STUDIO INSTALL
Vijay Prakash’s Home Studio gets a Fresh Look
Leading Pro Audio Consultancy and Distribution Company - Modi Digital, recently revamped Vijay Prakash Home Studio into a shining example of great space optimization. Here’s how they pulled it off.
Well-known Indian Singer and Music Composer Vijay Prakash is one of the very few Grammy award winners from India and has won several awards in¬cluding the Karnataka Government’s ‘Best Playback Singer’ award for the song ‘Nammooralli Chaligaladalli’ and the Academy Award for the Best Original Song for his song “Jai Ho”.
Home studios have their roots in convenience, but technological ad¬vances have made them a necessity for musicians or music composers like Vijay who are working on a deadline or col¬laborating with other artists. However, Vijay has mixed and recorded a string of soundtracks from his own Home Studio based in Riddhi Garden, Film City Road, Mumbai. He saw his growing work side and decided to renovate his Home Stu¬dio to give it a professional touch.
To turn his desire into reality, Vijay being a very dear friend of Aditya Modi, expressed his desire to revamp his studio to give it a New Age feel and a modern design which was originally also designed and integrated by Modi Digital, Pro Audio Consultancy and Distribution Company in 2012. He was extremely impressed by their work.
Control Room Back and dub room door(white)
“This time around it was an even better team that redid my studio com¬pletely. It’s always a good feeling to work with this team because of their inspiring levels of passion and con¬tinuous efforts to achieve the best standard that is scientifically perfect in terms of acoustics and at the same time, is very friendly for the people who are working in that surround¬ing. I am very happy with the results.” says, Vijay Prakash.
Keeping in mind Vijay’s preferences and applications, Modi Digital decided to involve Rolins T. Roy MIOA, (Acoustic Consultant & Designer), Modi Digital team, to focuse on architectural and interior design of space along with technical guidance of the acoustic parameters to build the most suitable experience for Vijay. Rolins work encompasses design solutions generated to fulfill the acoustic design criteria of a space based on room data measured on-site and they mutually froze on the final design after presenting the relevant options to Vijay and taking his feedback.
“We had to give the studio a 180-degree flip from its previous position to give a more modern look and feel or say to achieve the scientifically perfect acoustics and a friendly vibe for the people working in it.” Says, Nishant, National Sales Manager, Modi Digital.
Dub Room
The studio encompasses two identical rooms – a 130 sq. feet Control Room and a Dubbing Room of approx. 30 sq. feet with different gear in each.
The Control Room of the studio which is equipped with a sweet pair of a Genelec 8040 studio monitor are being used for monitoring and he is running Protools as his main DAW on his Apple Mac Mini along with an RME Fireface UFX which is known for no compromise in sound, stability and ultra-low latency operation. It boasts of 60 channels of audio! Digitally controlled high-end preamps, reference class converters, and full 192 kHz operation, it is a milestone interface from RME, including the best of the best and even a bit more. The control room installation is completed with a Protools as Vijay’s main Digital Audio Workstation, Drawmer 1960 Mic Pre/Vacuum Tube Compressor, and SPL Goldmike Mark 2 dual channel preamplifiers.
The Dub Room which is spread across 30 sq. feet is fitted with a Brauner Phantera Microphone which is the impressive proof that a phantom powered non-tube microphone can sound amazingly close to a real tube microphone along with the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO headphones which are very dynamic headphones in a closed back design and are Mainly designed for critical music listening and studio monitoring.
Modi Digital Team specifically focused on achieving the ideal isolation standards between both rooms and curbing any external noises from transmitting into the studio environment and also on preventing feuds that can arise when excessive volume levels leak out into the surrounding neighborhood.
ACOUSTIC TREATMENT
Modi Digital Team specifically focused on achieving the ideal isolation standards between both rooms and curbing any external noises from transmitting into the studio environment through the air, ground or building structure and also on preventing feuds that can arise when excessive volume levels leak out into the surrounding neighborhood. “Situated on the first floor of the building, along the main approach road and a public assembly point/children’s play area outside; on the technical front we managed to achieve a complete isolation from these external environments and also the impact noise through the shear-wall shared between the lift shaft and one of the walls of the dub-room!” Says, Rolins. “Once this stage of treatment and detailing was clear and tested, we moved on to the internal acoustics of the space fusing aesthetics based on Vijay sir’s vision of an ideal creative workspace.”
According to Rolins, the user’s dimensions played a key role in setting the floor plan of the studio. “Vijay sir’s physique and height (a towering six foot two or more) was one of the most important considerations in locking the dimensions of the dub room - where he would spend more time and comfortably express or emote when he sings/creates/composes using his vocal medium. Yet, it had to be a small compact room to make enough space for the control room adjoining it which could accommodate a studio engineer and maybe 2-3 visitors/producers.” He adds, “Calibration of the speaker sources and an ideal listening spot was easy to arrive at after an in-depth detailing of the room geometry and finishes. “We carried out a detailed assessment of the image source model of the control room space up to the 9th order of reflections within the compact volume. The final space is void of any natural fabrics or porous surface elements or moisture retaining materials; so even if the studio is kept closed for longer durations when Vijay is away on his usual concert tours, the environment within shall stay hygienic and healthy.”
Rolins further added, “This was all possible in the timeframe due to the collective efforts of the team along with VP sir’s constant involvement and interaction with everyone. We were absolutely inspired by his interest, patience, and ease of accessibility; we cherished every moment of this design-build experience.”
The studio is opened and completely operational from July 2018 and is mainly being used for Vijay Prakash’s personal recordings and mixing and not for commercial use. As per Nishant, it is now boasting the best standard that is scientifically perfect in terms of acoustics and at the same time very friendly for the people who are working in that surrounding.
“We were fortunate to have such a wonderful, talented and cooperative client who contributed immensely to the studio building process and worked together with us on converting his vision and desire into reality!” says, Nishant.
“Vijay is a dear old friend and trusted us once more for upgrading his home studio.” Adds, Aditya Modi, Director, Modi digital, Pro Audio Consultancy, and Distribution. “This time it was fun involving Rolins T’Roy of Arcoustics also for flipping the whole studio 180 degree from its previous position.” Further, he said, “I’ve heard Vijay’s daughter sing in the new studio - her talent is extraordinary, and I believe the room does ample justice to the current legend and the future as well.”