THE FABULOUS ROOM
TEC AWARD SUBMISSION
Designed by Lucas Medus @ Red House Acoustics
Reimagined from scratch late 2024 for award winning producer and engineer Fab Dupont, the Fabulous Room @ Flux Studios has rapidly become a choice spot for creative music makers such as Lorde, Asap Rocky, Andre 3000, Malcolm Todd, The Chainsmokers, Playboi Carti and many more.
THE AUDIO SETUP
Centered around a Kii3 + BXT monitoring system, driven by a Trinnov Nova monitor section, the Fabulous Room was designed around the flexibility of a 48 channel Apollo X Gen 2 rig with full Dante implementation to shapeshift from production to mixing room instantly.
Seven feet tall windows in front of the mixing position allow the sunlight to brighten the room by day and shine a light on the sought after hardware like vintage LA2a, and 1176 and Federal compressors, 70s Neve preamps as well as GML, SSL, Manley, Mercury, Chandler Dangerous Music, Neumann and API outboard.
At night the striking lighting design creates a warm and inspiring atmosphere illuminating the classic synths, including a Yamaha CS80, Prophet VS, Juno 106, ARP Omni, Korg Trident. Perfect for long bouts of creativity and introspection. All synthesizers in the Fabulous Room are instantly playable without patching audio or midi.
The Dante implementation and the 10g fiber network across the facility allows for quick scaling of the UA E2m cue system in case of session personnel swell and also allows to access resources from other rooms of the facility like the Mason & Hamlin or Steinway Grand pianos from the Dangerous or Inspiration rooms using UA E1x units.
All synthesizers in the Fabulous Room are instantly playable without patching audio or midi
Like every studio at Flux the Fabulous room features a variety of modern and classic gear including matching vintage 70s Neve preamps across the facility
THE VISUAL DESIGN PHASE
Studio designer Lucas Medus and his technical director Balthazar Loret visited New York City and after a thorough tour of Flux Studios facilities they took a of couple days to walk around the city to get inspired.
They came back the third day with two striking designs. After much debate by the team @ Flux, the 'tongue one' was voted in.
After looking at the 3d rendering, Fab had the intuition that a New York room with such a striking personality should become more than just his private production and mixing room, and quickly scribbled a 'niche' drawing to integrate the equipment rack more seamlessly and also allow for a permanent synth collection.
This 'niche' as well as the ceiling tongues were custom designed by Chris Murray @ CM-Woodcraft in NJ, who also handled the framing of the entire room before the Flux team installed the treatments and decoration.
The only ready-made pieces were the Vicoustic 'waves' that Lucas had spotted on the walls in the Revolution room during his Flux tour. He had the inspiration to make them the focal point of the ceiling's visual design. Those had to be flown in from Portugal since they were out of stock in the US.
Because NYC is NYC and it was not possible to dig troths to hide cables, the Red House team added a clever 'tall baseboard' on which the treatments rest and behind which all cables are hidden from view keeping the design very clean for an unraised floor.
And for the door, Fab decided to finally use the massive walk-in-fridge style door that was gifted to him by Duncan Sheik when Duncan left his Tribeca studio. The door had been sleeping in storage for the last 15 years. (you never know when you're going to need another 300 lbs door)
ACOUSTICAL DESIGN PHASE
Back in Paris, Lucas and his team drew up the blueprint for the new design. Because high level mixing was the primary use for the room, it was decided that sacrificing a little of the existing square footage in exchange for an essentially linear frequency response was worth it.
The 'long throw' quality of the existing structure allowed the team to work towards the holy grail for mixing rooms:
A space where the mixer in the chair and the clients on the couch hear the same thing. It also makes for a fantastic tracking room, as many artists have come to appreciate.
The Red House team achieved that 'grail' by applying their signature multi layer insulation/diffusion principle to the idiosyncrasies of the existing structure. The biggest challenge was that the French design team was used to working in metric and using materials easily sourced there, few of which were available in New York. So they reworked their system so the design could be built 100% with off the shelf materials from US home improvement stores.
Mixing position projection
Ceiling treatments
Front trap placement
Wall traps detail
Ceiling framework
Wall treatment layout
CONSTRUCTION PHASE
After a quick goodbye to the previous layout of the room, Chris Murray from CM Woodworks went to town and framed the precise Red House baseboard + insulation framework system.
Construction took a lot longer than planned (surprise) because Flux's neighboring flagship room, the Dangerous Room, stayed booked throughout the process, forcing breaks and extensive clean up job. As a result, the Fabulous Room was probably the cleanest construction site in the history of the known world.
The six custom tongues had to be built on the roof of the building for the same reason.
Old layout
Wall framework
Bare front of room
Ceiling framework
Bare back of room
Tongue one
DECORATION AND WRAP
After months of grunt work, it came time to put the final touches to the room. Acoustical Guilford of Maine fabric was installed to cover the insulation and diffusion system, The Vicoustic decorative Waves were attached, LEDs were installed to provide customizable ambient lighting. Furniture was brought in and swapped repeatedly until the proper feel was achieved.
COMPLETION AND LIGHTS ON
'If you build it, they will come' said Kevin Costner in Field Of Dreams. And so they did.
With construction done and the dust settled, the Fabulous Room has seen a flurry of highly creative activity, including:
-Production and vocal tracking for the latest Lorde single 'What Was That'
-Malcolm Todd tracking his full band, drums included, in the room for his latest album 'Malcolm Todd'
-ASAP Rocky and Playboi Carti tracking vocals
-The Chainsmokers holding synth production session for their current project
-And Fab Dupont mixing Andre 3000's '7 Little Piano Sketches', Bad Bunny's 'Weltita' off the critically acclaimed 'Debi Tirar Mas Fotos' album as well as his latest single 'AP", Rauw Alejandro's single 'Carita Linda' and singles for Theophilus London. Dizzy Fae, ADORE, Christian Castro, Lolo Zouai and many others.
