Recently, completed, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra called on leading recording engineer/producers Tim Martyn and Shawn Murphy to upgrade the control room that has long served as the technical hub for its recording, broadcast and streaming.
With a tight time frame and technical constraints, Martyn and Murphy turned to the Walters-Storyk Design Group as architectural and acoustical collaborators.
Marc Geelhoed, chief of the CSO’s CSO Resound record label chose the pairing of multiple Grammy winner and owner of Phoenix Audio, Martyn (who has also served as Technical Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival for 30 years) and Oscar and Grammy-winning, film-scoring engineer Murphy, who has worked with such artists as James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman and John Williams on films ranging from The Bourne Legacy, Star Wars and Indiana Jones to Jurassic Park.
‘I’ve worked with John Storyk on a number of studio projects, and knew they had the creative skills and technical knowhow to redesign CSO’s control room within the limited construction window and budget allotted for this critical turnaround,’ Martyn says.
WSDG Project Manager Matthew Ballos made the initial site visit, and found the CSO’s 320 SF control room an immediate inspiration: ‘John Storyk and I agreed that the path to reconfiguring this 16-ft wide x 20-ft long room was to change its orientation from centre line (rear wall) access to right rear corner. Shifting the position of the entrance immediately enabled us to improve the sweet spot; introduce a comfortable client work area, and develop additional space to accommodate the CSO’s active CD duplication service for conductors and guest artists.’
In addition to creating a custom suspended ceiling cloud and wall treatments, WSDG supervised custom millwork for the mixing desk and related cabinetry.
Designed to accommodate live recording, broadcast, streaming and postproduction, the new CSO control room and recording system features Merging Technologies’ Pyramix DAWs and Horus Mic preamps and converters; a Yamaha DM2000 console; and B&W and Classé Monitors and power amplifiers. The orchestra also took the opportunity to upgrade its microphone inventory, adding mics from Schoeps, Sennheiser and Neumann.
‘We could not be more pleased with the vastly improved appearance and functionality of our control room,’ Geelhoed reports. ‘Tim and Shawn coordinated a remarkable team effort and the room is a success on every level. Our listeners and fans will clearly benefit as much as our technical staff from this new facility.’
‘As an ardent enthusiast of classical music, I have an abiding love for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and their inspirational Music Director, Riccardo Muti,’ John
Storyk adds. ‘We were honored to contribute to this important project.’
