Mix is proud to showcase 18 exciting new creative spaces from some of the best studio designers and acousticians in the business. This year’s Studio Class of 2022 of new or redesigned studios includes everything from beautifully realized personal studios (like the one on this month’s cover) to audio education institutions, sound-for-picture facilities, commercial complexes and mastering rooms. Most importantly, each of the studios is uniquely matched to the needs of its owner, realized with the help of a professional design team. Don’t miss out on Part 1!
Warm Studios — Austin, Texas
The 3,550-square-foot Warm Studios facility features two recording spaces: Studio A with a large 1,065-square-foot tracking room with vaulted ceilings, two iso rooms and spacious 702-square-foot control room; and the more intimate Studio B, consisting of a 212-square-foot mixing/control space and a dedicated iso room. Both studios were designed by Alex Otto of Otto System Works, and center around ATC monitoring and SSL AWS948 Delta consoles. Each studio was built using room-within-a-room construction, providing isolation from the rest of the building. Opened in March 2022, the studio also features a nice selection of instruments and a full lineup of Warm Audio’s outboard gear reproductions, such as the WA76, WA-2A and WA-73 family of products.
Legacy Studios — Henderson, Nev.
To create a place where artists can express their creative ideas, and allow the Legacy Records team to work with its artists, this studio was designed by Sam Berkow and Tyler Cottrell of SIA Acoustics, a division of RDA. The studio includes a control room, a live room, an iso booth and lounge. All spaces feature high-end acoustical treatments, including several types of diffusors and low-frequency absorbers from RealAcoustix, including 2-inch-thick Gud Panels, staggered FlutterX strip arrays and a custom version of the RealQuad studio diffusor. Bass absorbers are Bassmod 4848s tuned to three different frequencies. All soffits and clouds are custom-designed by SIA. Owner Keishia McLeod’s equipment, selected by Zoe Thrall and Brent Spear, includes an SSL Origin console and ATC monitors.
Plaid Dog Recording — Waltham, Mass.
Plaid Dog Recording opened its doors in 2013 in a rented space. The studio relocated after owner Mike Davidson purchased a condominium space, and Lou Clark of Sonic Space designed the new facility to take advantage of existing acoustical materials that were moved over from the rented studio. The control room diffusors, all the live room and piano room poly-diffusors, studio doors, furniture and insulation were repurposed. The new Plaid Dog facility has two control rooms, a live room with 16-foot ceilings, an isolation booth with room-in-room construction and supporting lounges/ office space. Both control rooms feature flush-mounted UREI 809 speakers. The ceiling is a 26-inchdeep bass absorber behind a black suspended ceiling grid, and the rear wall of each control room incorporates a custom “open diffusor” made of framing lumber flush-mounted in front of a 24-inch deep bass absorber. One of the control rooms has a Toft ATB32 console, while the other is an in-the-box mixing space.
Spotify At Mateo — Los Angeles
Spotify’s new content-creation campus came online in December 2021. This complex was designed by RIOS design collective, with studio design, electroacoustics, A/V system design, and production lighting by WSDG, and A/V integration by ProCraft, SPL and ASG. It serves as the streaming company’s flagship studio facility, hosting music and podcast production sessions, live performances, video and post-production work. Studio A features a 48-channel Rupert Neve Designs Shelford 5088 console, as well as ATC mains and Subwoofer Pro monitoring, while Studio B offers an Avid S4 24-fader control surface and Dolby Atmos mixing via ATC mains and PMC surrounds. In the Studio A live room, hinged acoustic panels allow for variable acoustics, complemented by a standalone echo chamber.
Expanding Sky Studio — Brunswick, Maine
Greg Morris of Francis Manzella Design Ltd. designed this new studio, which was built into a 1688 building that was originally developed as Fort Andross, a garrison and fur trading post. The studio occupies 1,700 square feet of a much larger structure and shares space with commercial businesses, so FM Design utilized floating construction on a Kinetics RIM system to achieve sound isolation. System design for the project was done by Paul Savasta and Mike Gage of Odyssey Pro. Monitoring is via a pair of flush-mounted Quested Q212d three-way active main monitors and two Quested QSB118 Soffit Studio subwoofers, as well as a pair of ATC SCM25a midfields, and a pair of Focal Solo B6 near-fields. Owner Michael O’Connell uses an Audient ASP8024 Heritage Edition console and Apogee Symphony MkII with 32 channels of I/O, as well as a Symphony MkII with eight preamps. Outboard gear includes two Empirical Labs Distressors, Bricasti M7, Lexicon PCM 91, ADesigns Hammer and Nail, Eventide H7600, and a 500 Series lunchbox with Neve, Pultec and Mercury units.
Hermes Sound — Atlanta
Built from the ground up, audio engineer and sound designer Troy Hermes’ new mixing studio was designed by Carl Tatz Design LLC. The studio opened in December 2021 and is equipped with a Carl Tatz Edition Argosy Dual-15 Wide workstation, PhantomFocus Porcelain eChair, and Tatz’s proprietary PhantomFocus Immersive MixRoom monitoring system (prewired for Dolby Atmos), as well as PFM ICE Cube-12 subwoofers, PF monitor stands by Sound Anchor, and the PhantomFocus processor by Ashly. Tatz Design’s Acoustic Lens diffusors by Auralex, which line the window and mirrored side of the room, are designed to virtually enlarge the acoustic volume of the room. An iso booth and client lounge are located on the second story, with glass walls overlooking the property.
