Renowned for plug-ins that replicate classic mixing console channel strips and analogue outboard equipment, as well as virtual instruments, Germany company Brainworx called on Dennis Busch from Acoustic Spaces to build a new studio control room at the company’s Langenfeld headquarters. The brief was for a critical listening environment to support the plug-in design process.

Busch partnered with acoustic research and software development company REDIacoustics, use AI-driven Niro [Non-Cuboid Iterative Room Optimizer] software to determine both the acoustic geometry of the space and the listening environment.

With the geometry of the room determined, REDIacoustics’ Tora [Treatment Optimization for Room Acoustics] process was used to provide Busch with project-specific acoustic treatment for the studio.

‘When you combine the processes of optimising the acoustic geometry of a room and designing the acoustic treatments required to achieve that optimisation, the results are much more accurate to the predictions and you get better sounding rooms,’ says REDIacoustics co-founder PK Pandey. ‘We work directly with our end-users and studio designers to determine exactly what each project needs and provide them with materials that deliver the results of our simulations exactly.’

Completed and put into use by Busch and his team within three months, the Brainworx studio project exceeded the expectations of its designer and of its end-users. ‘It is a completely new room-in-room, designed by Dennis, optimised by us, and built for them that is the centrepiece of everything they do,’ Pandey says. ‘They have to spend hours and hours in there fine-tuning their plug-ins against the hardware that inspires them, so it was extremely important that there be no compromise on the comfort, ergonomics, or acoustics of the space.’

‘Working with REDIacoustics made this possible,’ Busch reflects. ‘The staff are all musicians, like me, so there’s an immediate bond there that ensures the project gets done correctly. They all understand the value of sound and how important combined disciplines are to make a project work. Niro and Tora take the painful part of this process away.’