Entry Three: A bit of progress (2008-12-28).

After a handful of days off during the holiday, I managed to knock a few things together.

Front of console room.

Looking forward in the console room. On the floor is a tabletop left in the structure. As it turns out, with a bit of work, I might use it for my new desk. My mixing board should fit in the right side and the left side with the curve is about 25+ inches - large enough to figure out a way to put rack rails in.

The section with the blue floor is the new entry. I have removed the old entry door (which is a big, heavy, solid core bastard) and have reinstalled it as the server room door. I still need to remove the old insulation in the walls and replace with Roxul (you can see the entry already has it).

The drum stool in the center is about where the sweetspot will be.

The new ceiling will start a few inches above the doorway (there will be a door there) and will extend upwards in the room about 6-7 feet at about a 12 degree angle. The corners will have bass traps and an area for the monitors. I'm not fully sure on how I'm going to lay this out yet. I have a few more weeks to figure it out.

The plywood panel on the floor is the only place that still needs insulation under the sub floor. I hate doing that so I've been putting it off at the moment for more enjoyable construction things.

The keyboard area.

I've installed the opening for the keyboard area. I'm not going to leave the opening all square and boring, this is just the main support. I'll give it a bit of flair later. I wonder if I can create a circle? That would fit in with my "studio of the future" theme.

I'm calling this area the keyboard nook or keyboard area which isn't quite right. It will mostly hold overflow from my main keyboard racks which will be on the back wall (where the plywood is leaning). I have about 30 synths at this point and finding a place for all of them is going to be a chore. I think I can fit about 8 or 10 synths back in this section.

Keyboard area

Another shot of the keyboard area. You can see the newly installed server room door here.

Server room.

The minute the door went in this area became a dumping ground for wood panels, tools and insulation scraps. The server room is pretty much ready for drywall and a floor.

Notice the neat exterior torchlight mounted upside down on the wall. I don't have the lighting or new wiring in yet so I'm using this stupid thing at the moment. I plan on moving the fluorescent lights in the console room into the server room. Fluorescent lights in studios is generally considered a bad idea but they'll be off 95% of the time and I hate to waste the fixtures as they're brand new. Plus, having lots of light where all the cables are is a big plus.

There is a conduit which runs under the floor from this room over to the keyboard area - on the floor near the support on the back wall. Cables going to and from the main console will just pass though the wall.

Back of console room.

Here's the back of the console room. This wall, one day, will be covered in synths and acoustic treatments. I'm planning on putting bass traps in the corners and perhaps the corner where the wall meets the ceiling. This will be the highest point of the console room ceiling which will be about 9 feet or so. Normally you don't see ceiling fans in a studio but I'm putting one in about where the light is (I found a really cool one which looks very futuristic retro). I prefer to have some air moving and I can always turn it off when needed. You can see the sub floor is back in (and insulated).

That big thing - center left - was left in the structure. It was a cabinet or something. I put it up on end to get it out of the way (it's 8+ feet tall). It's made from 3/4" plywood and I plan on using this wood for the desk or a place to hold the louder equipment in the server room (computers and stuff) - I haven't decided yet.

Today also marks the first day in the studio where I couldn't see my breath (it was 4c outside and everything is still covered in snow). All the caulking and insulation is starting to pay off. You can see the little heater in the pictures. By the end of the day today I had that off. That makes me happy.