The Studio, the journey.

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James Champer
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The Studio, the journey.

#1 Post by James Champer »

Hello all!

Thought I'd kick some dust off of this here forum since most of us builders seem too busy to post. And, lets face it, most of us have day jobs.

This is sure to be a bit unorthodox, as a builders showcase piece, (the original forum I posted this in) but bear with me. It may take a while, but it does involve some handiwork and sawdust.

You see, I happen to be one of those lucky guys that gets to combine my builder status with my job. A couple of years ago I hooked up with a corp, (as first a digital marketer and later, a Director of Operations), and that corp is wild about podcasting as a compliment to their web dev and marketing services. About a year or so ago they got tired of bouncing around local radio stations with nifty-cool shag carpeting or horse blankets on the $500 per hour walls. Enough was enough and they decided that they wanted their very own "podcast" studio.

Of course, they had no one to build it, and that's when they called.in.da.big.guns (and by 'big guns' I mean that guy murmuring to himself over in the corner, spoiler alert- it was me!). They had no idea that my drooling hid hammer skills but hide them it did.

I agreed and soon they found a new building to move the entire company to. What I had to work with initially started out as a 21' wide by 19' deep typical office complete with a rather odd, standard full size closet, built outside a.. closet...? (Yeah, you read that right) They quickly threw me in this abomination and inexplicably turned out the lights. I stayed that way for nearly half a year.

I now submit, the beginning:
Attachments
04-G107-NW-corner.jpg
03-G107-SW-corner.jpg
02-G107-SE-corner.jpg
01-G107-NE-corner.jpg
Last edited by James Champer on Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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James Champer
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#2 Post by James Champer »

After finding the light switch (oh, those guys) I killed said clothing repository (the screaming was all me I was to learn later) and, without haste, proceeded to wall building, insulating, electrical (contracted those out for permit purposes- up to the deck mind you!). And afterwords, built the rough window frame-outs, roughed in some speaker runs and it looked kinda like this:
Attachments
08-G107-NW-corner.jpg
07-G107-SW-corner.jpg
06-G107-SE-corner.jpg
05-G107-NE-corner.jpg
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James Champer
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#3 Post by James Champer »

MINOR CONSTRUCTION DETAILS!
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Wiring-1.jpg
Wiring-2.jpg
Last edited by James Champer on Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:31 am, edited 2 times in total.
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James Champer
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#4 Post by James Champer »

Then I started getting real. Oh yeah.... After the walls were sheetrocked, I immediately set to building custom frames for the ginormous observation and control windows (8'x4' behemoths!). Now, know that the frames had to match the doors that were on order. Had to! (or so I was told) So I did precisely that.

Pro-tip: Stain matching sucks!

But I got through it. Hard maple conditioned and coated twice with Some Honey Wheat followed by 3 coats of clear Polyshade, hand-rubbed between each coat.

Even with the now serious lack of skin on my paws, I was forward-looking and decided to route out the hidden side of the top of the window stop/spacer (of the observation window) and hid 20 giant packets of silica gel in that trough! Hey, the squirrels need something to munch on and any moisture between the panes would get 100% absorptionly goodness. (yes, absorptionly is now a word)

I then had the window glass created and installed by a local firm.

The observation window assembly consists of two panes of 1/4" sheet glass, the outer one being two 1/8" sheets laminated both separated by 2.5" of air space. This was to match the mass of the 4-1/2", 1/2" sheetrock, full foam filled wall that it sits so comfortably within. The Control Room window is a single pane of 1/4" laminated.

Explinachio: The reason for a single sheet is in the story of the doors. You can see an example lurking in one background of some of the photos below. Oh those doors... Well, since they HAD to match that doors already in the space, and since there was a single-pane, full light door in the control room to the studio, it didn't make sense to double-pane that window. The mass equalizer is the combo of that *plus* the main entry door.

Confused? Don't be, I have more pics!
Attachments
window-1.jpg
window-2.jpg
window-3.jpg
window-4.jpg
Last edited by James Champer on Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#5 Post by James Champer »

Now, with this all being a future studio, I thought- "Hey, you- glutton for punishment, why not have a stage?" (again, talking to myself in a random corner).

Inexplicably, I began building a platform of sorts. Don't know where that came from but, for cable management and the oh, so, important prestige and such I'm sure.

And then there was a stage!
Attachments
Stage.jpg
Stage-1.jpg
Stage-2.jpg
stage-4.jpg
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#6 Post by James Champer »

Ohhhh, only the keen eye will notice the big black wall artifacts, and that I left a bunch of random wires sticking out of the walls at pre-determined locations with no discernible connectors on them. What could he possibly up to here you ask? (not that you did, but I was certainly curious)

Ok, imma let you in on the secret.

Another goal of mine here was to be able to have a different look for different clients. (Yes, the studio is available for client use!). And I thought one way to do that is with lighting. Lighting I tell you! I achieved this by running leads to each of those points around the circumference of the main studio space. I then attached 5050's to the back some awesome sound absorption panels, all 2'x4'x1", spaced evenly about the place. Hooked each of the 4-wire leads to a 36ch DMX control board that hangs out above the drop ceiling and ran the dmx control cable down the Control Room wall. It's got connection points in both the main studio and the control room for totalitarian flexibility!

Wallah! Two birds with one stone!! Sound control and nifty hip cool lighting!

The bonus is that the can lights we installed around the perimeter ended up working perfectly as backlighting for the videos we shoot in there. They are eyeballs, so are adjustable, and LED so, they are twice cool!

Now for some Sexy shots!
Attachments
sexy-1.jpg
sexy-2.jpg
sexy-3.jpg
sexy-4.jpg
Last edited by James Champer on Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#7 Post by James Champer »

And- oh yeah, ceiling tiles, first door and a keen power-button inspired murial!
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door-1.jpg
painted-1.jpg
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#8 Post by James Champer »

*Whew* that's enough for one night amirite?

One night.. four months.. eh, close enough. Stay tuned for more!
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#9 Post by James Champer »

Oop, spoke too soon-

BONUS SHOT! (16mil colors all individually controlled per panel :D) Appetite whetted! - 'till next time...
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#10 Post by LelandCrooks »

Web guru, builder, carpenter, electrician. Damn fine work.
If it's too loud, you're even older than me! Like me.
http://www.speakerhardware.com

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James Champer
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#11 Post by James Champer »

Thank you my friend!
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#12 Post by Bill Fitzmaurice »

Where's the bar?

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James Champer
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#13 Post by James Champer »

Haha, workin' on it!





No... seriously... I'm going to call the mini-fridge beneath the Control Room desk, my bar :wink:

Libations will flow, said he, unto the gord.
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#14 Post by James Champer »

Ok, now for the other good stuff.

Shortly after the above pic, we were able to shoot our first "podcast". Rough set up I know, but whadyagonnado? I had to throw sumthin' together in a hurry since we said goodbye to the horse blankey rooms a bit too early :shock:
podcast1.jpg
And yes, my station (as engineer/director) was in front of that rack flight case that held the mixer/amps. - Of course I had no choice at the time, the control room was an empty shell of a control room, that, and I enjoyed being able to wag my fingers at the talent as often as my heart desired. Even if it sometimes it was just for yucks :D

Every time they asked me when the control room would be ready (and that was often for some reason) I would just wag my finger and them and run away cackling. Later, their permanent smiles told me that they too were happy that I was able to use said room.
Last edited by James Champer on Sat Jun 03, 2017 9:18 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Studio, the journey.

#15 Post by James Champer »

Now.. me being me..(drooling notwithstanding) early on, I knew I could not rest with "just a studio". As is typical, I mulled things over and thought "Hey, dorkensnorf- You've built mobile audio systems before.. why should this be any different? What if we want to record at the county fair or the next astrology convention?". So, agreeing with myself I decided to make us mobile! Yes, that would explain the flight case in the previous post. And having made that decision, it became immediately clear that I needed some things that would create sound in the event that we want to entertain our loyal fans! (and by "fans" I mean passerby's that don't do that wrinkly face thing upon hearing our yammering)

So, what better opportunity to do just that (given that my hammer and saw were both now cooled off) - create some pro sound for the space and make them useful on sticks as well!

(Cue ominous music) Enter, the SLA Pro:
Attachments
SLA-1.jpg
SLA-2.jpg
speakers-1.jpg
Last edited by James Champer on Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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