between the windows without interrupting the view. Remember, with the angles we have, the B<->C wall is about 15% wider where it hits the east-west wall than if we hit it straight in.

We're expecting just under STC 60 with our approach, vs. just over STC 60 with a room-in-room approach. It's good enough.

Originally Posted by matskull

Yeah I was expecting a "room in a room" approach.
Curious to hear more details about that too.

Another detail is that the A<->B wall is straight in, so we can make it much thicker. We're doing resilient channel on one side, which also gives us great isolation. The doors in between are STC 51, so the wall is not the rate-limiting step.

Originally Posted by LaLaFaV

Are there separate slabs for the separate booths?

Of course. Check back in the history (December 2008/January 2009) and you can see the foam inserts between all the slabs in the different rooms.

[LaLaFaV]

Originally Posted by Clueless

Of course. Check back in the history (December 2008/January 2009) and you can see the foam inserts between all the slabs in the different rooms.

Cool. I thought so, it's just not visible in the new pics, except in the door, which I wasn't sure was a gap and an insert.

[Clueless]

Another weekly blog posting is up, with almost two dozen photos detailing progress inside and out.

Here's a photo not on the blog showing what didn't make the cut:

[matskull]

Originally Posted by Clueless

The isolation difference between double walls (room-in-room) and staggered studs is not very large, and the staggered studs provides us with the ability to fit the diagonal wall between the windows without interrupting the view. Remember, with the angles we have, the B<->C wall is about 15% wider where it hits the east-west wall than if we hit it straight in.

We're expecting just under STC 60 with our approach, vs. just over STC 60 with a room-in-room approach. It's good enough.



Another detail is that the A<->B wall is straight in, so we can make it much thicker. We're doing resilient channel on one side, which also gives us great isolation. The doors in between are STC 51, so the wall is not the rate-limiting step.



Of course. Check back in the history (December 2008/January 2009) and you can see the foam inserts between all the slabs in the different rooms.

STC 60 is good enough but I was under the impression that you would go for a higher STC, hence why I asked the question.
It will be a great place no matter what, most studio have an STC around 55-60 apparently.

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by matskull

STC 60 is good enough but I was under the impression that you would go for a higher STC, hence why I asked the question.
It will be a great place no matter what, most studio have an STC around 55-60 apparently.

There's two ways to look at this:

1. Bleed vs. leakage. The main building was designed as a single unified environment, which means that if sound does travel from one room to another within the main building, it's going to be musically relevant and can be treated as bleed. Heck, even reasonably high-spec analog tape can only muster 60 dB of print-through attenuation, and the reason that's OK is because even then, as strange as it sounds, whatever is happening one revolution away on the tape spool is musically connected to what's passing the tape head at that instant. So 60dB is a fine spec for controlling bleed.

2. Different studios. Unlike the multiplex, where the sci-fi blow-up-the-world movie always leaks into the quiet drama next door, our two studios are in different buildings, separated by walls that should top out at more than STC 90. In that case, we can mix a futuristic sci-fi blow-up-the-world sound track in the Annex and still have a mighty (and uncompromised) reverb tail in the Music Room.

That's our theory, anyway.

[matskull]

Originally Posted by Clueless

There's two ways to look at this:

1. Bleed vs. leakage. The main building was designed as a single unified environment, which means that if sound does travel from one room to another within the main building, it's going to be musically relevant and can be treated as bleed. Heck, even reasonably high-spec analog tape can only muster 60 dB of print-through attenuation, and the reason that's OK is because even then, as strange as it sounds, whatever is happening one revolution away on the tape spool is musically connected to what's passing the tape head at that instant. So 60dB is a fine spec for controlling bleed.

2. Different studios. Unlike the multiplex, where the sci-fi blow-up-the-world movie always leaks into the quiet drama next door, our two studios are in different buildings, separated by walls that should top out at more than STC 90. In that case, we can mix a futuristic sci-fi blow-up-the-world sound track in the Annex and still have a mighty (and uncompromised) reverb tail in the Music Room.

That's our theory, anyway.

Totally right, if the bleed is musicial, it can't hurt, I'm sure it'll sound great.

[Clueless]

Sparks are flying inside and out. Hat Channel is being cut in preparation for putting up the ceiling drywall in the Music Room:



Outside we set the steel for the Annex roof. Here's some fire-cutting action:



And the happy result at the end of the day:



I'll give more of the blow-by-blow on my blog this weekend.

[Makinithappen]

Originally Posted by Clueless

Sparks are flying inside and out. Hat Channel is being cut

Wow! All that work for a dedicated Hi Hat channel?! This place really is the real deal!


sorry....

[artbeat77]

YAWP!

In honor of your roofs.

[Clueless]

Rafters are going up on the Annex roof. Here's the inside view:



And the outside view:



More photos this weekend on the blog.

[Clueless]

Are you curious to see how it all turned out? This week's blog posting contains over 40 photos showing the framing of the Annex roof (or most of it). There's a good chance that by next week the roof will be sheathed and wrapped! And we might be knee-deep in drywall in the Music Room. Stay tuned!

[peat]

Unbelieveable!!

Cannot comment enough on the precision of your team.

also, I don't think I have ever thanked you for the detailed blog postings that honestly enrich my everyday life!

I plan on coming to the US in august for a trip
I would be honoured to visit what I think will be/is the best studio in the world.

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by peat

Unbelieveable!!

Cannot comment enough on the precision of your team.

also, I don't think I have ever thanked you for the detailed blog postings that honestly enrich my everyday life!

I plan on coming to the US in august for a trip
I would be honoured to visit what I think will be/is the best studio in the world.

Thanks! I look forward to hosting your visit. In the mean time, a few more images of progress...

After dropping the smaller (minor) hips, the major hips (the orange-ish LVLs) are now in place:





If the rain is not too much tomorrow, they will begin sheathing the roof in plywood. Otherwise, Thursday looks like a good day, and I expect they'll have it done and wrapped (just the roof sheathing, not the whole project!) by the end of the week.

Next week will be fun: they'll start digging trenches for our perimeter footings.

[LeMauce]

I'm starting to see how BIG this facility in fact is. In the beginning I was not aware of it, but now with the "roof" up and some inside pictures...Hot damn men. I will visit you asap when its done, thats for sure!

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by LeMauce

I'm starting to see how BIG this facility in fact is. In the beginning I was not aware of it, but now with the "roof" up and some inside pictures...Hot damn men. I will visit you asap when its done, thats for sure!

Great!

You are right about the size. Stephen Wright famously observed "it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it." And indeed, even putting a roof up for our small building takes more than a week.

As usual, and as best I can, I've put up another blog posting detailing my ongoing efforts to completing this studio build.

And, as a special treat for you all, I'm putting up some photos not on the blog for your continued edification/entertainment:

Here's the progress so far:



Here's a view showing what's to be done:



Here's the intersection between half done and not done at all:



An insider's look:



The final relationship of our true rafter tails and the steel we had to cut off:



And finally, some more beauty being added to our Music Room roof--a copper drip edge:



All the best!

[muziekschuur]

Hi,

I've been a scaffoldingbuilder and did various stuff in construction myself. Now I see clutter building up around the constructionsite. It might be wise to do some cleaning up.

There is allways someone who damages either a major part or him/herself with somuch rubble around.

I saw a nice little machine there with tracks. If I'd do it myself I'd ask for the keys and do some cleaning myself. Builders allways respond good to that sort of actions...

Just a fan...... sharing his thoughts.

And this;

galaxy

Shows you some of the build of the Galaxy studios in Mol Belgium. A studio wich has more than 100 db sound dampening between controll rooms and live rooms.

Cheers,

Muziekschuur

[dan90joe]

Hi Mike,

Insane project going on, have been following it for a while!

I have one quick question. I was having a look at the wiring plans that you posted in mid 2009, and noticed that they're different to the plans on the website. I may have missed it or I don't remember, but did you change the design of the annex? At one point you were calling it a garage (and thats what it looks like in the wiring plans) but now it has a post-studio and lounge in it!

Keep up the good work, it's great that you're providing such detailed blogs!

Dan

[soulfield]

Originally Posted by Clueless

We're kinda stymied on a code issue right now. Don't want to say more about that right now, but we need to get our view accepted so we can keep making progress.

I put some photos up on the blog that show a little bit about what's underneath the big blue tarp. Unfortunately, the longer we're delayed on this code issue, the more damage the weather does to our ducts, so I hope we get it cleaned up right quick.

Just curious about the code issue as I find myself resolving these on a daily (although not with structures of this detail.) What was the issue?

I can only imagine that most if not all the inspectors that have come out to your site have ever seen or even imagined a structure like this. Clearly its not your typical build.

Did you get the "This dosent meet code, beacuse I've never seen it done routine?" and " yeah I know we approved the drawings but I need a letter form the Structural engineer of record." What a pain.

Hope the delay isn't to painful!

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by dan90joe

Hi Mike,

Insane project going on, have been following it for a while!

I have one quick question. I was having a look at the wiring plans that you posted in mid 2009, and noticed that they're different to the plans on the website. I may have missed it or I don't remember, but did you change the design of the annex? At one point you were calling it a garage (and thats what it looks like in the wiring plans) but now it has a post-studio and lounge in it!

Keep up the good work, it's great that you're providing such detailed blogs!

Dan

We did change the program for the second building from a garage+lounge+storage to a post room+bigger lounge+smaller garage. The Harrison console was simply so awesome that we had to make a second room just for it.

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by 1176n

Just curious about the code issue as I find myself resolving these on a daily (although not with structures of this detail.) What was the issue?

I can only imagine that most if not all the inspectors that have come out to your site have ever seen or even imagined a structure like this. Clearly its not your typical build.

Did you get the "This dosent meet code, beacuse I've never seen it done routine?" and " yeah I know we approved the drawings but I need a letter form the Structural engineer of record." What a pain.

Hope the delay isn't to painful!

The issue was that we designed the space above the Music Room to be an "attic" which fits a certain way within the NC building codes. And that design is something our builder has seen approved in other NC counties. But in our county the building inspector saw the space only one way, which was as an "elevated structure" and that requires a permanently attached ladder when the height of said structure is 16' or more above grade level. Since I have a 24' ceiling, that meant there would have to be a permanent ladder in the Music Room...not pretty!

We are working on an alternative (and allowed) plan to provide equipment access via the roof (from the outside), but there are challenges there too. I think we'll get it solved, but there was no middle ground to be found between our other experiences and this one interpretation.

[Clueless]

Today I think I saw more trades than ever before working on the site: carpenters on the roof, masons in the Loggia, insulation folks blowing cellulose, grading people digging trenches for new footings, concrete being poured into said footings, electricians, HVAC, mechanical, hydro, and framing in the Music Room. Wow!

Here are some photos focused on the footing work:











For those curious, there were three pours of 5 yards each, for a total of 15 yards of concrete. And that was less than half of the linear footage of the footings...

Here's one other photo of note: the cellulose insulation blower:



The gray cubes feel like dense, compacted dryer lint, but unlike dryer lint (even compressed dryer lint) they are completely flame and fire ******ing.

[peat]

glad to see you are a cricket fan,

and of leg spin at that!!

[llmonty]

Originally Posted by Clueless

Here's one other photo of note: the cellulose insulation blower:



The gray cubes feel like dense, compacted dryer lint, but unlike dryer lint (even compressed dryer lint) they are completely flame and fire ******ing.

Quick question on your insulation for the ceiling -- If I recall you have an unvented roof. Are you only using cellulose in the roof rafters?

I ended up going with an unvented design as well. However, in order to meet the r-value code requirements (recently changed to r-38) and to make sure it is a tight space, 2 different insulation contractors recommended 2" of closed cell foam, followed by 7" of cellulose. On the roof we used standard roofing felt for breath-ability. This is the way I am currently going -- I know the closed cell won't help with sound...