Producer/engineers and long-time friends, Max Arnold and Francisco Oroz have been stalwarts of Ciudad Obregon’s music scene for several decades, recently seeing an opportunity to better serve the city’s musical talent. They the need for a world-class recording studio and teamed up to found Sonic Den – a facility that would both keep the area’s talent closer to home and meet their standards of excellence.
Arnold and Oroz brought on global acoustic consulting and A/V integration firm WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group) to fulfil their ambition.
The lack of a similar facility had seen Arnold and Oroz travel to facilities in Mexico City, Guadalajara and the US for professional recording and audio production services during their formative years as musicians. This experience gave the pair a strong desire to build a similar infrastructure for Ciudad Obregon’s thriving musical scene.
‘Ciudad Obregon has a lot of musicians for its size, but they always had to go elsewhere to make it,’ Arnold says. ‘Francisco and I believe that the city’s talent deserved a world-class space so when we got together on Sonic Den our ambitions for the studio were high even if we weren’t entirely sure what was possible.’
Choosing to build the studio on a 1,500m2 lot that Arnold owned, they found kindred spirits in WSDG. ‘We knew they were the ones for Sonic Den instantly because they took the time to get to know us and understand our dreams for the studio,’ Arnold says. ‘Sergio and Silvia Molho encouraged us to design something beyond anything we had initially imagined.’
‘Almost all studios are built into existing spaces, which can create difficulties and compromises when you are trying to implement the design,’ explains WSDG Partner, Sergio Molho. ‘With Sonic Den we had a blank canvas to design a recording studio from the ground up that would encompass all of their recording and audio production needs – and more.’
Directed by WSDG Partner, Art Director Silvia Molho, the WSDG Design Team, comprised Director of Production Leandro Kirjner, Senior Project Manager Mariana Varon, and Project Manager Esther Roger. Jointly, they presented Arnold and Oroz with a plan that encompassed all technical, acoustic and design aspects of the studio. Its futuristic-yet-warm aesthetic feel consisting of a royal blue colour scheme offset by wood panelling throughout the facility was designed to ensure that the studio would feel like a home-away-from-home for anyone working there.
‘The studio quickly expanded to include a lounge with a kitchen, dining area, terrace and coordination offices in addition to the control and live rooms,’ says Silvia Molho. ‘All of these spaces were designed to be both comfortable and practical with variable lighting provided by the Phillips Hue System to give Max and Francisco complete control of the mood of each space.’
The audio production spaces were designed to the highest technical and acoustic standards, and consist of a large live room, a pair of ISO booths, and a control room. The live room was designed specifically to track full ensembles all at once with generous space for drum recording. It also features a painted mural by Mexican American artist Teddy Kelly. The control room features a Slate Digital Raven MTZ Console and Pro Tools DAW, with ATC and Yamaha Monitors, as well as a Dolby Atmos for Music certified immersive production set-up that uses 13 Genelec loudspeakers, suiting it to live tracking, mixing and mastering, in both stereo and 9.1.4.
A/V systems integration design was performed by WSDG’s Senior Systems Designer Federico Paez, and Final Tuning by Sound Engineer David Molho. ‘We couldn’t believe our ears the first time we mixed and mastered a song in the studio,’ Arnold reports. ‘We’re both very picky about sound quality and just found ourselves loving the sounds immediately. Francisco turned to me and said, ‘I’ve never been as happy with a mix as I am right now.’’
With a slate of recording and audio postproduction projects lining up, Arnold says Sonic Den has raised the bar for professional recording facilities in Ciudad Obregon. ‘Our city deserves bigger things, and this studio feels like a big step in the right direction,’ he says. ‘We’re very grateful to WSDG for expanding our horizons on what was possible. We’re able to do everything we ever wanted and more here – it’s truly a dream come true.’
