Philadelphia, PA (July 15, 2014)—In 2011, Alex Santilli, then 21 years old, cold-called Walters-Storyk Design Group; his vision, Spice House Sound, is now open for business.
Spice House Sound is located in a gut-renovated former Philadelphia stable built circa 1885. The spacious live room boasts a 25-foot ceiling height and features a ceiling cloud that Matthew Ballos, WSDG project manager, describes as a “one-of-a-kind marvel of (mechanical) engineering.”
“The building provided us with about 2,000 sq. ft. of usable space,” Santilli says. “Our live room has a 650 sq. ft. footprint, our goal was to maximize its volume. The room opens to a cavernous 16,000 cubic feet. Our 120-square-foot iso booth can function as an overflow mix station. A semi-isolated 90-square-foot sound lock can double as a recording space and it adds to the overall flexibility of the studio.”
He continues, “At 400-square-feet. the fully isolated, room-with-in-room, control room comfortably accommodates 10, and its ceiling slopes from 10 to 14 feet. Taking full advantage of this height, a loft area was created above the control room, iso booth and sound lock. This area acts as a home for the operable ceiling cloud when it’s not in use.”
According to Ballos, “Taking full advantage of the elevation, we wanted to provide Alex with the flexibility to track widely diversified sessions. Working together, we came up with a motorized, track-mounted acoustic absorption unit, which gives new meaning to the term ‘ceiling cloud.’ We also employed more traditional, wall-mounted variable acoustic treatments. These two systems work hand-in-hand to provide the space with the versatility of sounding like a large live room or a small intimate space.”
Santilli, who has been designing and restoring audio equipment since age 16, adds, “No one will recognize the console or the mains. I built them from scratch and have been fine-tuning them for a couple of years.”
Walters-Storyk Design Group
www.wsdg.com
