Beam Me Up...

Beams. Rafters. Call them what you will, but they're going in overhead.

(NOTE: Our Architect Brian Gaddis has been following this blog, and corrected me this morning. They're JOISTS. I want to keep things as technically correct as I can given my feeble knowledge of these matters.)



Jerry, our intrepid Superintendent, knows how curious I am about every phase of construction. There I stood this afternoon, looking up with that curious look on my face. "Come on," he said. Into the scissor lift we went for a nice safe ride into the steel girders so I could get a bird's eye view of the progress.




GEEKY DETAIL ALERT! In typical construction the cross members between rafters are normally evenly spaced. (I've learned this is called "blocking".) For our application the blocking is random. Why?

Once the rafters are covered with the top layers of soundproofing, cavities will be created underneath. When you introduce sound into the room beneath, each of those cavities will resonate at a specific frequency. If every cavity is the same size, they'll resonate at the same frequency, multiplying the effect by the number of cavities. So, by making the size of the cavities random, we eliminate (or at least minimize) undesirable buildup of sound at a specific frequency.

That's the geeky explanation. The plain English explanation? Random blocking helps make the room sound nice and even.

In this shot, the first soundproof layer is being laid over Studio 1.


That's 3/4" OSB, if you're interested. 1/2" plywood goes over that with seams staggered. In between is a generous layer of soundproofing adhesive called "Green Glue". This stuff is amazing. It actually converts sound energy to heat and dissipates it before it can penetrate the next layer. (Here's a REAL geek-fest. It's technically called a "visco-elastic damping compound". Whee!)

Like I've said...when it comes to acoustics and sound isolation, we're leaving no stone unturned. (Within the limitations of our budget, of course.)

Until next time...

A Mighty Fortress is our Studio...

(If you're here for the first time, I invite you to start at the beginning with my first post back in May. It's been an interesting journey. But now that we're under construction, things are moving along at warp speed.)

Here's the back of my head as Jerry and I discuss progress during a recent site visit.


Masons start laying block for Control Room A (Anthony's room) and Studio 2 (which will be our main VO/Vocal/ADR booth).


And yesterday, work was completed on all block walls. Here's a series of shots from various angles. Now you see what I mean by my "fortress" reference. If you didn't know better, you'd think we were building a bunker - not a studio.





I'd like say thanks to Brian Cook and his crew from Masonry Unlimited of Cherryville for the great work. Brian understood our stringent sound isolation needs and saw to it that every detail was attended to. As I've mentioned before, a studio is a peculiar beast for contractors who are used to more standard construction methods. But everyone involved has shown not only great interest, but plenty of enthusiasm for helping us achieve first class sound isolation and acoustics. I'd like to state publicly and for the record just how much it's appreciated.

So...with this critical phase of construction complete, we can move on to some other interesting aspects of the project. Like electricity. Clean audio requires clean power. And clean power requires a big, honkin' transformer.


In conclusion, we've spent so much time indoors - here's a vantage point from outside. It'll be nice to have that Carolina Blue sunshine streaming into our lobby, offices and main corridors. I've always disliked studios that feel like caves. There's nothing like lots of natural light.


Next week, framing begins for soundproof ceiling caps in the studios and control rooms. Framing for the common areas (offices, restrooms, breakroom, etc.) will follow the week after. Pop back next week and you'll have a camera's eye view.

Until next time...

Up, Up and Up...

At this phase of the process, my daily trips to the job site reveal nothing but larger expanses of concrete block. You would think looking at hundreds of square feet of grey isn't that exciting. But it is.


Even Mike, Becky and Anthony enjoy seeing the progress.


Here's a look at something that will never be seen once construction is complete...the airspace between Control Room C (right) and Studio 1 (left). As you can see, Studio 1's walls are now complete. It was great to stand inside and get a sense of the room's dimensions.



Here's another look at Control Room C's walls in progress. It's interesting that they don't look very large in this photo. But remember that the wall for Studio 1 is 16' 8" high. And the Control Room is almost 21 feet long.


Here's Control Room A's walls in progress. This room is situated on the other side of Studio 1. (There's an floorplan you can reference in my post of August 23rd.)


The bones of the new Concentrix continue to develop. So I say...keep that grey a-comin'!

Until next time.

Walls! (Addendum)

Well, I was only joking about the masons being finished by lunch. But not by much, apparently. I slid by the site after lunch and here's how far up the Studio 1 wall had grown. Jerry lends a hand in filling the walls with sand.


Becky, being an avid potter, decided to help herself to some free sawdust for the next barrel firing. (For more on Becky's pottery endeavors, click the link to the right.)


On the way home, I stopped by for another look. Those guys don't waste any time!



Then, against my better judgement, I climbed the scaffolding to get this shot of how the sand fills the walls.


I like being in the space at the end of the day when all the workers have gone. It's fun to visualize the finished studio and imagine all the great music and sound that's soon to be created there.

Until next time.

Walls!

(7th in a series. If you're here for the first time, I invite you start from the beginning.)

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the site of our new studio just happens to be right off my usual route to work. As a result, the construction crew is used to seeing my smiling mug about every morning. This morning, my mug was smiling more than usual. Walls are finally going up!


As you can see, there's a good-sized crew of masons swarming about. And boy, are they fast! The work you see in these shots took them only a little more than an hour. At this rate, they should be done by - hmm - lunch?


Jerry, our Supervisor, introduced me to the head guy. Extremely nice fellow. When he heard my last name, he asked, "Are you related to Carl Story?" I said, "If you mean the country singer, yes - we're distant cousins." I'm not sure if he was impressed by that, but I got the sense that he thought it was pretty cool. (I asked because I also have a brother named Carl. He's definitely not a country singer.)


As I mentioned in a previous post, all the block walls will be filled with sand to give them mass. Remember, thanks to the laws of physics, only two things impede sound transmission...mass and air. With two 8 inch sand-filled block walls, 8 inches of airspace, and concrete slab isolation joints between every control room and studio, we don't expect sound penetration to be a problem. Our first session with a pounding rock drummer will tell the tale. Or...I just remembered the time our Michael McGinnis rented a twin Marshall stack for a screaming guitar sound. I think they heard it in Atlanta. Maybe that would be a better soundproofing test.


While the walls are going up, ductwork for the HVAC system continues to go out.


And now, for those who love the geeky details, here are a couple of architectural cross sections to give you a better look at how it all works. Notice how studio floor slabs are at a slightly lower elevation. We're floating the hardwood floors in those rooms, and this will allow the finished studio floors to end up flush with the rest.



Can't wait for lunch to go see how it all turned out.

Okay...maybe not.

Until next time.

Things are looking up...

(Sixth in a series. If you're here for the first time and want to follow progress from the beginning, scroll on down to the first post.)

Well, after much time and effort spent looking down at concrete slabs, it's nice to finally start looking up. Above the ceiling, that is.

It's the stuff you don't see that will keep visitors comfortable...and safe. Namely, the HVAC system and the fire sprinkler system. As you'll see from this photo, the sprinkler system was installed with a standard office in mind.


Sprinkler pipes are at a height of ten feet, a problem considering that the walls for Studio One will be fifteen and a half feet high. So we had to raise them pipes higher. Here's a closer look. You'll see a round patched spot where the original penetration was, with a sprinkler pipe coming through its new penetration around 8 feet higher.


Here's a long shot with the sprinkler pipes at their new height. Room for those spacious ceilings!


And here's the first air handler set in place for the HVAC system. We'll have three separate systems when all is said and done. One for the offices and common areas, one for the control rooms and another for the studios. This will allow us to tailor the heating and cooling requirements for each unique environment, as well as managing acoustic and noise properties.


This longer shot gives you an idea of the generous ceiling height we have to work with. It's 18 feet to the bottom of the large girder, and 22 feet to the roof deck. No crawling around on the belly to install and maintain that stuff!


Next week, walls start going up. Meanwhile I'm enjoying watching the studio's innards begin to take shape. It ain't sexy. It ain't pretty. But there ain't no studio without 'em.

Until next time...