EngineRoom Audio - Full speed ahead!

STUDIO NAME: EngineRoom Audio
LOCATION: New York, NY
KEY CREW: Mark Christensen, engineer; John Storyk acoustical design and installation; Chris Bowman, construction consultation
CREDITS: Tony Jarvis (produced by J.Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.), GOAT (produced by Tony Mangurian), Museovitch Productions, Ned Massey, Respect Music, Inc.
MONITORS: Genelec 1031A, Coleman Audio M3 passive monitor switcher
RECORDERS: Panasonic SV-3700 [2], Ampex ATR-102 1/2-inch analog, Otari MTR-10 1/4-inch analog,
Alesis ADAT
OUTBOARD: Tube Tech SMC-2a, Manley Massive Passive, EL-OP; Avalon VT-747, Waves, Crane Song HEDD, Apogee PSX-100
MICROPHONE PREAMPS: Universal Audio 2-610
DAW: SADiE 26/96 with Roarke Data and Seagate drives, Samsung 22-inch flatscreen monitors [2],
Plextor CD-R drives
SOFTWARE: SADiE 4.00.03
ACOUSTIC TREATMENT: RPG Topakustik, FlutterFree

STUDIO NOTES:

"We opened our new facility about a year ago with six editing rooms, two live rooms, and duplication services," explains Mark Christensen. "When we built this room, our intention was to construct a high-end mastering suite that was accessible to independent as well as major label projects. Chris Bowman of CHBO oversaw the initial design phases, including construction of the isolated acoustic shell. WaltersStoryk Design Group completed the design with interior room acoustics, including a number of cutting-edge acoustical accouterments."

"This is our first NYC installation of a relatively new European product called Topakustik, distributed in the U.S. by RPG," reveals John Storyk. "The Topakustik panel is what I would call a complex acoustic surface treatment. It's a perforated and slotted wood-surfaced product that essentially works as an absorptive member, while still providing mid-high frequency reflection. The panels work very well mounted in the rear ceiling. I think that mastering rooms need to be a little bit more reverberant than tracking rooms (as they more accurately represent the final consumer listening environments), but, of course, we don't want any harsh early reflections. The back wall is treated with four-inch strips of wood (another RPG product called FlutterFree), which does two things: it acts as a mid-/high-frequency diffusion surface, and serves as a Helmholtz resonator (due to the spacing of the wood elements), helping to control some of the low-frequency modes.

"The side walls are treated with fabric-wrapped acoustic panels (two-inch, four-pound-density fiberglass). On one side of the room these panels are covering up two windows that originally looked into the lobby and the exterior windows, letting in a lot of natural daylight. It took guts on Mark's part to go along with me on this, but we covered the windows because they were affecting the symmetry of the room. Daylight still enters the room with a remaining glass block window." "A hallway that runs all the way around the live rooms serves as an air space and helps maximize isolation between the control rooms and the two live rooms," continues Christensen. "Each room was built on a floating floor with the walls built on top - so they float also. The ceilings in the live rooms are suspended for increased isolation. Between the two live rooms is an equipment closet that helps isolate the rooms from each other, but also provides valuable storage space."

EQUIPMENT NOTES:

"I'm surprised at the number of projects still coming in on DAT as well as data CDs," says Christensen. "I tend to do my EQ'ing and compression in the analog domain. The Genelec 1031's are an integral part of this room. I don't use a subwoofer with them, preferring to emphasize the accuracy as opposed to whether the bottom end is thumping."

"On the outside wall of every room is an Elco connector allowing gear in any two rooms to be tied together. For example, we recently had to transfer audio from two-inch analog tape into Pro Tools. Well, one of the control rooms has a two-inch machine and another has Pro Tools. The transfer was easily made by connecting a multicore cable between the two rooms."