Built into a 1920s-era building, Sonica Recording (Atlanta), completed in the fall of 2001, was designed and built by John and Steve Briglevich. The single-room facility features a custom API 3232 console, Studer recorders, Pro Tools MIXplus, and an extensive list of mics, outboard gear and musical instruments. The studio also boasts Equi=tech balanced power throughout. More than 100 tons of sand was used in the massive masonry wall structures of the facility.
PatchWerk Recordings
Completed in July 2001, PatchWerk Recordings’ (Atlanta) new “Studio 9000” was designed by Russ Berger Design Group. PatchWerk was founded in the mid-’90s by Bob Whitfield, a pro football player for the Atlanta Falcons who is also a musician. The facility was built into an existing warehouse that required extensive reconstruction to become both aesthetically and sonically suitable as a studio. Of primary importance to the design process were the size and sonics of the control room, and sightlines from that room into all of the recording spaces. “The area we had to work with is very tight,” explains Berger. “The SSL that’s in there is over 18 feet wide. We had to allow room, obviously, to get around it, and to provide an area of good listening all the way to the end of this console.”
A corner window provides views from the control room into three iso booths as well as the main recording room. Berger says that in the big room, the client needed “an open, airy sound for certain instruments, like percussion, but because they also do a lot of rap and hip hop, they need certain instruments, when they’re pushed way forward in the mix, to be very dry so they have absolute control. So, we have a booth that offers that, and there is an alcove area in the studio that allows them to get that really dead, dry sound, but both of those spaces can be used to speak into the main space.” Featured equipment includes the large SSL 9096J console, Quested 412HM main monitors, a Lexicon 960L digital effects system and three Alesis ADAT XTs with BRC. Recording is to Studer A827 24-track, 2-inch recorders and Pro Tools 5.1.1.
