MGMastering - Columbus Ohio

[lucey]

So I've been working on a new mastering suite ... a remodel of an existing room, not a new build.

The challenge ... to do it fast and good and to make a small space work well immediately on move in. I like intimate rooms, and conventional wisdom says that a concrete room that's 12' x 21' x 8' is too small, so I needed to prove that wrong. Real Traps 6" wall units and 2 x 4' diffussors were the perfect choice, as the walls were 8'1" high and I had no desire to build 4 walls of traps.

The floor is floated from the rest of the building, double block, an old machine room in a stamping plant ... so that's good.

We rerouted HVAC to serve only this one room.

AC is super clean to the whole building, and I use a balancing transformer anyway. But we routed 2 clean lines to the desk, one for computers/back ups, and one balanced.

Lighting was recycled and augmented. 120V lights on a 600W dimmer, no noise.

Flooring was changed to 1/2" hickory with a hand-applied tung oil finish, no poly, no plastic reflections. Easy to repair and refinish.

Drywall over stud and concrete was blown in with cellulose.

Custom small sized door on a piano hinge with adjustable side seals and a moving bottom seal.

Apologies in advance to those looking for concrete work, a large room, or $100,000+ investments ... nothing as amazing of some of my peers rooms should be expected here. But it's still good work to share and I hope something you'll enjoy.

Here's the room as it was, a video editing suite, in an 8000 sq. ft. complex that belongs to clients of mine in the Grandview section of Columbus. That's me on the L and Steve Frye on the R. Steve is the electrician and general contractor for the whole building. He works super slow, and always gets it right.

[amishsixstringe]

Looks like a good project. I'll be paying you a visit when it's all wrapped up. Or before that if you ever need a hand and someone to have a drink with.

Cheers,

Neil

[lucey]

Here's a word from Steve on the bedrock of audio, electricity:

"Our facility has one major advantage over most commercial locations in that 1305 Holly Avenue's electrical service is fed from transformers that only serve this building.

Isolated panels within the facility have been dedicated to specific jobs. Some are dedicated to Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning and others are dedicated to video and/or audio. All subcircuitry is fed to all devices with dedicated neutrals. In other words, there are no common neutrals used in any subcircuitry.

All grounding within the building is bonded to within an inch of its life, providing us with as stable an electrical environment as possible. These four basic concepts create a quiet electrical component, making it easy for our technicians to focus on the work at hand"



And here's a drawing from Ethan at Real Traps that I went with for the walls.

The front corners are Mega Traps, the rear wall is 20" of 705. Overkill perhaps, but I had a hundred sheets for $100. That's a whole other story!

[lucey]

We began by removing an old door that had been boarded up, to make my door toward the rear of the room, but not in a corner ... as the original door was.

The right photo here is the new door opening up close and the old door in the distance, in the corner of the room that will be my Front Right.

[lucey]

We pulled out the old HVAC (2 sends, 1 return) and loosened the old outlets to rewire and cap as needed...

[lucey]

The decision I made was 2 sends above the rear sofa and 2 returns above the desk of 8" each. The outer wall was 8" runs, the inner, 6" with a step-up to 8.

The ceiling is 3 layers with a 3' uninhabitable crawl space full of 70 year old debris and insulation ... so that was tricky ... and messy.

[lucey]

The soft duct with all the wires on it was AC, CAT 5, CAT 6, Cable TV, HVAC pull. The world record I believe.... 5 pulls in one. It took an hour and saved four!

[lucey]

The '5-pull' ended up in the crawl space ... and went in all directions from a small hole up there.

[inlinenl]

cool !!! enjoy Lucey ... it's good .. breaking it down .. building it up again ...

[Riccardo]

Cool! Post pics as the build progresses! thumbsup

[lucey]

I had the hickory shipped to my barn outside of town and I applied tung oil there, to eliminate so many days of it drying the first few layers in the room. This was maybe a dumb idea as it dried in 14 hours per coat once it was down, but I had no idea how long the drying would take.

The hickory is in 6" 8" and 10" widths, up to 12' long.
Carlisle Wide Plank Floors

[lucey]

Back in the studio ...

The ducts were routed with guide wires through this 2x3' hole, wrapped around in a spiral, and I attached them to the plenum.

The end of any plenum has the highest pressure, best to be avoided.

[lucey]

I went with the black elbows, flush to the ceiling. The circles aren't perfect but the visual effect of four black holes is good, and there's no sound from any covers. A square mount with a circular cutout was made and stuck up in the ceiling for each of the four, thus the notches seen in the circle on the left. The rectangle in the center of the room is an old 'send', which will be used to blow cellulose in the ceiling later on.

The middle photo shows the front right corner of the room, the old door opening, as well as the new opening on the right (14' back from the front wall)

[lucey]

With the ducts in I cut holes and blew in the walls and ceiling. 22 bags in all. A couple days work for 2 people.

[lucey]

The walls were so chaotic in their drunken fools construction that I had to make 90 holes to blow in all 4 walls. Two guys took a full day to repair them all with plugs and backstops of wood ...

I did the easy job and painted the ceiling a couple coats of low VOC, high quality ... super creatively colored .... warm white

[lucey]

I was able to get 100 pieces of 705 last Spring for $1/sheet, so the back wall was all 705.

2x4 and 2x6" were pressure fit, attached with screws and Green Glue by Glenn and Bart.

[Riccardo]

What type of diffuser is the one pictured?

[jdg]

they're realtrap diffusors

[lucey]

Originally Posted by jdg

they're realtrap diffusors

Most Real Traps you could make yourself more or less, but these are very unique and innovative ... the low end flows through, so they make a great rear wall facing, and as a side wall they double as a bass trap to some extent.

[Bubbagump]

Digging the back wall design. Not having quite the same amount of space, I am back filling traps with fluff at about a 12 inch depth... so I am interested to see how your room will pan out in that design versus mine seeing that I'll have less of the fluff. You should have some very nice extreme low end.

[jdg]

Originally Posted by lucey

Most Real Traps you could make yourself more or less, but these are very unique and innovative ... the low end flows through, so they make a great rear wall facing, and as a side wall they double as a bass trap to some extent.

i have four myself.
dig em!

[lucey]

yes, the diffussors are cool!

the back wall could be fluff and be better so says Andre, but I had the 2" and did it that way.

[Bubbagump]

Just thinking out loud as this is likely a last 1% sort of thing... I wonder, did you gap the 705 and the wall? Or is it 705 all the way? I just wonder how an extra air space and slightly less material to pass through would effect things on the wave's return. Ethan and I were just kicking around the effects of gaps with thinner material a few days ago, thus my ponderment.

[statzern]

Wow, $1 per sheet for the 705?? That is a steal!

[edit]

I see the Habitat for Humanity logo in the back - was a local branch closing or something?

[lucey]

no gaps, just getting all the corners. fluffy is better perhaps but its done.

not going OOB, just wanting it out of there.



So the floor ... 1/2" hickory with tung oil, glued down over double block, to save space that was needed in a low room.

[lucey]

The old door needed to be drywalled, Green Glued and insulated, and then for safe measure ... was concrete blocked

[amishsixstringe]

Nice! Is this build in real time or is this something that started awhile ago and you're just posting now? If it's real time...wow! That's fast work!

Neil

[lucey]

I was rushed to get in here, so not in real time, just getting you caught up ...

--
The 40" of door, and across from the door, get 2" of 705 with black felt over it, and 100+ year old barn siding. Magic Garden is a Zen reference, and so we need balance, new wood and old wood both! ...

[lucey]

The undersized custom door, and the door repair in progress ...

[lucey]

Separate electrical supplies for UPC to computers/Pacific HDCD (red tape), and balanced audio (purple tape) ...