Some things take longer than others. A little more than two years ago I advertised that the studio would be using Variac transformers instead of more modern technologies. This was not a “retro at all costs” decision (though Variacs can be used to provide a really, really great dimming system), …
A spiritual beginning to 2011
I think we all look for auspicious signs around the time of the New Year–signs of good fortune to come, signs of disasters to avoid, signs of hope. Indeed, there are many rituals from many cultures intended to tilt the cosmic game in one’s own favor. For the start of …
Week 142 (Music Room Cloud)
At long last the acoustic cloud in the Music Room has been completed! With 60 panels totaling very nearly 900 sq ft (nearly 1800 sq ft of active acoustic performance since both sides are used), it is a thing of beauty to behold: But if you look more deeply, many …
Colin Broad makes me happy
It was over a year ago when Ben Loftis told me “I think you’re going to need a box from Colin Broad”. I vaguely remember looking up the name, seeing the boxes, and thinking “OK…when I’m a little closer to building out the studio I’ll have to see what’s current …
Construction and Deconstruction
While I have been fairly diligent about maintaining my construction blog, I have neglected to blog about much else since January, which could mislead the reader into believing either that nothing else of interest is happening, or, worse, that nothing else has been interesting me, both of which are false. …
Ben Folds makes my day
Ben Folds may claim “You Don’t Know Me”, but actually the truth is he doesn’t…know me…yet. And yet, it’s like he does.
Week 41 (Rear Control Room wall details)
We’re getting down to the last nitty-gritty details before pouring the slab. One of those details is the precise question of how we’re going to build the rear of the control room, which will incorporate a symmetric 4-step QRD built from RPG blocks. We’ve had a general idea ever since …
Jazzin the Piedmont?
Last month at the Ars Electronica 2008 conference and festival, I had a chance to discuss with a number of very smart folks both my physical studio project, Manifold Recording, and my approach to creating a new recording environment/context, the Miraverse. In the course of those discussions, a number of …
Console sketches #2
Wow! I sure got a lot of feedback on my first set of sketches. Here’s my second attempt at configuring a 48 channel Legacy Plus with integrated patchbays and options section into the control room of Manifold Recording. The major change is that now we have the master section and …
Console sketches
When I embarked on this studio design and construction project, I was confident that the decision of which console to buy would be among the simplest, certainly easier than choosing the color scheme for the isolation booths and the control room, for example. Boy was I wrong!