Project Description
Overview
Molly Studios is located in a warehouse in the industrial area of Lisbon, Portugal and is owned and operated by Portuguese musical legend, Tony Carreira. Previously only used to store Carreira’s live performance and lighting equipment, Carreira and his in-house producer and mixer Pedro “Villas” Silva decided to convert it into a studio that would be available around-the-clock and meet Silva’s exacting technical and acoustic standards. WSDG was brought on to redesign the warehouse into a multi-functional recording facility with live streaming and video production capabilities.
Program
The WSDG design team was tasked with creating a versatile recording space with a flexible and controllable acoustic profile to suit a wide array of rehearsal, performance, and recording applications. The studio also needed extensive acoustic isolation to be insulated from the industrial soundscape of the surrounding neighborhood.
Design
The studio consists of a 600 ft²/56 m² control room with two console stations, two ISO booths, and a 1,500 ft²/140 m² acoustically variable live room to give Carreira maximum flexibility for both recording and performing within the space. The decision to have multiple consoles was to allow for easy format changes and multiple work protocols to suit Carreira’s production style.
The WSDG design team used the available space in the warehouse to devise a structure-within-a-structure with a floating inner wall to keep any exterior noise out of the studio. After using its proprietary predictive acoustic software to complete the room analysis and design, the team implemented measures to give the room flexible, variable acoustics, including heavy curtains that could cover the reflective surfaces of the studio when drawn for a drier sonic profile. They also accommodated Carreira’s preference for matched woods in the design by using custom-built recycled wood acoustic diffusers providing aesthetic beauty to the rooms as well as acoustic excellence.