Operations

As I said at the top, SkyRoom is sort of a quintessential MIDI studio. It's really a one-man operation, and he pretty much built it solo too. He does his own maintenance, struggles with the problems (he's had some corkers, particularly with software), and just plugs away. His equipment complement has been acquired over the years, which accounts for the broad array of synths. Years of scuffling taught him what was really important in the studio business, and he concentrates on the pieces and the ambience that (a) allow him to get the work out, and (b) give the clients comfort and confidence.

From my standpoint, the biggest limitation to the studio would seem to be the monitoring. The room is quite small and monitoring is restricted to Tannoy and Yamaha In-Yer-Face® monitors. There's a fair amount of high-frequency absorption, and some diffusers on the rear wall. Acoustically the room is moderately quiet. With the equipment on, the level is 39 dBA SPL. With the equipment off, that level drops to 34 dBA SPL. These are not stellar figures, but perfectly workable and remarkable for the investment and location.

The response of the Tannoys, in the room, as read with an octave-band Ivie Spectrum Analyzer from 3 feet, is typical for installed small monitors, with a somewhat over-emphasized upper mid-range and rolled off bottom end. Room EQ is used to cope with some perceived anomalies in the space.

	Measured octave-band pink noise response of a single installed Tannoy System 8 at 3 feet, using an Ivie RTA.

Again, this is a workable response curve, particular for the size of the room and the nature of the monitors themselves. In fact, to me, the room sounds bright, a little hard, and it reveals considerable sonic detail. When Dave played me some work, I had no trouble picking out various elements in the mix, and things sounded focused and reasonably accurate. More to the point, Dave has his ears grooved in to the room, and seems able to produce a broad range of work, from jingles to religious choral music to OMNIMAX soundtracks, with comfort and ease.