next acoustics Feature Story

Skrewface Entertainment

Skrewface Entertainment, a local multimedia company that works with artists in the urban/hip-hop market, had outgrown their offices and decided to lease a larger facility that would allow them to build a professional recording studio for their own use, and to better produce other local and regional artists.  In addition to a number of multimedia services, Skrewface is home to hip hop artist and producer Leonard “Hit” Calloway.

Like many of us, most all of their budget had gone to outfitting the room with the necessary recording hardware, but they realized they needed the studio to sound and look great with a certain vibe for their clients.  The studio includes a 10’ x 12’ control room and a 10’ x 6’ vocal booth.  It is located in an older industrial building with 14’ ceilings and a lot of drywall and exposed concrete beams and ceilings.

After looking over all the options available to them through the mainstream acoustics market, they contacted Next Acoustics to see what we could do.  They were so discouraged at the high prices out there, that they were just planning on buying a $250 acoustic kit from a major music retailer that included 24 square feet of foam panels and four very small low frequency absorbers.  After discussing their audio and aesthetic preferences, it was obvious the small kit would have very little effect and certainly not get them the sound or the look they wanted.

We first took a look at it from an old, traditional recommendation approach.  With the high ceilings, this would involve a lot of coverage (absorbers).  If done this way, they needed over $2500 of product from the chain music store, and it would be a lengthy and more difficult install given the high ceilings and architecture.

Since neither the budget nor the install time was going to work for them (nor us!).  They asked us how they could get the same (or better) results with Next Acoustics, and get it in a hurry.

We decided that we could “cut-off” the top 6’ of the rooms, meaning much less material and install time.  We also knew that if done correctly, we could actually use the upper part of the room to enhance the sound.  They had product at their doorstep in less than 48 hours!

In the vocal booth, we had them build a 4’ x 8’ acoustic cloud of CityBlox,™ centered in the room.  The remaining 6” to 12” open perimeter between the cloud and the walls allowed for a slightly fuller sound in the room, but not at all boomy.  On the walls they created some larger panels to match the paint and this included a 60% coverage of CityBlox.™  The smaller pieces of CityBlox™ made it easy to evenly spread out the treatment for best results. They placed these panels on the back and side walls from 3’ to 7’ in height.  The window to the control room was surrounded by a row of BevelBlox™ 1’ x 1’s. Result: Tight vocals, no room sound bleeding into the recording…in short they are really happy with their vocal tracks.

In the control room, we also minimized the reflections caused by the high ceilings by hanging two clouds made of CityBlox™, a 6’ x 4’ over the mix position and a smaller cloud over the couch in the back.  Wall treatment consisted of some SoundTrax™ foam (cool cut!) pieces for the sidewalls and a layout of multiple 16” x 16” CityBlox™ mounted at variable depths on the back walls.  The front wall was treated with a layer of CityBlox™ around the window. 

The room installation also included 12 CornerBlox™ for lower frequency control.  The CornerBlox™ were covered with pieces of CityBlox™ to match the look of the other coverage and provide a little more depth for performance.  Overall we were able to limit coverage to about 250 square feet in the room, yet get a great sound.  By tweaking the cloud position, we were able to improve the sound even further and use the upper space to produce a controlled resonance making the 10’ x 12’ room feel much bigger.

Bottom-line…literally:  Skrewface Entertainment now has a studio that looks great and sounds awesome.  Through the use of Next acoustical foam and some of our “experienced” creativity, they were able to accomplish this for under $1000, a far cry from $2500+!  Owner Keith Capone said, “Our first few clients have been blown away with the looks and great sound.”

Our thanks to Keith and Leonard for inviting us to help. 

We look forward to literally hearing great things from Skrewface Studios!