Studio Designer Vincent van Haaff: The Five Characteristics Of A Successful Live Room (Video)
Ah, the proverbial live room. Truly the heart of any great recording studio, and the start of any great recording. As the digital revolution shrinks recording studios to fit them on your laptop, you may think that classic large-format studios like Conway in Los Angeles are quickly becoming dinosaurs. You couldn't be more wrong*. There's no replacing the core principals of acoustics, and there's no plug-in that's going to recreate the ambience of a well-designed acoustical space.
Speaking of well-designed spaces, we're back with Vincent van Haaff, founder of Waterland Design LLC and designer of the very space in which we find ourselves, the live room at Conway Recording's Studio A. This room has hosted sessions with some of the most famous recording artists of the past 30 years, from Stevie Wonder to Avril Lavigne, years to which the well-loved studio floor can attest. We speak with Vincent about the basic concepts behind a well-executed live room design, from the floor plan to the choice of wood veneer to the baffling elements**.
*OK, you could think that dinosaurs were quickly becoming recording studios; then you'd be more wrong.
**Like the stars and moons on the ceiling -- why are they there? It's baffling!
Incorrect wood info in studio description
I listened with much interest to the talented Vincent van Haaff's excellent interviews with Gearwire magazine. In the 4th part of the series though, he miss-spoke about the use of Douglas Fir in his studio. Douglas Fir is a "softwood", not a "hardwood" as he said. He is correct when saying that Balsa is a "hardwood" but not for the reason of "grain pattern". Hardwood is the wood from angiosperm trees. Softwood is wood from conifers (Douglas Fir).
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