Rebuilding our mastering room in Soest, The Netherlands

[sandertje]

A couple of months ago, a colleague mastering engineer and Gearslutz member, Peter van het Riet, told me about this place he had been working in the 90's, which was the mastering place to be in The Netherlands at that time: Digipro (besides of course my mastering suite at Wisseloord Studios:-)

The whole building (500 m2/1600 sq ft) was for sale and I was lucky to find a bank who believed in my work, backed up with last years results, and gave me a loan to buy the place.

Originally the building had two mastering rooms. So what a convenience. I started working in 6 months ago, after buying and finding all my gear. Which gave me time to customize my setup, while buying me time to redo the other room for my final setup.

As my room will be rented in 2 months (so I have some money for the mortgage ), I have to hurry now too finish it. which is a good thing, otherwise I will take too much time deciding things.

After a couple of meetings with acoustic desingers I choose to work with David van Olst (GoedGeluid - DAVID VAN OLST - Akoestiek - Design). Mainly because of results of other rooms, his basic approach, his knowledge, recommendations and after all, we had a good connection about how things should sound.

I hope to post some pictures and tell you about progress, but also hope too find some answers.

[sandertje]

On the plan you can see Studio 2, my room at the moment, and studio 1, the new room.

[sandertje]

I forgot to mention the dimensions:

length is 5,03 m (16,5 ft)
width is 5,90 m (19,35 ft) in the back, 5,40 m (17,7 ft) in the front
hight is 3,73 m (12,23 ft) in the middle of the room

Not the biggest room, but it works for now in the second studio, so it only can get better.

[sandertje]

So this is how we found the room and how I'm using it at the moment (with some small alterations):



Low end absorbers at the ceiling:



mid low absorbing at the back:



window at the back:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/...055d70af_b.jpg

[sandertje]

Since the room has some too much absorbtion in the low en, the mid range is also has some problems and since we are rebuilding it anyway, we decided not too add stuff too the old acoustic design, but tear it down and build it up again. This way, David van Olst could get a better measurement of the room.













putting some plaster on the walls. The rear is not plastered, since we are gonna have a lot of QRD-diffusors over there with a height of 2 meters:



After the first measurements, he main concern was too much early reflections at the wall, but too much absorption at the ceiling. We needed some extra reflections there, so the middle of the ceiling will still be absorbing, but the sloping sides will be reflective. As done here:





studio2, where I already have my setup working:

[sandertje]

So the floor is concrete directly on sand, so I will be connecting my speakers to the floor in any way. I want to use a plywood floor and have an electrical floorheating under it.

Anyone experience with the magnetic fields I think it can produce?

[flute player]

Hoi Sander,

I saw on your blog the journey to Belgium you've made with you're son to get the Lipinsky monitors.
The other ones were comming out of the states right ?
Are these what you're expected from it.
What builiding is this you are in.
It seems like an old school.

Greetz,


Paul

[sandertje]

Hi Paul,

You mean the Dunlavy SC-IV's. Yes, one pair from Belgium, 2 pairs from the US.
They are absolutely great. The only problem is that spare parts are a problem.

The building used to be a bakery and after that a garage. In the 90's the added the extra wing with the studios and they were designed for mastering. It was the company Digipro with mastering Engineer Peter Brussee as main mastering engineer. Before I bought it, an IT-company used it, and I'm glad they didn't change the mastering rooms.

Sander

[inlinenl]

thnx for sharing Sander ...
interesting ... enjoy de build
can the airco not heat the room when needed ???

[sandertje]

Originally Posted by inlinenl

can the airco not heat the room when needed ???

Well, a bit, but not enough. Floor heating is perfect for that and the floor is very cold here, so the only option.

I already had someone look into it and checked with Bruno Putzeys if the result would be ok. So it will be an electrical floor heating with a coated floor on top instead of wood or plywood laminate.

[PD Hogeterp]

Lots of things have happened lately. You should post some new pictures, Sander!

[videoteque]

Floor heating isn't achieved by hot water running?? No electrical problems??

[sandertje]

Well the electrical heating was the best option. The floor is quite cold and radiotors are just heating the air. They are also an acoustical object you want to miss and we also needed the space for some acoustic elements.

We choose a system with a wire that is grounded all the way from beginning to the end and it is only at the spots where no gear is used as you can see on the pictures.

Also, on top we used two layers of egaline and a concrete coating. I like that kind of style and David van Olst said we now had a 'no compromise'-floor. No woodenfloor which can resonate. It is all bedrock solid, so a good foundation for the Dunlavy Speakers.



enough room for most of the cables





empty spots for speakers and mastering desk



safe and sound in studio 3 (Pier Durks room)



coating on the floor



almost finished layer 3

[greatgreatriver]

nice nice - enjoying this!

[sandertje]

And finally, the the QRD-difusor is there. (5 meters wide and 2 meters tall).

It already sounds amazing when you talk in that empty room.



photo by Bullet-Ray

[greatgreatriver]

Looks great!

[keylay]

This looks like a fun one to build. I am enjoying the pictures.

[sandertje]

The Acoustic Panels were placed and tuned. Not in the photo below, but also some absorption for first reflection was done after measurement. The low-end was tuned by closing some small holes underneath and on top of the panels. It changed the sound around 100 Hz dramatically. Now I have to wait for the finishing touch. The studio is completely workable, but finishing seems to be even as much work as the big stuff. Lights, sealing the door, speakerstands.....it takes a lot of time. But the sound is great!

[dtf]

Hi Sander,

that looks interesting. What is the function of the black absorbers? From what I can see on the pics, the white "boxes" look like a combination of diffusor and traps (hard surface) - is there any form of coupling when you place the black pieces?

What an improvement over the old room, by the way!

Best,
Dirk

[Gie-Sound]

Sander; I think it's time for some update with new pics?

[Syncamorea]

Originally Posted by Gie-Sound

Sander; I think it's time for some update with new pics?

Agreed! And are you doing any mods to other rooms at the facility?

[klak]

Lets hope no one opens that door behind your centre speaker