Umm, ok... the carpenter could only come out on Sunday, but I had a previous engagement... I thought we were both clear on what the procedure would be with regard to slat resonators... I just let him in to work alone at 6AM... Funny how differently the same concepts can be interpreted. One step forward, two steps back. We'll be doing this part over before I post any pics.
Good thing we bought twice as much oak as we needed. Hope there's some potential clients/engineers following along that will appreciate this place when we get it done! We're doing are best not to compromise.
On the up side, Santa came early and brought me a:
Cranesong STC8H compressor limiter,
Daking Mic pre/EQ &
Aurora Audio GTQ mkIII
No more wood cutting and dust in the CR! Our oak slats (being redone for the front/side walls) and trim are being stained & finished as I type this message. Yesterday we got to move the desk, racks and gear into the CR. Plugged in the Germ comps and STC8-h for the first time and they light up beautifully... hoe to hear them soon. I'll be wiring all day.
Hopefully we'll get to post some pictures of the gear in place this afternoon!
Progress!
Wood panels in CR almost done. Still need to finish up some wiring & tune the room before adding final fabric and trim.
Here's a pic of our new preamps in a low slant rolling rack (the photo angle's weird).
AMEK purepath: 2ch mic pre/DI/compressor
Aurora Audio GTQ3 mkII: 2ch 1073 style pre/DI/EQ
Focusrite ISA 428 (2): 8 channels of ISA pres w/ Filters, DI & VU
Daking 52270B (2): preamp/EQ
Intersound IVP: DI/EQ
The "console" desk (EQ's, Compressors & Summing) is almost completely wired too. More pics tomorrow.
Almost ready to start tuning the room. There's room for extra diffusion or absorption behind most of the framing, so that stays open until we're happy with the sound. I'm going to tack up fabric wherever the walls and insulation are already finished though. Here's a pic of our back wall next to the diffuser. There will be finished oak trim throughout to cover the staples.
Below is a detail of the black "Brocade Cross" pattern. All overhead and ceiling framework will get the same pattern in white. Here's a detail:
The Mains are in the control room and we're just about tuned up!!!
I'm a little bit surprised at the clarity and relatively flat response (+/- 3db 32hz-12K @ 88db) we got right off the bat. The other thing I'm very pleased with at present is the HUGE sweet spot we're getting. There really isn't a bad seat in the house.
MAINS: Tannoy FSM Dual concentric with Bryston 14B SST.
We're using a DBX 2231 EQ/limiter to tweak a couple of freq's to taste and the limiter is set to kick in about a click or two from full blast on the Dangerous monitor (depending on program material).
Purists be reassured, I'm measuring 113-115db with no audible distortion or limiting. Beyond that, I've been able to peak around 117db, with the amp's green LED's flickering red and you can hear the Tannoys begin to beg for mercy.
I think that should be plenty loud for most. I'm going to order the -25db filters for my custom plugs, cuz -15 isn't going to cut it anymore on a HipHop all nighter.
Here's a quick pic of the work in progress.
Please pardon our dust, stray wires & lack of trim.
Doesn't really do the place justice, I need a wider angle lens (and a steadier hand).
You can see the spl meter on a tripod and he laptop's got an excel file I made
to log SPLs by frequency and calculate the deviation from my reference spl.
Please forgive the slack in this blog:
All is well.
I'll get back to the studio in a few days to finish up the trim in the main CR and post progress on the rest of the facility.
Last edited by audionaut on Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
One step forward, two steps back. We'll be doing this part over before I post any pics. 
Bryston is also very nice as is the room.