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Sound Wizard has completed a new facility for Shankar and Siddharth Mahadevan in Navi Mumbai. Caroline Moss hears about Lambodara Studios ONCE IN A WHILE, A WELL-EXECUTED STUDIO FACILITY can act like a calling card for its designer, as Sound Wizard recently discovered. In 2018, the south Indian acoustic consultancy had completed Island City Studios in Khar West for Mumbai-based musician, Jehangir Jehangir. “Nice work!” read the WhatsApp message received later that year from Siddharth Mahadevan who had just visited Island City. “I’m building my own studio here in Mumbai and I want you guys to design it.” This was no small praise. Filmscore composer Mahadevan is the son of Shankar Mahadevan, a prolific singer and composer of Indian film soundtracks. For almost a decade, they’d had a small out-of-town studio, while Siddharth also had a small programming room in Bandra, but, as the family was building a new house, the time was right to add a stateof-the-art studio to the blueprints. When Sound Wizard first visited the project in Navi Mumbai in 2019, the shell of the studio had already been constructed, and the acoustic design team began working out possible layouts that could accommodate the Mahadevans’ wish list: a main control room, live recording area, reception, machine rack, bathrooms and an administrative area. Sound Wizard’s architect Mehul Kumar, together with acoustician Didier Weiss, puzzled over the task of fitting the required areas into the 100m2 space. Once a tentative layout had been approved by the client, Sound Wizard began detailed interior acoustics, isolation and system design for the space. The usual challenges of designing a professional studio in Mumbai presented themselves early on, namely a low,
Lambodara’s spacious live recording area flat ceiling and parallel walls. Provision had to be made to accommodate a complex ducted air conditioning system that would not only create a temperate working environment in the humid city, but would also remain virtually silent. After much deliberation, Sound Wizard formulated an unorthodox yet simple solution to combat the space constraints. The 33m2 control room and 30m2 recording area were placed side by side, as opposed to the more usual front-to-back orientation. This opened up extra floor space, maintaining visual contact via a window between the recording room and control room, and freeing up space on the front baffle wall between the main studio monitors for a large video display. “When a concept is
simple, then the outcome is often efficient and harmonious,” says Weiss, who was given free rein in the design process. Construction team Ashok Interiors, also part of the Island City Studios team, was recruited to implement the sound isolation and acoustic interior design. Sound Wizard worked closely with Ashok, assisting in the interpretation of complex technical drawings and following up with onsite meetings. As with any Sound Wizard project, acoustic design aided by EASE simulation was key to unlocking the full potential of the space. “Transparency is the main goal of any recording studio design, and Lambodara Studios has multiple acoustic features that help it achieve this goal,” explains Weiss. This included the front baffle wall of the control room, which acts as a waveguide to redirect the energy from the flushmounted Quested Q412D three-way active studio monitors and QSB118 passive 18-inch subwoofers. The Mahadevans had heard the Quested monitors installed at Harris Jayaraj’s studio as well as at Island City, which sealed their decision. “I must have tested 10 or 12 monitors before picking them; I was after mastering grade monitors that were top notch,” says Siddharth. “The ones at Island City sounded so beautiful, and the top end and low end were so transparent and clean that we decided to go for Quested.” The system was supplied by Mumbai-based Rivera International, which recently took on Indian distribution for Quested, and was the company’s first order. “The Quested system, chosen in Tomato Red by Mr Mahadevan and Siddharth, was a great choice and sets the studio apart,” comments Rivera International CEO, Rajesh Sadarangani.
66 PRO AVL ASIA September–October 2020
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