During late 2006 and 2007 TE ProAudio was involved with the production of “On Q”, a quite remarkable CD featuring the work of Music and Music Technology students from Queensbury School in Bedfordshire.  Some details of the recording project are featured on this site and a few copies of the CD still remain if you would like to see and hear what these students were able to achieve and own part of the school’s history.  Please see the link to “On Q” on the home page.

This CD was produced to aid in raising funds towards the building of a new Music Technology studio at the school.  The concept was a joint project between the school’s music department and Tim at TE ProAudio.  We have long had good links with the school and felt that the students would really benefit from a bespoke area to record their work and to be instructed in and develop their audio recording and sequencing skills.

The plans

After much planning and replanning, the layout you see here was settled upon.   It is designed to be independent of the school to allow out-of-hours work and, as such, comes complete with its own alarm system, external entry and toilet facilities. 

The suite features a live room (with provision to divide it in half if required) for the setting up of musicians; a fully equipped control room with a Soundcraft Ghost 24 channel mixing desk, highly specified audio PC running Cubase 4 and Pro Tools and a host of useful outboard processing equipment; and a post-production area with 3 PCs to allow post-production work to recorded work.    In addition, the sound lock lobby area is wired with audio lines to allow its use as a separate recording area if required.

As an extra feature, audio lines have been run out to a box in the corridor leading to the school’s East Hall.  This will enable school concerts in the hall or on the field (such as the school’s annual Summer Concert) to be fed live to the studio as multichannel projects.  As well as being a practical feature it will provide invaluable experience for Music Technology students wishing to learn about live and studio sound practices in the real world.

The design

One chief objective of any studio area is to exclude as much exterior noise and vibration as possible.  In a school environment, you will appreciate, their is a fair amount of both!  To achieve this, specialist acoustic materials and procedures have been incorporated into the design.  These include a polymer and mineral wool laminate with a very high mass which completely encases the interior of the existing brick structure.  This material is extremely resistant to passing vibrations and thus limits the transfer of acoustic noise.

Inside this there is a 150mm cavity and then a studwork wall.  The studwork is supported entirely on the acoustic membrane to isolate it from external vibrations.  The 150mm cavity is filled with dense mineral wool and together they go a long way towards absorbing low frequency acoustic energy originating either externally or internally.  There are two layers of plasterboard lining the inside of the walls.  The first is isolated from the studwork by resilient bars and is then covered in another layer of polymer membrane to damp any vibrations.  The second layer of plasterboard is fixed only to the first layer and not to the studwork to provide further isolation.

The interior surfaces will be carefully treated with a variety of materials and devises to absorb or diffuse sound reflected from walls inside the room as required.

The build

Work on site began during March with the construction of an external, double-skinned wall to close off the post-production room area under what was previously an overhanging porch.  Mains wiring, alarm and network cables and audio multicore were run in from outside in preparation for the work. The first photograph to the left shows how the exterior looked before this wall was built, with mains wiring cables already hanging in place through the ceiling.  The opening for the observation window between control room and studio was also knocked through (see second photograph).  Joists were fixed to enable the acoustic membrane to be hung across the ceiling area and isolate the area from classroom noise from above.

We experienced a delay of three weeks while specialist materials were shipped over from Barcelona.  However, work began again on April 14th with the acoustic membrane being fixed around the interior to completely encase the room.  Any pipe work on the walls was boxed in and the cavity packed with mineral wool (see photographs). 

Once this had been done, timber studwork frames were constructed within the rooms. These will form the walls of the studio and control room areas. To avoid external vibrations being carried through into the studio, the frames stand completely isolated from the concrete floor and the brick walls and are seated on the acoustic lining material.

As the frames were built, thick mineral wool slabs were tightly packed behind them to fill the cavity and add to the sound absorption.

Next, resilient bars, designed to further inhibit the transmission of sound, were fixed to the stud work. The close-up annotated picture shows how these bars space the plasterboard away from the studs and allow for independent movement of the boards. Two layers of boards, of different densities, were fitted, the second layer being further isolated from the first and a heavy damping layer of polymer membrane being sandwiched between them.

The final wall detail can be seen in the picture of the control room window. The total depth of the acoustic isolation walls is around 200mm or 8 inches.

The floors also need to be isolated from the outside world and so floating floors were installed, as shown in the next photograph.

An idea of how the interior of the control room looked as of 2 May can be seen in the next picture, which shows the openings for the door and the window through to the studio.

Moving back outside, you can see how the exterior brickwork (which forms the new post production room) has changed the face of the entrance to the Music block. However, the bricks were carefully colour-matched to enable the new work to blend in as well as possible.

Progress

This area will be updated at intervals to provide you with recent information on the progress of the studio and will include photographs of work as it proceeds.

We expect the interior construction to be complete early in May, followed by the fabrication of control room and post-production room benching.  Towards the end of May the installation and wiring of studio equipment should be complete, leaving only acoustic tests and installation of final absorption and diffusion materials in the studio and control room areas.

Thanks

TE ProAudio is proud to be involved in this project.  The school and the students have always been a pleasure to work with and have provided enthusiastic support for this project from the outset.  There are some key individuals and group to whom sincere thanks are due:

Queensbury’s Headmaster, Nigel Hill, has backed and progressed this project from the first idea and without his enthusiasm none of this would have ever materialized.

Head of Music, Jane Thompson, was instrumental in the planning and forming of the project.  Her involvement in working with the students during the numerous recording sessions for “On Q” was immense and this project is a tribute to her loyalty to and affection for the students.

The Friends of Queensbury have been extremely generous in diverting a large amount of funds raised through school events to the equipping of the control room.  Financing this project would have been immeasurably more difficult without such generous help.

Soundcraft, and particularly Roger Rhodes and Karl Chapman, have been instrumental in making possible the acquisition of a number of pieces of studio equipment at prices which the budget could include.  In particular, the purchase of the Ghost 24 channel mixing desk would have been impossible without their generous help.  We also appreciate the donation of two small, B-stock mixing desks which are already in regular use for location recording and live sound work.

Bull Carpentry has been responsible for the bulk of the construction work involved.  It has been and is a pleasure to work with them.  As the construction methods are very specific and demanding it has required dedication and flexibility to accommodate these and work to the design brief.  We are happy to recommend them for their excellent work in this respect.

More Information

Please keep checking this area for updates on the progress.  Feel free to contact us with regard to purchase of the CD “On Q” which a fantastic celebration of the quality of work achieved at the school and must be heard to be believed.

In addition, there are plans to make the studio suite available as a commercial enterprise with a professional studio engineer for musicians wishing to embark on anything from a demo to a fully produced album.  More details will be announced as the studio nears completion.  But please contact us for more information.