10th April 2012
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#1 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2005 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 1,316
Thread Starter  |  Matthew Gray Mastering - New Room Build
I've been mastering for over 12 years now from a fairly good room which is on the ground level of my house. It's served me pretty well over the years but I've always known the limitations. Namely standard ceiling height (2.4m), not deep enough bass trapping & slightly on the dead side. Also working from home while it has some obvious advantages also brings many disadvantages. To this end I've been looking out for a new building over the past few years to move the business and dreamt of a purpose built room much like Darius' Amsterdam Mastering/Northward Acoustics room.
Well the time has finally come, although this room build won't be as big as Darius' room, it will be designed by Thomas Jouanjean of Northward Acoustics. The design brief was simply to make a room that sounds natural (lively) but well controlled with excellent bass response. After discussions with Thomas he suggested talking with Steffen Müller as his room is a similar footprint and was completed only recently and also designed by Thomas.
Over the course of this year I'll be posting detailed photos of the progress of this build and I'll invite Thomas to also participate in this thread. At the moment it's very early stages. The building was purchased on March 22nd 2012 and currently has a small project recording studio inside which is still currently being leased until we're ready to begin construction. The current fit out will be deconstructed and some materials will be recycled into the new build where possible/practical. Thomas is still in early design stages. So I'll post some current photos of the building inside and out along with some of the early design sketches.
Hope you all enjoy taking the journey with me on this specialised build and can learn and be inspired as I was with Darius' construction thread.
Front of Building 1 
Front of Building 2 
Inside front view showing internal 6.5m ceiling height and existing fit out 
View from on top of the current mezzanine 
Current fit out 
Current fit out (tracking room) 
Current fit out (tracking room looking through to control room)  | 
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10th April 2012
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2009 Location: Arizona
Posts: 848
| Awesome!!
Great news Matt!!! I hope your business continues to flourish and you provide the world with beautiful Master's for years to come!!! 
Also looking forward to your pics of progress
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10th April 2012
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#3 | | Gear interested
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 5
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Very cool! Thanks for sharing.
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10th April 2012
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#4 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2007 Location: Melbourne - Australia's music capital. |
Congrats from us here, Matt. Looking forward to following the progress of the dream coming true!
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10th April 2012
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#5 | | Gear interested
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 17
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looks great, except where is the space for the record cutting lathe?
:-)
Alan Garren
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10th April 2012
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#6 | | Gear maniac
Joined: May 2008 Location: The land of OZ
Posts: 250
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Hi Mathew
Looks like you'll have plenty of height to work with. Congrats and looking forward to checking in here on the progress of the build.
Cheers
Ben
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10th April 2012
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#7 | | Gear addict
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 448
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Ahhh, the simple joy of a mastering room build out thread (with tons of pix).
Looking forward to it Matt!
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10th April 2012
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#8 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,009
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nice! enjoy it
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10th April 2012
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#9 | | Gear addict
Joined: Jun 2007 Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 479
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Subscribed!
Looking forward to being a part of your journey.
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10th April 2012
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#10 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Nov 2008 Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,694
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Nice Matt, Now I'm the one dreaming and you make it reality  | |
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10th April 2012
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#11 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Aug 2008 Location: Bit everywhere.
Posts: 235
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Like Matt said, it's still early in the design process as we are still in the shell design stage now. But it's a fundamental step. If you get this one just right, then you have a very healthy basis and everything just clicks together nicely.
It's going smoothly so far, the building is very nice and easy to work in. Excellent find from Matt and a good investment.
We hope Matt will enjoy his brand new FTB Mastering suite!
Very nice for us to work in Australia too, first time there.
We're working on 4 continents this year. I love my job!  | |
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10th April 2012
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#12 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2005 Location: Amsterdam
Posts: 1,740
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Nicely-nice, congrats, am looking forward to this!
BTW Thomas, when are we going to get a look at the Noisia build? | |
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10th April 2012
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#13 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Aug 2008 Location: Bit everywhere.
Posts: 235
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Darius van H  Nicely-nice, congrats, am looking forward to this!
BTW Thomas, when are we going to get a look at the Noisia build? | D, I'm headed there tomorrow for a meeting with the contractors and the guys. The 120 heavy duty springs for the floating floors are expected next week, build should start soon.after.
I don't know if the build will be public / on forums. Their call.
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10th April 2012
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#14 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,800
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Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
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11th April 2012
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#15 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2005 Location: Netherlands
Posts: 2,022
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GREAT place Matt .. enjoy the build .. we all wanna see yah get swetty ... | |
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11th April 2012
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#16 | | Gear Head
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 37
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Way to go Matt. Looking forward to more updates. Enjoy the process.
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11th April 2012
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#17 | | Gear interested
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 17
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thanx for sharing...
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15th April 2012
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#18 | | Gear addict
Joined: Aug 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 405
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looks like gathering of the insulation has already started 
nahh...Good luck man. Will be staying tuned
__________________ Senad  | |
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15th April 2012
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#19 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Aug 2008 Location: Bit everywhere.
Posts: 235
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We've about finished the shell calculations and drawing now and started final inner shell treatment.
We still have a lot of calculations and drawing left to do, but we should be done somewhere in May with the design.
I will update Matt and see if something of interest can be posted here in the meantime.
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15th April 2012
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#20 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2010 Location: Brisbane
Posts: 1,428
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very much looking forward to watching your build, thanx for posting  | 
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15th April 2012
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#21 | | Gear addict
Joined: Jan 2004 Location: Louisiana
Posts: 453
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Looking forward to your build.
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16th April 2012
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#22 | | Gear addict
Joined: Aug 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 405
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Northward We've about finished the shell calculations and drawing . | Does this mean the studio will use up all of the space determined by the external walls and ceilings (minus, of course, internal walls, ceiling and treatment)??
OR do the shell calculations have to be taken into account even if the studio dimensions are going to be only 50-60-70% of the total area?
Thanks for the answer in advance... | |
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16th April 2012
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#23 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Aug 2008 Location: Bit everywhere.
Posts: 235
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Sen Does this mean the studio will use up all of the space determined by the external walls and ceilings (minus, of course, internal walls, ceiling and treatment)??
OR do the shell calculations have to be taken into account even if the studio dimensions are going to be only 50-60-70% of the total area?
Thanks for the answer in advance... | There is the existing concrete shell, but we're adding a floating shell which serves both for soundproofing wrt the rest of the facility (offices, entrance, restroom etc) and for shaping - so managing how the energy spreads in the room.
The floated shell in this case is pretty thick and the FTB rooms are heavily controlled in the LF so the building's concrete is basically inexistent sound wise.
A lot of times though, there is an outer shell and an inner shell which are separate entities but both resting on the floating floor. But that can only be done when we design also the structure of the building. In these cases we treat the LF slightly differently than what we are currently doing in Matt's room. Results are the same though. Just slight different approach to the 20Hz-60Hz area.
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16th April 2012
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#24 | | Gear interested
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 17
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looking forward to see the build start...
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17th April 2012
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#25 | | Gear addict
Joined: Aug 2004 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 405
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Northward There is the existing concrete shell, but we're adding a floating shell which serves both for soundproofing wrt the rest of the facility (offices, entrance, restroom etc) and for shaping - so managing how the energy spreads in the room.
The floated shell in this case is pretty thick and the FTB rooms are heavily controlled in the LF so the building's concrete is basically inexistent sound wise.
A lot of times though, there is an outer shell and an inner shell which are separate entities but both resting on the floating floor. But that can only be done when we design also the structure of the building. In these cases we treat the LF slightly differently than what we are currently doing in Matt's room. Results are the same though. Just slight different approach to the 20Hz-60Hz area. | Oh OK, so when you said you were doing shell calcs, you meant the inner shell, right??
That's what I was confused with, I thought you were talking about outter shell, which you rightly say, is almost inexistent.
Should be a fantastic thread to folllow..
Cheers
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21st April 2012
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#26 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2007 Location: Miami
Posts: 525
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Nice!! I can't wait to see more!
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22nd April 2012
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#27 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2008 Location: radmania
Posts: 157
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Congrats on what Im sure was a highly researched/pre-planned accusation Matthew, and also for sourcing the best in the biz to come onboard for the design/build. As a fellow Aussie with hopes of doing a similar high quality mix room someday, I'm very interested to follow your build, best of luck and thanks for sharing!
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23rd April 2012
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#28 | | Gear interested
Joined: Apr 2012 Location: Sydney
Posts: 26
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I found you! I've been checking out this forum for a few years now but I've never actually registered. Now I'm a member!!! Good luck with the new room build. I'll speak to you soon.
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24th April 2012
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#29 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2005 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 1,316
Thread Starter |
Darren good to see you on here officially!
Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement and interest in the new room. Yesterday I received the third progress drawing from Thomas which shows the top and side elevation shell design. It's looking really amazing.
Once Thomas has some time he may put up a more basic drawing for you to check out here. For intellectual property reasons I'm unable to post what he has sent to me.
What I can say is that the outer shell dimensions are 7m long x 5.8m wide x 4m high. Inner shell dimensions after treatment is in place will be 4.8m wide at the back of the room & 4.2m wide at the front of the room (due to bass trapping and front end shaping) front wall to back wall will be 5.175m in length. Ceiling height will vary from 2.338m at the top of the bass trap at the front of the room to 3m in height in various spots towards the middle & back of the room and very shaped/angled. At the back of the room there will be 4 x 874mm diffusers and 2 x 1311mm ceiling diffusers above the console.
We are also looking at an idea of putting an office & storage/machine room on top of the studio with access via a spiral staircase outside the studio.
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9th May 2012
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#30 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2005 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 1,316
Thread Starter | Google Sketch Up Concept Ideas
Here is some layout ideas I've done to scale using Google Sketch Up. The main studios inner walls/design looks quite a bit different to what I have done here so pay no attention to that aspect except that the outer shell dimensions are accurate.
Front View 
Top View of Lower Floor Layout - Studio A 
Reversed Top View of Lower Floor Layout - Studio A 
Top View of Upper Floor (Mezzanine) Layout - Studio B and Storage/Machine Room  | |
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