An all-new high-end recording studio in Mexico is turning heads for all sorts of
reasons. Uncompromising acoustic design, audio quality, and technology choices
have come together to make Valenzo Studios a showcase for modern facility
design. To underline this, the studio has been nominated in the 32nd TEC Awards
Studio Design Project category. Of course, the SSL Duality δelta console at the
heart of Valenzo Studios is a perfect fit.

Valenzo Studios started out as a simple space for Owner / Musician / Producer
Cesar Valenzo and his family to rehearse in. Early on in the process however, Cesar
contacted Producer / Engineers Ignacio Sotelo and Carlos Gonzalez of Weird Sound
to discuss the idea of doing something more professional. “When we all sat down
and discussed the possibility of building a studio we explored all possibilities,
explains Sotelo, “…From a small home studio setup, to what we have now – a
complete professional, commercial facility.”

The team sought out the services of renowned architecture, acoustics, and technical
systems design company, the Malvicino Design Group, headed up by Horacio
Malvicino. Malvicino himself worked with them on preliminary plans, and then took
those plans into a more intense design phase. “It’s a relatively small space, but it’s
very well planned,” he comments. “They were very receptive to ideas and we did a
lot of planning and design work – there were several revisions of the drawings.

The studio features the main control room, a live room, and an isolation booth on
the first floor, with plenty of natural light and good views between those spaces.
Above that is an office, lounge area, and machine room. The studio rooms are
floated and completely isolated – a necessary feature as noise levels outside the
studio were a particular concern. The live room features the Malvicino Group’s
variable acoustic panels, which yield an RT60 range of 0.7 to 1.2 seconds.

The installed SSL console is a 24-channel Duality Delta analogue hybrid console in a
48-channel Pro-Station (wrap-around) frame, which leaves room for future
expansion.

2016 has already been a successful year for Valenzo Studios. Word has quickly
spread about the room and the facilities, and the studio has been busy. Valenzo
himself has been surprised at the response: “At the beginning it was mostly
independent Mexican artists, friends, and so on,’ he says. “That began to grow
quickly, and now we have some label deals, working with their artists and
producers. For our first year we can’t believe how much work we’re getting.

“A short term goal is to position the studio as one of the primary production places
in Mexico – helping all the Mexican productions to a better level. A mid to long term
goal would be to see whole productions, from the start to the finish, through the
studio and make that output commercially viable.”