Recording Studio | Nittobo Acoustic Engineering Co., Ltd

Example of Construction

A recording studio can be divided into two types considering sound source recording, one is a studio specialized in recording music sources and the other is for recording sound sources from video products such as a TV program, movie and games.
Recording studios are basically consisted of 'studio area' in which musicians play instruments, sing songs and record sounds using microphones, and 'control room' in which the mixing engineers listen to the sound through monitor speakers, record and arrange sounds.
The current way of recording is mostly multi-track recording. After selecting a studio in consideration of the musician's schedule and purpose of recording and there instrument and vocal sounds are recorded separately and accumulating sound over sound through 'over-dubbing the recording'. Then the mixing engineers in the control room can achieve the balance of the whole music while making sound improvements and adjustments to all of the recorded tracks and edit them into a suitable format for media (stereo, 5.1ch surround, etc.) This is called 'mix down' works. In addition, the final 'mastering' works such as adjusting each sound and building it up as one music product will be carried out and the master sound material for CD-cutting will be completed.
In those days, large-scale studio facilities are mainly constructed which possess multiple studios. A studio can be selected according to the intended purpose and musical performance formation and all the works concerning music product can be carried out from 'overdubbing of partial sound' to 'whole mastering'. Recently small-scale characterized studios are also constructed in which partial work in a series of music production can be done efficiently and provide necessary acoustic equipments for the works.
Moreover, private studios are increasing in which artist or producer can do preproduction work before recording because hard disk drive recording using DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) based on recent market of high-performance compact and low-price equipment for recording becomes widely used.

Sound Inn Bst

Sound Inn Fst

When planning a recording studio client's concrete concept based on management is most important with its scale large or small.
And then we consider the studio layout at its concept and realize the environment which is suitable for music source production for professional use arranging installed acoustic equipments functionally and preparing the air conditioning system, electric installation and fire protection system.
The composition of a studio is decided by the musical instruments composition and the recording-style. The size of the studio floor and the number of booths will depend on the main purpose of studio use (for recording strings or brass band session / for recording rhythm parts / for over-dubbing). In general, planning is very important because we must plan a studio in a limited space. The quality of planning determines not only usability of a studio but also the fundamental 'room figuration' which is important for the acoustic design.
The acoustic equipment system will be brought in and installed after completion of the interior construction of the studio and then continuing to do the wiring work. Therefore, the location of the floor pit for wiring between the console and machine room, pipe-laying route, number of microphones, speakers and cue-monitor lines for the musicians must be decided after discussing it carefully in the planning phase.
As well as the facility design is also decided carefully in the planning phase, for instance, the air conditioning system for a comfortable recording and mixing work in a studio and the control room, pure & steady electric source supply and the lighting plan for relaxing. And an advance preparation of equipment space, air duct route and pipe-laying route is required for realization of an ideal studio.

Landmark Studio

Landmark Studio (Control room)

Regarding silence in a studio, severe silence must be necessary for a studio (recording environment) better than a control room (playback environment). However a certain level of silence is required in the control room to differentiate the delicate tone quality and lingering sound of reverb by listening. Therefore, some control room possesses their own machine room in which noisy acoustic equipments like an amplifier with a cooling fan are isolated.
To plan for sound Isolation, we must examine the construction of obtaining silence of studio, noise control to prevent disturbing the neighborhood from the studio facilities and creating an acoustical mutual isolation between the studios. When there is insufficient sound isolation performance between the control room and studio or booths, it causes sound fog on small sound instrument from other instrument and as a result makes worse sound separation for recording.
Concerning the room sound field, separate room acoustic design is necessary because the sound field desired for a studio and a control room is different.
A studio sound field must be a sound field in which sounds of an acoustic-sound musical instrument and vocal can be recorded in high quality and a musician can play and sing in comfort.
Because recording engineers can adjust the listening sound through monitor speakers in the control room, we examine the acoustic arrangement for absorption, reflection and diffusion subject to the location relationship between the monitor speakers and the mixer point. Although sound quality and volume of speakers are also important, high-resolution sound monitoring field is required in which a mixer can recognize the position of sound image, depth feeling of the sound and effects of the equalizer and the reverb.
Moreover, mixing engineers are concentrating highly for many hours in their mix-down work, therefore the control room must be comfortable without creating fatigue.
As well as, the number of control rooms using a multichannel surround sound has been increasing due to the spread of DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD.
Because highly correlated signal to the front channel is reproduced from the surround speakers in 5.1ch music surround works such as DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, the monitor environment in which we can accurately estimate the location of sound image from all direction is required. Therefore, the direct surround system for example, ITU-R BS.775-1 is adopted to make the acoustic situation and characteristic of all channels the same condition. Regarding the room sound field design, we examine the absorption and diffusion arrangement to obtain a uniform transmission characteristic of each channel in the mixing area and simulate the room acoustic to reduce the influence of vibration in normal mode within the low frequency including LFE channel.
In our company, when examining the architectural acoustic design of a recording studio, we will examine it from two sides, first, the technical approach (acoustic design) in which we treat sound as a physical phenomenon. Second, the sensitivity approach (sound tuning) which is based on the know-how accumulated through the design and construction achievements in actual construction site.

King Records Sekiguchidai Studio

King Record Sekiguchidai Studio (Control Room)

The acoustic performance is an important studio feature in a recording studio. However, there are some important factors evaluated in addition "This is an excellent studio".
For example, a studio layout in which the acoustic equipment system functionally works, and a recording studio should have the following set up; a comfortable inside temperature and humidity environment /supply of stable instrument electric source in good quality /a broad area and a high ceiling room /comfortable architectural design /controllable lighting.
It is important to create a comfortable atmosphere where the artist raises his/her own motivation, also a convenient access and easiness for carrying in the music instruments and equipments are important factors to get a high evaluation as a recording studio.
Moreover, to plan an actual studio you need to check the following; the surrounding environment (noise, vibration, electromagnetic wave), construction of planning the architecture (allowable live load, floor height, beam feature size), the utilities (electricity, air-conditioning, fire prevention). All of these conditions play a major influence during the planning stage.
Our work sometimes begins from surveying the building for a studio. And regarding the plan, architectural design, design for the air-conditioning, electricity and disaster prevention, we will make a complete studio design proposal which is supported by our countless number of achievement in design and construction.

Sony Nogizaka Studio

Hitokuchizaka Studio (Control Room)

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