PETTING:zoo Music Studio Construction in Topanga, CA

[bernsense]

hi fellow gearslutzers!

I'm very excited to announce the construction of my studio, petting:zoo music. I live in a house with a detached 2-car garage, and that's excatly where the studio is going. budget is somewhat limited, but with the help of studio design genius, nigel martinez of NJM media, it looks like we're gonna be are able to put something really usable and nice together!

the garage has concrete floors and an attic. I originally wanted to take the attic out, but after consulting with the original architect who designed the house, cary gepner, taking the attic out is not just a matter of removing the ceiling, as it is statically vital to the roof construction. it would have meant to put much stronger beams in, which would have to support the roof then you need beams to support the beams... furthermore, you want to lower one of the sides of the roof in order to avoid sound problems and get the right tilt of the ceiling above the sweet spot. all in all, my budget simply didn't allow for these things.

but all things have a positive side, as it turns out. not only is my attic now an additional (read: much needed) storage, but it will also act as a giant bass trap!

so the first thing to happen was putting the ultratouch in the ceiling and in the attic floor.

[Clueless]

Originally Posted by bernsense

I originally wanted to take the attic out, but after consulting with the original architect who designed the house, cary gepner, taking the attic out is not just a matter of removing the ceiling, as it is statically vital to the roof construction.

Yup. Here's what we needed to make a building without an attic to support the roof:



For more info: Week 111 (Annex Roof Framing)

[Syncamorea]

Originally Posted by Clueless

Yup. Here's what we needed to make a building without an attic to support the roof:



For more info: Week 111 (Annex Roof Framing)

That shed needs a hair cut.

[bernsense]

day two - AC installation.

nigel chose a mitsubishi mr. slim, which is a very quiet unit of the split type variety, which means the generator is mounted on the outside of the garage, while the unit inside just peacfully blows quiet air. this is a very cost effektive solution, as we are on a budget here... it's quieter than my mac pro. I haven't taken it out on the freeway yet, so to speak, but it seems to do its job quite fine...

it has various settings for the horizontal louvers, which are controllable from the remote, from straight out to down towards the floor to oscillating. I feel it would have been great to have an option to blow more up then down, because cold air sinks to the ground anyway, but I think it'll work fine.

one of my original concerns was to have the cold air blowing directly onto my neck, or coming from one side. but the wall unit is far enough away from my sweet spot where i'll spend most of my time, and it has vertical louvers that can be adjusted to blow left & right, so the air will be circulating in the room. clever little unit...

[bernsense]

day three of construction. nigel's guys are amazing. they started at 8am and weren't finished after I had to leave the house at 7:30pm! with only an hour lunch break.

basically what happened was the removing of the garage door opener hardware, and sealing off the overhead door. they built a wall in front of that door filled with ultratouch and limp mass. they also built a recording booth in the far right corner, where the garage door was (it's still there. from the outside it looks like a garage, which means I don't need to get a permit to build). that booth is a 8' x 6' room with an angled door side (see pic). it will be large enough for singers not to get too claustrophobic, or to put a small brass or vocal section in there. I think it will even fit a small drum kit. since I am originally a guitarist, I needed a soundproof booth to crank amps. if I need a larger room, I have big, loft-like living/dining/kitchen room in the house. it has few parallel walls, so it should sound gorgeous, with some minor treatment. all I need to do is get the family a weekend in palm springs, and I'm golden...

they also built two angled bass traps in the corners in front of my mixing position. the right one also houses the controls to our septic system and verizon fios battery. that septic control starts a pump from time to time, which makes a nasty noise. the bass trap will keep that noise at bay.

[zephonic]

Nice, Bernsense. Private facility or open for the public?

[bernsense]

Originally Posted by zephonic

Nice, Bernsense. Private facility or open for the public?

thanks zephonic. it's my project studio, but i'm open to rent it out selectively from time to time. it's just not 'designed' to be a commercial facility. so not too attractive in that regard, I guess... but it's important that people feel comfortable in here, so I'm hoping to achieve that goal.

[bernsense]

some more pics, day 3+4: the drywall is pretty much done...

(I hope nigel's gonna put a door in there... ;-)

[bernsense]

allright, got a bit lazy posting in the last days. but i'll just post some new pics today, as i'm working like a mad man... it's slowly getting there, nigel is working his a.. off (he's got 2-3 other studios in the works at the same time!), and me and my patiently idling clients can't wait for it to be finished! deadline: by the end of this week!

just to explain a little bit: the recording booth's door is in, needs a varnish or three; the frames for the ultra-touch panels in various locations throughout the rooms are all up; nigel added bass traps in the booth; and various other little things.

besides a patch panel in the wall (mic and tie lines), I have two separate cable channels in the booth's walls. one for a couple of guitar cables, so I can be in the control room playing while the amp is screaming in the booth. and the other for electricity. the thing is, I'm planning on aquiring an isolation transformer for the whole studio. I'm working on doing a shoot-out (once I moved my stuff in) between the equi=tech 2RQ, the furman IT-20 II, and the wall outlet itself, which, of course, has its own braker in the panel. now there's also the PS Audio Soloist balanced outlet, which nigel is going to put into my booth. if that outlet will be able to produce the same great transient response and power for my old Vox AC30, then I'm golden and don't need to run cables from my isolation transformer to the booth.

the question wether or not I'm gonna need a separate ground for the studio is much debated on forums like these, and we decided to take the see what happens approach. luckily, I happen to have 2 grounds by my main panel on the garage wall, so we might just be able to use one of them, should need be... but since I will have an iso transformer, I might not need the ground separated...

[Beowulf]

Looks great so far! Are there any plans (sketch-ups / drawings) you can share? Thanks.

[bernsense]

Originally Posted by Beowulf

Looks great so far! Are there any plans (sketch-ups / drawings) you can share? Thanks.

ha! I knew somebody would ask for that ;-) well, design genius nigel martinez left this (see pic) on my table at the very beginning of construction, and never actually looked at it again! he since changed some things on the go, like the two little bass traps in the booth. the LT wall - which used to be the garage door - is non-parallel

it's starting to feel like a studio in there - more pics coming soon!

cheers

[bernsense]

Hi GS where ever you are,

sorry for being so lazy, but the studio and life kept me busy. My studio was finished beginning of june and I got right into working. There's still some tweaks that need to be made, some furniture to be added, some panels placed to tame reflections, but all in all it's working out great!

I got some pictures, hope you enjoy! Hit me with any questions you might have, and PM me if you are in the area and would like to stop by...

Cheers

bernsense

[zephonic]

Nice, bernsense!

When I'm around I'll holler.

[Syncamorea]

Nice photos! Have you done any testing of room response?

[bernsense]

Originally Posted by Syncamorea

Nice photos! Have you done any testing of room response?

A friend of mine (I'll call him Mr. Golden Ears) came over, and we tried to hook up SpectraFoo on his laptop, but only got it to work half way. It still gave us some clue as to what kind of bumps or dips are going on in the room. The thing I had to realize when I talked to Nigel, the designer of the studio, is that at this limited budget, it's not going to be perfect. Especially considering that this is not a purpose built building, but a two car garage. But considering this, it's pretty great!

We still have to do some tweaking, since we kept the acoustics pretty alive. That was something I really wanted. I had some slight shatter in my mirror positions (LT and RT from my ears), even though those walls are not parallel. And pretty far away (the room is 20' x 20'), so it was not bothering me too much, and the sound was still very focused.

One major thing missing right now is a corner couch, sitting on a little rug. That's gonna help my clients relax, and actually tame the room even further.

One of the reasons we did the room shooting was my addition of a dynaudio acoustics sub woofer (BM14S), which is paired with my BM15A main monitors. We have the sub on very low volume, just to help the mains a bit. Works out great!

I just got off the phone with Gavin Lurssen (Lurssen Mastering), who mastered the first mix coming out of the new room, and I'm happy to report that it seems the room is not completely fooling me, sound wise. He said he didn't have to correct major problems, so that's promising...

[GlenR]

Congrats, looks classy!

[bernsense]

Originally Posted by GlenR

Congratsd, looks classy!

I dig that Guild 12 string gtr. What year was it build? thumbsup

thanks glenr, i'm having tons of fun in here...

the guild is not that old, it's from 1994 i believe. it's even a korean made instrument, but it sounds great! i've been playing it ever since i bought it, and it feels like she's getting better everyday!

[beau]

hi, what a great spot!!!! have you done any testing from the outside to see what kind of isolation you are getting? very curious, as i am about to embark on a similar situation.

beau

[bernsense]

Originally Posted by beau

hi, what a great spot!!!! have you done any testing from the outside to see what kind of isolation you are getting? very curious, as i am about to embark on a similar situation.

beau

hey beau,

the best testing is happy neighbors in the year it's been opened & operated... actually, my neighbors are not extremely close, but it's fairly quiet where I live, so isolation was a bit of a concern. but it's been working out great so far.

the main issue was the big garage door, but they glued it shut and put a wall behind it, filled with limp mass & ultra touch. another wall is against a hill, so there's not much coming out. the remaining two walls have no treatment, other than two big bass traps on one wall, which also helps.

I can work all night without a problem, my booth (with the loud amps etc.) is pretty well isolated, but if I can, I'm trying to avoid recording the extremely noisy stuff at 3am... since I'd rather be sleeping around that time, that's not a problem either!

hope that helps. good luck to you, it's worth it!

bernsense


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