Our education officer Miss Carole Issa in partnership with the ICB company has organized a seminar in "acoustics and studio construction" at Audio Suite.
Audio Suite hosted Mr Ian Budd CEO of the ICB company (www.icbaudio.com) who has over 35 years of sound industry experience both in the UK and USA. His seminar on "Acoustics and Studio Construction" was on May the 10th and 11th at Audio Suite.
All presentations were designed for American audiences ranging from introductory to intermediate level of capability.
The presentations focused on the technical aspects of putting together and operating a studio. The content was targeted to the American market and in several cases the way that things are done in Lebanon are different. Differences such as electrical systems and building materials assured that this was the case.
Such differences did, however, serve as a point of discussion for students and introduced concepts and thoughts on a different approach to setting up and operating a studio.
The different presentations details below:
Building a Studio
This is a presentation that traces the process of building of a studio from initial concept through to completion.
The studio is a music recording studio built in a home. It was built initially as an entry level studio and then upgraded to an intermediate studio when purchased by an internationally known recording engineer/producer.
The presentation starts out reviewing the research that needs to be done before building a recording studio. This includes thoughts on potential markets for recording studios, equipment options, and issues as far as choice of location and surrounding environment (Noise, Radio Interference, electrical issues). Also, resources for gaining more information and knowledge are reviewed.
The next step is reviewing the design process, talking about equipment options, interface of the systems, and acoustic design.
Within the acoustic design discussion, resonance analysis, reverberation analysis, floating construction, lines of sight, control room symmetry and controlling early reflections of sound in the control room are discussed.
At the completion of discussion on design, the presentation moves to construction of the studio. A series of photographs of every stage of the construction are presented covering closing up the walls, electrical service, heating and air conditioning, pipes, transmission of sound to and from other parts of the house, inner shell and outer shell construction, air gap isolation, double glass window construction, double door construction, isolating hanger support, and isolated ground electrical system.
After completed pictures of the studio are shown, the presentation moves on to showing the subsequent upgrade of the studio both constructionwise and equipment wise to a full Pro-Tools 5.1 surroundsound room.
Introduction to Electronics for the Recording Studio
This module takes a look at understanding the basics of electronics for the studio owner who must take care of their own equipment and maintenance.
It reviews signal flow, electrical circuits, voltage, current, resistance, and power, some simple components such as a resistor, balanced lines, unbalanced lines.
The presentation then moves on to cover Ohms Law, the Power Law, units of measurement, power supplies, and how power supplies provide the energy for amplification and processing in professional audio equipment.
System Design
This section reviews how systems are wired and interfaced.
Items covered include: Mic wiring, Phantom power, Line inputs, Insert points, patchbays, digidesign system components and interface, XLR connectors, 1/4 connectors, DB25 connectors, AES/EBU, SPDIF, TDIF, Alesis optical, Sync, Stereo monitoring, 5.1 surround monitoring, Cat 6 connections, composite video, S-video, VGA, and DVI.
Troubleshooting
This module covers Preventative desgn techniques, Preventative maintenance, isolating problems, and resources for getting items fixed.
Issues covered include ventilation, AC power, crosstalk, cable damage, magnetism, lighting, lightning protection, grounding, temperature and humidity, static electricity, dust and filters, and signal tracing.
Audio Performance
This section reviews test equipment that is used in the recording studio multimeters, Oscilloscopes, Millivoltmeters, Oscillators, Frequency Counters, Function generators, Analyzers, and how specifications are measured using the test equipment Gain, Headroom, Noise, Dynamic Range, Frequency Response.
Acoustics
Resonance calculation, Reverberation calculation, system equalization, control room design and layout, Fletcher Munson curves, Sound Transmission Loss, Distribution of sound, Reflection of sound, Diffusion, Absorption, quarter wavelength calculation, choices of materials, coefficient of absorption.
