Project Description
Overview
Recording industry gear guru, serial entrepreneur and long-time Boston-based studio owner PK Pandey had to close his original Mad Oak Studio in 2011 when the building owner decided to monetize the property. A search for new quarters produced a desirable building site, but Boston’s archaic zoning and construction ordnances kept the project on hold until new mayor Marty Walsh arrived on the scene and put Mad Oak on the fast track to resume it’s place as one of Boston’s coolest and most popular studios. “We hadn’t been biding our time during this waiting game,” Pandey explains. “I’ve enjoyed a long-term working relationship with WSDG. I collaborated with them on Miami’s Dream Asylum, Paul Epworth’s Church Studios in London, Ann Mincieli & Alicia Keys’ Jungle City Studios and many other projects via my AVN SYS, A/V design/integration firm. WSDG was the only design firm I considered for our new facility.
Program
With a 500 sq. ft. live room and equally spacious 500 sq. ft. CR Mad Oak provides an ideal space for live band sessions. Pandey’s extensive gear experience, led him to select an API 1608 32 Console, Avid Pro Tools, Burl Audio mothership converters, large format monitors custom built by Symphonic Acoustics. The studio also offers an enviable assemblage of reverbs, vintage mics, ample outboard gear, and a rare Decca compressor.
Design
A textbook example of collaboration, every aspect of Mad Oak, from its technology to the handsome cherry and walnut wood acoustic treatments that provide a warm, inviting vibe for the Control and Live rooms, was carefully considered. In addition to a CR ceiling cloud inspired by WSDG designs for such TEC Award-winning studios as Jungle City and the Berklee College of Music, a re-purposed, whitewashed barn wood diffusor that had contributed significantly to Mad Oak’s original signature sound was modified with a rigid, inch-deep frame for a stretched acoustical fabric insulation treatment that further enhanced its effectiveness.