For Part 1 , covering the plans and early building phases of Songsbury Studios , read the February 2023 issue of Professional Sound . To get you caught up , PS is following producer / songwriter Mathew Teofilo ( Diplo , Miley Cyrus , Madonna ) as he builds his first commercial studio . Famed studio designer Martin Pilchner ( Pilchner Schoustal ) helped design the state-of-theart facility near Toronto . When completed , the 3,200-sq . -ft . facility will feature a 1,300-sq . -ft . recording studio , a control room with a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup , live room with 20-ft . ceiling , isolation booth , artist lounge , and kitchenette on the main floor . Upstairs will be a private and isolated podcast studio and office .

“ I ’ ve had to delay so many different things , aside from my clients who I ’ ve had to delay for over a year , and they ’ re wanting to record their records . I ’ m surprised and grateful that a lot of them didn ’ t walk and go somewhere else in the meantime ,” Teofilo tells Professional Sound . “ In some ways , I think , [ building a studio ] is kind of like making a record . Sometimes you have people that are like , ‘ Okay , I have this deadline .’ But in reality , 99 % of our projects never meet the deadline , and that ’ s because there are so many moving parts , and you just don ’ t realize

all the details . Finished details are one thing , which is like what colour your walls or your trim will be , or the style of those doors , and a lot of that tends to be fun , right ? But on this project , it ’ s crazy how many details are built within the walls and are never going to be seen . And those details are so crucial to keeping the sound in or out . All that was probably the biggest eye opener .”

Since our last conversation in late 2022 , Teofilo made the tough call to change some of the crew working on the studio . In fact , being “ the boss ” is one of the biggest lessons of this process for the producer .

“ I ’ ve learned a lot , just on the business side of things , because you are dealing with different trades , and you ’ re dealing with people where sometimes there are discrepancies in some of their work . I ’ m used to people calling out my work , but it ’ s another thing to be the owner that starts to call out other people and have people working under you . Because going from a home studio to this is a very different kind of situation . So , in some ways , that ’ s probably been one of the best preparations

in terms of moving forward and knowing that there ’ s going to be other people working in the studio with me , for me , and that sort of thing . It gave me life lessons , and I think that ’ s probably the biggest lesson out of everything .”

Another requirement of the project , Teofilo has found , is the need to understand all aspects of the design .

“ You have to understand the reasoning behind everything with the build . I think that it starts from there , like understanding why the rooms are isolated from each other ? Why are they floating off the floor ? Why are they not strapped to any exterior walls or to each other ? Then one question just leads to another 20 questions . The one thing I found helpful was that I just went down deep rabbit holes on everything and asked a lot of questions .”

So now , let ’ s share more of Teofilo ’ s photos from the latest phase of the build , and he offers some insight into the project . Next issue , we ’ ll unveil the finished studio , and give a rundown of the gear and technology it ’ ll be outfitted with .

30 PROFESSIONAL SOUND