Frogville Studio build Santa Fe New Mexico 2009

[dabigfrog]

10 year project..broke new ground august 2009..new studio opened open for biz april 2010, but is still a work in progress...."mission accomplished" ...2012 still tweaking / adding treatment... need a ton of gear and microphones still...but we got a great tracking room and a well treated CR and vocal booth so fAR...still working on video/tv line of sight...working on the upstairs bunkhouse that sleeps 8....update end.

We started recording in my living room for sh#ts and giggles 7 years ago. Ok , no we were very serious co-op of artists and musicians set out to make the perfect recording place with the right vibe for those artists to thrive and record. 900+/- sf. Adobe. 14-16" thick walls. brick floor, vigas/cedar ceiling.
Since then we have recorded over 75 albums and our reputation around these parts is fantastic. We have been dreaming of expanding for , well....about 7 years!
We are adding 2200 sf to the existing 900 sf and hopefully we can get the big rooms sounding great by January 2010. well scratch that date....hopefully we will be fully open by March 2010....WE OPENED BACK UP IN JUNE 2010

here is a digital napkin drawing of the expansion:



here is a pic of the original house / studio (my wife and I live upstairs, studio consumed the downstairs):



I should have started this thread back in August when we broke ground, but I will try and catch you up asap!stike

[dabigfrog]

We broke ground in August, had to wait for the permits before we could put any rebar in the ground.



got the permits August 26 - rebar went in:



poured the footings for the walls Aug 28

[dabigfrog]

walls going up Aug 31 - we decided to use greenblock - eco fiendly core fill styrofoam. supposed to have st 55 rating + saves on utilities in the long run.





sliding glass doors work equally good.. whether open or closed... so they got to go!

[dabigfrog]

the original house is traditional adobe with 16" thick walls, so we got some adobe to plug the hole where the sliding glass doors were... keep the house the same.
we have wood, cedar ceilings supported by vigas... big trees stripped of bark.
brick floors.

adobe brick

[bkbirge]

Awesome work so far. Subscribed to see the progress!

[dabigfrog]

september
walls going up, plugged the sliding glass window hole with adobe for a good seal before we cover it up with the wall for studio B

[dabigfrog]

walls walls walls





we are still recording inside so we are waiting till the
last moment possible to yank out the other window and door

[Clueless]

I'm amazed to see how rapidly your walls appear to be going up. How high will they go?

[AMIEL]

Where are the Tacos??

[dabigfrog]

hey clueless! been watching your build quite intently! Great work and a grand design!

having just started the thread this morning you have the added benefit of time lapse speed as i decide what photos go up, it seems fast... if I had ten guys like the three
working here we would be working on the roof right now.
the walls went up over september so far 30 days. The walls are 10' which is height for the southside, but the west side tracking room is going up to 17 feet and we are at 6-10' at varying places there. It needs to go up quickly as we are getting closer to winter every day and we still have to get the vigas up and the roof.

styrofoam legos. we keep running out of corner pieces. and greenblock all together.


tacos, oh we got your tacos... I'll raise you two burritos and a chimmichanga!
we've got both kinds of food here, Mexican and new mexican.

[dominic hoenig]

god i want some mexican food right about now.

[dabigfrog]

here is the radiant heat tubes that will be in the slab, and 2 views of the west side tracking room

[dabigfrog]

here is the view from the load in doors in the tracking room, too bad you only see this during fresh air/ciggy breaks!



pouring the concrete slabs today, waiting for more greenblock
got to core fill the last 4 feet of the 10' walls later this week

[bkbirge]

Seal that room and make sure you use a lot of caulk, rattlers love radiant heat!

[dabigfrog]

I actually haven't seen a rattler up here, ever, been here 10 years.
I think because we are at 7000 feet and it gets cold at night the rattlers don't come up from the galisteo basin, where its lower altitude and higher temp they enjoy.

we don't have scorpions either. we do have black widows and brown recluses though, the biggest foe around here are the mice, then the coyotes.

its raining today, don't know if we will get to core fill the walls in the rain or not.
dfegad

[dabigfrog]

we poured the slabs October 5th






we core filled the walls yesterday (October 7) we are at 10' all the way around.
studio B and vocal booth and mechanical area are all to height, now the vigas /
ceiling / roof can start going up.
The big tracking room for studio A still has 6-7 feet to go up up up.

[dabigfrog]

we are almost to height on the big tracking room. it's getting exciting!



hard to tell how big the footprint is in a photo.



from the edge of the tracking room looking east at the south side addition.




as soon as the tracking room is to height and the final part of the wall is core filled with concrete we start putting the vigas up.

[dabigfrog]

well we reached height yesterday on all walls.
waiting for concrete to core fill final stretch.
more pix soon as we roll out the vigas!

real work starts when roof is on! can't wait to start treating/tuning the room during the build out.

[~RW~BootyStackr]

This is some really exciting stuff, consider me a subscriber! My studio is much smaller scale, 2nd bedroom kind of stuff. Good thing is, moving up from here wont take much!!!

[dabigfrog]

VIGAS!!!! ...beams or joists as they are known in other parts of the country!

well we had some rain for a couple of days then we got snow for a couple of days... but we got the crane out and got the vigas all up on the walls, now to shim them up and get the forms up for the last of the concrete bond beam that will seal them in place.

winter is coming .... gotta get dat roof on quick!


beams for the big tracking room

beams for the south side (studio B and vocal booth, storage , etc.)

[Tonio Ruiz]

wow, amazing, how much space, it's unbelievable, congrats and best of luck

[dabigfrog]

the last 4 vigas and the ceiling are in, trying to get a roof done this week!!!
no rain no snow!!!







I can't see the stars at night anymore!

electrical is next
then stucco
then acid stain the concrete
then build some walls
double 'em up with green glue
and then..... the fun stuff....
bass traps, diffusers, tube diffusers, skyline diffusers, etc...back then with more fun pix!

[dabigfrog]

we finally got our roof on in between snowstorms! we got windows in the two new rooms! and now they are working on the office so we can turn on the radiant heat.









office/mechanical > heat is next
electrical then stucco/plaster inside n out
at the same time put some doors in and work on the porch/portales
(my you have a huge pole there! pic 3

[dabigfrog]

we poured the slab in the office/mechanical, its so cold they built a plastic tent and fired off a whole tank of propane trying to keep it from freezing last night.
today we got the deck / porch elements up, L iron against the house on the bond beam, giant pole spanning front, then we put up the smaller beams that the deck will sit on, and we can also eventually hang hammocks below.

also posted some interior shots looking thru what will be an iso booth into the big tracking room and another shot of the big tracking room, well, big for us, we've been recording in a one room 900 square foot space. NOT big by manifold or bridge standards though! Man those diffusers at the bridge are as big as my walls!

aaahhhh and I give you the sunset in santa fe tonight looking towards Albuquerque and the Sandia mountains between.

[bkbirge]

That's so awesome, I love the pics, you live in a beautiful place. I can't wait to see the finished rooms.

[mashuga]

Is the building now entirely given over to the studio or are you continuing to live there?

If you are still living there, hopefully you get some of the house back out of this deal

[dabigfrog]

By the time the new office is finished, the wife will be almost completely moved in to the single wide next door, I will continue to live upstairs because this is a home occupation business, but most of the place will be dedicated to full time studio use.

The upstairs will become lounge and artist live in space if a band wants to block out the place for a month they can live and sleep studio, full kitchen downstairs, laundry etc.

the floors upstairs creak so for 7 years (me) and the last 3 years (wife) have had to sit perfectly still during takes downstairs, mainly for vocal, acoustics, piano, and tambourine takes which seem to be more akin to hear us moving upstairs... on the other hand electric guitar, bass or keys direct, we can be doing jumping jacks!

Now when its done most of the tracking and microphones will be out in the new tracking room and we would just be disturbing the engineer!

But the wife has been wanting her own place since we met, I mean she doesn't want to HAVE to live around the band/recording schedule and I can't blame her. So my christmas present to her was a 12 year old single wide we dragged to the top of our hill. I have lots o work to do on it still, get the gas hooked up, install a wood burning stove and chimney pipes, and wall/roof in the back porch so our cats will have a spot to play and we have a place to put the stinkin kitty litter!

I can't wait to get to the fun parts like finishing the studio rooms, building bass traps and 703 panels and testing the rooms, moving stuff about... the fun stuff.

re-wiring the studio and control room and everything else.

merry christmas everyone!

[gn87berner]

IMPRESSIVE!! Have you got your heat on yet? That is always a great day. It's been FREEZING to north of you. Cool to see different types of construction.

[MrJulius]

Any chance we can see some photos of the existing studio?

[dabigfrog]

no heat yet, its cold as sh&% down here too!

existing studio pix - there are a couple here:

STUDIO * Frogville Records Indie Folk, Rock & Alternative Country Music for people who love, think & do.


we have recorded like 75 albums here in this one room studio. control room is the tracking room right now, we also have the stairwell with high ceiling and the bathroom and under the stairs to put amps in for "seperation"

we are really excited about the new big tracking room, it has a nice reverb tail right now.
soooo many musicians around here are excited too, chomping at the bit to get in here.
Michael Kott saw it the other night and thinks people will come from all over to record in this room... great vibe!

more pix coming soon, kinda boring stuff right now, got our roof sealed, working on windows and doors, and electrical, they are wrapping the building in chicken wire and diamond lathe to do the stucco as soon as it gets warm enough.