McCallie Music Studio is a very special music facility. The live room offers some of the best natural acoustics for recording in St. Louis. The entire structure was designed and built from the ground up specifically for the purpose of capturing the absolute best possible sounds a musician can create. Making a great recording begins with the source being recorded, but it takes more than top quality instruments, microphones, and musicians to capture the sonic breadth of a musical performance.

The acoustics of McCallie Music Studio have been engineered to beautify naturally acoustic instruments such as singers, guitars, strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and can accommodate any sort of electronically amplified band instrumentation.

The live room at McCallie Music Studio is where the majority of recordings take place. This room is technically classified as a medium sized live room, roughly 30’ long, 12’ wide, and 12’ tall. The ceiling has a custom built second set of rafters for enhanced acoustics using a gambrel shaped roof to avoid a parallel surface between the floor and ceiling, which eliminates many of the acoustic problems common in other studios.

All of the walls, ceiling, flooring, and even the door are floating surfaces, meaning the transmission of vibrations from sound is almost undetectable throughout the structure. The live room uses 2 layers of 5/8” drywall on the walls, ceiling, and door, separated by a layer of an advanced acoustic dampening product called Green Glue.

Both layers of drywall are mounted to resilient channel that is hung from Whisper Clips, which combine to create a roughly 1.5” air gap between the drywall and wall studs. R13 insulation is used under the floors and behind the walls and ceiling, as well as additional insulation beneath the building. What all of this isolation between layers means is that the entire room is able to move and vibrate like an instrument such as a guitar or violin. The space and separation allow all of the interior surfaces to expand and contract freely in response to music, without creating any noise whatsoever that could interfere with a recording.

The live room of McCallie Music Studio is capable of tracking groups up to the size of a big band. The acoustics of the room are tunable so that even a large horn section, drum set, and amplified bass, guitar, piano, and vocals do not overwhelm the space. Acoustic foam padding is used to eliminate early reflections and high frequency ringing by absorption. Broadband bass traps diffuse, reflect, and absorb excessive mid and low frequencies. The acoustics can also be tuned to enhance a natural reverb that is amazingly live to the point of sounding much like playing in a large cathedral or performance hall.

In addition to great sound, this studio also keeps comfort in mind featuring Daikin ductless mini splits that quietly and automatically switches between hot and cold settings to maintain a comfortable temperature an addition to managing humidity for consistent comfort for instruments and performers. Since the live room is sound proof and air tight, we also use a Panasonic Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) to bring exchange inside air for fresh oxygen.