Designing The New Mixing & Mastering Room

In Audio Engineering, Audio Recording, Behind the Scenes, Studio, Tutorials by spokaneproductions

Spokane Productions has recently completed construction of a custom designed Audio Engineering and Mastering control room for the studio. It has now been re-imagined to be an ideal environment for crafting supreme audio recordings. It is particularly effective for audio and music recording, mixing, and mastering. Film and television soundtracks also benefit from the new workspace. The acoustics in the room are tuned, allowing artists, producers, and sound designers to experience the mix in a way never heard before allowing precision control and creativity.

There are three different pairs of studio monitors for audio comparison without having to do the “car test” out in the parking lot like some studios do. The mains are robust, large, three-way speakers with 12″ woofers, there is a set of two-way “home theater” speakers which are commonly found in homes, and on the studio desk there are a pair of 8″ Tannoy powered speakers for balanced and realistic near-field monitoring.

A Midas M32 Console is matched with Pro Tools for tracking, and plug-in suites like Waves Soundgrid or the Kontakt suite. This integration has been an excellent platform for live events, music recording, ADR, voiceover, and music mixing/mastering. The audio quality is superb with support of up to 96 channels. The onboard pre-amps, effects, compression, limiters, and EQ are top notch and can be combined with any combination of plugins.

The room itself is asymmetrical, featuring walls that are not parallel, curved birch baffles and bass traps behind the engineer’s position. It was engineered with absorptive AND reflective ceiling panels as well as acoustical materials on all of the walls. The construction of the room ensures a perfect audio environment each time the artists work in the space. Each of these features and room construction materials were selected to produce the best possible audio environment possible. The entrance door to the studio is also covered in floor-to-ceiling slate tile. The “sound wave” wood accents on the lower wall are both aesthetically pleasing and serve to break up sound waves traveling along the entrance to the raised platform where there is room for two or three engineers.

The video production and editing station sits adjacent to the audio station, allowing creatives to produce and show video content to clients on a large screen. This allows the viewer to see the final product in a similar way to watching at home. The switching and video control platform is an 8 Channel Video Switcher with dozens of onboard effects for broadcasting live events or recording video in the custom designed studio. This is coupled with DaVinci Resolve Studio and the full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite to produce professional “Hollywood” style video and special effects. The video pulls in the audio from the Midas M32 to scale anything from a solo artist to a small orchestra. All servers and computer equipment are stored outside of the room, allowing the space to be nearly completely silent and free from fan and equipment noise. It makes a surprising difference how much can be heard without noise from computers and rack mounted gear. The famous “yellow couch” is a great place for producers and entourage to sit and listen.

The main studio space, has seen some upgrades also. The new engineering room has allowed for an open studio design removing the old configurable isolation booth and replacing it with drum booths, and a dedicated isolation area to support vocalists and those doing solos and other audio sweetening. The studio can supply drums, electric pianos and keyboards, a midi keyboard, and several guitars. With a large complement of modern and vintage microphones in studio inventory, that exact sound you’re looking for can be achieved.

The main room of the studio is well done acoustically, but also boasts a white cyclorama wall which is an excellent way to capture portraits, interviews, product demos, or music videos. RGB Lights hung on the new ceiling mounted rail system can be used to change the white wall to any color. They are great for music videos, interviews, and more. There is approximately one thousand square feet of mood lit floor space for the artists and producers to spread out and achieve their creative goals.

Young West the Showstopper - Rubber Bands Music Video

The studio space is acoustically treated and every wall is designed to enhance the artists experience sonically. Even the ceiling is specifically designed for optimum performance while recording. It also helps to control the temperature of the room while producing that “just right” sound.

The Chroma Key Green Screen wall is covered in high quality Rosco paint which reflects the widest spectrum of green for sharp chroma-keying every time. This allows both video and audio producers to create in several mediums using the video production environment and tools. The studio also can provide mobile video screens and a teleprompter for live and pre-recorded videos in front of the green screen wall.

The studio can be rented by the day or by the hour for audio, video, or photography projects… Or hire Spokane Production’s experienced team to produce high quality audio and video recordings that will take that upcoming project to the next level.

Contact us here for an estimate or call 509-688-5398 to chat with our studio director, Rob Miller.