CNC-cut acoustic panels — recording studio

The studio owner had a Grasshopper script that generated a quadratic-residue diffusion pattern across forty panels. Our job was to take the script output and turn it into machinable parts the studio could install with a screwdriver.

The geometry was unforgiving — every panel had between 60 and 200 milled wells of varying depth, and a 0.5 mm error in well depth audibly changed the diffusion characteristic. We held ±0.1 mm on depth and ±0.2 mm on well position, which required two separate finishing passes with a 4 mm carbide bit and a slow feed.

We pre-drilled the mounting bores on the back face on the same setup, so the studio crew did not have to measure twice on site. The panels were finished with hardwax oil after milling — the wells trap end-grain dust, so we soaked them in oil twice and brushed them out before final assembly.

The whole batch shipped on a single pallet and the studio was on air five days later.