Some Major Developments

Hi, it's been quite a while since I updated the blog so I thought it would be a good time to do so now that some things have happened recently.

As you can see from the walkthrough below, the roof is now nearly finished, and the inside of the roof is almost fully insulated. This week has been a major milestone in the project because the internal structural work has started. We've had some of the people from Studio People on site since yesterday and they've begun the work of setting out and preparing certain things. Their first job (installing Cellotex insulation in the roof space) is now almost completed and they can soon begin the job of creating the wooden frame structure within the live room and control room. After speaking to them today they have explained that the ceilings in both rooms will be nice and high, much higher than they would expect to be able to give in a 'home studio'. I'll take this as a compliment as this will be much more than a 'home studio'. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all takes shape.

We are in the process of having a new website made for me by Matt Thomas (http://www.mattthomas.co.uk) and once it is totally finished we'll put it out there properly, for now it is working like a blog and can be seen here www.skyhammerstudio.com.

This week marked the announcement that the very excellent Chris Fielding (www.chrisfielding.co.uk/news) will be moving into the studio once it is completed and will work here as producer. Chris is a great guy and is just simply excellent at what he does. He has worked on every release that we (Conan) have put out and through that we have built up a friendship and also a professional understanding and so therefore when he called me to ask if he could move to the studio, I didn't have a very difficult decision to make. You can see the scope of the work he has done so far on his website and it can come as no surprise that he is very well respected within the realms of music and music production. Initially I was going to have a go myself and build up my skills over time while hopefully building up the studio itself. Now with Chris here I can follow a different path and while the studio grows I can concentrate on one or two other projects I have rattling round my head while also committing time to the studio alongside Chris.

So things are going well so far, we have a 3d walkthrough of the studio on the way and I will upload that to the website soon.

The studio will be ready in early August 2013, we will soon be ready to take bookings. In the first instance you should email us on skyhammerstudio@gmail.com but we will have an email setup at the domain soon enough.

Thanks for reading...... Here's the latest walkthrough.

Video Walkthrough - 13th May 2013

Here is a short video showing the studio during the construction phase. This video was taken on the 13th May 2013

More Progress

Hi all

So it looks like we have a two man team pretty much permanent on the studio now, and it is showing in the amount of progress we have had.

This last week we have got the internal blockwork (forming the acoustic barrier around the live room) up to lintel height and the old external wall (and supporting wall underneath) has been removed so that the studio is now fully open.

It looks a mess right now, but it is an active building site and it's really cool to see it taking shape the way it is.

Will probably do a video walk through next I think.

Closer and Closer...........

Been a bit busy with a few shows recently so haven't been able to update, but things are moving on nicely.

The shell of the building has now been made good and the only current way into the building is through the main doorway. The garage door has been removed and has been bricked up.

The biggest obstacle we faced was to do with the internal walls. There was one stretching the whole width of the building that was holding up some of the roof joists. This has now been removed and will be replaced by a similar wall about two feet further into the 'control room' space. There was quite a lot of rubble to move and once that was done the foundations were made and concrete poured and the first runs of brick were put in.

As I type the builder has put two extra men onto the job today to begin knocking down the other internal wall so that we can prop it up with steel, then remove all the walls below it - this will open up the inside of the building 100% and will make it ready for the studio designers (The Studio People) to come in and do their magic. The brickwork that is the 'internal acoustic barrier' around the live room has now begun and can be seen on the pics below. The 'before' and 'after' pics on the removal of the existing internal wall are below also.

The studio accommodation is pretty much finished and we are very happy with it. It comprises of two bedrooms (each sleeping a maximum of 4 people), a living room (with Freeview TV and comfortable seating), a kitchen and a shower / toilet room. It has WIFI, is secure by way of its own secure entrance, and is quiet and cozy due to the central heating and double glazed windows. We had Bongripper and Humanfly stay there recently while we (Conan) were on tour with them both and it was great. It's nice and quiet at that end of the house too so it will be a peaceful environment for them.

Movement - finally......

Not updated this in a little while as we've not done much, basically. However, we have now started making some real progress.

Over the last 10 days or so the ceilings and joists have been removed to create a large amount of space, over the last couple of days the footings have been built to provide footings for what will be the acoustic barrier wall..... Because of the fact that there are a couple of houses within 100 yards of the studio we have over engineered the sound isolation on the live room, providing a full height block work wall inside the existing structure, within this block wall will be constructed a timber frame acoustic wall thus providing even more isolation of the live room. This live room will have two suspended acoustic barrier ceilings above it so will be pretty much silent to the outside world.

In terms of the internal construction we decided a few weeks ago to give the work to Studio People. We figured that the acoustic treatment and construction of some of the specialist aspects (air con 'plenums', drop ceilings etc) would be better carried out by the guys who designed the studio in the first place. It's going to look great when it's finished.

Pretty excited about the whole thing now, it's been a hard slog as we've been living in the house for 6 weeks or so with no heating or hot water.... You can imagine how cold that was when we had the snow a few weeks ago, a period of time within which we had no internal doors for two weeks, and half the house exposed to the weather. We had to go to Spain to get some warmth, seriously.

But now things are coming along nicely. The main house is unfolding and we can almost call it comfortable. We're currently busy making sure that the 2 bedroom accommodation for studio clients is ready for the arrival of Bongripper this weekend, we (Conan) are touring with these fellers and Humanfly from Leeds soon. The studio accommodation is now plastered, painted, carpeted, beds are getting made up tomorrow, windows are in, the kitchen and bathroom tiling is being sorted tomorrow and the flooring in the lounge there is on the way tomorrow too. This has been a huge job, but we;re plugging away with the help of our builders who have been great.

Concrete is being poured tomorrow and brickwork is starting next week.

Anyway, here are some pics.......

And The Walls Came Tumbling Dowwwwwwwn.

I turned up to at the house today just in time to see two of our builder's lads start some of the demolition work in the studio. We discovered that a couple of the internal walls (that we thought were just cosmetic) are actually holding up the roof structure so we'll have to incorporate some steel work up there I think.

Some Progress........

I've been away for two weeks on tour with the band and a week before it I got Bells Palsy. The day I was going to upload some new pics our internet connection went down as I forgot to tell BT that we hadn't moved yet.... Nightmare.

Anyhow..... I've now had the M&E construction drawings and these are with the builders. They've started knocking some walls down and the new outside door will soon be in..... Once that's in they'll remove the back roof completely (they have removed the tiles already). We've had to take the labour off the studio though as the house is falling behind a bit, so once we get ahead of ourselves we'll get moving again with the studio.

Onwards and upwards.

Work Has Begun!

Ok so I'm off work at the moment with flu. Feel TERRIBLE, but had some good news yesterday that the back of the studio has now been bricked up. Where there was once an up and over garage door we now have solid brick work. Next step is to remove the garage door from the front of the studio and brick it up too. Once that is done the new roof and the removal of internal walls / pillars and ceilings can begin.

Also, had the construction drawings earlier this week from Studio People. Exciting times.

Construction Drawings

So I'm sat up at 3am following too much tea earlier. Got a bit of a cold, so have put the heating on and made a lemsip before I go back to bed.

Anyhow, I should have the construction design drawings later today. I also have learned a bit today about 'structurally isolated' windows and how the studio will have two separate ceilings over the live room to keep the noise down. Currently still enjoying Pro Tools 10, got a way to go before I can call myself fluent though.

Once again, Chris and Peter have been cool about everything, even when I am at my most annoying.

Amended Design

Had some thoughts, and after a bit of a chat with a guy on Twitter of all places, decided that perhaps the vocal booth was unnecessary. Well, maybe not 'unnecessary' but certainly sacrifice-able (if there is such a word).

Had the designs from Studio People yesterday and at midnight last night (still awake thanks to cold tablets with caffeine in) I decided that I'd rather take out the vocal booth and instead have a bigger control room. I've seen people record vocals in the control room and every time we (Conan) recorded at Foel Studio we've recorded the vocals in a makeshift 'booth' in the live room - works fine every time. The extra room in the control room will no doubt help mixing in there..... See, I'm talking like I know the score already.

I must say though, the guys at Studio People are really good. I'm really enjoying working with Chris (Design Coordinator) and I'd be TOTALLY lost without his help so far.

Here's the revised design. I was excited to hear that the brick acoustic barrier wall will stretch from the floor right up to roof height, I might follow Chris Fielding's idea and make some of it chalkboard so we can draw genitalia on it - big ones.

Quotes Are In

Had the quotes from Studio People yesterday, will be going through them later on in the week when I can get the full designs off them. Looking forward to getting to the bottom of all the ideas we've fired around the last week.

Thinking of doing away with the vocal booth, it's not that big and it might help keep the costs down a bit. Plus it will help to get a larger control room which will benefit us in a few different ways.

Snow Need For This Weather

Moved all our cabs and amps out today, the garage doors are being bricked up tomorrow and the side entrance is being knocked out. Don't want the gear being smashed to hell. Had some good news today too, I've been dealing with Mark at Lowfold Audio - www.lowfold.com. I'd been struggling to make sense of a few different quotes on mics, audio interfaces etc and stumbled upon Lowfold through Google. Not sure how I missed them first time round, they're only up the road! Anyway, looks like I've got some good deals on the shortlist I sent him. Will do pics when I get around to ordering it, I'll probably change my mind 1000 times before then.

Roof will be removed soon and rebuilt - just waiting for the snow to clear.

The Roof

One thing not shown on the plans in my first post is the roof redesign that is required. Back in the dim and distant past the studio was extended and the 'old' outside wall now sits half way into the overall floor plan. This is obviously an issue from a design point of view as with the pillar, the RSJ and the sections of brick wall that are present, the room cannot be broken up as easily and it would certainly spoil both the acoustics and the aesthetics of the room.

To fix this our builder is going to remove the roof on the 'extended' part of the studio and then remove the old external wall (which is now half way into the foot print of the studio). He will then rebuild the roof and take it all the way up to the current apex of the roof. Once that is done we can remove all the internal ceilings, the old 'external' wall and the pillars and the RSJs that were holding it up and then take out all the 'insides' of the studio, which will open up the building and enable the plans detailed earlier to be put into action.

This pic here show the 'extended' section of the building and you can see the old external wall too. The roof on the extension will be removed and remodelled as per the above description.

This will begin when the snow clears.

Pro Tools 10

Ok, so I now have a trial version of Pro Tools 10 Standard. I doubt I'll go HD as I know it costs a lot of money and my skills aren't up to it yet. It's simply too 'high end' for me. Oh, and the place isn't even fucking built yet......

Nevertheless, I got a trial version and it all works great. I have limited experience of this sort of program in general, I was a Cool Edit expert back in my 'acoustic guitar and crooning 20's' so this new layout, with all the inserts and jazz was a bit of a shock to me when I started using Reaper. However, I quickly got used to that. I've now installed Pro Tools and it seems to be just as easy to use, but I'll need to re-learn all those things that took me ages to learn with Reaper. Another first world problem (I'll stop using this phrase soon I promise).

I'm currently trying to split EZ Drummer out to separate tracks to create some simple tracks I can play guitar riffs to and I'm sure it'll sound a lot better than the voice recording function of my iPhone......!

I'm going to send this blog to a couple of magazines to see if they are interested in linking to it.

A Cold Start

This is my first post in this new blog about the development of Skyhammer Studio.

Here is a plan for the layout of the studio. I have brought the guys at www.studiopeople.com on board after a very frustrating period of time waiting for a designer who was based miles away to do what he said he would do. Chris and Peter at Studio People have been excellent so far, I'm really looking forward to having this take shape.

Ok so we're building a recording studio at our house in Childer Thornton on the Border of Cheshire and The Wirral. We're converting a 19th century coach house into a three room studio, this will incorporate a live room (18 sq m), a control room (16 sq m) and an isolation booth (4 sq m). The live room will also double as a practice room for the band I am in (Conan - www.hailconan.com). The studio will, in time, become a commercial venture and my aim is to build it (and myself) up to a level where we can confidently take bookings from bands who wish to record there. I will personally work there as lead engineer but will of course be open to people doing their own producing there if they prefer. I dare say that once I get the right setup people will express an interest in producing their own stuff there (with their own producer) and that's fine by me as I have a day job too.

I'm not currently a recording engineer / producer, so what the fuck am I playing at? Well, I am starting right at the beginning - from scratch. I did once have a small business recording bands in their practice room but gave up shortly into that. I had a laptop with half the screen broken, a few cheap mics from Maplins and bigger ideas than I could put into action. However, now we have this property to work with, it became clear that we have an opportunity to build something that I can practice in with the lads in the band, as well as renting the studio out for new recordings with other bands. I will 'cut my teeth' so to speak doing demos and recordings for bands I know, at little cost - and certainly some pre-production demos for Conan (we see all our recordings being done by Chris Fielding at his place down in London). I'll even record a few bands for free at first before I start to consider myself worthy of payment. Although I am taking on a lot, considering my little knowledge, I've been given lots of advice along the way on what I need to get at the outset, so I have a shopping list for my first venture into 'gear purchasing' - thanks to Chris Fielding, Matt Richardson and Matthew Dick (others too probably) for all your help so far. I also have my Wife, Holly, to thank for allowing so much of our joint investment to be committed to the studio. On that front, it will certainly be a huge personal help being able to practice right next to where I live. Currently we practice quite a way away from where we live. Paul, Phil and I all drive to our regular spot in Liverpool which is about 45 minutes each way. We then have to set all our stuff up from scratch and often we will only actually play our instruments for an hour, where we've actually paid for four. I guess if our time keeping was better we'd start earlier, but now that this new studio is in our sights the 'older' way of doing things just seems like such a chore - again, first world problems for spoilt dickheads like us! Nevertheless, at least I can still do the bedtime routine with the kids now instead of skulking off to Liverpool at 18.30 each week.

I'm currently messing around using Reaper at the moment on my PC. Through this I'm messing about with some stuff but I'm drawn to getting a set up based on Pro Tools. The frustrating thing is that no sooner do you agree to do one thing in terms of gear, you are talked out of it by someone who prefers a different setup and then you change your mind again. First world problem, but I think I'll move to Protools asap.

The studio will be complimented by accommodation incorporating two bedrooms (will sleep 6 to 8 people when it's all done), a kitchen, a shower room and a lounge. It will have WIFI, television and DVD player and will be two hops and a skip from the door into the studio across a small courtyard. This accommodation is being built into what used to be servant's quarters at the house.

Anyway, the house we bought (which brought with it the coach house) is in the midst of a full modernisation currently. Seemingly endless is the amount of debris in the house and outside, but full marks to our builders for keeping the place very tidy, considering the circumstances.

Will leave it there for today, need to sleep off the snowball fight we had before.