Project Description
Overview
The culmination of an extensive period of computer modeling and acoustic development, Groovyland Studios in North Miami Beach, FL represents a sophisticated new era for WSDG’s emerging generation ‘eStudio’ Model. Weighting in at just under 350 sq. ft., and built within the walls of a private home, Groovyland is a compact, multi-purpose recording/mixing/ editing facility geared to produce a wide variety of music genres. It modernizes the earlier ‘personal studio’ to address post-COVID-19 quarantine-inspired lifestyles. It is efficient, extremely comfortable, precisely tuned and cocooned to keep sound from infiltrating within or escaping out.
Program
The primary concerns for Groovyland were to provide a professional environment to record, track and mix music while accommodating a tight but realistic budget. Studio owner/engineer/producer David Molho required a facility, capable of hosting sessions in any category from pop, rock, jazz and rap to folk and hip-hop. Committed to a predetermined area, every inch of the studio’s floor and wall space had to be exploited. The WSDG team developed a floor plan that included a 148 sq. ft. Control Room, a 95 sq. ft. Live Room and a 100 sq. ft. Lounge. All three environments are capable of recording both individually or simultaneously.
Design
Overseeing this genuine family project were WSDG partners Sergio Molho and, Art Director, Silvia Molho. The acoustic treatments were painted in white and Champagne Mist to compliment a programmable LED lighting system capable of dialing in an infinite color menu to enhance any creative mood. Computer-modeling/predictive analyses software was indispensable for optimizing room acoustics. Perforated wood panels and a ceiling diffusers system were part of the acoustic treatment recommendation to precisely tune the frequency response within the room. Acoustic curtains on the two courtyard-facing windows can be drawn or opened to modify the room’s wet/dry sound. “We had an extremely concise budget for construction and planning,” Sergio Molho says. “And we met all our goals.”
Studio gear includes Focal Solo6 Be speakers with a subwoofer, API, Chandler and NEVE pre-amplifiers and a carefully curated selection of microphones. A Heritage Audio RAM monitoring control and Universal Audio interfaces provide Groovyland with expansion capabilities to meet a wide range of projects.
WSDG also provided the AV Systems Integration design. “Groovyland meets every one of my wish list categories,” David Molho concludes. “I am completely and quite literally at home here.”
Photography by Nicolas Fernandez