Martin Pilchner Toronto Section January 25 2011
Sy Potma introduced Martin Pilchner and provided some highlights of his extensive background. Chief among them being founder of Pilchner Schoustal International Inc. (a Toronto firm with an international reputation) where he directs design and research activities. Mr. Pilchner also teaches at the Harris Institute for the Arts serving as Associate Director of the Production-Engineering program since 1992. He's lectured extensively, including the AES Chapter in India. He's involved with the registered Interior Designer's Association; and been involved in research with Genelec on the subject of predictive analysis of surround sound environments using scale physical models. He's a member of the Audio Engineering Society and the Acoustical Society of America.
With the aid of over 300(!) photographs, Mr. Pilchner presented recent large, medium and small scale studio projects his firm has been involved with, discussing challenges and particular solutions intrinsic to each project.
He began by discussing the overall criteria needed to complete most projects, noting that the design and realization is a process of problem solving and compromise. Critical decisions are made during the design, development and documentation phase that determine the final outcome. The construction (realization) phase often introduces unforeseen challenges. How the design and construction reacts to these challenges determines the success of the project. The scale of the project affects the nature of the problems but not the overall process.
Key factors in every project concern understanding client expectations, keeping within budget, and completing the project in a reasonable amount of time.
Mr. Pilchner noted that "building a studio is like giving birth to a porcupine"!
Typically the process involves understanding client ambitions, first. Next comes the programming which defines, on paper, those ambitions — basically a recipe for designing the facility. Design development follows, where the program is taken and ideas are generated as to the final shape of the facility, and is communicated to the client. The documentation phase is next and includes technical drawings, specifications, pricing and communications design to those who will build it. Contractors then tender the work to determine the final price -- a critical juncture where sometimes a project has to start over again.
A very important phase is one Mr. Pilchner calls the indoctrination phase where the selected builders are made aware of, and to understand, the critical factors involved. "They're not just building another condo!" Finally there's the construction phase with its inherent surprises.
Mr. Pilchner's photo sequence for each project discussed generally began with outdoor (before) shots of the facilities, followed by floor plans, proposed renderings (in some cases more than one version), construction, and the final (after) shots.
The first on the list was yrf Studios, a state of the art film facility in Mumbai India. This structure sits on underground parking and post facilities are housed vertically in a compact area over 5 high ceiling floors, yet have complete and total isolation from each other.
In the case of the film mix room, the floating floor was so large it took an entire day before the floor had the correct height due to its size and number of isolators.
Regarding the producer's desk in the control room, these generally cost about $5000 to build. Mr. Pilchner left with the on site carpenter, (who was using only a hammer, chisel, hand saw and a home-made wood plane), rather complicated shop drawings, and came back a week later to a perfectly built desk! At a cost of 8 dollars a day, the total amount for labour was $40.
When showing photos of the film mix room and mentioning its large JBL cinema system, Mr. Pilchner related an amusing story from a Dolby person: after calibrating a theatre in India, owners generally put in twice as many speakers and amplifiers because if it isn't loud enough, people will start wrecking the seats!
Angel Mountain in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, a 20,000 sq. ft. facility built from the ground up, was next on the list. The idea here was to be able to use various studio and control rooms simultaneously on the same or different projects. This put a huge demand on the glazing for the partitions. Utilizing hallway space between the rooms gave lots of isolation 'almost for free'.
Another challenge: one of the rooms had a large SSL 9000K with an external patch bay with a large amount of cabling in it, making it difficult to find troughs large enough for a 6 inch floating concrete floor. The decision was made not to float the control room floor so there was room in the structural slab to have the cable management system put in.
Only the live mic spaces are raised.
Mr. Pilchner was briefly stumped when asked the year this facility was completed because many of the photos showed 24 track machines! He noted many studios still use analog units today, but finally stated the facility was completed about six years ago.
Next, Blinding Edge Pictures in Malvern Pennsylvania was an atypical venture for Mr. Pilchner in that he generally likes to design 'modern' looking facilities. However, because this facility is housed in a large, historically designated, barn, the client wanted to preserve that look! When the updated renderings were shown, after previously seeing some more modern looking proposals, some laughter was heard from the audience.
The client for the Saint Claire Recording Company in Lexington Kentucky
wanted his facility 'pimpsurious' when completed! Problems here include a railway line complete with freight trains and loud horns, a broadcast antenna for a local radio station, a roadway frequented by large transport trucks, and being under a flight path for cargo planes!
The success of this endeavour can be surmised when Mr. Pilchner discussed the completion of the studio, while landscaping was going on, he was looking out the one of the control room windows and seeing a large bulldozer drive by just outside the window and not hearing it at all!
As well, on his website, Tony Visconti says its the best studio he's ever used.
A project just being started is one for Dion Kazamerik, a Hollywood film composer, who wants to build a film centre, Rozbitek, in his homeland of Poznen, Poland. He has been rehabilitating a castle for the last six years in which he wants to build the facility. It's Mr. Pilchner's job to figure how to get a recording studio for full orchestra in this castle. One of the problem's will be getting enough isolation due to the large amount of chimneys in the castle which is how the building used to be heated.
Mr. Pilchner continued with Focus Fox which is a film facility in Budapest, Hungary. He noted if you want to make something really expensive, then put it underground! But this was the only area where the film mixing studio could be placed. Speaking about the sub-woofer placement, he noted working with Dolby and THX and went on to discuss wide spacing them at one-third and one-fifth since they tend to un-harmonically work with the room dimension. But initially he made provisions for two setups, the second incorporating the latest thinking of putting the subs closer together slightly off centre.
However testing revealed the Mr. Pilchner's wide spacing gave the most uniform distribution in this particular place.
Sy Potma noted the very high ceilings in one of the photographs to which Mr. Pilchner remarked they were over twenty feet. A series of photos illustrated the complex system of absorbers utilizing specular, composite, and diaphragmatic types.
The medium studios now followed: the first studio was Deerfield Recorders in Cleveland Ohio, a stand alone small music studio. Asked if 'dear' field monitors were used elicited chuckles from the audience. Extensive framings and tie downs to meet tornado codes make this a safe, very tornado-proof building.
Great Divide Studios, Aspen Colorado was next. Here it costs $1500/sq. ft. to build a house! The basement is where the studio is placed, which involved blasting some of the granite out of the way, at some points almost 18 feet deep. The facility has a composite build up, wooden floating floors. Engineered lumber was used for the walls because it was easier to get than regular 2 x 4's in Aspen. ATC monitors were installed here and required no more acoustic tweaking afterwards. Quite a number of well known artists have recorded here including Beyonce.
Downtown Studios, New York, NY is a record label (Downtown Records) that felt it would be useful to have recording studios in the midst of their offices. It currently now houses a vintage Neve in the room and they're really busy. Top New York mixers work there all the time. Mr. Pilchner likes to design things differently, aesthetically, on each project, however the client preferred a particular design in one of Pilchner's previous projects, and of course obliged.
Next, Mr. Pilchner included some photos of the mix rooms in McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Small studios project were now shown. First was one named North of Princess, in Kingston, Ontario. Describing this, Mr. Pilchner stated it was not spacious, but intimate!
Crawford Studios in Montreal, Canada is built in a garage which 'wasn't large enough', the challenge being finding a 'home' for everything. He called this studio "very cute"; and noted "nothing makes your studio look bigger than a wide angle lens"!
Photos of Fresh Baked Woods in Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario completed the presentation of recent projects.
Some of the current projects underway include: Sherpa Studios in St. Louis MO; The Reduction Room in Cherry Hill NJ; Sigma Sound, Philadelphia PA; The Treehouse Studios, Houston TX; Celismix, Miami FL; Robichaux Media, Houma LA; and Georgiev Studios, Belgrade; Hari Haran Studios, Mumbai India; Laval Unversite, Quebec City; Damage Entertainment, Las Vegas, NV; Hypocrite Studios, Edmonton; and Revolution Recorders, Toronto.
Responses to questions:
Pilchner Schoustal International do all the design, and since they work in different regions, they always need an architect of record to review drawings for the local codes. They also research technologies available in the area for building materials.
Home theatres are occasionally designed. Often though, the emphasis is on interior design, but some clients go the full route with proper acoustical treatment.
The biggest mistake prospective studio owners make is to build more than they want for their budget.
In film studios, projection screens obscure the speakers behind them, but more recently Pilchner Schoustal International has been using screens from Screen Research in France where there is loss of maybe half a dB at 16 kHz!
An audience member noticed virtually all his studios included Aeron chairs to which Martin replied "any studio without an Aeron chair isn't really a studio! He admitted a bias for those chairs. Asked if the client's 'bucket' is measured to custom fit the chair, he stated they come in various 'bucket' sizes amidst much laughter from the audience!
He noted the big studio market is slowing down, but any disappearing big studios are replaced by newer ones. They're no longer built in NY due to cost, the model there being a small recording room and small control room.
The toughest zoning region is probably Pennsylvania according to Mr. Pilchner. "If you follow most Canadian building codes, you're generally in better shape everywhere, except in seismic zones".
Refurbishing work, 'shoe-horning' a facility into an existing building, is almost the norm. It's faster than building a new structure; new buildings requiring bigger financial commitments
Virtually all his 5.1 rooms remain so, bypassing conversion to 7.1 or other configurations. Asked if he's ever designed a mono room, pausing momentarily, he replied if one uses only the centre speaker you have a mono room! Sy Potma added that Martin did have a mono speaker in the first studio at Fanshawe originally.
Most of his studios are still viable business operations, but occasionally some close down due to market conditions or otherwise.
As it was time to 'close down the room', Sy Potma thanked everyone. It was a fast paced evening but very informative as well as entertaining. Mr. Pilchner was very generous and gracious with his time, staying well over an hour to answer questions with remaining attendees in the lobby of the building.
