Hey Guys,

I just pulled the trigger on construction of a major recording studio facility in Barbados after two and a half years of planning. I thought I would begin sharing the build out of this facility with you folks.

After several years of discussion and negotiation, we finally took possession of a spectacular property right on the coast, 100 feet from the beach. The building has a spectacular view of the ocean from the first floor balcony. This building is over 400 years old, and is a world heritage property located in a historic part of Barbados. The facility is over 7500 square feet of which 3700+ will be recording studios, rehearsal spaces and production suites.

Over the next several months we will begin partitioning the space into control rooms, live areas, isolation booths, offices, production suites etc. There will also be a radio station in the same building with tie lines linking the recording studios control rooms console outputs to the On-Air Studios console inputs so that we can broadcast and stream live performances from the studios for both audio and video.

This is going to be a fun project. We have engaged the services of a reputable architectural firm to assist in the space planning, and acoustics.

Here are some preliminary shots of the empty space previously used for conference and restaurant facilities. The building is 2 floors, with beautiful aged hard wood flooring throughout.

Ooooh nice! Looking forward to see some developments! There's certainly worse places to record an album than a 100 feet from the Caribbean Sea... heh

Here are the floor plans of the building as it is now, before we turn it into studios and control rooms. The open areas labeled Meeting Rooms 1, 2 & 3, and the areas labeled Bar and Lounge will be transformed in Control rooms, live areas and isolation booths.

Man, this is straight-up Property Porn, even without the studio/gear-slutty side of it!

While the architectural firm you have chosen could very well have the capability of building you a wonderful studio, I have seen too many architects who cannot get their heads around basic acoustic requirements - tread carefully and all the very best.

What a space!
A.

Nice! Looking forward to seeing things develop with your space.. best of luck with the build!

Yesterday we received our first shipment of equipment and acoustic material from the UK for the build out of Pavilion Studios in Barbados. Here is what arrived.

Today we got another shipment of equipment from the USA.

Look what was inside! I can't wait to get this one and her identical twin (Still in the container) into action on a 48-track analog session. Tomorrow we will unpack the studio equipment and acoustic material, and store it until the room is ready for installation to begin.

Woah....Cool!

Pic of the beach please!!

Hey Guys,

Today we uncrated all of the gear that arrived in this first shipment, including a 1998 SSL 4064G+ console seen in my profile pic, which we completely disassembled in London and packed for shipping to Barbados. All of the channel modules and center section were removed, bubble wrapped separately and crated. All of the VU meters, buss cards and faders were also removed, bubble wrapped and crated, and the aluminum chassis broken down into 3 sections and bubble wrapped and crated. You can see the aluminum buckets sitting on the ground in one of the photos, and the channel modules stacked up still in bubble wrap.

We also uncrated the power supply and automation system rack. What a task that was getting it out of the crate and onto its wheels.

Also in this shipment was all of the studio furniture, 6 heavy steel doors, most of the outboard gear, 2 EMT 140 Plate reverbs, another Studer A-800 tape machine, and several pallets of rockwool and rockfloor, as well as some really heavy rubber barrier mat.

We set everything out in position in a mock up of the control room layout on the ground floor so we could verify space requirements for everything. Once we are happy that everything will fit where it is on the plan, then we will start building out the walls, and floating the floor upstairs. We did this mock layout downstairs which is the exact same dimensions as the space upstairs. So if it fits on the ground floor, it will fit on the first floor.

Tomorrow the piano movers will uncrate the piano and get it inside the building on the ground floor, while we wait for the studio upstairs to be completed.

In the coming weeks and months ahead we will be framing up the walls, floating the floor, sheeting up and filling the walls and floor with Rockwool, and installing those ridiculously heavy doors. Then comes the fun part when we will begin installation and reassembly of the SSL console, and installation of the miles of cables and rack gear that go along with it.

For those who are interested in this, I documented with video and photos the disassembly of the console, and other gear at the studio in London, and it being moved out into trucks to be shipped to Barbados.

I will post these photos in a separate post showing the take a part process in London and the reassembly process in its new home Barbados.

Looks like this is going to be a world class studio. Looking forward to seeing it evolve.

Please don't overspend on fx. As it is quite easy to get sidetracked and follow the G.A.S. route. Enjoy with what looks to be an awesome property. Are there enough guest rooms or accomodation nearby?

Yes indeed, we are on the same property and 50 feet door to door away from the Courtyard Marriott Hotel on one side, and 100 feet away from the Coconut Court Hotel on the other side right on the beach. We are also 2 minutes walk away from 3 other 5 star hotel/ condominium properties right on the beach. There is also a brand new Italian restaurant on the same property, and several other restaurants within 5 minutes walk away from the studio. The location was chosen specifically to take advantage of the close proximity to hotels, restaurants and the beach, and other local attractions. We will be offering optional all inclusive studio packages inclusive of an SSL engineer, accommodation, airport transfers by limousine, personal concierge service 24 hours a day and more. There will be world class session players and singers on site for those projects that need them. The studio will be fully equipped to handle any size digital, analog or hybrid recording and/ or mixing session 24 hours a day.

Hi Guys and gals,

I thought I would give you guys a quick update on the project here in sunny Barbados. Nothing moves fast here as I am sure many of you may already know.

Over the last several weeks I have been securing quotations on building materials for the outfitting of the space, including gypsum, lumber, flooring, etc, as well as seeking some additional acoustical items such as hat channel, resilient isolation clips, laminated glass etc. Now I have started getting labour quotes for the buildout and assembling a team to start that work next week.

Over the last several days we started testing some of the gear I bought to make sure it all works as it should and there are no last minute surprises after we install it. So far only a few issues cropped up. The EMT 245 seems to have a serious noise issue and will need to be serviced, hopefully someone can recommend who I can get to fix it. Other than that, it's been a challenge converting everything from 220/240 Volts to 110 Volts. Some stuff has been simple switch selection change and fuse change, and other stuff has required internal power supply wiring and jumping changes, and others require whole different power supplies, or will have to be run on transformers.

Next post I will upload some photos and video of the disassembly of the studio in London where it all same from.

Hey guys, its been a while since I updated this. We have been working steadily on the studio build over the last few weeks. The wet bar has been taken out, tiled floor removed, new floor cast, and hard wood floor extended over the new floor where the bar was. All plumbing for the bar was removed and capped off.

Then it was on to the control room floor....

This has been quite a task to say the least. Pictures say a thousand words. we spent the last week working on this floor. We built this floor over the top of the existing hardwood floor, which was originally built as a club dance floor, above what was a conference room on the ground floor below. The existing hardwood floor was already well isolated from the walls and concrete slab with rubber mat already, so the main reason for building this new floor over the old one was to allow for cabling without cutting into the existing floor, and to separate the control room floor from the studio floor, and the rest of the building.

The new control room floor is floated on 2 layers of 5 kg acoustic barrier mat and high density rockwool rockfloor, with 100mm Rockwool between the 2x6 floor joists, then 2 layers of rubber roofing tape are sandwiched between the top of the floor joists and the 3/4" plywood surface. This has been the most I have itched in a long while, rockwool is not nice to work with at all. Next will be 2 layers of rubberized roofing felt put on top of the plywood, and then 1x6 V-Joint green heart floor boards for the finished surface, which will be sanded, sealed and polished.

Every point of contact between the existing building structure and the new flooring structure had to be insulated with 2 layers of 5Kg rubber barrier mat. That stuff comes in 4x6 sheets, is very heavy and smells like a wet suit.

Today we cut out all the holes in the floor for the cables to come out to the equipment racks and console. We ran all the cables to the respective points in the floor and set 2 of the 3 FX racks in place to double check the cable trap placements were correct.

Hey Guys,

Some of you guys asked to see pictures of the beach which is right next to the studio. Here is the view as soon as you step out of the control room door onto the balcony.

The last picture is the view from the other side of the building which is a brand new business hotel.

Today we finalized the cable runs to the wall panels under the control room floor. We also green glue sealed all of the gaps in the plywood floor and between the walls and the floor. We also installed 2 layers of roofing felt on top of the plywood floor which will form a water tight layer between the plywood and the finished hardwood flooring that will be installed next.

Tomorrow the build crew will complete the front of the control room floor to the boundary with the studio live area, finish adding the felt to the floor, and begin putting down the V-Joint Green Heart floor boards on top of the control room floor.

Once the floor boards are done, then we will begin to frame up the walls between the studio and the control room.

Pictures show the progress made so far on the floor and some of the construction details.

Hey guys it's been a few weeks since I posted an update on the construction of Pavilion Studios in beautiful Barbados.

So in the last few weeks we completed construction of the control room floor which is filled with Rockwool, built with 3/4" Plywood on top of 2 X 6 floor joists sitting on rubber, insulated from the existing hard wood flooring. There is a layer of rubber tape between the Floor Joists and the Plywood, then there is 2 layers of Roofing felt put on top of the plywood, then Green heart 1 x 6 V-Joint floor boards are laid on top of the roofing felt as seen in the photos attached.

All of the cables were put into the cable traps beneath the floor prior to closing up the floor, so as to make pulling them through much easier.

We also installed pull ropes in all of the cable traps so we can pull additional cables later if needed. You can see the massive SSL DL looms coming out of the floor waiting to be connected to the underside if the SSL Patchbay.

Next we began to frame up the control room front wall separating the live area from the control room, and which creates the machine room for the SSL power supply and automation rack, as well as an airlock and corridor between the live area and the control room.

Then it was onto sealing up 2 of the doors left and right of the control room to create bass traps left and right of the mix position. This was done by sealing the doors to the frame with silicone, then installing a dense layer of 1 1/4" rockwool to 3/4" plywood and screwing that over the inside of the door in the door frame. Next we installed a layer of 1/2" Drywall over the plywood. Then we built a 2x4 frame with an air space of about 6" from the drywall. This new frame is insulated from the existing door frame with MLV. To this frame we installed 2 layers of 1/2" drywall with green glue compound sandwiched between them. All of this was sealed in place with Green glue sealant. Then we built a double stud wall with a 1" air gap between them. This will have 2 layers of Drywall attached to the inside of this wall, then each wall will be filled with 4" thick rockwool, and the outside of wall will be covered in acoustic fabric to complete the bass trap and prevent reflection from the side walls at the mix position.

Over the course of the last 2 weeks, we have been building the control room front wall, building the main monitor supports and framework, building the structure of the window to the studio live area, and installing the 1st layer of drywall on the outside of the control room wall so that the second wall structure can be built in front of it. All of the wall framework is insulated from the floor, ceiling and existing building structure with MLV.

The control room floor is now completed, except that it still has to be sanded, polished and sealed after the construction is complete. You can see the cutouts for the cables to come up into the affects rack from the console.

The front wall of the control room will also feature a beautiful Green Heart hardwood finish. This will be 3/4" 1 x6 Green Heart V-Joint, over 3/4" Plywood. The first layer of plywood or drywall is always insulated from the stud framework with 1/4" Rubber roofing tape to reduce sound transmission to and from the wall studs.

This coming week, we will be completing the framework for the studio side front wall, filling the walls with rock wool and closing them up with 2 layers of drywall and plywood.

Also this coming week, we will install the main monitor cabling and flush mount the main monitors so that the control room front wall can be closed up and the hard wood finish can be applied.

There is so much left to do. Many weeks to go. We still have to close up the back wall of the control room and create the bass trap there. We have to build the two isolation booths, hang 6 really heavy studio doors and an endless list of acoustical structures to be built onto the ceilings.

There are lots of photos here showing the progression over the last few weeks. hope you guys enjoy them.

Looking good. Are the angles on the front CR wall at 30 degrees each? Looking forward to seeing the face of it done with that hardwood.

Yes indeed they are at 30 degrees each. It took us 3 full days working with a laser level to get those angles exactly right. The Main monitors form an equilateral triangle between the center of each monitor and a point 16 inches behind the listening position. This point was calculated to be 38% of the distance between the front wall and back wall of the control room. The centre of the mid range drivers of the main monitors will be located 57 1/2" off the floor.

When we laid out the room on the floor according to the drawings, we found that the existing space was not the exact same measurements as sown on the plan, this made it that much more difficult to get everything exactly where it should be.

So we had to start with the 38% position first, and work backwards from there to find the centre of each monitor. This was all calculated after taking the room dimensions into account to ensure that the room modes would fall in the most desirable part of the BOLT area. This space has a 12' ceiling so with that dimension fixed we had to calculate the remaining control room dimensions around that.

Thanks for that info. Looks like you have a little bit of room built-in to slide the monitors left and right a tad to "fine tune" the listening position with the room modes, before mounting them permanently. Yes? I can see what appears to be one of the monitors in one pictures. Also, I see that there is a slight bump-down on the ceiling around where the listening position is. Is that a support beam? I'm sure you have a cloud design overhead ready to roll.

Side note... I worked in downtown Bridgetown for work for about a year and a half (1991-1992). Good memories of the island. Scuba diving and mountain bike riding. Fun place when the cruise ships came in. Used to regularly go to a little bar called "Harbor Lights" and listen to live music. Wonder if it's still there...

I am getting ready to build my ground-up studio. Not in Barbados, but in North Carolina. The ground-breaking for the build starts in a few weeks. Your work looks solid for sure. Congrats!

Yes Harbour Lights is very much still there.

check out this site for info on Room Modes amroc - the room mode calculator
and also check out this site for info on control room design, it was very helpful to us. Speaker/Studio Monitor Placement Secrets | Room Setup 101

The main monitor system we are using is the Quested HQ410, you can see one of them in the background in one of the photos. The Monitors will sit on a 2" MDF platform which is supported by 4 rubber mounts. So they will be suspended on shock mounts. The monitor recesses will be filled with rock wool around the monitors, and then the front facade will be put on so that you cannot see the space between the monitors and the recesses. Once the front wall is completed you will only see the front face of the monitors.

There is a beam over the mix position which will support a cloud still to be built.

Today, We started filling the walls with Rockwool and completed building the second set of studio walls.

These walls are built by creating 2 stud walls each filled with rockwool, separated by a 1 inch air gap, covered with 2 layers of drywall on each side. The studs are staggered so that the sheets of drywall never join in the same places. if the first layer is sheeted from the top, then the second layer is sheeted from the bottom. The drywall is never applied directly to the studs. a layer of sticky rubber roofing tape is applied to the studs first (grey tape in the photo), then the drywall is applied to the taped studs. The second sheet of drywall is applied to the first layer with Green glue. Only the two outer frames are sheeted, creating a 10" wide soundproofed wall. The top and bottom stud frames are isolated from the building structure with MLV to reduce sound transmission to and from the ceiling and floor.

Photos show the details.

Fantastic thread !

Thank you very much!

I wish you all the very best for this wonderful project.

R.

Hey Scott, it's Al - we met at Sofa Sound when you were dismantling! Great to see a photo diary on here, can't wait to see what becomes of some familiar pieces & some new ones!

How many inches of Sea Rise reduces the Beach by how many feet? And, When?

when do you think the studio would be totally operational?