Recording studio
builder.
Recording studios, mastering rooms, control rooms, production rooms and rehearsal spaces, built from the slab up in Portland, Oregon. Floating floors, decoupled walls, layered ceilings, and the air system that lets the room breathe.
A room inside
a room.
A studio that keeps sound in and the world out is a room built inside another room: a floor that floats and never touches the building, walls with mass and an air gap, a ceiling framed in layers, doors and glass that seal. Then it has to breathe. That is the part most builders skip. Isolation. Treatment. Air.
We built the Telegraph Mastering studio in Portland with Northward Acoustics: a concrete floor poured on steel pans, mechanically detached from the building on steel shims and Sylomer foam; a three-layer ceiling framed to hold staggered layers of insulation with ascending density; a back wall three feet thick; channels for cables set in the floating slab; and the air system that keeps an airtight room full of fresh, cool air. Nine months after the photos below, the engineer was at work in it. The story of that studio, in his words →
You're making the tightest possible box, so you have to get fresh air in and out.On studio air systems
Layer by layer.
Floor: concrete on steel pan forms, on steel shims, on Sylomer foam, on concrete curbs. Nothing touches the building; outside vibration stops at the foam. Ceiling: three layers of framing, each holding insulation of a different density. Walls: mass, air, and a back wall three feet thick, with the diffusers set into the framing. Services: cable channels in the slab, lighting, HVAC and the sprinkler system, all in before the room closes up. Front wall: framed for the speakers to be mounted by the acoustician.
Planning a studio? If the drawings are done, send them. If they are not, tell us the idea.
Every kind of room
that has to be quiet.
It is unusual to find a builder with this much experience building studios: mastering rooms, recording rooms, rehearsal spaces, and the air systems that go with them.
A floor
that floats.
The concrete slab sits on steel pans, on steel shims, on pink Sylomer foam, on concrete curbs. Nothing touches the building.
Drawings in.
Studio out.
Two studios,
from the slab up.
The Telegraph Mastering build in order, then the room at David Pollock Recording. Two jobs, from the slab up.
Telegraph Mastering, Portland.
Built with Northward Acoustics, in order: floating floor, three-layer ceiling, services, front wall, a back wall three feet thick, and the engineer at work nine months later. telegraphmastering.com
David Pollock Recording, Portland.
A producer's studio, taken from stripped walls to insulation and sheathing, to acoustic panels, ceiling clouds and a drum kit. davidpollockrecording.com
If the drawings are done, send them. If they are not, tell us the idea.
Questions.
Do we need an acoustic designer?
For a serious room, usually yes, and we are glad to work alongside yours. Outside custom woodwork we don't do CAD or design work; we build what is on the drawings. The Telegraph Mastering studio was built with Northward Acoustics.
Why does a studio need its own air system?
A studio is pretty much airtight. That is the point: you are making the tightest possible box. But you breathe out carbon dioxide, so fresh air has to get in and out, and a lot of the gear is old school and essentially a toaster oven, so the air has to be conditioned as well. It is absolutely essential, and not a lot of people build it.
Can you turn an existing room into a studio?
Tell us about the room: where it is, what is around it and what you do in it. Isolation is a construction problem, not a foam problem: a floor that floats, walls with mass and an air gap, a ceiling framed in layers, and air that gets in and out without a straight path for sound. Sometimes that means a new room inside the old one.
What does a studio cost?
It depends on the room and the drawings. The first meet-up is always free. For a larger project (over $20k) with a lot of elements we use a pre-construction contract to cover the time spent exploring your options properly.
Do you build studios outside Portland?
We are based in North Portland, Oregon, and build across the Portland metro and Clark County, Washington. If your studio is somewhere else, tell us about it anyway. Asking costs nothing.
Tell us about
the room.
What you do in it, where it is, and what is around it. Drawings if you have them.
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