# My Studio Diary



## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 8, 2015)

Hey! Everyone, 
I am building my first proper studio in Mumbai. I don't see many studio builds here so I thought I would share the process. It has been long in the planning stages. I have been planning it for over 6 years now. I think, I can trace it back to 8 years which is when I first thought, it would be great to do something like this. 

Many years later and with some help I am now able to do this. The studio is designed by Philip Newell and a local team and myself are doing it ourselves. Luckily, we have not had to make any compromises whatsoever in the choice of materials. It took me over a year to locate all the materials and scout through many, many buildings to finally find the space. It is not huge but its just right for me 

I have a fantastic team of carpenters, a very helpful assistant and a brilliant friend who is an interior designer but with a great understanding of design. A perfect mix according to Philip!

It is a Non-Environment studio in the true style of the amazing Philip Newell. We are taking a huge leap into the unknown with surround. I have never done music directly in surround but it is a new challenge and I have been reading up, talking with engineers and others about this. It will also be the first composer's studio in Mumbai which will be full range surround 5.0

I will try to add general information about the process as best as I can.

So, without further ado...here are the first images of the space as I bought it.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 8, 2015)

Some more pictures....






















Tanuj.


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## proxima (Apr 8, 2015)

Awesome. I look forward to seeing the final result.


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## Brobdingnagian (Apr 8, 2015)

How exciting for you. Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your story with us. Looking forward to more pictures!

-B


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## JonFairhurst (Apr 8, 2015)

This is going to be a MUST FOLLOW thread.


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## NYC Composer (Apr 8, 2015)

Fabulous, Tanuj. Best of luck.


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## Mike Marino (Apr 8, 2015)

> This is going to be a MUST FOLLOW thread.


+1


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 8, 2015)

Thanks guys! 

Here are some more pictures...


*Old tiles removed for the lounge area*





*...and replaces with new ones...*













*This is going to be a small pantry area with a coffee table and chairs. There is also a loft for storage on top.*





*PU foam arrives.*





*Cotton Waste Felt arrives*





*Danousa Bitumen rolls.*





*New 10mm2 4-core fat cables from electric meter to the studio installed*







Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 8, 2015)

*Pine wood for wall frames*





*Frame being made*





*Frame put in place to mark holes for screwing it into the structure. Also notice the ply against the window to block them.*





*Windows blocked*





*First dividing perimeter wall is up with sandwich layers of plasterboard and bitumen deadsheet. *





*A close up of the layers.*





*Bitumen being laid.*









*Felt fixed in the wall to avoid any resonance in the gaps.*





*Another layer of plasterboard.*


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 8, 2015)

*Vocal room dividing wall*





*Bechan - the star carpenter!* 





*Window to the dub room.*





*Running felt strip in place to start the flooring.*





*Expanding PU foam used to seal gaps.*





*First layer of the floor - PU foam sheets.*


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 9, 2015)

*Plasterboard laid on top of PU foam*









*Deadsheet laid on top of plasterboard*


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## Hannes_F (Apr 9, 2015)

Go Tanuj go ... !


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## germancomponist (Apr 9, 2015)

Interesting, Tanuj!

What did your room tell you when it comes to low frequencies?


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## chimuelo (Apr 9, 2015)

Awesome Tanuj.

I once had the very same experience, even though I didn't own the studio, I brought in engineers, designers and musicians from around the country as it became a really popular place with the best gear around.

It is such a pleasure to see somebody doing this from the ground up.

I would love to do this again since the last time I did this SCSI was King, and shoebox sized 1GB HDDs on a Mac w/ 8 x brand spankin' new ADATs was "high tech,"

Seeing this put me in a such a good mood I can go back and practice for a few more hours.. o-[][]-o


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 10, 2015)

Thank you Hannes!

Jimmy...yes it is indeed a great feeling getting this done. I learnt so much from it and still learning everyday. Philip has been with us through 6 years of planning. It did not work out a few times and we had some problems. But he stuck with us. Absolute genius with immense knowledge about studio design encompassing all aspects even beyond just the design but also into the needs of musicians while never compromising on the technical requirements. 

Gunther..I did not understand your question?

Here are some more photos from the last two days.

*Layers of chipboard on top of the deadsheets.*


















We will be starting the floated walls in a few days.


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 11, 2015)

Front LCR speakers shipped from Spain due to arrive shortly with the surround set and matching amps & cross-over.






Tanuj.


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## G.R. Baumann (Apr 11, 2015)

Tanuj Tiku @ Thu Apr 09 said:


> *Bechan - the star carpenter!*



So... do you mind me asking? How much does you star carpenter earn per hour?


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 11, 2015)

G.R. Baumann @ Sat Apr 11 said:


> Tanuj Tiku @ Thu Apr 09 said:
> 
> 
> > *Bechan - the star carpenter!*
> ...



Why do you ask? Do you think they will be underpaid because they are in India compared to European or American labour rates?

The rates are calculated per day and not hourly in India. They work anything between 8-10 hours and go on their own pace.

He will probably make around £1,500 (Edited from earlier mistake of 2,500) for 4 months of work. Plus another carpenter and two helpers and a contractor will be paid their own fees. But it remains to be seen how much time this will take. 

We are projecting about 5 months of work for now.

*EDIT:*

To put this in perspective for India. Maharashtra state law says that in the highest Zone category (Zone I), the minimum wage per month for a skilled labour in woodwork should be 120 pounds. This would come to about 4 pounds a day. And at my rates, this would be almost 200% higher. These were the rates quoted by them and is the standard for good skilled carpenters in Mumbai.

There are two carpenters, three helpers and a contractor. Philip is the designer and there is another friend who is also a designer in between. 

None of the carpenters have done this work before neither has my friend or the contractor. All instructions come from Philip which is confirmed with further drawings with my friend Petra. I am overseeing the whole thing on a daily basis. I located all the acoustic materials and my friend helped locate all the wood material. Everything else is being directly handled by me. 

Rates for civil (cement and brick) work are separate. Other rates for building the loft are separate. Also removing tiles, fixing new tiles, loading and unloading of materials is separate. All public holidays are off and clean drinking water is provided on site. Masks, industrial hoover, cutting machines are on actual costs. Laying of stones, brick tiles, painting are separate. [/u]

First leg of civil work was carried out by a different team and those costs were also separate. Plumbing work also separate and so are the larbour rates for that. 


Tanuj.


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## G.R. Baumann (Apr 11, 2015)

Tanuj Tiku @ Sat Apr 11 said:


> G.R. Baumann @ Sat Apr 11 said:
> 
> 
> > Tanuj Tiku @ Thu Apr 09 said:
> ...



Thanks for answering Tanuj, and no, I did not mean to implicate anything at all with such question, I realise however how this could be easily mistaken. 

It was just out of plain curiousity, as I have no idea about Mumbai or India at all, it is as far away for me as is Mars. 

Are workers in India insured? What happens if one is injured badly on site?

Thanks
G


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 11, 2015)

G.R. Baumann @ Sat Apr 11 said:


> Tanuj Tiku @ Sat Apr 11 said:
> 
> 
> > G.R. Baumann @ Sat Apr 11 said:
> ...




This is an important issue in our country. Poverty is a real challenge and the government is lagging far behind in introducing tough reforms. My cousin works for Philips healthcare and they set-up free health camps but even so many people have to walk kilometers to get to these camps even people with serious ailments. 

The reality of the situation is that we are over a billion people here. The population in Mumbai is over 14 million for example. 

There are no laws for insurance in such cases and it is left basically upon the people themselves. In many cases we have some of the best medical care in the world. May people from the US and Europe now travel to India because it is very cheap for them. Even I buy my own health insurance. 

My mother got a liver transplant 5 years ago. She was diagnosed with the condition almost 20 years ago. At the time, there was no way to afford this care or much success rate. My sister has downs syndrome. She had a hole in her heart at birth. Similarly, back in 1989 there was not much expertise in this area for such children. Luckily, the United States at the time had a program to offer free medical care for children with special needs in South East Asia. We just had to make it there. My uncle is a rheumatologist in New Jersey and we were able to stay with him and his family. This saved my sisters life. 

Fast forward to 2010 and my mother was able to get this transplant done with some of the best care in the world. But, this care is not available to everyone because it is still extremely expensive for the poor. 

The government is working to introduce new measures to offer health insurance. Bechan is very skilled but he is also uneducated and learnt this work as an apprentice under someone. He came from a village looking for work. 

They work incredibly hard to earn their living. 

My family and I have taken care of people as best as we could over the years. My father built a school for children with special needs with his own money in collaboration with another gentleman who owned the land. This school now has a capacity of 200 children. Over 60% are taken in for free because their parents cannot afford this. The rest of the parents pay a very, very small fees. My father never recieved any funding or help from the government. 

He then went to huge corporate companies to get donations in the trust. The salaries of teachers, special equipment and other thing is now paid for through this. A few years ago Ramu Bhaiya who was a cook in our house for 20 years passed away. In those twenty years, my father helped him purchase his first house with 100% finance and no return. The second house, my dad paid 70% of the cost. It was still cheaper compared to other places because he got it under a government housing scheme for the poor. 

My mother taught his kids through school and eventually we helped him get his daughter married. When he got sick, we got him admitted to the best hospital in the city with the finest doctors. Unfortunately, he did not make it and we miss him to this day.

What I am trying to get across with these examples is that we try to help as much as we can because there are no safeguards or laws to help such people in need. 

So, if for any reason any worker got injured on site (fingers crossed), it will really come upon me to help take care of his medical condition as best that I can. 

For my assistant staying in this city is expensive even though he does manage things himself. I pay him a salary but also I never let him pay for any food, travel, movie tickets or anything else when I am around. I help him as best as I can with giving him equipment or helping him out. Sudama who used to work around my house till recently regularly asked for financial help and I did not ever refuse. I even helped him set-up a small tea stall as a side business to increase his earnings. 

Really, a lot of this country works on good will. We are trying but the problems are so huge and complicated that it is taking time for reforms to come through. Corruption and only a short time of independence has not helped us. 7th largest country in the world but the second most populated in the world after China. 

I think some of us do for people far more than I have seen abroad and I have lived in the UK for 4 years, traveled to the US and many other countries. But over there the government does a lot more for their people. 

It does not help that only 3-5% of Indians pay their taxes. Corruption is also very high. 


I hope this will help you understand the situation over here. It is a great country with a rich history and with serious problems. But we are trying, one day at a time. 


Tanuj.


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## chimuelo (Apr 11, 2015)

Impressive and just as much fun watching the chronological pictures.

Are you going to have a drum booth/room...?


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 11, 2015)

Thanks Jimmy....there is a vocal room of about 9 X 8 feet. Not good enough for drums I suppose. 

But we have a front wall with stone so it might be more fun to record in the control room. I will have to wait and see how this will sound. 


Tanuj.


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## G.R. Baumann (Apr 11, 2015)

Tanuj,

Let me start by saying that your father is a wise man when he said these things about spending on others, as I am certain he knew too well that the return is of a very different kind. Such returns are of a kind that can not be measured in wealth terms, not at all.

Let me continue by saying that with such detailed accounts that you provided here, this thread is ever so more valuable to be read. I am reading this with great interest and it tells me so much more than "only" the story about the building of a place to record music.

So, I am glad I asked these questions!

Thank you for being so open about it, and again, I did not mean to implicate anything, provoke a little perhaps I must admit, but well, it worked for good I think. :wink: 

Chapeau Tanuj :!: 

Here is an idea you might like. Perhaps you can take some group pictures of all those people who help in building your dream, I suppose this is a nice memory for later, and you could give every one who was involved a little print of this as well. A nice moment for this would be when the place is finished, have them all stand in front and take a few snaps. I imagine that they are working with great pride on this project, especially considering that it is outside their comfort zone.

All my best
G

P.S. Did you decide on a name for your studio yet?


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 13, 2015)

Georg, 
I am glad you understand how the system works over here and thank you for your good wishes. 

Everyone involved is very excited and happy to work on the studio as it is something new and interesting for them. 

In fact, once they finish this studio they will become the only team in India with the ability to execute a Philip Newell design. So, if someone else wanted to work with Philip to make their studio, this would be the go-to team. And I will share the details of all the material suppliers of course including some tips 

A picture will of course be taken. I am going to celebrate their craftsmanship. It is in my thoughts. Pro Audio Asia might be interested in covering my studio so I will make sure a picture of everyone from the team gets in the magazine!

Not thought of a name yet! I hate naming things and its been difficult writing music for a trailer company because every track must be named of course. In films it is easier as its about the story, character or the cue.


I will post more soon.


Tanuj.


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## Valérie_D (Apr 13, 2015)

Very interesting Tanuj, thank you so much for posting!


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## G.R. Baumann (Apr 14, 2015)

Tanuj,

just a few ideas:

- SIS - Seven Islands Studio Pvt. Ltd. 
- GPI - Galajunkja Productions International Pvt. Ltd.

You did not say a word about the "El Toros" :D , I mean the full range speakers from Spain. How comes you chose them? Do you have a link to the manufacturer site?

Curious as I am, might I ask about your role? Are you a composer, owner of course, audio engineer, producer, all in one? What is your backgtound in music if any. I am asking because you mentioned a six years lasting dream coming true here.

From the distance, India appears such a strange beauty. Very diverse, rich in culture and history, yet a very young society that ditched the british and other occupational forces. Interesting to learn what you said about corruption, poverty and so on.

According to Chakravarthi Rangarajan, a rural family of five spending less than $80/month, should be deemed poor. Hence 363 million Indians (2012), or 29.5 percent would fall within that definition. This is a staggering number and hard to digest in deed. 

The reasons for poverty are multifold, but certainly the cast system is partly responsible for rural poverty.


> Caste system acted as a spring­board for class exploitation with the result that the counterpart of the poverty of the many is the opulence of the few. The second is the cause of the first.


 Then there are money lenders and landlords of course, but hey, the Irish can tell a few stories about "the gombeen men" as well, that''s for sure. 

Guess it is the same all over the world, name of the poison is: Greed!

Looking forward to hear / see more from your adventure, very much so.

Best
G


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 14, 2015)

Thanks Valérie!


Georg...the speakers are custom made by Reflexion Arts in Spain. It was designed by Keith Holland and Philip Newell I believe. They did many years of research to make this. Reflexion Arts was founded by Philip but he then sold it to his good friend Sergio Castro. 

It uses the TAD-2001 HF driver with a JBL LF driver (15-inch). The HF driver is using a custom AX2 horn. The amps and cross-overs are custom made to very high specification by Neva Audio in Russia. The LCR speakers will go down to 20Hz. 

The surround speakers are smaller, developed by Joules Newell. I will be using them in pairs as per Dolby standards. Two speakers ahead of me and two in the rear. No sub will be used as it is not recommended by either Philip or Dolby for music. 

They make great speakers and there is no cost of marketing as such since they are only installed in Non-Environment studios designed by Philip. They do not even paint the back of the speakers and focus more on performance that 'Next-Generation' looks. 

The room is very different in its approach. It is a Non-Environment design. The front loudspeaker wall is covered with stone and the floor will be a standard wooden type. The rest of the room is super tight. The rear wall is what they call wide band absorber. Some what like a giant bass trap. We are leaving almost 4 feet for this. Almost nothing goes back to the front wall. 

The front wall and the floor are reflective so any sounds made by people or movement in the room will feel natural. But anything coming from the speakers will be having a very low decay time as all other walls are almost maximally absorbent. 

This design was first thought of by Tom Hidley (BOP studios and many more!) and Sam Toyoshima (Abbey Road). Philip had also thought of similar designs at the time. It is difficult to trace who between Hidley and Toyoshima first came up with this. In the years post the first studios made, the design was championed by Tom and Philip with further research. Toyoshima's design is similar to Non-Environment but with a few differences. He is a great designer too!

The other type of rooms that are famous are by Andy Munro. These are LEDE type rooms. Live End - Dead End. One side is reflective and the other almost dead. Something like that. There is RFZ and what not. 

But after reading Philip's book (brilliant!) I got in touch with him as his ideas made complete sense to me. I read through many AES papers as well. Lot of stuff that Philip has published also. 

I am a composer based in Mumbai and this will be my personal studio. I mostly work on feature films. Worked on many as an additional composer and did a few on my own. 



Tanuj.


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## G.R. Baumann (Apr 15, 2015)

Fascinating! Looks like you're in good hands.  

http://philipnewell.net/index6.html

http://philipnewell.net/index8.html


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 26, 2015)

We have now finished the floor sandwich and moved on to the floated walls. The front and side walls are ready. The front wall has been amended to include a window for the center channel speaker. 

We will now be moving on to the rear floated wall. After this we will proceed and finish the vocal room. Ceilings will be next after all the walls are self-supporting. 

Electrical and HVAC work will take place soon.

Here are some pictures of the control room with the floated walls ready to be put in place.





Mr. Singh, our air-conditioning expert. You will also notice temporary support on the top for the front wall. The wall is not screwed permanently yet with the side walls and there is no ceiling! Once all the walls are screwed together, they will self-supporting.





All carpenters are doing a brilliant job with great craftsmanship and dedication. 









Window for center channel speaker. 


Tanuj.


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## Living Fossil (Apr 26, 2015)

Great thread!
It's nice to see the progress...


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## Jack Weaver (Apr 26, 2015)

Looking great! I wish I could stand in it when it gets done - to feel what a non-environment room sounds like. I've worked in quasi-Live End/dead End rooms before, but they aren't quite the same thing. Looking forward to hearing what your stuff sounds like when you get it all under control. Those speakers mounted in the rock wall should sound fantastic. 

How far is it from your home?

In June I'm moving to my third temporary room in the last twelve months. Fortunately I have a ton of movable bass traps and diffusers and some experience with where to place them all. 

I wish you all the best fortune in your build. Exciting times. 

.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 27, 2015)

Jack Weaver @ Mon Apr 27 said:


> Looking great! I wish I could stand in it when it gets done - to feel what a non-environment room sounds like. I've worked in quasi-Live End/dead End rooms before, but they aren't quite the same thing. Looking forward to hearing what your stuff sounds like when you get it all under control. Those speakers mounted in the rock wall should sound fantastic.
> 
> How far is it from your home?
> 
> ...



Thanks Jack! I am looking forward to this as well. There is only one room in India which is somewhat close to this design. Sam Toyoshima has built a studio in Mumbai. 

We are working away one thing at a time and now its the critical part where different things need to work together. Fortunately, we have Philip helping us at every little step. 

The studio is 15 minutes away from where I live in the hub of where most film work happens. Some of the biggest production houses are just 5-10 minutes away. With the Mumbai traffic this is a huge plus. 

The advertising hub is a little further away but I rarely work on ads now. 

Good luck with your move. I think I saw a picture of your setup at some point. It looked kick-ass!


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (May 31, 2015)

The vocal room dividing and floated walls are now complete. Next up are the floated ceilings for both the control room and the vocal room. We will begin work tomorrow. 

























Tanuj.


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## chimuelo (Jun 1, 2015)

Awesome, but being a LIUNA Tradesmen I must warn you that that broke down crooked looking Ladder makes me nervous.
Can't wait to see the final phase completes.

Hats Off 2U


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 1, 2015)

Thnaks Jimmy...the ladder is off on the angle between the raised vocal room floor and the lounge floor. Its quite sturdy otherwise, I have been on it a few times myself!


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 3, 2015)

Meanwhile, the wideband absorber panels are ready. Felt has also been fixed on all internal floated walls in both the rooms.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 11, 2015)

The Control room ceiling is now almost done. You can see the ceiling rafters fitted on side beams. The sandwich layers of gypsum and bitumen are fitted on top of these. We will be adding felt in the cavities. The final acoustic layer will be celenit. Fabric frames come after that.

You can also see two 8 inch holes in the rear structural wall window with spigots.

Sound proof ducts will be attached to these to pull in fresh air. 

All the perimeter and floated walls are now complete. We will be moving on to electrics very soon.






















Tanuj.


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## stonzthro (Jun 11, 2015)

Looks great Tanuj, keep us posted!


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## FriFlo (Jun 11, 2015)

Dont wanna spoil the party, ... but are you sure those are wide band absorbers? THey look more like high frequency suckers, because they are way to thin to affect lower frequencies a lot, which they should. I have no idea, what your whole concept is. I hope you know, what you are doing, because a studio built can easily become a big money grave!  So, see that you have the right consultants. People, that do not take acoustical measurements cannot show you on paper what they achieved and most often are not worth, what they ask for ... Maybe, it is all good and I am wrong, but if those are supposed to be broadband absorbers, I am very sceptical ...


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 11, 2015)

FriFlo,
The studio is being designed by Philip Newell, who is one of the best designers in the world. So, I am kind of not worrying about the thickness of these panels 8) 

Perhaps, you are talking about something else. The panels we have made are almost 4 feet deep. A second layer of felt is yet to be fixed so it will gain 2 cm of thickness. 

They will be in the rear wall. Almost 4 feet of space has been left for this to work. These panels are hung from the ceiling in a particular setting. 

This is a Non-Environment design. Since you know about these panels, you must know what this design means. 

Each stage is first consulted upon with Philip in detail with my friend who is doing the final drawings from Philip's designs. He is with us on every single step. I have been in touch with him for over 5 years and have had two meetings in London over the last 3 years. We have exchanged thousands of e-mails.

I have read his AES papers, attended a conference where he was speaking, had some exposure to information from his proposed ideas for Dolby and SMPTE. I have even read some of these papers. I have gone through two of his books on studio design and loudspeakers. Just to get an overview of what we are doing here. 

He was also part of The Townhouse studio design team. He made the famous stone room there. Many years ago, he was the recording studio director at Virgin records with Richard Branson. He left the recording industry to pursue studio design further. 

Together with Tom Hidley he sponsored doctoral research into things like these panels. They were fully measured and tested at the ISVR, Cambridge. 

He also together with Dr. Keith Holland came up with the speaker design which I am going to use. These speakers have some of the best components in the world with amplifiers built to custom specifications in Russia. The speakers use a TAD-2001 HF driver, a JBL LF driver and the custom AX-2 Horn. The cabinets are massive and strong.

The front wall is made of stone in which these speakers will be flush. Anything coming from the speakers will have a very low decay time because the Wide band absorber panels in the rear wall will eat up everything. But, any movements by humans or any chatter will feel normal because of the front stone wall and the wooden floor. 

Philip is also on the board with SMPTE and Dolby. He is proposing new standards for the future at the moment and trying to get rid of the X-curve. 


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 11, 2015)

Also to add, Dr. Keith Holland who co-invented the speaker design with Philip works on research and as consultant with companies like Rolls Royce. This kind of research is worth millions and very advanced because it will allow air crafts to lower noise.

This is the kind of team, behind this concept and it has been in development for years. 

I am also getting advice from Julius Newell (Philip's son) who is also a great designer on his own. I am consulting him on electrics as well, keeping up to date with latest information. 

Philip also put me in touch with a film mix engineer who has advised me on suitable equipment. Something, that is good and does not break the bank 

This is not your average designer 

Tanuj.


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## FriFlo (Jun 11, 2015)

Ok, I think there is a book title from Philip Newell on acoustics, so , I guess he must be a professional! 
Sarcasm aside: If it is multi layered, ok! I thought you would put these thin boards in the frame and hope that would kill any bass frequencies. I guess you are fine! I just see very often people doing big mistakes like having a 3 cm layer of insulation all around them and thinking this would make the room sound good. Those boards looked a little like that. I should have read more of your earlier posts, sorry!


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 11, 2015)

Friflo,
Philip is indeed a thorough professional. 

We are not using these boards in the walls. First the perimeter walls are made. These walls are made from pine wood frames and layers of plasterboard and bitumen. The cavities are then filled with felt.

We leave air gap and then make the floated floor. This floor will have many layers, isolated from the perimeter walls. 

The floated walls are then built on to this floor much like the perimeter walls. 

The panels you were talking about will be hanging from the ceiling in the rear wall. Only a fabric frame will be used to cover this up. So, any sound will pass through the rear wall into these panels. The panels do not go in the wall anywhere. 

I am attaching a picture from another one of Philip's build in Lisbon.


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## FriFlo (Jun 11, 2015)

Allright! Bass hangars. I get it! That is of course something entirely different!


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## FriFlo (Jun 11, 2015)

Because I have some modifications left for summer in my studio build (DIY): how do you prevent the loss of all high frequency reverbaration in that room in spite of so much bass trapping all around you? Plastic covers? Slats and slots? I am thinking myself what to do to get back some of those highs ...


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jun 12, 2015)

Sorry FriFlo, I cannot help you there. All things related to the design and technical stuff is taken care of by Philip.

I just follow his instructions. 

A Non-Environment room is very different from most other rooms. The decay times are very short. 

I don't know anything about acoustics as such. I only know a few things about this design. It also works well with the custom speakers. All rooms by Philip have these speakers. It has something to do with directivity.


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jul 9, 2015)

Here are a few more pictures of the progress so far. 

*Ceiling fixed with Felt and deadsheet in arches. 







Rear wall structure in place:






Ventillation tubes put in place. We will be fixing them permanently soon:






Front wall structure is up with openings for speakers and amplifiers as well as cupboards. The one on the left will be a machine cupboard.











We have also started boarding the front wall with the first layer - Gypsum:






*
We will be starting with electrics and air-conditioning in the next few days.


Tanuj.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 7, 2015)

It has been a while since I posted here. 

The studio is progressing well. We had some delays in between but now we are in the final stages of completion even though it may not look like it!

*Front Wall is now finished in the control room. All electric wires have now been laid in various places for the studio. This is a view from the vocal room.*





*Control Room*










*Behind the front wall. This will be the right storage to be used for mics, stands and other small items.*





*Ceiling Deadsheet-Felt in arches now complete.*





*Door being constructed. *















*Window Frames*





*Pantry and small area for a coffee table perhaps with two chairs.*





*Storage above pantry*





*Control Room door frame in place.*




*
Celenit or Wood wool boards fixed in the rear wall.*





*Ventilation ducts in the rear of the control room where the wide band absorber panels will hang.*





*Vocal Room ventilation outlet*





*Cut-out made for side surround speaker which will have an 8" LF driver.*





*Rear wall Wide Band Absorber panels. The angle is not right in this picture. We have since fixed this.*










*Celenit boards are now fixed in both the control room and the vocal room.* 





*Natural Sandstone panels like these have been ordered for the front wall. That will be the final finish. They will be thicker than the one shown in this picture and different in size with interlocking design. *






We will now proceed with other things like the main desk and finishing up with things like veneer, switching on the ventilation and air-conditioning systems as well as more work in the lounge area.


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## stonzthro (Oct 7, 2015)

This looks great Tanuj - thanks for posting!


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 9, 2015)

Thanks Stonzthro!


More pictures and details coming soon...


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## sleepy hollow (Oct 9, 2015)

Tanuj Tiku said:


> More pictures and details coming soon...


Cool! Maybe you find the time to write a few words about the construcion of the door? I've done that myself a few times and I've always been interested in how other people approach that part of their studio construction. It does look very heavy!


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 10, 2015)

The doors are simple enough. It is made of plywood, has plasterboard in it (12.5mm) and you can see the cotton waste felt in the picture. That is of 120kg/m3 density. There is also a layer of 3.5kg/m2 bitumen sheet from Danousa. 

There will be two doors for each of the rooms. The inner sides will be lined with a carpet to avoid any resonance in the cavity.

The sides will have some sort of rubber lining. We are also using automatic door closers from Justor. Cheap and very reliable. They will secure the seal.

They are heavy indeed. We are using four heavy duty hinges with five screws in each on all the doors.

The door frames are made of very high quality and strength. Two layers of 19mm marine plywood. These are pre-treated for termites and are waterproof.

We have used such plywood almost everywhere to avoid moisture getting in. Mumbai is very humid. Gets up to 95% humidity in monsoon.

The edging of the doors have Burma teak strips which are very strong to allow the screws to hold strong. Probably not needed. We could have done it in pine as well but my carpenters recommended it.


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## chimuelo (Oct 15, 2015)

Your studio looks great.
I am sure it will be a great success for you.

Probably too late to mention this but contractors in the high end suites built in Las Vegas have a reputation for extreme privacy and brag your neighbor could kick the wall without the sound interupting next door neighbors.

5/8 inch Drywall with thin layers of Finnish Birch weather treated Plywood inside of the struts.

I use to like the idea of such extreme measures.
Makes inhaditants feel special.

I actually pissed off the contractor by telling him the reason nobody complained about Elevators next to thier Suites being heard was from the special Fireproof Drywall that uses a mix of plaster and Gypsum.

Next time I saw him he said his Superintendent said using the Elevator (green) drywall would have saved 1000s of dollars instead of the labor and material costs the Interior Decorators wanted.

Just in case you still are building.
Costs a little more but insurance might cut you a break on fire if they know the Green Gypsum was used.

Cheerz

Beautiful Studio


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 17, 2015)

Thanks Jimmy!

Unfortunately, the build is now almost finished. All the gypsum is already in place. Luckily, the neighbours are all office spaces so they don't make much noise at all. We are not likely to have much noise from outside the building as well. As it is off the main road, a quiet street. 

Still, precautions have been taken. On the side of the windows, we have the structural wall, 2 inches of air gap, perimeter wall of Gypsum-Deadsheet-Gypsum on pine frame + felt and gypsum on the other side, 2 inches of air gap then floated wall made the same way but the inner side is lined with celenit of 30mm. Fabric will be fixed over this. 

In the rear, we have left 5 feet of space for the wide band absorbers. 

Indeed, in the initial tests with near fields, there was no bass build up anywhere in the room and the frequency response is very uniform. 

The bass building up in the rear of the room is a classic problem in many designs or in designs poorly executed. 

The room is sounding extremely natural with a very short but appropriate decay time.


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## Assa (Oct 17, 2015)

Wow, this looks so cool! Looking forward to see the final result


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## chimuelo (Oct 17, 2015)

You got the Tiger by the tail.
Gypsum is awesome stuff.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 17, 2015)

Jimmy, 

We did not make any brick or siporex walls. Everything has gypsum. It has so many different names: Drywall, Gypsum, Plasterboard!

Everything from the design, the materials list, quantity and specifications were given to me by Philip Newell who is the designer. 

I have executed the whole studio exactly as per his design and he has been guiding me on each step through the build. 

Luckily, I found exactly all the materials he requested for the build. We have made no changes and even imported certain items like the ventilation system, LED lights and auto-transformers and the fabric to make sure everything works to spec and as per his design.


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## jemu999 (Oct 20, 2015)

Congrats on your new build Tanuj! I have admired you compositions for some time now and am happy to see your continual success!

Best,
Jeton


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## Tanuj Tiku (Oct 21, 2015)

Thank you for your good wishes Jeton. Really appreciate it!


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## Mike Greene (Oct 21, 2015)

I love studio construction pix. Thanks for posting all of them. Looks like a great facility you'll have.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Dec 5, 2015)

Mike Greene said:


> I love studio construction pix. Thanks for posting all of them. Looks like a great facility you'll have.



Thank you Mike!

Here are the latest pictures. We are close to the finish now. Fabric frames are being made at the moment while other work goes on. 

*Brick cladding complete outside*







*Lounge taking shape. False ceiling is now complete.*











*Motorized acoustically transparent screen was fixed and tested. It has since been removed so that 2" thick natural sandstone can be fixed to the front wall as the final finish. *






*Front wall prepared with adhesive and sand to fix the stone. Chicken wire is nailed to the wall for the cement to grip.*
















*Ventilation hole cut above the machine room door, for cool air to pass inside.*






*Lights are up.*






*Control room door. The colour of the veneer is not accurate in this picture.
*





*Carpet is used to cover the inner sides of the doors.* 






*White adhesive is mixed with concrete to fix the stone to the front wall. *
















*Ventilation system has been switched on along with the air-conditioning. This helps the cement to grip by keeping the moisture in check. Fresh air is being pumped into the rooms at all times. *


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## Tanuj Tiku (Dec 10, 2015)

*The front wall is now complete.*


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Dec 10, 2015)

That's looking really special, coming along just great! Congratulations.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Dec 10, 2015)

Thanks Ned! Very excited to hear the sound...we will be conducting some tests very soon!


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## muk (Dec 11, 2015)

Beautiful! If it sounds as good as it looks this should be a real pleasure to work in. Looks like the hard work is paying off.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Dec 12, 2015)

muk said:


> Beautiful! If it sounds as good as it looks this should be a real pleasure to work in. Looks like the hard work is paying off.




Thank you! We are likely to fix the speakers in the next week or so. Some tests will be conducted before the fabric goes over the studio. 

I will keep you posted.


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## PhJ (Dec 15, 2015)

Very impressive Tanuj ! 
Thanks for sharing, and all the best for your studio


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## tav.one (Jan 3, 2016)

That is one awesome looking studio being made in our country. I'm very excited to see the final pictures & more importantly to get your feedback about how it sounds.
I learned from your posts that maybe I shouldn't wait to start planning for an upgrade from my current home studio to a professional studio, which I plan to get build in around 18 months from now.

Though it won't be possible for your team to travel 2000kms and build my studio in Ludhiana , but if you don't mind I'll be asking you for help while looking for the materials and/or getting in touch with your studio designer.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Jan 3, 2016)

Thank you for your compliments itstav. It has been a long journey because this is the first Philip Newell design to be built in India and we have done the whole thing over e-mails 

But, it has been an absolute joy to build it with Philip's guidance all the way through. He is an amazing person with a deep understanding of studio design. 

The design philosophy is very new for our country. I am not sure how many are non-environment type studios. I cannot think of any. The closest I can think of is Boing, which is also an excellent studio in Mumbai built by Sam Toyoshima. 

I located all the materials locally. Things I imported were the speakers, amps, cross-overs, ventilation ducts, some LED lights, door closers and a few other small items. Everything else is very much available in India. It was just bloody difficult to find, some of these things. But, I found it luckily. 

We did a small test with near-fields some time back and I can tell you that it sounded quite amazing. Next week we are putting in the big speakers and will be running some tests. I expect it to go smoothly as we have followed every instruction from Philip. I will keep you guys posted here. 

As of now, the team I have used is the only one which knows about this build but this is the first studio they have ever built. So, you could in theory build it with really good carpenters and workers. It does not matter if they have any experience in this field, as long as they follow the instructions. 

I have been personally involved very deeply in everything. Without anyone from Philip's team present here, there were some challenges but it has all been worth it. 

I am not a studio designer but if you plan to build it with Philip, I can pass along all the details to you about the materials. The carpenters may agree to travel to Ludhiana as they do travel to other cities from time to time if the work is substantial. 

The only way to build this room is with Philip Newell. It is his design and I merely followed the instructions. The genius is in the design and the guidance along the way as every build is unique with some different challenges.


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## tav.one (Jan 4, 2016)

Thank you so much for sharing a great deal of information. I'll start reading Philip's books & papers.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Feb 5, 2016)

We are almost at the end of the build now. The control room is functional. A lot of the audio gear is still not installed and in transit. We will get there soon. 

For now, I have started working in the control room and I can very happily say that it sounds amazing. This type of control room has been an eye opening experience for me. Or rather, a delight for the ears. 

The room is relatively almost reflection free compared to many other studio designs. As a result, the clarity is something I have never heard before in any studio. The imaging is insanely good. Mono and stereo, clear separation with dead center vocals. Some friends were tricked into actually thinking that the center speaker was switched on. 

The low end is sublime. Specifically, the low mids are all revealing. There is no high frequency sharpness or sizzle so to speak. It all sounds extremely natural. Now when I listen to other systems, they sound hyped. The monitoring is extremely flat and will shame badly recorded material but on the other hand, it is an absolute delight to hear well recorded music. Because of the stone wall and the massive traps in the rear wall (almost 5 feet deep), there is practically no low end build up in 95% of the room. It will go up a tad bit in the rear but that is about it. Not a significant difference. 

The LF is still getting its due burn in period but it is solid and extremely powerful from the 15 inch JBL LF drivers. Since the LF drivers go down to 20 Hz, I am hearing things which I had not heard before. So many film scores sound really great. We have been listening to a wide range of music. 

But, I am must hand it down to Mr. Hans Zimmer. There is so much amazing and clear, well tuned low end in the the Batman film scores. It is an experience to behold listening to those recordings in such a room and on these speakers. There are also many quiet moments which reveal a lot of detail. Michael Jackson's Dangerous music sounds really great too. Peter Gabriel's last album has some amazing recordings in there. 

Orchestral recordings sound fantastic with great depth and a wide sound stage. Some older recordings have revealed incredible use of mono and stereo. I could not be happier with this room. 

There are still some issues we are sorting out. The door seals seem to be have been of a really bad quality and so we will be replacing them soon. We still need to measure how sound is getting out into the lounge and then design silencers accordingly between the machine room ventilation exit holes and the lounge. 

My motorized screen broke down so we have temporarily fixed a 55 inch LED TV till I get the screen back from the US after getting repaired. This has been the only minor set back in the build. For some reason the tension wire got stuck inside.

It has been a long and tough one year period to get this done but the effort is well worth it. I have also experimented with surround for a bit. I can only say that after listening to some Spitfire samples with the surround mics, it feels I have been in the dark ages without surround. But, I will have to wait and experiment further before I start delivering music in surround professionally. So for the score I am working on right now, it must be in stereo, much to my frustration!

I will be posting the final pictures soon once the whole studio is fully ready.


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## NYC Composer (Feb 7, 2016)

Awesome, Tanuj. Beautiful, enviable space.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Feb 8, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> Awesome, Tanuj. Beautiful, enviable space.




Thank you Larry! I am very fortunate indeed!


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## synthpunk (Feb 9, 2016)

Beautiful and inspiring! I think you will make wonderful art there. I would jump off a roof without windows to the outside, but I understand your design choice for acoustics and.

Please be sure you have a appropriate security system and you clean up the dust really well.


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## Tanuj Tiku (Feb 10, 2016)

aesthete said:


> Beautiful and inspiring! I think you will make wonderful art there. I would jump off a roof without windows to the outside, but I understand your design choice for acoustics and.
> 
> Please be sure you have a appropriate security system and you clean up the dust really well.



Thank you James!


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## Mike Greene (Feb 12, 2016)

That looks beautiful. The stone front wall not only looks great, but it probably helps a lot with high end dispersion.

I wouldn't worry too much about sound leaking into the lounge area from door seals or the machine room. I understand wanting to make it perfect, but here's what happened with me: I built my studio to pretty high end standards (room within a room, floating floors, three sheets of plate glass between the control room and live room, etc.). Sound isolation was great, but of course there were a couple more things I could tweak to make it even better. (There always are.) But I was burnt out on construction, plus out of money, so I decided to wait a few months before going for perfection.

Then . . . after a few weeks, I stopped bothering to close doors. Right now, for instance, the doors to the lobby are wide open. If I close a door at all, I'll usually only close one. (We have double doors into the lobby from all studio rooms, for better isolation.) There are rarely people in the lobby anyway, so I realized all this sound isolation didn't really matter that much. Even when there are, one door closed is usually plenty. Closing both is more impressive, of course, but even with one door, people in the lobby can still have conversation over the fairly low rumble leaking through the single door.

Just my opinion, of course. If the sound leaks are easy to fix, go for it. Otherwise, wait and see if it matters as much a month from now as it does now. For me it didn't.

Either way, it looks fantastic!


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## Tanuj Tiku (Feb 20, 2016)

Mike Greene said:


> That looks beautiful. The stone front wall not only looks great, but it probably helps a lot with high end dispersion.
> 
> I wouldn't worry too much about sound leaking into the lounge area from door seals or the machine room. I understand wanting to make it perfect, but here's what happened with me: I built my studio to pretty high end standards (room within a room, floating floors, three sheets of plate glass between the control room and live room, etc.). Sound isolation was great, but of course there were a couple more things I could tweak to make it even better. (There always are.) But I was burnt out on construction, plus out of money, so I decided to wait a few months before going for perfection.
> 
> ...




Thank you Mike! 

I think you are right. I am not really going to bother that much about the door seals. At the end of the day, I have full control of the studio and not much noise is going to be generated in the lounge. With the two doors, it will be sufficiently quiet. Certainly, I will not be hearing anyone having a conversation outside. 

A little bit of LF leakage is OK! It is in any case very difficult to control unless you build a 20cm concrete floor on top of the existing structure. 

Because my studio is on the 3rd floor of a building which does not have the required strength in the slab, this was not possible. 

The machine room (cupboard rather!) is very quiet. We just need to now build silencers for the ventilation exit holes because those are obvious leakage spots. It is simple enough to make. 

The machines and the amps are sufficiently cooled as the exit air from the vocal room is also patched into the machine room which then passes into the lounge. The entire studio is very well ventilated at all times. The inlet and the exhaust are just over 25 feet away from each other.


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