Los Angeles composer Kerry Muzzey called in Audio Perception to design and install the sound treatments for his new studio. The space was already built out as a soundproof room when he moved in, but it was covered entirely in drywall and the ceiling was quite tall. Needless to say, the acoustic properties of the space left much to be desired.

Various challenges were encountered in designing an acoustic solution for Kerry’s room. Those challenges included the square shape of the room, a door and window on the south wall and the desk placement, which was not centered on the front wall. Kerry wanted to avoid having huge bass traps and wall panels that would use up too much of the workable space in the room. He also wanted to make sure the final acoustic design had a clean, modern and streamlined look to it.

We started out by designing and rendering the whole room in 3D so that Kerry could see what we had in mind and what the final design would look like. It also gave us a chance to work out the acoustics of the space. Upon giving his final OK on the design, the 3D drawing was used to plan and implement the installation.

All four corners of the walls and the four edges where the ceiling and walls meet had custom, low profile bass traps built. Resulting in a more compact, less obtrusive bass trapping solution, which helped to prevent the workable space from shrinking too much. Having all eight surfaces angled with all three way corners cut together into a unique pattern helped provide the sleek modern look Kerry was looking for.

For the wall treatments, custom panels were built to varying thicknesses, from 4” to 8”, and some panels were mounted with air gaps behind them. This design allowed the room to be tuned further and let us have the correct absorption in the right places. Around the large wall mounted video monitor, panels were built that aligned to the frame and depth of the monitor for a flush, built-in look. We also added custom made sound curtains to the door and window that helped absorb sound on the right side of the room. The final touch was the custom made ceiling cloud.

In the end Kerry was thrilled with the way the room looked and sounded. He is busy working away on many projects in a great new comfortable space that makes it easy to put in the long hours demanded of the professional TV and fIlm composer. Click here to see some great before and after photos.