The Street Factory Story in Pictures & Words

The 2^nd Evolution of The Street Factory

As one can see, I still had the Teac 4-track cassette recorder, but now I was stylin!!! I had added a Tascam 238 8 track Cassette Recorder and an Alesis 1622 four-buss mixing console. This was when I became totally obsessed with getting "toys": rack gear-anythings: compressors, multi-effects units; equalizers etc...I did a lot of personal recordings, probably 1000 of my own songs and then I began to offer up my "Project Studio" to the public. I did demos for David Fraser, Beth Forrester, Nancy Fastner and others. I quickly became a GEAR JUNKIE and there was no turning back. Next stop: My first multi-room commercial studio -

 

The 3^rd Evolution of the Street Factory

Now that’s more like it !!! I moved to Bridgeport - 5 houses from Chicago’s own Mayor, Richard M. Daley and I built my first studio from the ground up. Yup. Everything from scratch and I was going to learn the hard way!!! I had a large raw space to work with, and only my day job and credit cards to fund the project..

Now, having come this far, I wasn’t going to let low ceilings and two feet of mud and sludge-like garbage stand in my way. The studio had it’s own private entrance and to me, that was a good enough start. There was a huge space heater and chimney stack in the middle of the entrance way and beyond that, the coast was clear, if you could get past the sludge-like mess on the floor...........

After a month of cleaning and hauling away debris, the raw space was ready for conversion. No Russ Berger Design. Walters-Storyk Group, forget it. I had the Ken Barnard Design factory built into my l’il ole head and I knew exactly what to do, or, in hindsight, at least I thought I did.

I built a room within a room; 2x4's , single sided drywall and lots of insulation. I carpeted the walls and the floor. I loaded up the ceiling with insulation, Celotex Soundboard, Drywall and Cover ed it all with carpeting. I added a extra-wide entrance door to the studio, from the outside "Foyer" and I thought I was ready to rock.

I finished the foyer and added a bathroom and I was set to go. OOOOPPSS! I forgot about the control room!!!

The projects began rolling in, thanks in large part to KEVIN BIBBS and in spite of my own ignorance to Facility Design. Needless to say, the acoustics weren’t so great. Isolation was nonexistent and the 6 foot ceilings lent strange character to the recordings. In spite of that, we perserved.

When all was said and done I had my first "real" studio. No more closets or bedrooms. The studio had its own private entrance way and a comfortable Foyer with a private bathroom (Very important!!!). There was a large storage area for extra gear, (can you ever have too much gear?) a control room and a live tracking room. The isolation between the control room and tracking room pretty much sucked, but I began to learn more and more about recording through trial and error. Malcolm Chisholm and Murray Allen’s schooling and tutelage helped enormously. I started collecting tube amps and microphones, as well as any other gear I could find. I was picking up different pieces weekly and going broke...We had a Ramsa Four-Buss console with 2 black face ADATS and a Tascam DAT machine for mixdown. Oh yeah, I had a pretty good outboard rack by then as well. I still have most of the Tube Amps and I have all of the microphones. Take a look at the GEAR section to see more of those. In this studio, I recorded work for VocalPoynt, Kevin Bibbs, Paul Edelstein, Ron Shanaver and the All Bubba Blues Band. Most notably, VOCALPOYNT’’S Accapella version of The Grateful Dead’s "BIRDSONG”. It was a great learning experience. Some of the recordings were actually quite good.!!! Next Stop: The Big Time!!! The Street Factory goes Downtown.!!!

The 4^th Evolution of the Street Factory

By now, I was a complete, certifiable, gear junkie. I was buying new toys left and right. Tube Mics, Tube Amps, High Priced Effects and Dynamics Processors. I was going to have a state of the art facility, even if I went broke in the process. Talk about obsession!!!

I added a 2" 24 track machine, a STUDER A827 to my ADATS and an SSL 4048 Console and the transformation was complete. Now, I had everything I had ever wanted, or so I thought—.

Did I mention that the studio’s ceilings were only six feet tall. Yup, that was a problem - Kevin Bibbs was 6'4'’; many of my clients were six feet tall ot taller. I had everything I wanted except enough headroom, literally. I knew another move was in sight. Next stop the Street Factory gets a New Home.

I moved to the far Northwest corner of Chicago, at the border of Niles and Chicago. My family and I moved into a home that had been divided into a two flat. The 1st floor became our home - the second floor became an apartment we rented out and I had the entire lower level to do with what I wanted. No more six foot ceilings!!!

There were a few problems. First, the lower level was totally raw - except for a free-standing shower stall smack dab in the middle of the room!!! Next, there was only rough plumbing. No electrical outlets and finally, no walls or ceilings. Once again, I would have a chance to build a studio from the ground up. This time, having graduated from the "School of Hard Knocks", I hired acoustical contractors to help build the studio. The studio would be three rooms plus: a live room for tracking, an isolation room for Vocal Over-Dubs and a comfortable control room.

The Street Factory’s 4^th Evolution

Ok, First things First. out with that shower stall! As a matter of fact, out with everything that was down there. Glass Block windows replaced the old windows. The ceiling was mostly exposed joists, with a small amount of drywall covering one section. Everything was torn out and thrown away. Even that poor, misplaced shower stall!!!

Another room within a room was built. The walls were constructed as designed, with staggered double 2X4's, two layers of Drywall de-coupled by Resiliant Channel strips. The walls were insulted and finished with beautiful, recycled tongue and grove pine paneling. The ceiling was done also according to design: Acoustic Insulation filled the joists and the ceiling was sealed with PROSPEC VINYL BARRIER. Drywall was hung from RC strips and covered in an aesthetically pleasing sound absorbent material.

Next up was the Control Room and its’ entrance. The walls were built along similar lines as the other walls; the wall were de-coupled and the door frame and jamb were also de-coupled. Borrowing from some of the things that worked in the previous studio, I carpeted the upper half of the wall in two sections in the control room, after creating an air gap between the wall and the carpet. I even re-cycled some of the carpet from the old studio. I wasn’t going to let all of those materials go to waste!!! Finally, The all-important glass panels were custom made to size by a local building supply contractor. Double paned, angled glass, with a gas-filled air space between each piece, sealed at all exposed points. Two panels provide clear sight lines between the control room and the tracking room. AAAHHHH, now things were coming together.......

The electrical circuits were wired into their own separate circuits from all of the other pre-existing circuits in the building and each outlet in the studio was fitted with specially grounded, isolated, and filtered outlets. Each of those outlets power separate banks of TRIPP LITE ISOBAR ULTRA Surge protector/EMI/RFI filtered outlets. The power was regulated and clean; no more annoying ground loops and only some occasional electrical weirdness.

The tie-lines and microphone break out boxes were pre-cut before the last bass traps were fitted and provided all the access necessary to run cables throughout the studio.

Last up were the doors and door jambs, and a TEF analysis of the rooms. Nothing new here with the doors; solid core oak with double jambs and full rubber sealant around the entire framing. The control room door is where I got sentimental, if not downright economically practical.

Back in Bridgeport, I had to have a custom door built because the ceiling was so low. LEE LUMBER, located here in Chicago, constructed a solid Birch door with a double hang jamb set. It was extra wide, VERY, VERY HEAVY & QUITE EXPENSIVE. So, I took the door with me and had it installed as the entrance to the control room. Yup, very thoughtful & utilitarian of me................

Only one problem, the door is only 5 feet 7" inches tall!!!! Well, the door works great and serves it purpose just fine, but almost EVERYONE has hit their head on it at one time or another.......

The final touches were acoustical treatment. The rooms were analyzed with a TEF Techron Analyzer and a mixture of 4" SONEX PANELS, 4" PYRAMID FOAM PANELS, 12" DEEP WEDGE PANELS and AURALEX LENRD BASS TRAPS provided a good balance of absorbency & diffusion. The rooms were not perfect, but they sounded very good and I learned to live with some of the acoustic anomalies as time went on.

Last thing to do was fill the rooms with toys!!!!!!!! AAAHHH, my favorite subject: GEAR!!!! Go to the GEAR section to read more on this.
 

    

   

  

Today, The Street Factory continues to grow. We have completed many, many projects, recorded many artists, done thousands of jingles and have experienced much joy as the business continues to grow. We are on our 7th evolution and will have pictures of all of the 5th and 6th facilities up in the near future. Our latest expansion has been the addition of a completely new VIDEO POST PRODUCTION FACILITY! I will add that there are several things and several people that I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to: God/The Lord/whatever you want to call that higher power –– that I am so fortunate to have in my life; my Mom for Monday nights; my Dad for helping me to learn right from wrong and for all of his love, help and support as The Street Factory, Inc., continues to grow and, most of all, my son Kyle –– the inspiration and guiding light that helps keep me moving forward when nothing else can.

Yours In Spirit,

Kenneth S. Barnard

President/Owner
The Street Factory, Inc.