July 6

Building a new studio: Copilco Productions 2.0

Good times ahead! We’re building a new studio. While it’s constantly getting harder to find great spaces for arts and music in Berlin, I’ve finally managed to get a wonderful new room.

It’s located in the so-called Gaswerkesiedlung, next to the famous Funkhaus. While the studio build is still going on, I’m sharing some behind the scenes footage with you.

The story so far

Building a new studio-01
This is what the space originally looked like.
Building a new studio-02
Very promising room dimensions.

The unit was in a very worn-down condition when we decided to move in. A completely destroyed wooden floor (covered with the famous “Ochsenblut”), ugly painted egg-yellow doors, and dirty walls. It was a mess, but you could already estimate the room’s potential. Its dimensions are very promising (speaking from an acoustic’s perspective) and it just felt like home to me from the very first minute.

Building a new studio-03
Removing ugly paint from old doors is a pain in the ass.

First of all, we decided to remove the ugly paint from all the doors and frames. We expected this to take a few days, but it actually turned into several weeks of trial and error. Man, this old paint (in several layers) is a nightmare! Pro tip: Always use breathing protection, this stuff is hazardous as hell.

Building a new studio-05
Happy floor grinder.

Next was the wooden floor. We rented some heavy machinery and completely refurbished the beautiful old floorboards. Pro tip: Don’t try to do this with the usual tools you have at home. It’s definitely something that requires professional equipment. The good news: You can learn how to do this pretty fast (thanks to YouTube, haha).

Building a new studio-06
50% done…

After several rounds of cleaning (which completely killed our vacuum cleaner), we started painting the walls. I went for grey with a touch of blue. It was a pure gut decision but I’m still very happy with how it turned out.

The process of building a new studio has been very demanding but also exciting so far. I’ve learned a lot of new skills and let’s be honest: We all want to play with heavy construction machines, right? 😉

Building a new studio-07
Fluffy.
Building a new studio-08
This stuff is NOT cheap.
Building a new studio-09
Finally,…
Building a new studio-10
Yep, strange door placement.

Up next: Room acoustics

In the next weeks, we’ll be designing and crafting room acoustics. This is probably the hardest but also the most rewarding part of building a new studio: Calculating, taking measurements, choosing materials, and actually building something that looks amazing. Watch this space, there’s gonna be more behind the scenes stuff coming up!


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