Hotel Earth studio 1 build diary

[Theo_Karon]

Hi all!

This is the build diary for Hotel Earth studio 1 in Los Angeles. This studio has had many incarnations over the past 15 or so years, each getting a little more 'real.' This time around, circumstances conspired to deliver the perfect warehouse space & an incredibly generous deal on a Neve 8058 from an old friend and mentor concurrently, motivating me to finally bite the bullet, take out some loans, and build a serious studio.

The warehouse has about 6,500 sqf of space total; this is the smaller of the two studios I have planned, taking up about 1,500 square feet. There will also be room for a tech shop and a couple of nicely sized echo chambers in the downstairs of an adjacent addition (I am living upstairs, next door will be an aquaponics farm and on the other side of that my wife's apartment and prop fabrication studio .) This studio is my design, and the build is a bit of a sprint - it began last Monday, a week ago, and I'm aiming to be done by mid-June. We'll see. If all goes well, this studio will help kickstart the build of the second and much bigger (appx. 3,000 sqf) studio, which will be co-designed with the brilliant Brian Hood and built to much more exacting spec over a much longer period of time.

For the first phase, I am building racks, gobos, bookshelves, diffusers and limp membrane absorbers (68 of them! ) while a crew of two does framing and drywall. The next phase will entail me and a lovely volunteer gang of local engineers and musicians fitting up the doors, windows and (very extensive) acoustic treatment.

Here's the design:



Taping off the floor so that the framing crew has clear guidelines:



Framing progress over the last week:









The two big main equipment racks, plus 4 out of 8 of the big non-repeating QRDs for the live room (yes that is a back brace, I'm tall and over 30):





All in all not bad for the first week, I think! I'm hoping to have framing finished by the end of this week, then take a week for electrical and studio wiring, then pick up with the drywall, which should take about another 2 weeks - by which point I hope to have all of my carpentry work done and ready to hang.

Onward!

[trodden]

Fuck Yeah! Thanks for sharing this here! Looking forward to seeing the journey.
Nice to see good sized studios still being built these days. Each version of mine keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller while real estate and building costs keeping going up!

[T-rex]

The stuff of dreams right there. Can’t wait to follow this build and best of luck to you!

[Colorblind]

Holy shit. That is gonna be great. When I first read mid-June I thought no way, but the "shell" being already intact is huge, and most of the permitting required for a new build doesn't really apply here, I'd guess. Keep us posted!

[digitaldrummer]

Looks awesome!

[Scodiddly]

Wow, super cool! That looks like a big project, even if it isn't a "big" studio.

[vvv]

[roscoenyc]

Truly fantastic.
Following with gusto!

[drumsound]

Looking great so far. Wishing you much ridiculous luck and success!

[MoreSpaceEcho]

The stuff of dreams right there.

Seriously. That space looks amazing, perfect for a studio. Psyched to follow the progress, congrats and keep the pix coming!

[Theo_Karon]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

I will keep the updates coming : )

Oddly I feel like this is the best things have felt in years in terms of opening large tracking rooms - I have more and more people interested in working on tape, and big purpose built rooms & great mics / front end equipment are the last hurdle that no one can get at home no matter how many UAD plugins they buy. The idea of all of these rooms is that they will have a sonic footprint - not the airless 703 wrapped cubes that are so frustratingly common - I am thrilled to see things moving in this direction.

As AI / playlist-bait easy listening muzak streaming becomes increasingly automated, I think the only business left will be at the far ends of the spectrum - artists who can make their entire record ITB on a laptop with beats headphones or whatever (which is cool, I'm not knocking it, but that's not where my interests lie), and music that involves live tracking that actually sounds like something real.

Cheers

[trodden]

As AI / playlist-bait easy listening muzak streaming becomes increasingly automated, I think the only business left will be at the far ends of the spectrum - artists who can make their entire record ITB on a laptop with beats headphones or whatever (which is cool, I'm not knocking it, but that's not where my interests lie), and music that involves live tracking that actually sounds like something real.

Cheers

I like your outlook! We can only hope!

[trodden]

I will keep the updates coming : )

Would love to see some more screen shots of your sketchup or whatever CAD imaging you did. For instance, I'd love to see how the ceilings are working out between the two inner leaves, since i'm guessing the third/outer leaf isn't part of the isolation equation.