Kimchee Records Control Room Acoustics

The control room at Kimchee Records in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the only room in the building without windows. To maintain an open atmosphere, they designed an open “A-Frame.” This looked great but created serious sound issues.

A single steel beam formed the horizontal element of the control room’s “A-Frame.” When the space was designed, the studio not only chose to keep the ceiling open, but they also wanted to highlight the ceiling with upward-pointing flood lights to make the room feel more spacious. They also knew, however, that they would have problems with the sloped ceiling focusing first reflections at the listening position, causing anything but a “focused” sound.

Sonically, the panels do exactly what Mr. Hong hoped they would do. All the usual words come to mind – tight, accurate, focused – without the room sounding too dead.