in property management and construction,
they needed a fairly large space for storage,
so the shed was fairly substantial. It also hap-
pened to be Butty’s first recording space.
“It had various tools and construc-
tion stuff in it, but also a separate room
built mainly for the purposes of the bands
that I was in – a jam space that eventually
became a studio. It wasn’t high tech or
anything, but it was pretty cool and a great
space to experiment,” he explains. “So when
we decided to get back into it, we decided
to renovate the big, blue shed,” he continues.
“It wasn’t being heated and I hadn’t used
it for years. The floor had heaved up in a
couple of places, so I rented a jackhammer,
ripped up the floor, and used the concrete
as a base for the driveway.”
After pulling out all the drywall and
insulation, however, Butty and Leslie re-
alized that the structure and foundation
itself were no longer viable and that they
were in for more than a reno and refit.
Consequently, their intended gut job
became a total rebuild and a far more
LIVE ROOM
complex project.
That said, the end result is a beautiful
space – one that, in terms of its setting
and construction, is reminiscent of some
of the iconic Canadian destination studios
of the past.
And while they’re very excited about
the finished product, Leslie admits that
excitement doesn’t accurately capture
their initial feeling upon discovering how
much work lay ahead. But although the
scope of the project was daunting, the
pair also recognized that it offered them a
unique opportunity to create a recording
environment built from the ground up to
Butty’s specifications.
What followed was, as Butty and
Leslie refer to it, a “two-year adventure,”
but one that was worth every step. “Once
the building was torn down and we had
to start from scratch, it was, ‘If you could
have your dream studio – exactly what
you imagine – what would that be?’” Leslie
says. “And that was exciting and also in-
timidating at the same time.”
“The vision, primarily, was to have a space
that was warm, welcoming, and acoustical-
ly sound,” Butty shares – “something that
had ambience to it as far as the live room
was concerned, but not out of control.”
The idea was to create an inspiring
space – one that reflected and took ad-
vantage of the cottage vibe of the setting
while also incorporating a large enough live
room to accommodate a full band when
necessary and built specifically for tracking
drums.
Butty and Leslie hired PJK Construc-
tion to oversee the build, who put them in
touch with Tom Anema, the namesake of
local architecture firm Anema Group, to
draw up the initial plans. “Both Tom and
PJK generally do barns and that sort of
thing, which was perfect because that’s
the sort of structure and shell we wanted,”
Leslie shares.
“Acoustically, I needed some height,
so I asked Tom to draw up some sketches,”
Butty puts in. “The height is about 21 ft. in
the live room area and 14.5 ft. in the control
room and lounge.”
While Butty has a background in con-
struction and definitely knows his way
around a job site, he decided to tap a pro-
fessional studio designer to bring his vision
to life within the newly-constructed struc-
ture. “A friend suggested Mark Hunziker of
Audiospace Ltd.,” he says. “Andrea and I met
Mark in Toronto and we hit it off, so we went
from there.”
Hunziker worked closely with Butty to
come up with the design for the live and
control rooms in order to achieve the de-
sired layout and acoustic character for the
two spaces. Once that was complete, PJK
returned to handle the actual studio con-
struction, though Hunziker took on some of
the more specialized components himself
– for example, the control room ceiling and
diffusers. He also built the frames for the
various acoustic treatments, which Butty
and Leslie then put together and painted
for Hunziker to eventually install.
Butty and Hunziker also handled the
control room floor, which boasts “room
within a room” construction, isolated via
floating Neoprene pucks. There was no
need to isolate the live room in the same
way because exterior noise sources are
pretty much limited to birds and weather,
“so that just wasn’t worth the extra ex-
pense,” Butty notes.
With that done, PJK came back to
continue the project. “They’re a bunch of
really great fellas,” Leslie puts in, “and they
were very interested and excited because
building a studio was something they’d
never done before. It’s nice that they were
game for it because we already had an es-
tablished relationship with them.”
PROFESSIONAL SOUND • 27