BB4 Studios Upgrades Lounge live Room With Custom 4-Tier Diffusor

BB4 Studios Upgrades Lounge live Room With Custom 4-Tier Diffusor

The pursuit of optimally integrated mixing and mastering is a founding philosophy at BB4 Studios. Tracking is an equally important part of the equation at this Williamsburg facility, and a recent acoustical upgrade to the lounge demonstrates the recording commitment.

“Great tracking rooms come in many different sizes and shapes,” says Christos Tsantilis, the designer of BB4 Studios and its in-house engineer. “The more rooms you have, the more flavors you have. Despite our relatively compact footprint, we now have a third space to record in.”

The lounge joins the dedicated iso room and the control room — which has hosted overdubs and even a string section – to give BB4’s clients a trio of options to track in. Everyone who enters the room, whether they’re recording or just lounging, will take note of the beautiful maple wood diffusor on the rear wall.

Custom designed for the room by Tsantilis, the acoustical treatment was manufactured by renowned Detroit studio architect Ken Capton (Eminem, Kid Rock). Each one-foot tier of the four-tier diffusor addresses a different frequency:

Tier 1 = design frequency 200hz .

Tier 2 = design frequency 500hz.

Tier 3 = design frequency 300hz

Tier 4 = design frequency 700hz.

“We found frequencies that needed taming,” notes Tsantilis. “This room has wonderful character from the old bricks in the walls, but we still need to eliminate dips, bumps, and any other unmusical flavors. This wall diffusor works in tandem with gobos and another diffusor that we also move into the room for tracking sessions.

“As a result, the lounge studio now has a much smoother sound. It’s terrific for vocals, saxophone, clarinets, acoustic guitars, and drums.”

BB4 recently used the control room to track the strings for a notable new cover of the Etta James classic “At Last.” “When you have a great control room, you should be able to utilize it for recording or critical listening,” Tsantilis says.

The iso room has been busy since the beginning, tracking the likes of M1 from Dead Prez, top bassist Zev Katz (James Brown, Sheryl Crow) and drummer John Ihle (Chuck Berry, The Drifters, Bo Diddley).