I decided to build some moveable gobos for the studio. The room is big, so it gets a little too reverby for voice-over sessions. The idea was to make some fold-up screens that I could store in the garage when I wasn't using them and I could pull them out when I was recording interviews or spoken stuff (I'll be producing several high-end podcasts for clients soon). But these ended up being so cool, that I actually just left them in the room using them as absorption pillars behind my monitors. They really tighten up the room from the control position without dampening the overall ambience of the room. Plus, they give the control area more visual separation. I also ended up using some of the diffusers I had left over from the last studio. I mounted them on 2'x4' boards and attached them to the front wall with hinges suspended by chains so they can be pivoted down.



Here's the overall look:



The gobos are so simple to build and they're dirt cheap compared to other solutions. I think I spent a total of $180 for four screens. They are made from basic luan bi-fold doors, which I stained cherry, and then glued 2" pyramid foam to the backs of the doors. They can be folded up for storage, stand alone as pillars (which partly absorbs and partly diffuses sound), or opened up and propped up as complete absorptive screens when I'm doing commercial voice work. Here they are in pillar mode behind my monitors:



And from the back...



So, when I drop the diffuser clouds all the way down (so they are horizontal), I can put these screens around the table under the diffuser clouds and get some decent isolation from the rest of the room. I spray-painted the diffusers a metallic silver to match the floor, lights and desk:



So basically, I've turned my studio into a Transformer. How rock and/or roll is that? :)

I also built some new speaker stands for my little auratone monitors (which you can see two photos up on the silly classical-greek plant stand). These are wood and position the monitors at console level angled up at my head. I'll post photos of them later, but I need to finish staining them and put a tongue oil finish on *lick lick*. Then I'm pretty much done with the furnishings. Time to move on to that which I've been avoiding... wiring up the console. Close to 300 solder points!!! *groan*