Inside The Epic Synth Lair Of Deadmau5

Media facility design firm Pilchner Schoustal recently completed a new project – to design a new studio for EDM artist Joel Zimmerman (aka Deadmau5).

The home studio offers an amazing collection of synths and houses them in a carefully designed acoustic space. 

Pilchner Schoustal had the challenge of converting a former master bedroom into the new studio. This had the advantage of being a large room with high ceilings and the benefit of two attached spaces, now repurposed as an isolation booth and dedicated machine room.

Interesting features:

  • The monster synth collection includes huge modular systems and vintage and modern keyboards.
  • Custom made racking system, designed to accommodate the synthesizer collection with integrated cable management and power solution.
  • The room design is centered around the main monitoring system, consisting of a stereo pair of flush mounted ATC 300 speakers.
  • The room boundaries are designed with controlled reflection geometry.
  • The room also incorporates a 5.1 and 7.1 mid field surround system as well as a fully calibrated 11.3 Dolby Atmos system.
  • The front and back ceiling of the control room include large low frequency absorption assemblies. The rear wall feature two large window systems, one to the isolation booth and one to the machine room. The glazing system is angled vertically to redirect reflected energy into the rear ceiling trap as well as two rear floor traps, finished with perforated stainless steel covers.
  • The studio spaces are built on dedicated floating floors and integrate a very extensive cabling system that connects every space in the studio.

via Pilchner Schoustal

63 thoughts on “Inside The Epic Synth Lair Of Deadmau5

    1. Yeah it’s always the same when there’s famous people studio pictures, they are taken with pro camera but resized down really small… exactly the same each time…

  1. I would get a bit depressed with such a studio. Too much gear to master.. You will always have the feeling that you can’t really get the best out of each and every instrument.

    1. way to try to hate on the guy in an indirect way. im sure he stays awak all night worrying about mastering everything he has

  2. doesn’t seem like a room conducive to drinking a beer and enjoying oneself with some synthesizers.

    what’s that dual manual synth in the center command spot?

    1. Looks a lot like a Prophet 10, truly a synthesizer to murder for.

      Is my eyesight finally becoming a casualty of my age, or does he have three different versions of the Minimoog Voyager?

  3. I bet he rotates synthesizers onto one of those tables on the center in order to make parameter tweaking easier. With that may synthesizers the distance between them makes all in one control with a DAW impossible. You simply can’t put them all next the the DAW, thus the travel time becomes a real issue. Has anyone figured out how to have a “sub DAW” that could be situated say next to his rack of Moog XL? Can you network a DAW and remote control stuff? Can you add addition screens that could mirror the main DAW?

  4. good work to Pilchner Schoustal – he must use an ipad for transport and arming tracks.
    it must be awesome to have a great room to mix in.

  5. And he still makes those ordinary tracks with that hundred thousand dollar plus modular gear. Sheez. I would strongly advise him to try Darkpsy genre music where the modular bleeps are more than welcome in their original form.

    1. if it would have been made with such gear, he probably wouldnt have earned that much money to buy this. it´s hell of a studio, i´m pretty sure he knows what he´s doing and if that´s his “hobby”, so be it. fair enough for me.

      1. “if it would have been made with such gear, he probably wouldnt have earned that much money to buy this.”

        If he spent all his time wiggling OTB, he wouldn’t have earned that much money.

  6. it was shown on another clip how he uses these wired from the back and under the floors. They are all controllable. It does seem wasteful with overlap though especially since as said earlier his music does not seem to bring forward the sweetness of these devices (unless this has changed recently). It’s great to see he is taking good care though.

  7. Absolutelywow. Could be a little cozier though. Just sayin.

    Wonder if there’s integrated web cams around the room. Also kinda curious about smoke ventilation.

  8. Also curious about working in a room that large generally. He sort of made a joke about it in the last video: he needs to be in a band so someone can press record. Does he actually have a plan for that? iPad remote or something? Even that seems a little bulky in that he’ll need a place to put it as he moves around. Mr. Joel, if you’re reading, please share what you come with. And congrats on the space.

  9. Some gorgeous kit in there. Genuine question for people with big collections – I often see synths, and in some cases giant modulars, where they are stacked/racked up in such a way that much of it is at floor level or a foot or so off the ground. Is that just for storage, or do people actually sit on the floor to play them? I’ve tried having gear at 3 levels and it’s pretty uncomfortable for a short dude like me. But studio space in my house is at a premium!

  10. I wonder how the comments would differ if the studio space was presented anonymously. My suspicion is that they would all be positive.

    Definitely not a fan, but I do find it odd that people comment on his music, rather than on the space itself. I wonder what the point is of viewing others’ work space, other than to provide ideas for arranging your own. I don’t see how the style of music is valid in this regard.

    It feels more like a museum to me in an impersonal sort of way. Rather than trash the guy, I am going to save that impression for myself if I am ever lucky enough to have an abundance of space.

  11. Don’t care for his music but he commented in another video that chair is from he was first starting out, so that’s endearing to an extent. Needs more rack synths hehe.

  12. It would be an interesting test to release some monkeys there for a few days and record everything. I’m not saying it would be better than mr Deadmou55e productions, but it would be interesting.

  13. What’s the point of all the fancy acoustic treatment of the room if you’re not recording live instruments? Is is just for the playback on the monitors/mixing?

  14. Great job by Pilner Schoustal!,
    but,
    a bad song is a bad song in this studio or in a bathroom….!

    in other words, “Talent is not something you plug to the wall”.

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