Last week was all about getting the console commissioned. This week was all about getting the rest of the Control Room finished, notably the glass diffusors. Two years ago this month I published a posting titled “A prototype” and this week that prototype became an actual installation. The prototype:
The final result:
Their amazing beauty is not easily obtained…
Nearly three months ago we chose the week of February 14th as the date for commissioning our API Vision console. And every day since then had been a sprint to get ready for that date. Along the way we hit innumerable obstacles, and every time we needed a do-over, we’d have to redouble our efforts to make that schedule. But on February 14th, we had enough pieces in place to begin the process we’d been anticipating for literally years. After one last look at the holes in our Control Room,
it was time to take off the wrap and see the beast:
If this blog posting appears to be a little bit late, it’s because last week was a long week. Nevertheless, the preparations were successful, and so here are the construction photos for the last bit of work before installing the console.
To finish the Music Room, we had to install our swining “bifusor” panels. These panels are diffusive on one side and absorptive on the other. Here you can see the diffusive side:
The fit, finish, and operation of the panels is, like everything else in the studio, a delight to the eye and a joy to touch. And it was good exercise lifting them into position…
One of the great milestones in the construction of any recording studio is the installation of the Control Room window. We have now achieved that milestone:
The physical properties of the glass are impressive. Pictured above, the 4′ x 14′ outer plate is 1/2″ thick and weighs nearly 400 lbs. On the Control Room side, below, the 4′ x 8′ plate is 3/4″ thick and weighs more than 330 lbs. It all looks nice and clean now, but getting everything in place was not easy…
Some things take longer than others. A little more than two years ago I advertised that the studio would be using Variac transformers instead of more modern technologies. This was not a “retro at all costs” decision (though Variacs can be used to provide a really, really great dimming system), but due to the the fact that the pre-eminent lighting control company refused to sell us the very reasonable and very standard system that virtually every other studio employs, and instead would only quote us a package that cost 200% more than it should have. Their absolute unreasonableness caused us to design them out of the main studio, albeit at an extraordinary expense of time. Our proven ability to design around them led to a very easy negotiation the next time around when it came to outfitting the Annex. Go figure. But now, the variable transformers that we procured in 2008 are finally now being installed:
The design is ultra-green (in my book), as follows…
Looking at the few photos from this past week, the unifying theme seems to be that of coverings—things that lay on top of other things. For example, granite countertops now cover the cabinetry in the Lounge:
and in Booth A: (more…)
Two weeks ago I gushed about how much more beautiful one coat of Tung Oil made the Music Room floor. Well, it looks even better with a second treatment:
And a slightly wider view:
It’s now time to shine a little light on the work of our intrepid wiring crew. It was back in May [Week 122] when the wiring team first started pulling analog signal wires through our conduits, which connect the Control Room to the wall panels. A week later [Week 123] they begin pulling our digital, video, and networking cables, connecting the non-analog interfaces of those same panels with the QR. The analog cables were all terminated in mid-November [Week 149]. This week, 34 weeks after the first pull, the job of terminating the cables began in earnest:
And continued… (more…)
The last month of blog postings ([1]. [2], [3], [4]) have all had one theme in common: work is progressing, even if you cannot really see it. Then Christmas came, and one of the most highly visible features of the studio was suddenly finished:
Tung Oil, the finish, is known even to Wikipedia for its ability to accentuate the natural beauty of wood and to bring out the greatest contrast in grain coloration. But even if a picture is worth a thousand words, to really understand the nature of the finish and materials, check out the following animated gif (which is not animated on this page so as not to distract too much from the blog):
When Wes Lachot first put pencil to paper to design Manifold Recording, he’d always imagined I’d have an API Vision console in the main control room, and he design the scale of that room accordingly. More than a year after that, and nearly two years ago to this date, and still somewhat undecided on our choice of console, we made an educated guess as to where and how large a trough we should reserve in the control room slab:
We then compared the field measurements with the dimensions of an API Legacy Plus that I was planning to buy:
got the form built and the concrete poured:
and that was that…until a console plot from API showed us how much more space would be required as we increased our channel count from 48 to 64 and our console frame from the Legacy Plus to the Vision:
