Client
Neil Finn
Location
Auckland
Completion date
2007
Neil Finn's world class recording facility, Roundhead Studios, is housed in the historic Fountain of Friendship building on the edge of Auckland's inner city. The large stud height allowed sufficient space to build Studio A and the associated isolation booths and control room, and fully isolated floating floor and wall system.
The Finn Brothers had worked in US studios designed by George Ausburger and Neil engaged him to carry out the initial concept design work. Marshall Day Acoustics was engaged to carry out the detailed acoustic design and noise control engineering.
Recording Room
Neil wanted to retain the existing west-facing glass to provide a natural environment without the "bunker" feel of the typical studio. This places stringent requirements on the design of the acoustic glazing. Background noise levels from both the very busy road and the air-conditioning systems are extremely low. The main recording room is a beautiful sounding space, with a medium to live sound in its natural state and with the ability to deaden the room significantly with large areas of curtain if required.
Control Room
Neil does not like the look of the typical quadratic residue diffuser used in many control rooms and so Marshall Day designed cylindrical diffusers for the rear wall which provide a warm and accurate sound within the control room. The room is topped off with Augsburger designed giant main monitors and a 1974 Neve 8088 mixing desk originally built for The Who.
Roundhead is one of the best studios there is. The equipment and environment is as good as it gets and the people working there really do know what they’re doing and do a great job
