A

STUDY OF RECORDING STUDIO

PROJECT WORK
SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF
BACHELORS OF ARCHITECTURE WITH INTERIOR DESIGN

COMMERCIAL INTERIOR SPACE DESIGN

BY
ROHIT A.DIGRA
ENR NO: 14

Dr. BALIRAM HIRAY COLLEGE OF

ARCHITECTURE
BANDRA (EAST)
MUMBAI - 400051.
1

Dr. BALIRAM HIRAY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

SUBMISSION OF PROJECT WORK

1) NAME OF THE CANDIDATE

: ROHIT A.DIGRA

2) YEAR OF STUDY

: 2011 - 2016

3) TITLE OF THE PROJECT WORK

: RECORDING STUDIO

4) DATE OF SUBMISSION

: 28th APRIL 2015

5) NAME OF THE GUIDE

: AR.ONKAR KULKARNI

Details given above are true to the best of my knowledge.

Signature of student

DECLARATION
I, ROHIT A.DIGRA hereby declare that this project on RECORDING STUDIO is a
record of first hand project work done by me under the supervision of AR.ONKAR

KULKARNI and that it has not found the basis for any degree, diploma, associate ship, or other
titles.

Place: Mumbai

Signature of the Student

Date: 25/04/2015

Signature of the Moderator

DR. BALIRAM HIRAY COLLEGE OF

ARCHITECTURE
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the RECORDING STUDIO work done by ROHIT A.DIGRA,
ENR NO: 14 in partial fulfillment of bachelors of architecture with interior design subject
Commercial Interior Space Design at Dr. BALIRAM HIRAY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE,
bandra east Mumbai - 4000051, during the year 2014 - 2015.

Date: 25/04/2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First I would like to thank God for guiding me to a part of this Institute and giving me inspiration
for selecting this topic and for being a part of it. In these four important years of study at Dr.
BALIRAM HIRAY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, many are the people to whom I am
thankful. I own a deep sense of gratitude to my parents for giving me the golden opportunity to
study here.
I take the profound privilege for expressing my deep gratitude to my professors and moderator,
Prof. AR.ONKAR KULKARNI Who extended all the combined co- operation and guidance
selflessly without which my study was not possible It is his tolerance and supervision that has
helped me throughout my work of creative thinking.
I also thank our Principal Prof.AR.PRANAV BHATT SIR for being the great moral support for
this course of five years. I take the opportunity to thank librarian Mrs.shulba Miss for this
making the books available and above all the good friendship.
I would extend my thanks to my family and friends who had been constant source of
encouragement throughout the year.

Thanking you and all

4

Date: 25/04/2015

ROHIT A.DIGRA.

INDEX
SYNOPSIS

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

INTRODUCTION
NEED FOR THE STUDY
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
HYPOTHESIS
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
CHAPTER SCHAME
CONCLUSION
REFERENCE

CHAPTER - 1

1.1 DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT

1.2 DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATIONS
1.3 PROJECT STUDIOS
1.4 ISOLATION BOOTH
1.5 RADIO STUDIOS
1.6 ACOUSTIC TRANSMISSION
1.7 SOUNDPROOFING AND ACOUSTIC MATERAILS
1.8 REAMPING
1.9 ROOM ACOUSTICS
2.0 SOUND RECORDING AND REPRODUCTION
2.1 HISTORY OF SOUND RECORDING
2.2 REFLECTION
2.3 SOUND PROOFING

CHAPTER: II
1.16 EMSQUARE STUDIO GOREGAON (WEST)
1.17 SRS SUDIO ANDHERI (WEST)
1.18 NET CASE STUDY
CHAPTER: III

DESIGN STRATEGY
2.1 LOCATION
2.2 CONCEPT
2.3 REQUIREMENT
2.4 PLAN MEASUREMENT
2.5 VIEW

RECORDING STUDIO
SYNOPSIS
1. INTRODUCTION
A Recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and
monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic
properties. Recording studios may be used by record musicians, voice over artists for
advertisements or dialogue replacement in film, television or animation, Fole, or to record their
accompanying musical soundtracks. The typical recording studio consists of a room called the
"studio" or "live room", where instrumentalists and vocalists perform; and the "control room",
where sound engineers operate professional audio for analogue or digital recording to route and
manipulate the sound. Often, there will be smaller rooms called "isolation booths" present to
accommodate loud instruments such as drums or electric guitar, to keep these sounds from being
audible to the microphones that are capturing the sounds from other instruments, or to provide
"drier" rooms for recording vocals or quieter acoustic instruments.
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording
and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic
properties
Recording studios may be used by record musicians, voice over artists for advertisements
or dialogue replacement in film, television or animation, foley, or to record their accompanying
musical soundtracks. The typical recording studio consists of a room called the "studio" or "live
room", where instrumentalists and vocalists perform; and the "control room", where sound
8

engineers operate professional audio for analogue or digital recording to route and manipulate
the sound. Often, there will be smaller rooms called "isolation booths" present to accommodate
loud instruments such as drums or electric guitar, to keep these sounds from being audible to
the microphones that are capturing the sounds from other instruments, or to provide "drier"
rooms for recording vocals or quieter acoustic instruments.

2. NEED FOR THE STUDY

The world of today is growing fast India is no exception in the studio is one of the most
booming and fastest growing sector in the India as directly connected with the bollywood
industry. Its growth is being accelerated and fuelled by many development taking place in the
sector worldwide. Digital revolution, the growing popularity of a specialized recording studio
with full digital equipment services channels with the tremendous growth and development have
helped in opening new doors for human resources in the sound and Bollywood sector .In terms
of employment ,the animations and the special effects sector of this industry has become a major
attraction for the job seekers .
Beings a professional of sound and a skill based industry, specialized courses for the same are
also gaining popularity in college and attracting fresh talent. Looking at the bright prospects of
Asia becoming the world leader in the industry. The Indian government has also taken some
steps to boost growth of the recording studio and Entertainment sector.

3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

While millions of people listen music each day, many of us arent quite sure how the technology
works. Recording studio has been around for many decades and although some of the
technology components have changed over the years, the way in which recording studio work is
still pretty much the same.
Location: - Location is an important issue. The preferred location will depend, in the first
instance, on the intended market for the recording studio. For example, many studios are located
9

for easy access by local clients. Some studios are located in the country for a quieter working
ambience, or higher pretentiousness factor. Such a studio would normally be residential.
Noise:- Various people wanting to build a studio in a residential neighborhood have discovered
that their prospective future neighbors will be most alarmed at the prospect of having a studio
near them, both because they expect loud music and the coming and going of lots of people.
Secondly, it is generally not a good idea to build a studio under the flight path, under a railway
siding or next to an elevated motorway, though if funds are unlimited it can indeed be done.
Parking facilities: - Vehicle parking is another significant issue. You may end up with ten
vehicles for each 4-piece band you deal with. Many musicians turn up in trucks. Not so very long
ago, a large and well-funded studio complex in Central London closed down after six months
trading, largely because it was situated in Piccadilly and there was nowhere for anyone to park .
Expensive and silly!
Planning or development permissions: - Studios usually require local planning/zoning
permission, and specific permissions may be granted only on various conditions. You
would be well advised to ensure you find out what these may before handing over any
money for the premises. You'll also have to comply with Fire and Sanitary regulations,
dependent on the size of the intended studio and the numbers of people usually there.

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The primary objective of the study are to find out sound professional appreciation about
recording studio

To have an overall understanding of the organization and various departmental activities.

To identify the expectations and needs of the sound professional about their work.
To identify new segments that can be included in recording studio apart from

conventional sound recording with a quality.

To know about different attributes that makes people love to work easily.
To collect opinion about the existing recording studio and study them.

10

To suggest measures to provide more satisfaction to existing sound professional and the
new comers in the sound industry.

5. HYPOTHESIS
1. Today there is increasing awareness among people due globalization.
2. In metropolitan city like Mumbai people keep on working 24 x 7, they do not have time
for their needs, they demand things and wishes to get with a couple of hours or days, as
per requirements.
3. Recording studios should be provided to record sounds and music to provide a sort of
entertainment to the busy people.
4. Recording studios must be designed in such way that there is no disturbance caused
from and due to the outside world i.e. they should be acoustically protected.
5. They can be designed to such an an imaginably futuristic approach.

6. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Having small space interior not means limit one`s creation. We can create relief space with the
existing limitation. Consider the following small spaces tips to maximize the perception of space:
Expand the view
Space without wall divider is one way can overcome this problem. Reduce unnecessary
walls to create more open, flowing spaces. Consider creating partial wall or pass through areas as
a way to create more openness in the floor plan.
Unify the flooring
Use one style of flooring through all adjoining room on the same floor of the space.
These create a greater sense of continuity and connectedness.

11

Coordinate the color scheme

Paint the areas of the space that seamlessly flow into each other a common color scheme.
Usually connected rooms will feel larger if they have a common color scheme tying together. It
costs relatively little compare to the result you can achieve with it.
Install recessed lighting
It create a greater sense of height in areas with lower than usually ceilings. The pools of
lights they create will add warmth and sophistication to your design skim.
Utilized multifunctional furniture
Versatile furniture pieces can be used as extra seating and much needed extra storage at the
same time. A storage ottoman is a great example of it. It could do triple duty as a coffee table,
storage and extra seating etc.
7. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES
There are various way or methods of studying things. A method adopted method of data
collection, research studies, interviews, using internet, and referring are adopted as methods of
study. As there is no end to knowledge, there is no to research work too, Researching is the most
important work need to be done. Studying a gift shop with methods of research and research
studies lead to completion
Also other methods such as interview, data collection through internet, books help a lot.

Case study: Doing case studies in various studios and understanding the space design
there gives a lot of knowledge about the future changes that can be made in a Recording

Studios.
Books / magazine: Reading books and magazine can help and as understand the subject
in a better way and all help. Us more about the subject.
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Internet: internet can be a huge source of information which can provided both pictures

and data about the subject taken for study.

Interview: Interview with owners and others give important information.
8. CHAPTER SCHEME

The entire study is divided into following chapters. A brief overview of each chapter is given
below.
Chapter: 1
This chapter introduce about the study of recording studios. It is includes the historical back
ground of Sound Recording industry and information about the Sound Recording industry in
India.
Chapter: 2
Introduction about the recording studio. Different types of recording studio and detail study
about the studios located in the floors and also the basics features and size of the recording
studios and the design proper utilization of space.
Chapter: 3
In 2nd chapter discuss about the observation study which is based on live case study of recording
studio, different type of recording studio and net case study also.
Chapter: 4
Chapter four includes the site report, existing plot, climate condition and selection criteria about
the located place and all type of plot study. And include the design strategy which is based on
brief detailing of concept, conceptual site plan, furniture plan, services such as lighting,
plumbing, fire station etc., sections, furniture details, 3-d view etc. this all type which are based
on recording studio.

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9. CONCLUSION
It is clear music is a great means of entertainment. Specialized Recorded sounds are also equally
gaining popularity. Even Recording Studios that are focused on specific field of music are also
facing tough competition. Sound Recording poses strong challenge in terms of presentation skill,
Music coverage and popularity of records. In preview of commercial position music is the bread
and butter for all private owned channels. Evidently this points to importance of extensive
research in to the socio-political changes that the listeners are interested to listen and learn. Every
Recording Studio has to be neutral in their position to gain popularity and attract more listeners.

10. REFERANCE
Google Search
Scribd.com
Wikipedia
World Media Center
Architecturedesign.com
CNNChannel.com
Inside outside magazine

14

CHAPTER - 1

15

1.1 HISTORICAL BACK GROUND

A recording studio is an assemblage of equipment, spaces and persons such that a performance in
sound may be created and recorded onto a medium for later reproduction. The word studio has
two distinct uses in this field, as in some others: first there's the approximate sense of
'somewhere where work and study is done', hence recording 'studio' and secondly, there's the
exact sense of 'the studio room', which traditionally was where the instruments were played. The
other essential space in the traditional studio is the 'control room', where the controls are
operated.
1890s to 1930s

In the era of acoustical recordings prior to the introduction of microphones, electrical recording
and amplification, the earliest recording studios were very basic facilities, being essentially
soundproof rooms that isolated the performers from outside noise. During this era it was not
uncommon for recordings to be made in any available location, such as a local ballroom, using
portable acoustic recording equipment.
In this period, master recordings were made using a direct-to-disc cutting process. Performers
were typically grouped around a large acoustic. The acoustic energy from the voices and/or
instruments was channeled through the horn's diaphragm to a mechanical cutting lathe located in
the next room, which inscribed the signal as a modulated groove directly onto the surface of the
master cylinder or disc.

16

Following the invention and commercial introduction of the microphone, the

electronic amplifier, the mixing desk and the loudspeaker, the recording industry gradually
converted to electric recording, and by 1925 this technology had replaced mechanical acoustic
recording methods for such major labels as RCA Victor and Columbia, and by 1933 acoustic
recording was completely disused.
1940s to 1970s

Electrical recording was common by the early 1930s, and mastering lathes were now electrically
powered, but master recordings still had to be cut direct-to-disc. In line with the prevailing
musical trends, studios in this period were primarily designed for the live recording of symphony
orchestras and other large instrumental ensembles. Engineers soon found that large, reverberant
spaces like concert halls created a vibrant acoustic signature that greatly enhanced the sound of
the recording, and in this period large, acoustically "live" halls were favored, rather than the
acoustically "dead" booths and studio rooms that became common after the 1960s.
Because of the limits of the recording technology, studios of the mid-20th century were designed
around the concept of grouping musicians and singers, rather than separating them, and placing
the performers and the microphones strategically to capture the complex acoustic and harmonic
interplay that emerged during the performance. Modern sound stages still sometimes use this
approach for large film scoring projects today.

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Because of their superb acoustics, many of the larger studios were converted churches. Examples
include George Martin's AIR Studiosin London, the famed Columbia Records 30th Street
Studio in New York City and the equally famous Decca Records Pythian Temple studio in New
York which was also a large converted church that featured a high, domed ceiling in the center of
the hall.
Facilities like the Columbia Records 30th Street Studio in New York and EMI's Abbey Road
Studio in London were renowned for their 'trademark' soundwhich was) easily identifiable by
audio professionalsand for the skill of their staff engineers.
In New York City, Columbia Records had some of the most highly respected sound recording
studios, including the Columbia 30th Street Studio at 207 East 30th Street, the CBS Studio
Building at 49 East 52nd Street, Liederkranz Hall at 111 East 58th Street between Park and
Lexington Avenues , The Liederkranz Club and Society, and one of their earliest recording
studios, "Studio A" at 799 Seventh Avenue.
Electric recording studios in the mid-20th century often lacked isolation booths, baffles, and
sometimes even speakers, and it was not until the 1960s, with the introduction of the highfidelity headphones that it became common practice for performers to use headsets to monitor
their performance during recording and listen to playbacks.
It was difficult to isolate all the performersa major reason that this practice was not used was
simply because recordings were usually made as live ensemble 'takes' and all the performers
needed to be able to see each other and the ensemble leader while playing. The recording
engineers who trained in this period learned to take advantage of the complex acoustic effects
that could be created through "leakage" between different microphones and groups of
instruments, and these technicians became extremely skilled at capturing the unique acoustic
properties of their studios and the musicians in performance.
The use of different kinds of microphones and their placement around the studio was a crucial
part of the recording process, and particular brands of microphone were used by engineers for
their specific audio characteristics. The smooth-toned ribbon microphones developed by
the RCA company in the 1930s were crucial to the 'crooning' style perfected by Bing Crosby,
and the famous Neumann U47 condenser microphone was one of the most widely used from the
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1950s. This model is still widely regarded by audio professionals as one of the best microphones
of its type ever made.
Learning the correct placement of microphones was a major part of the training of young
engineers, and many became extremely skilled in this craft. Well into the 1960s, in the classical
field it was not uncommon for engineers to make high-quality orchestral recordings using only
one or two microphones suspended above the orchestra.
In the 1960s, engineers began experimenting with placing microphones much closer to
instruments than had previously been the norm. The distinctive rasping tone of the horn sections
on the Beatles recordings "Good Morning Good Morning" and "Lady Madonna" were achieved
by having the saxophone players position their instruments so that microphones were virtually
inside the mouth of the horn.
The unique sonic characteristics of the major studios imparted a special character to many of the
most famous popular recordings of the 1950s and 1960s, and the recording companies jealously
guarded these facilities. According to sound historian David Simons, after Columbia took over
the 30th Street Studios in the late 1940s and A&R manager Mitch Miller had tweaked it to
perfection, Miller issued a standing order that the drapes and other fittings were not to be
touched, and the cleaners had specific orders never to mop the bare wooden floor for fear it
might alter the acoustic properties of the hall.
There were several other features of studios in this period that contributed to their unique "sonic
signatures". As well as the inherent sound of the large recording rooms, many of the best studios
incorporated specially-designed echo chambers, purpose-built rooms which were often built
beneath the main studio.
These were typically long, low rectangular spaces constructed from hard, sound-reflective
materials like concrete, fitted with a loudspeaker at one end and one or more microphones at the
other. During a recording session, a signal from one or more of the microphones in the studio
could be routed to the loudspeaker in the echo chamber; the sound from the speaker reverberated
through the chamber and the enhanced signal was picked up by the microphone at the other end.
This echo-enhanced signalwhich was often used to 'sweeten' the sound of vocalscould then

19

be blended in with the primary signal from the microphone in the studio and mixed into the track
as the master recording was being made.
Special equipment was another notable feature of the "classic" recording studio. The biggest
studios were owned and operated by large media companies like RCA, Columbia and EMI, who
typically had their own electronics research and development divisions that designed and built
custom-made recording equipment and mixing consoles for their studios.
Likewise, the smaller independent studios were often owned by skilled electronics engineers
who designed and built their own desks and other equipment. A good example of this is the
famous Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the site of many famous American pop recordings of
the 1960s. Co-owner David S. Gold built the studio's main mixing desk and many additional
pieces of equipment and he also designed the studio's unique trapezoidal echo chambers.
During the 1950s and 1960s the sound of pop recordings was further defined by the introduction
of proprietary sound processing devices such as equalizers and compressors, which were
manufactured by specialist electronics companies. One of the best known of these was the
famous Pultec equalizer, which was used by almost all the major commercial studios of the time.
With the introduction of multi-track recording, it became possible to record instruments and
singers separately and at different times on different tracks on tape, although it was not until the
1970s that the large recording companies began to adopt this practice widely, and throughout the
1960s many "pop" classics were still recorded live in a single take.
After the '60s, the emphasis shifted to isolation and sound-proofing, with treatments like echo
and reverberation added separately during the mixing process, rather than being blended in
during the recording. One regrettable outcome of this trend, which coincided with rising innercity property values, was that many of the largest studios were either demolished or redeveloped
for other uses.
In the mid-20th century, recordings were analog, made on -inch or -inch magnetic tape,
with multi-track recording reaching 8 tracks in the 1950s, 16 in 1968, and 32 in the 1970s. The
commonest such tape is the 2-inch analog, capable of containing up to 24 individual tracks.
Generally, after an audio mix is set up on a 24-track tape machine, the signal is played back and
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sent to a different machine, which records the combined signals to a -inch 2-track stereo tape,
called a master.
Before digital recording, the total number of available tracks onto which one could record was
measured in multiples of 24, based on the number of 24-track tape machines being used. Most
recording studios now use digital recording equipment, which limits the number of available
tracks only on the basis of the mixing console's or computer hardware interface's capacity and
the ability of the hardware to cope with processing demands.
Analog tape machines are still well sought, for some purists label digitally recorded audio as
sounding too harsh, and the scarcity and age of analog tape machines greatly increases their
value, as does the fact that many audio engineers still insist on recording only to analog tape.
This harshness is incorrectly attributed by some of them[who?] to the belief that digital recording
will sample a sound wave many times per second allowing an illusion of solid sound waves to be
created, where in contrast analog tape captures a sound wave in its entirety.
However, others simply argue that the lack of high frequency noise and the higher fidelity of the
digital medium make the recorded higher frequencies more prominent, which results in such
perceived harshness in contrast to analog recording. Still others point to problems of early digital
recordings caused by the inexperience of sound engineers with the new medium as the cause for
critics to the digital systems. Finally, another possibly relevant effect derives from the fact that,
since CD-quality audio uses a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, no frequencies above the Nyquist
frequency of 22050 Hz are acceptable for recording Because of that, very steep low-pass
filters are used on frequencies above 20 kHz that may introduce slight distortions into the
audible-range signal. This is one of the several reasons for the push on high-end equipment
towards higher sampling rates, such as 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz and even 192 kHz.

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1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE SOUND RECORDING

INSTRUMENT

Long before sound was being recorded, music was being recorded, first by means of written
notation, then also in forms that made it possible for the music to be played automatically by a
mechanical device. The automatic reproduction of music can be traced back as far as the 9th
century, when the Ban Ms brothers invented "the earliest known mechanical musical
instrument", in this case a hydropowered organ which played interchangeable cylinders
automatically. According to Charles B. Fowler, this "cylinder with raised pins on the surface
remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of
the nineteenth century. The Banu Musa brothers also invented an automatic flute player which
appears to have been the first programmable machine. According to Charles B. Fowler, the
automata were arobot band which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during
each musical selection." In the 14th century, Flanders introduced a mechanical bell-ringer
controlled by a rotating cylinder. Similar designs appeared in barrel organs in15th
century, musical clocks in1598, barrel pianos in1805, and musical boxes 1815. In 1796, a Swiss
watchmaker named Antoine Favre-Salomon described his idea for what we now call the
cylinder musical box. The fairground organ, developed in 1892, used a system of accordionfolded punched cardboard books. The player piano, first demonstrated in 1876, used a punched
paper scroll that could store an arbitrarily long piece of music. The most sophisticated of the
piano rolls were "hand-played", meaning that the roll represented the actual performance of an
individual, not just a transcription of the sheet music. This technology to record a live
performance onto a piano roll was not developed until 1904. Piano rolls have been in continuous
mass production since around 1898. A 1908 U.S. Supreme Court copyright case noted that, in
1902 alone, there were between 70,000 and 75,000 player pianos manufactured, and between
1,000,000 and 1,500,000 piano rolls produced. The use of piano rolls began to decline in the
1920s although one type is still being made today.

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Phonoautograph

The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through the air but could not play
them backthe purpose was only visual study was the phonautograph, patented in 1857 by
Parisian inventor douard-Lon Scott de Martinsville. The earliest known recordings of the
human voice are phonautograph recordings, called "phonautograms", made in 1857. They consist
of sheets of paper with sound-wave-modulated white lines created by a vibrating stylus that cut
through a coating of soot as the paper was passed under it. An 1860 phonautogram of Au Clair
de la Lune, a French folk song, was played back as sound for the first time in 2008 by scanning it
and using software to convert the undulating line, which graphically encoded the sound, into a
corresponding digital audio file.

Phonograph cylinder

The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph
cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878. The invention soon spread
across the globe and over the next two decades the commercial recording, distribution and sale of
sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles
selling millions of units by the early 1900s. The development of mass-production techniques
enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and the
cylinder was the main consumer format from the late 1880s until around 1910.

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Disc phonograph

Emil Berliner with disc record gramophone

The next major technical development was the invention of the gramophone disc, generally
credited to Emile Berliner and commercially introduced in the United States in 1889. Discs were
easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had the additional benefit of being louder
than cylinders, which by necessity, were single-sided. Sales of the Gramophone record overtook
the cylinder ca. 1910, and by the end of World War I the disc had become the dominant
commercial recording format. Edison, who was the main producer of cylinders, created
the Edison Disc Record in an attempt to regain his market. In various permutations, the audio
disc format became the primary medium for consumer sound recordings until the end of the 20th
century, and the double-sided 78 rpm shellac disc was the standard consumer music format from
the early 1910s to the late 1950s.
Although there was no universally accepted speed, and various companies offered discs that
played at several different speeds, the major recording companies eventually settled on a de
facto industry standard of nominally 78 revolutions per minute, though the actual speed differed
between America and the rest of the world. The specified speed was 78.26 rpm in America and
77.92 rpm throughout the rest of the world, the difference in speeds a result of the difference in
cycle frequencies of the AC power driving the synchronous motor and available gearing ratios.
The nominal speed of the disc format gave rise to its common nickname, the "seventy-eight".
Discs were made of shellac or similar brittle plastic-like materials, played with needles made

24

from a variety of materials including mild steel, thorn and even sapphire. Discs had a distinctly
limited playing life which was heavily dependent on how they were reproduced.
The earlier, purely acoustic methods of recording had limited sensitivity and frequency range.
Mid-frequency range notes could be recorded but very low and very high frequencies could not.
Instruments such as the violin transferred poorly to disc; however this was partially solved by
retrofitting a conical horn to the sound box of the violin. The horn was no longer required once
electrical recording was developed.
The long-playing 3313 rpm microgroove vinyl record, or "LP", was developed at Columbia
Records and introduced in 1948. The short-playing but convenient 7-inch 45 rpm microgroove
vinyl single was introduced by RCA Victor in 1949. In the US and most developed countries, the
two new vinyl formats completely replaced 78 rpm shellac discs by the end of the 1950s, but in
some corners of the world the "78" lingered on far into the 1960s. Vinyl was much more
expensive than shellac, one of several factors that made its use for 78 rpm records very unusual,
but with a long-playing disc the added cost was acceptable and the compact "45" format required
very little material. Vinyl offered improved performance, both in stamping and in playback. If
played with a good diamond stylus mounted in a lightweight pickup on a well-adjusted tonearm,
it was long-lasting. If protected from dust, scuffs and scratches there was very little noise. Vinyl
records were, over-optimistically, advertised as "unbreakable". They were not, but they were
much less fragile than shellac, which had itself once been touted as "unbreakable" compared to
wax cylinders.

25

Electrical recording

RCA-44, a classic ribbon microphone introduced in 1932. Similar units were widely used for
broadcasting and recording in the 1940s and are occasionally still used today.
Between the invention of the phonograph in 1877 and the advent of digital media, arguably the
most important milestone in the history of sound recording was the introduction of what was
then called "electrical recording", in which a microphone was used to convert the sound into an
electrical signal that was amplified and used to actuate the recording stylus. This innovation
eliminated the "horn sound" resonances characteristic of the acoustical process, produced clearer
and more full-bodied recordings by greatly extending the useful range of audio frequencies, and
allowed previously unrecordable distant and feeble sounds to be captured.
Sound recording began as a purely mechanical process. Except for a few crude telephone-based
recording devices with no means of amplification, such as the Telegraphone, it remained so until
the 1920s, when recent radio-related developments in electronics converged to revolutionize the
recording process. These included improved microphones and auxiliary devices such as
electronic filters, all dependent on electronic amplification to be of practical use in recording. In
1906 Lee De Forest invented the "Audion" triode vacuum tube, an electronic valve which could
greatly amplify weak electrical signals. By 1915 it was being used in long-distance telephone
circuits that made it possible to talk between New York and San Francisco with both parties
being clearly heard. Refined versions of this tube were the basis of all electronic sound systems
until the commercial introduction of the first transistor-based audio devices in the 1950s.
26

During World War I, experiments were undertaken in the United States and Great Britain to
record and reproduce, among other things, the sound of a German U-boat. The acoustical
recordings of that time proved entirely unable to reproduce the sounds, so other methods were
actively sought. The earliest results were not very promising. The first electrical recording issued
to the public, with little fanfare, was of the 11 November 1920 funeral services for the Unknown
Soldier in Westminster Abbey, London. The microphones used were like those in contemporary
telephones. They were discreetly set up in the abbey and connected by wires to recording
equipment in a vehicle outside. Although electronic amplification was used, the resulting audio
was weak and very unclear. The novel procedure did, however, allow a recording to be made
which would otherwise not have been practical in those circumstances. For several years, this
little-noted disc remained the only issued electrical recording.
Several record companies and independent inventors, notably Orlando Marsh, were
experimenting with equipment and techniques for electrical recording in the early 1920s. Marsh's
electrically recorded Autograph Records were already being sold to the public in 1924, a year
before the first such offerings from the major record companies, but their overall sound quality
was too low to demonstrate any obvious advantage over traditional acoustical methods. Marsh's
microphone technique was idiosyncratic and his work had little if any impact on the systems
being developed by others.
Telephone industry giant Western Electric had research laboratories with material and human
resources that no record company or independent inventor could match. They had the best
microphone, a condenser type developed there in 1916 and greatly improved in 1922, and the
best amplifiers and test equipment. They had already patented an electromagnetic recorder in
1917, and in the early 1920s they decided to intensively apply their hardware and expertise to
developing two state-of-the-art systems for electronically recording and reproducing sound: one
that employed conventional discs and another that recorded optically on motion picture film.
Their engineers pioneered the use of mechanical analogs of electrical circuits and developed a
superior "rubber line" recorder for cutting the groove into the wax master in the disc recording
system.

27

By 1924 such dramatic progress had been made that Western Electric arranged a demonstration
for the two leading record companies, the Victor Talking Machine Company and the Columbia
Phonograph Company. Both soon licensed the system and both made their earliest published
electrical recordings in February 1925, but neither actually released them until mid-year. To
avoid making their existing catalogs instantly obsolete, the two long-time arch rivals agreed
privately not to publicize the new process until November 1925, by which time enough
electrically recorded repertory would be available to meet the anticipated demand. During the
next few years the lesser record companies licensed or developed other electrical recording
systems. By the end of the 1920s only the budget label Harmony was still issuing acoustically
recorded discs.
Comparison of some surviving Western Electric test recordings with early commercial releases
indicates that their system had been "dumbed down" by the record companies so as not to
overwhelm non-electronic playback equipment, which reproduced very low frequencies as an
unpleasant rattle and rapidly wore out discs with strongly recorded high frequencies.
Other recording formats
In the 1920s, Phonofilm and other early motion picture sound systems employed optical
recording technology, in which the audio signal was graphically recorded on photographic film.
The amplitude variations comprising the signal were used to modulate a light source which was
imaged onto the moving film through a narrow slit, allowing the signal to be photographed as
variations in the density or width of a "sound track". The projector used a steady light and
a photoelectric cell to convert these variations back into an electrical signal which was amplified
and sent to loudspeakers behind the screen. Ironically, the introduction of "talkies" was
spearheaded by The Jazz Singer in1927, which used the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system rather
than an optical soundtrack. Optical sound became the standard motion picture audio system
throughout the world and remains so for theatrical release prints despite attempts in the 1950s to
substitute magnetic soundtracks. Currently, all release prints on 35 mm film include an analog
optical soundtrack, usually stereo with Dolby SR noise reduction. In addition, an optically
recorded digital soundtrack in Dolby Digital and/or Sony SDDS form is likely to be present. An
optically recorded timecode is also commonly included in order to synchronise CDROMs
containing a DTS soundtrack.
28

This period also saw several other historic developments including the introduction of the first
practical magnetic sound recording system, the magnetic wire recorder, which was based on the
work of Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen. Magnetic wire recorders were effective, but the
sound quality was poor, so between the wars they were primarily used for voice recording and
marketed as business dictating machines. In the 1930s radio pioneer Guglielmo
Marconi developed a system of magnetic sound recording using steel tape. This was the same
material used to make razor blades, and not surprisingly the fearsome Marconi-Stille recorders
were considered so dangerous that technicians had to operate them from another room for safety.
Because of the high recording speeds required, they used enormous reels about one metre in
diameter, and the thin tape frequently broke, sending jagged lengths of razor steel flying around
the studio. The K1 Magnetophon was the first practical tape recorder, developed by AEG in
Germany in 1935.

Magnetic tape

Other important inventions of this period were magnetic tape and the tape recorder (Paper-based
tape was first used but was soon superseded by polyester and acetate backing due to dust drop
and hiss. Acetate was more brittle than polyester and snapped easily. This technology, the basis
for almost all commercial recording from the 1950s to the 1980s, was invented by German audio
engineers in the 1930s, who also discovered the technique of AC biasing, which dramatically
improved the frequency response of tape recordings. Tape recording was perfected just after the
war by American audio engineer John T. Mullin with the help of Crosby Enterprises, whose
29

pioneering recorders were based on captured German recorders, and the Ampex company
produced the first commercially available tape recorders in the late 1940s.

A typical Compact Cassette

Magnetic tape brought about sweeping changes in both radio and the recording industry. Sound
could be recorded, erased and re-recorded on the same tape many times, sounds could be
duplicated from tape to tape with only minor loss of quality, and recordings could now be very
precisely edited by physically cutting the tape and rejoining it. Within a few years of the
introduction of the first commercial tape recorderthe Ampex 200 model, launched in 1948
American musician-inventor Les Paul had invented the first multitrack tape recorder, ushering in
another technical revolution in the recording industry. Tape made possible the first sound
recordings totally created by electronic means, opening the way for the bold sonic experiments
of the Musique Concrte school and avant garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, which
in turn led to the innovative pop music recordings of artists such as Frank Zappa, The
Beatles and The Beach Boys.
Magnetic tape allowed the radio industry for the first time to pre-record many sections of
program content such as advertising, which formerly had to be presented live, and it also enabled
the creation and duplication of complex, high-fidelity, long-duration recordings of entire
programs. Also, for the first time, broadcasters, regulators and other interested parties were able
to undertake comprehensive logging of radio broadcasts. Innovations like multi tracking and tape
echo enabled radio programs and advertisements to be pre-produced to a level of complexity and
sophistication that was previously unattainable and the combined impact of these new techniques
30

led to significant changes to the pacing and production style of program content, thanks to the
innovations like the endless-loop broadcast cartridge.

Stereo and hi-fi

In 1881, it was noted during experiments in transmitting sound from the Paris Opera that it was
possible to follow the movement of singers on the stage if earpieces connected to different
microphones were held to the two ears. This discovery was commercialized in 1890 with
the Thtrophone system, which operated for over forty years until 1932.
In 1931 Alan Blumlein, a British electronics engineer working for EMI, designed a way to make
the sound of an actor in a film follow his movement across the screen. In December 1931 he
submitted a patent including the idea, and in 1933 this became UK patent number 394,325. Over
the next two years, Blumlein developed stereo microphones and a stereo disc-cutting head, and
recorded a number of short films with stereo soundtracks.
Magnetic tape enabled the development of the first practical commercial sound systems that
could record and reproduce high-fidelity stereophonic sound. The experiments with stereo during
the 1930s and 1940s were hampered by problems with synchronization. A major breakthrough in
practical stereo sound was made by Bell Laboratories, who in 1937 demonstrated a practical
system of two-channel stereo, using dual optical sound tracks on film. Major movie studios
quickly developed three-track and four-track sound systems, and the first stereo sound recording
for a commercial film was made by Judy Garland for the MGM movie Listen, Darling in 1938.
The first movie commercially released with a stereo soundtrack was Walt Disney's Fantasia,
released in 1940. The original 1941 release of this production used the "Fantasound" sound
system. This system employed a separate film for the sound, which ran in synchronism with the
film carrying the picture. On this sound film were four double-width optical soundtracks, three of
which carried left, center and right audio while the fourth was a "control" track on which were
recorded three tones which controlled the playback volume of the three audio channels. Because
of the complex equipment required to present it, it was shown as a road show, but only in the
United States. Regular releases of the film were on standard mono optical 35 mm stock until

31

1956 when the film was released with a stereo soundtrack using the "Cinemascope" four-track
magnetic sound system.
German audio engineers working on magnetic tape are reported to have developed stereo
recording by 1943, but it was not until the introduction of the first commercial two-track tape
recorders by Ampex in the late 1940s that stereo tape recording became commercially feasible.
However, despite the availability of multi track tape, stereo did not become the standard system
for commercial music recording for some years and it remained a specialist market during the
1950s. This changed after the late 1957 introduction of the "Westrex stereo phonograph disc",
which used the groove format developed earlier by Blumlein. Decca Records in England came
out with Full Frequency Range Recording in the 1940s which became internationally accepted
and a worldwide standard for higher quality recordings on vinyl records. The Ernest
Ansermet recording of Igor Stravinsky's Petrushkawas key in the development of full frequency
range records and alerting the listening public to high fidelity in 1946.
Most pop singles were mixed into monophonic sound until the mid 1960s, and it was common
for major pop releases to be issued in both mono and stereo until the early 1970s. Many Sixties
pop albums now available only in stereo were originally intended to be released only in mono,
and the so-called "stereo" version of these albums were created by simply separating the two
tracks of the master tape. In the mid Sixties, as stereo became more popular, many mono
recordings were remastered using the so-called "fake stereo" method, which spread the sound
across the stereo field by directing higher-frequency sound into one channel and lower-frequency
sounds into the other.

32

1950s to 1980s

Magnetic tape transformed the recording industry, and by the late-1950s the vast majority of
commercial recordings were being mastered on tape. The electronics revolution that followed the
invention of the transistor brought other radical changes, the most important of which was the
introduction of the world's first "personal music device", the miniaturized transistor radio, which
became a major consumer luxury item in the 1960s, transforming radio broadcasting from a
static group experience into a mobile, personal listening activity. An early multi track recording
made using magnetic tape was "How High the Moon" by Les Paul, on which Paul played eight
overdubbed guitar tracks. In the 1960s Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa and The
Beatles were among the first popular artists to explore the possibilities of multi track
recording techniques and effects on their landmark albums Pet Sounds, Freak Out! and Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The next important innovation was small cartridge based tape systems of which the compact
cassette, introduced by the Philips electronics company in 1964 is the best known. It eventually
entirely replaced the competing formats, the larger 8-track tape and the fairly similar 'Deutsche
Cassette' developed by the German company Grundig. This latter system was not particularly
common in Europe and practically unheard of in America. The compact cassette became a major
consumer audio format and advances in microelectronics eventually allowed the development of
the Sony Walkman, introduced in the 1970s, which was the first personal music player and gave
a major boost to the mass distribution of music recordings. Cassettes became the first successful
consumer recording/re-recording medium. The gramophone record was a pre-recorded playback
only medium, and reel-to-reel audio tape recording magnetic tape was too difficult for most
consumers and far less portable.
A key advance in audio fidelity came with the Dolby A noise reduction system, invented by Ray
Dolby and introduced in 1966. A competing system dbx, invented by David Blackmer, found
most success in professional audio. A simpler variant of Dolby's noise reduction system, known
as Dolby B greatly improved the sound of cassette tape recordings by reducing the practical
effect of the recorded hiss inherent in the narrow tape used. It, and variants, also eventually
found wide application in the recording and film industries. Dolby B was crucial to the
33

popularisation and commercial success of the compact cassette as a domestic recording and
playback medium, and became a part of the booming "hi-fi" market of the 1970s and beyond.
The compact cassette also benefited enormously from developments in the tape material itself as
materials with wider frequency responses and lower inherent noise were developed, often based
on cobalt and/or chrome oxides as the magnetic material instead of the more usual iron oxide.
The multitrack audio cartridge had been in wide use in the radio industry, from the late 1950s to
the 1980s, but in the 1960s the pre-recorded 8-track cartridge was launched as a consumer audio
format by Bill Lear of the Lear Jet aircraft company. Aimed particularly at the automotive
market, they were the first practical, affordable car hi-fi systems, and could produce superior
sound quality to the compact cassette. However the smaller size and greater durability
augmented by the ability to create home-recorded music "compilations" since 8-track recorders
were rare saw the cassette become the dominant consumer format for portable audio devices
in the 1970s and 1980s.
There had been experiments with multi-channel sound for many years usually for special
musical or cultural events but the first commercial application of the concept came in the
early 1970s with the introduction of Quadraphonic sound. This spin-off development from
multitrack recording used four tracks and four speakers to create a 360-degree audio field around
the listener. Following the release of the first consumer 4-channel hi-fi systems, a number of
popular albums were released in one of the competing four-channel formats; among the best
known are Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.
Quadraphonic sound was not a commercial success, partly because of competing and somewhat
incompatible four-channel sound systems e.g., CBS, JVC, Dynaco and others all had systems
and generally poor quality, even when played as intended on the correct equipment, of the
released music. It eventually faded out in the late 1970s, although this early venture paved the
way for the eventual introduction of domestic Surround Sound systems in home theatre use,
which have gained enormous popularity since the introduction of the DVD. This widespread
adoption has occurred despite the confusion introduced by the multitude of available surround
sound standards.

34

Audio components

The replacement of the thermionic valve by the smaller, cooler and less power-hungry transistor
also accelerated the sale of consumer high-fidelity "hi-fi" sound systems from the 1960s onward.
In the 1950s most record players were monophonic and had relatively low sound quality; few
consumers could afford high-quality stereophonic sound systems. In the 1960s, American
manufacturers introduced a new generation of "modular" hi-fi components separate
turntables, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, both combined as integrated amplifiers, tape recorders, and
other ancillary equipment like the graphic equaliser, which could be connected together to create
a complete home sound system. These developments were rapidly taken up by Japanese
electronics companies, which soon flooded the world market with relatively cheap, high-quality
components. By the 1980s, corporations like Sony had become world leaders in the music
recording and playback industry.

Digital recording

The invention of digital sound recording and later the compact disc in 1982 brought significant
improvements in the durability of consumer recordings. The CD initiated another massive wave
of change in the consumer music industry, with vinyl records effectively relegated to a small
niche market by the mid-1990s. However, the introduction of digital systems was initially
fiercely resisted by the record industry which feared wholesale piracy on a medium which was

35

able to produce perfect copies of original released recordings. However, the industry had to bow
to the inevitable, but not without using various protection system.

The most recent and revolutionary developments have been in digital recording, with the
development of various uncompressed and compressed digital audio file
formats, processors capable and fast enough to convert the digital data to sound in real time, and
inexpensive mass storage. This generated a new type of portable digital audio player.
The minidisc player, using ATRAC compression on small, cheap, re-writeable discs was
introduced in the 1990s but became obsolescent as solid-state non-volatile flash memory
dropped in price. As technologies which increase the amount of data that can be stored on a
single medium, such as Super Audio CD, DVD-A, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD become available,
longer programs of higher quality fit onto a single disc. Sound files are readily downloaded from
the Internet and other sources, and copied onto computers and digital audio players. Digital audio
technology is used in all areas of audio, from casual use of music files of moderate quality to the
most demanding professional applications. New applications such as internet
radio and podcasting have appeared.

36

1.3 DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT

Recording studios generally consist of three rooms: the studio itself, where the sound for the
recording is created the control room, where the sound from the studio is recorded and
manipulated, and the machine room, where noisier equipment that may interfere with the
recording process is kept. Recording studios are carefully designed around the principles of
room acoustics to create a set of spaces with the acoustical properties required for recording.
sound with precision and accuracy. This will consist of both room treatment and soundproofing .
A recording studio may include additional rooms, such as a vocal booth - a small room designed
for voice recording, as well as one or more extra control rooms

.
Equipment found in a recording studio commonly includes:

Mixing console

Multi track recorder

Microphones

Reference monitors, which are loudspeakers with a flat frequency response

Keyboard

Acoustic drum kit

37

Equipment may include:

Digital audio workstation

Music workstation

On Air or Recording Light

Outboard effects, such as compressors, reverbs, or equalizers

1.4 DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATIONS

General purpose computers have rapidly assumed a large role in the recording process, being
able to replace the mixing consoles, recorders, synthesizers, Samplers and sound effects devices.
A computer thus outfitted is called a Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW. Popular audiorecording software includes Apple Logic Pro, Digi design's Pro Tools near standard for most
professional studios Cubase and Nuendo both by Steinberg, MOTU Digital Performer
popular for MIDI. Other software applications include Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar, ACID
Pro, FL Studio, Adobe Audition, Audacity, Ardour, and Pro Tools.
Current software applications are more reliant on the audio recording hardware than the
computer they are running on, therefore typical high-end computer hardware is less of a priority
unless midi is involved. While Apple Macintosh is used for studio work, there is a breadth of
software available for Microsoft Windows and Linux. The majority of both commercial and
home studios can be seen running PC-based multi track audio software.

1.5 PROJECT STUDIOS

A small, personal recording studio is sometimes called a project studio or home studio. Such
studios often cater to specific needs of an individual artist, or are used as a noncommercial hobby. The first modern project studios came into being during the mid 1980s, with
the advent of affordable multi track recording devices, synthesizers and microphones. The
phenomenon has flourished with falling prices of MIDI equipment and accessories, as well as
inexpensive direct to disk recording products.
Recording drums and electric guitar in a home studio is challenging, because they are usually the
loudest instruments. Conventional drums require sound isolation in this scenario, unlike
38

electronic or sampled drums. Getting an authentic electric guitar amp sound including powertube distortion requires a power attenuator or an isolation box or booth. A convenient
compromise is amp simulation, whether a modelling amp, processor, or software-based guitar
amp simulator. Sometimes, musicians replace loud, inconvenient instruments such as drums,
with keyboards, which today often provide somewhat realistic sampling.

1.6 ISOLATION BOOTH

An isolation booth is a standard small room in a recording studio, which is both soundproofed to
keep out external sounds and keep in the internal sounds and, like all the other recording rooms
in sound industry, it is designed for having a lesser amount of diffused reflections from walls to
make a good sounding room. A drummer, vocalist, or guitar speaker cabinet, along with
microphones, is acoustically isolated in the room. A professional recording studio has a control
room, a large live room, and one or more small isolation booths. All rooms are soundproofed
such as with double-layer walls with dead space and insulation in-between the two walls,
forming a room-within-a-room.
There are variations of the same concept, including a portable standalone isolation booth, a
compact guitar speaker isolation cabinet, or a larger guitar speaker cabinet isolation box.
A gobo panel achieves the same idea to a much more moderate extent; for example, a drum kit
that is too loud in the live room or on stage can have acrylic glass see-through gobo panels
placed around it to deflect the sound and keep it from bleeding into the other microphones,
allowing more independent control of each instrument channel at the mixing board.
All rooms in a recording studio may have a reconfigurable combination of reflective and nonreflective surfaces, to control the amount of reverberation.

1.7 RADIO STUDIOS

Radio studios are very similar to recording studios, particularly in the case of production studios
which are not normally used on-air. This type of studio would normally have all of the same
equipment that any other audio recording studio would have, particularly if it is at a large station,

39

or at a combined facility that houses a station group, but is designed for groups of people to work
collaboratively in a live to air situation
Broadcast studios also use many of the same principles such as sound isolation, with adaptations
suited to the live on-air nature of their use. Such equipment would commonly include
a telephone hybrid for putting telephone calls on the air, a POTS codec for receiving remote
broadcasts, a dead air alarm for detecting unexpected silence, and a broadcast delay for dropping
anything from coughs to profanity. In the U.S., stations licensed by the Federal Communications
Commission also must have an Emergency Alert System decoder , and in the case of full-power
stations, an encoder that can interrupt programming on all channels which a station transmits in
order to broadcast urgent warnings.
Computers are also used for playing ads, jingles, bumpers, sound bites, phone calls, sound
effects, traffic and weather reports, and now full broadcast automation when nobody is around.
For talk shows, a producer and/or assistant in a control room runs the show, including screening
calls and entering the callers' names and subject into a queue, which the show's host can see and
make a proper introduction with. Radio contest winners can also be edited on the fly and put on
the air within a minute or two after they have been recorded accepting their prize.
Additionally, digital mixing consoles can be interconnected via audio over Ethernet, or split into
two parts, with inputs and outputs wired to a rack mount audio engine, and one or more control
surfaces or computers connected via serial port, allowing the producer or the talent to control the
show from either point. With Ethernet and audio over IP or FTP , this also allows remote access,
so that DJs can do shows from a home studio via ISDN or the Internet. Additional outside audio
connections are required for the studio/transmitter link for over-the-air stations, satellite
dishes for sending and receiving shows, and for webcasting or podcasting.

40

1.8 ACOUSTIC TRANSMISSION

41

Acoustic transmission in building design refers to a number of processes by which sound can be
transferred from one part of a building to another. Typically these are:
42

1. Airborne transmission - a noise source in one room sends air pressure waves which
induce vibration to one side of a wall or element of structure setting it moving such that
the other face of the wall vibrates in an adjacent room. Structural isolation therefore
becomes an important consideration in the acoustic design of buildings. Highly sensitive
areas of buildings, for example recording studios, may be almost entirely isolated from
the rest of a structure by constructing the studios as effective boxes supported by springs.
Air tightness also becomes an important control technique. A tightly sealed door might
have reasonable sound reduction properties, but if it is left open only a few millimetres
its effectiveness is reduced to practically nothing. The most important acoustic control
method is adding mass into the structure, such as a heavy dividing wall, which will
usually reduce airborne sound transmission better than a light one.
2. Impact transmission - a noise source in one room results from an impact of an object onto
a separating surface, such as a floor and transmits the sound to an adjacent room. A
typical example would be the sound of footsteps in a room being heard in a room below.
Acoustic control measures usually include attempts to isolate the source of the impact, or
cushioning it. For example carpets will perform significantly better than hard floors.
3. Flanking transmission - a more complex form of noise transmission, where the resultant
vibrations from a noise source are transmitted to other rooms of the building usually by
elements of structure within the building. For example, in a steel framed building, once
the frame itself is set into motion the effective transmission can be pronounced.

1.9 SOUNDPROOFING AND ACOUSTIC MATERAILS

43

The goal of acoustical treatment is to eliminate problems from parallel hard

surfaces that reflect sound waves. Another goal to keep in mind is to stop
unwanted sound from entering or exiting the room.

Sound Isolation: This involves creating a sound barrier between your

recording space and any adjacent areas. The focus at this stage is to keep
unwanted noise from entering or escaping the room in which you will be
recording. Generally, noise is isolated by using heavy materials to block
the noise along with decoupling devices to reduce structural vibrations.
Sound absorbing materials may also be used within wall cavities to reduce
unwanted structural resonance. Regardless of whether you are building an
isolation booth in a professional studio, or trying to prevent sound from
leaking into or out of your home studio, sound isolation is key.

Sound Absorption: Noise absorbing materials are designed to improve

sound quality by reducing and controlling echo and reverberation. This is
the primary method used to modify studio acoustics. Well planned, the use
of sound absorbing materials can considerably improve recording quality.
Contrary to popular belief, sound absorbers are not soundproofing
materials and should not be used to block noise.

Sound Diffusion: Sound diffusion works hand in hand with Sound

Absorption, and is popular in control/listening rooms where mixing will
take place. Diffusers are designed to distribute sound evenly throughout
the room, and prevent dead spots, where sound cannot be heard clearly.
This will allow you to properly mix your recordings, which will enhance
your finished product.

SOFT SOUND Acoustic

SOFT SOUND Studio Foam

44

SOFT SOUND Foam Panels

Panels

Designed to improve sound

A composite of acoustical foam

Great for reducing in-room

quality and speech clarity by

and a non-woven fabric

noise levels. Excellent finished reducing echo. Excellent

covering. It is a light weight,

appearance in a Class "A" fire

acoustic performance

sound / noise absorbing panel

rated building material.

combined with a variety of

used to improve the acoustics

Tackable surface available.

architectural textures, sizes and within a room by minimizing

colors.

reverberation (echo).

ECHO ABSORBERBaffles

ECHO ABSORBERNatura

QUIET BARRIER HD

High performace sound

An economical, bonded

A flexible, 2lb per sq./ft. 1/4 in.

absorption baffles reduce echo. recycled cotton-fiber sound

thick, high density material

Complete with grommets for

absorption panels. Excellent

with a smooth surface designed

easy installation. Can be hung

acoustical and thermal

to reduce noise transmission

vertical or horizontal.

insulation performance.

between two spaces.

Available with grommets for

Applications include reducing

baffle and other mounting

airborne noise transmission

applications.

through walls, ceilings and

floors.

45

QUIET BARRIER MD

IMPACT BARRIER HD

IMAPCT BARRIER LD

A flexible, 1lb per sq./ft. 1/8 in. Premium grade carpet

Multi-function carpet

thick, high density material

underlayment designed to

underlayment designed to

with a smooth surface specially reduce the transfer of sound

reduce the transfer of sound

engineered to reduce noise

from impact (footfall).

from impact (footfall), decrease

transmission between two

Engineered for plush carpets.

the transmission of sound from

spaces.

airborne sources and add

comfort to your carpeted floor.

Acoustic Ceiling Tiles

Soundproof Foam

QUIET DOOR

Premium Acoustic Ceiling

Convoluted egg crate

Soundproof your metal door

Panels Designed to Improve

acoustical foam. The

with Quiet Door. Quiet Door

Sound Quality and Block Noise convoluted egg-crate design

was designed to reduce sound

Transmission. High NRC and

increases surface area giving

transfer through metal doors

CAC Ratings. Free shipping in

you better sound absorption

commonly used for entrances to

the continental USA.

performance. Free shipping in

condominiums, apartments and

the continental USA.

offices.

ISOMOUNT Vibration
Isolation Feet
46

Designed to Isolate Noise

Sources from Other Surfaces.
Great for Reducing Residential,
Studio, Commercial and
Industrial Noise from Radiating
Through Floors, Ceilings, Walls,
Machine Enclosures, Appliances
and Sheet Metal Enclosures.

2.0 REAMPING
Reamping is a process often used in multi track recording in which a recorded signal is routed
back out of the editing environment and run through external processing or reverb chamber.
Originally, the technique was used mostly for guitars: it facilitates a separation of guitar playing
from guitar amplifier processinga previously recorded audio program is played back and rerecorded at a later time for the purpose of adding effects, ambience, or modified tonality. The
technique has since evolved to include many other applications. Re-amping can also be applied
to other instruments and program, such as recorded drums, synthesizers, and virtual instruments.

47

Examples of common re-amping objectives include musically useful amplifier distortion, room
tone, compression, EQ/filters, envelopes, resonance, and gating. Re-amping is often used to
"warm up" dry tracks, which often means adding complex, musically interesting
compression, distortion, filtering, ambience, and other pleasing effects. By playing a dry signal
through a studio's main monitors and then using room mics to capture the ambience, engineers
are able to create realistic reverbs and blend the wet signal with the original dry recording to
achieve the desired amount of depth.
The technique is especially useful for softening stereo drum tracks. By pointing the monitors
away from each other and miking each speaker individually, the stereo image can be well
preserved and a new depth can be added to the track. It is important to check that the
microphones being used are in phase to avoid problems with the mix.
Example
A guitarist records a dry, unprocessed, unaffected track in a recording studio. This is often
achieved by connecting the guitar into a DI unit that is fed to a recording console or,
alternatively, bypassing the console by using an outboard preamplifier. Often, the guitarist's
signal is sent to both recorder and guitar amp simultaneously, providing the guitarist with a
proper amplifier "feel" while also tracking a dry signal.
At a later time, the dry, direct, unprocessed guitar recording is fed to a bridging device to "rerecord" the guitarist's unprocessed performance through a dedicated guitar amplifier and/or
external effects box. The guitar amplifier is placed in the live room or isolation booth of
the recording studio and is set up to produce the desired tonal quality, including distortion
character and room reverberation. A microphone is placed near the guitar speaker and a new
track is recorded, producing the re-amplified, processed track. The microphone cable is
connected to the mixing console or mic preamp using a cable, as usual, without using a bridging
device.
External effects such as stomp boxes and guitar multi-fx processors can also be included in the
re-amping process. As well as physical devices that require an impedance-matched guitar pickup
signal, software-based virtual guitar effects and amps can be included in the re-amping process.
Advantages of re-amping
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Re-amping allows guitarists and other electronic musicians to record their tracks and go home,
leaving the engineer and producer to spend more time dialing in "just right" settings and effects
on prerecorded tracks. When re-amping electric guitar tracks, the guitarist need not be present for
the engineer to experiment long hours with a range of effects, mic positions, speaker cabinets,
amplifiers, effects pedals, and overall tonality continuously replaying the prerecorded tracks
while experimenting with new settings and tones. When a desired tone is finally achieved, the
guitarist's dry performance is re-recorded, or "re-amped," with all added effects.
Manufacturers of instrument processing gear such as guitar effects, or equipment reviewers, can
gather a library of dry performance tracks, performed and edited well, and then run these ideal
tracks through the processing gear to demonstrate the sounds that the processing gear can
produce. An unlimited number of performance playback passes, including looping, enables
trying out many combinations of settings quickly, including microphone techniques.
When guitar amp or amp simulator designers try various circuit component values or settings,
they can use the dry tracks as prepared, always-available input test signals, and consistent
reference signals.
DI Electronic interfacing
Direct inject is a device or technique for connecting an unbalanced, high-impedance, low-level
signal into audio equipment designed for a low-impedance balanced signal. Reverse-DI means
running this same device or technique in reverse connecting a high-level, signal into audio
equipment that was designed for low-level, unbalanced, high-impedance signals, such as a guitar
amplifier.
Playing back a signal from recording studio equipment directly into a guitar amplifier can cause
unwanted side-effects such as input-stage distortion, treble loss or overemphasis, and groundloop hum; thus there is sometimes a need for impedance conversion, level-matching, and ground
alteration. Like running a guitar signal through a guitar effects pedal that is set to Bypass, reamping introduces some degree of sonic degradation compared to playing a guitar live directly
into a guitar amp rig.
A re-amping device commonly employs a reversed Direct Inject transformer with some resistors
added for level and impedance shift. Level and impedance adjustment can be achieved by adding
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a potentiometer or adjustable resistor. A proper re-amping device converts a balanced signal to an

unbalanced signal, reduces a high studio-level signal down to a low guitar-level signal, and
shifts the output to a high instrument-level impedance .
In conventional re-amplification, a dry recorded signal is sent into a balanced XLR input. An
unbalanced " phone connector is typically used for the output, which is connected to the guitar
amp rig. Some re-amping devices offer a pad switch to reduce a too-hot output level.
Sometimes a guitar volume pedal or buffered effects pedal can work adequately for re-amping,
depending on grounding, levels, and impedance. Another approach to simulating the high
impedance of a guitar pickup is to use a passive DI and add a 10 K-ohm resistor in series with
the signal connection inside a 1/4" plug.

2.1 ROOM ACOUSTICS

Room acoustics describes how sound behaves in an enclosed space.
The way that sound behaves in a room can be broken up into roughly four
different frequency zones:

The first zone is below the frequency that has a wavelength of twice the longest length of
the room. In this zone, sound behaves very much like changes in static air pressure.

50

Above that zone, until the frequency is approximately

11,250(RT60/V)1/2, wavelengths are comparable to the dimensions of the room, and so
room resonances dominate.

The third region which extends approximately 2 octaves is a transition to the fourth zone.

In the fourth zone, sounds behave like rays of light bouncing around the room.

Natural modes
The sound wave has reflections at the walls, floor and ceiling of the room. The incident wave
then has interference with the reflected one. This action creates standing waves that generate
nodes and high pressure zones.
In 1981, in order to solve this problem, Oscar Bonello, professor at the University of Buenos
Aires, formulated a modal density concept solution which used concepts frompsychoacoustics.
Called "Bonello Criteria", the method analyzes the first 48 room modes and plots the number of
modes in each one-third of an octave. The curve increases monotonically Other systems to
determine correct room ratios have more recently been developed.
Reverberation of the room
After determining the best dimensions of the room, using the modal density criteria, the next step
is to find the correct reverberation time. The reverberation time depends on the use of the room.
Times about 1.5 to 2 seconds are needed for opera theaters and concert halls. For broadcasting
and recording studios and conference rooms, values under one second are frequently used. The
recommended reverberation time is always a function of the volume of the room. Several authors
give their recommendations A good approximation for Broadcasting Studios and Conference
Rooms is: TR[1khz] = [0,4 log (V+62)] 0,38 TR in seconds and V=volume of the room in
m3 The ideal RT60 must have the same value at all frequencies from 30 to 12,000 Hz. Or, at
least, it is acceptable to have a linear rising from 100% at 500 Hz to 150% down to 62 Hz
To get the desired RT60, several acoustics materials can be used as described in several books. A
valuable simplification of the task was proposed by Oscar Bonello in 1979 .It consists of using
standard acoustic panels of 1 m2 hung from the walls of the room . These panels use a
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combination of three Helmholtz resonatorsand a wooden resonant panel. This system gives a
large acoustic absorption at low frequencies and reduces at high frequencies to compensate for
the typical absorption by people, lateral surfaces, ceilings, etc.

2.2 SOUND RECORDING AND REPRODUCTION

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation
of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two
main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording. Acoustic
analog recording is achieved by a small microphone diaphragm that can detect changes in
atmospheric pressure and record them as a graphic representation of the sound waves on a
medium such as a phonograph. In magnetic tape recording, the sound waves vibrate the
microphone diaphragm and are converted into a varying electric current, which is then converted
to a varying magnetic field by an electromagnet, which makes a representation of the sound as
magnetized areas on a plastic tape with a magnetic coating on it. Analog sound reproduction is
the reverse process, with a bigger loudspeaker diaphragm causing changes to atmospheric
pressure to form acoustic sound waves. Electronically generated sound waves may also be
recorded directly from devices such as an electric guitar pickup or a synthesizer, without the use
of acoustics in the recording process other than the need for musicians to hear how well they are
playing during recording sessions.
Digital recording and reproduction converts the analog sound signal picked up by the
microphone to a digital form by a process of digitization, allowing it to be stored and
transmitted by a wider variety of media. Digital recording stores audio as a series
of binary numbers representing samples of the amplitude of the audio signal at equal time
intervals, at a sample rate high enough to convey all sounds capable of being heard. Digital
recordings are considered higher quality than analog recordings not necessarily because they
have higher fidelity, but because the digital format can prevent much loss of quality found in
analog recording due to noise and electromagnetic interference in playback, and mechanical
deterioration or damage to the storage medium. A digital audio signal must be reconverted to
analog form during playback before it is applied to a loudspeaker or earphones.
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2.3 SOUND REFLECTION

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Sound diffusion panel for high frequencies

When a longitudinal sound wave strikes a flat surface, sound is reflected in a coherent manner
provided that the dimension of the reflective surface is large compared to the wavelength of the
sound. Note that audible sound has a very wide frequency range, and thus a very wide range of
wavelengths .As a result, the overall nature of the reflection varies according to the texture and
structure of the surface. For example, porous materials will absorb some energy, and rough
materials tend to reflect in many directionsto scatter the energy, rather than to reflect it
coherently. This leads into the field of architectural acoustics, because the nature of these
reflections is critical to the auditory feel of a space. In the theory of exterior noise mitigation,
reflective surface size mildly detracts from the concept of a noise barrier by reflecting some of
the sound into the opposite direction.

Seismic reflection
Seismic waves produced by earthquakes or other sources may be reflected by layers within
the Earth. Study of the deep reflections of waves generated by earthquakes has
allowed seismologists to determine the layered structure of the Earth. Shallower reflections are
used in reflection seismology to study the Earth's crust generally, and in particular to prospect
for petroleum and natural gas deposits.

2.4 SOUND PROOFING

Sound proofing is any means of reducing the sound pressure with respect to a
specified sound source and receptor. There are several basic approaches to reducing sound:
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increasing the distance between source and receiver, using noise barriers to reflect or absorb the
energy of the sound waves, using damping structures such as sound baffles, or using active anti
-noise sound generators.
Two distinct soundproofing problems may need to be considered when designing acoustic
treatments - to improve the sound within a room and reduce sound leakage to / from adjacent
rooms or outdoors. Acoustic quieting, noise mitigation, and noise control can be used to limit
unwanted noise. Soundproofing can suppress unwanted indirect sound waves such
as reflections that cause echoes and resonances that cause reverberation. Soundproofing can
reduce the transmission of unwanted direct sound waves from the source to an involuntary
listener through the use of distance and intervening objects in the sound path.
The energy density of sound waves decreases as they spread out, so that increasing the distance
between the receiver and source results in a progressively lesser intensity of sound at the
receiver. In a normal three dimensional setting, with a point source and point receptor, the
intensity of sound waves will be attenuated according to the inverse square of the distance from
the source.
Damping
Damping means to reduce resonance in the room, by absorption or redirection. Absorption will
reduce the overall sound level, whereas redirection makes unwanted sound harmless or even
beneficial by reducing coherence. Damping can reduce the acoustic resonance in the air,
or mechanical resonance in the structure of the room itself or things in the room.
Absorption
Absorbing sound spontaneously converts part of the sound energy to a very small amount of heat
in the intervening object, rather than sound being transmitted or reflected. There are several ways
in which a material can absorb sound. The choice of sound absorbing material will be determined
by the frequency distribution of noise to be absorbed and the acoustic absorption profile
required.
Porous absorbers
Porous absorbers, typically open cell rubber foams or melamine sponges, absorb noise by
friction within the cell structure.
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Porous open cell foams are highly effective noise absorbers across a broad range of medium-high
frequencies. Performance is less impressive at low frequencies.
The exact absorption profile of a porous open cell foam will be determined by a number of
factors including the following:

Cell size

Tortuosity

Porosity

Material thickness

Material density

Resonant absorbers
Resonant panels, Helmholtz resonators and other resonant absorbers work by damping a sound
wave as they reflect it.
Unlike porous absorbers, resonant absorbers are most effective at low-medium frequencies and
the absorption of resonant absorbers is always matched to a narrow frequency range.

Reflection
In an outdoor environment such as highway engineering, embankments or panelling are often
used to reflect sound upwards into the sky.

Diffusion
If a specular reflection from a hard flat surface is giving a problematic echo then an acoustic
diffuser may be applied to the surface. It will scatter sound in all directions.
Room within a room

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A room within a room is one method of isolating sound and stopping it from transmitting to the
outside world where it may be undesirable.
Most vibration / sound transfer from a room to the outside occurs through mechanical means.
The vibration passes directly through the brick, woodwork and other solid structural elements.
When it meets with an element such as a wall, ceiling, floor or window, which acts as a sounding
board, the vibration is amplified and heard in the second space. A mechanical transmission is
much faster, more efficient and may be more readily amplified than an airborne transmission of
the same initial strength.
The use of acoustic foam and other absorbent means is less effective against this transmitted
vibration. The user is advised to break the connection between the room that contains the noise
source and the outside world. This is called acoustic de-coupling. Ideal de-coupling involves
eliminating vibration transfer in both solid materials and in the air, so air-flow into the room is
often controlled. This has safety implications, for example proper ventilation must be assured
and gas heaters cannot be used inside de-coupled space.

Noise cancellation
Noise cancellation generators for active noise control are a relatively modern innovation. A
microphone is used to pick up the sound that is then analyzed by a computer; then, sound waves
with opposite polarity are output through a speaker, causing destructive interference and
cancelling much of the noise.

Residential soundproofing
Residential soundproofing aims to decrease or eliminate the effects of exterior noise. The main
focus of residential soundproofing in existing structures is the windows. Curtains can be used to
damp sound either through use of heavy materials or through the use of air chambers known
as honeycombs. Single-, double- and triple-honeycomb designs achieve relatively greater
degrees of sound damping. The primary soundproofing limit of curtains is the lack of a seal at
the edge of the curtain. Double-pane windows achieve somewhat greater sound damping than
single-pane windows. Significant noise reduction can be achieved by installing a second interior
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window. In this case the exterior window remains in place while a slider or hung window is
installed within the same wall openings.

Commercial soundproofing
Commercial businesses sometimes use soundproofing technology. Restaurants, schools, and
health care facilities use architectural acoustics to reduce noise for their customers. Office
buildings may try to make cubicle spaces less noisy for workers using the phone. In the US,
OSHA has requirements regulating the length of exposure of workers to certain levels of noise.
Noise barriers as exterior soundproofing
Noise barrier
Since the early 1970s, it has become common practice in the United States and other
industrialized countries to engineer noise barriers along major highways to protect adjacent
residents from intruding roadway noise. The technology exists to predict accurately the optimum
geometry for the noise barrier design. Noise barriers may be constructed of wood,masonry, earth
or a combination thereof. One of the earliest noise barrier designs was in Arlington,
Virginia adjacent to Interstate 66, stemming from interests expressed by theArlington Coalition
on Transportation. Possibly the earliest scientifically designed and published noise barrier
construction was in Los Altos, California in 1970.

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CHAPTER 2
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

EMSQUARE STUDIO GOREGAON (WEST)

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60

SRS SUDIO ANDHERI (WEST)

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NET CASE STUDY

62

CHAPTER 3
63

DESIGN STRATEGY

2.1 LOCATION

High Street
Phoenix,Senapati
Bapat Marg, High

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Street Phoenix, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai,

Maharashtra 400013

The shop will be replace to sound recording studio

2.2 CONCEPT

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66

2.4 REQUIREMENT

1. Reception and waiting area

2. Storage
3. Server room
4. Presenters dressing room 1 & 2
5. Toilets
6. Dressing rooms 2 nos
7. Makeup room 2nos
8. Presentation room
9. Meeting room
10. Tape library
11. shoot room
12. production control room
13. drum room
14. control room
15. recording area
16. mini theatre
17. working area
18. cafeteria

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2.4 PLAN MEASUREMENT

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69

2.5 VIEW

RECEPTION AREA

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MEETING AREA

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72