MMA Studios (Mixed Music Arts)
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Mixed Music Arts · Bochum, Germany

Studio Design Project submission · 42nd NAMM TEC Awards

MMA
STUDIOS.

From shaping steel to shaping sound. Acoustically designed & built by Acoustic Spaces.

The threshold

No safe mix.
No comfort zone.

The drop

Pure free fall.

Touchdown

Welcome to
MMA Studios.

The real MMA Studios control room in Bochum: large-format graphic-novel-inspired artwork on acoustically transparent fabric, a red city-skyline glow behind the monitors, an Argosy workstation and analog gear on a warm wood floor.

MMA Studios

For consideration · Studio Design Project

A studio designed
to be felt, not just seen.

Some studios are built inside legendary recording facilities. Others are born in places that helped build an entire nation. Located in Bochum, the historical heart of Germany's steel industry, MMA Studios continues the city's tradition of uncompromising engineering. Only this time, instead of shaping steel, the facility shapes sound.

The name Mixed Music Arts reflects owner Frank Kissing's martial arts background and a musical journey spanning Hip-Hop, Reggae, House, Dance-Pop and Rough Soul, genres defined by groove, bass, emotion and impact. MMA Studios was purpose-engineered for this hybrid philosophy: combining disciplines with focus, precision and controlled power.

Great loudspeakers don't create a reference environment. Great loudspeakers in a purpose-engineered room do.
The engineering principle behind MMA Studios

Purpose-engineered acoustics

Optimized before a single wall went up.

Acoustic Spaces redefined the room geometry with a custom flush-mount wall for uncompromising low-frequency performance. Using NIRO & TORA by REDIacoustics, the entire concept was simulated and optimized before construction.

  • 42 purpose-engineered Helmholtz & slotted-panel resonators
  • Custom flush-mount monitor wall
  • Broadband absorption at every critical first-reflection point
3D design model of the MMA Studios control room: angled red monitor wall with flush-mounted main speakers, workstation position and acoustic panel layout, planned before construction.

Professionally planned before construction

The engineering behind the room

The room was professionally planned, simulated and verified in software before a single panel was built. These renderings show the room as it was designed, before it existed.

Design rendering of the control room: red monitor wall with flush-mounted main monitors, mix desk and skyline murals on both side walls.

Mix position · Flush-mounted main monitors, RFZ geometry

Design rendering of the rear of the room at night: leather sofa beneath the Lightffusor window, glowing red panels and skyline murals.

Rear field · Lightffusor window & broadband absorption

Design rendering looking toward the rear wall: glass door opening to the garden, red wall panels and daylight falling into the room.

Rear wall · Diffusion, daylight & garden view

The monitoring heart

Guzauski Swist GS4 & GS18.

The main control room was engineered entirely around its monitoring system. The Guzauski Swist GS4 main monitors and dual GS18 subwoofers are flush-mounted directly into the front wall, integrated with the large-format artwork so acoustics and visual identity share the exact same surface.

  • Guzauski Swist GS4 main monitors, flush-mounted into the custom front wall
  • Dual GS18 subwoofers for uncompromising low-frequency extension
  • Dangerous Music D-BOX as monitor controller and reference D/A conversion
Guzauski Swist GS4 main monitor and GS18 subwoofer flush-mounted into the artwork wall

Monitoring

Two rooms, one reference standard.

Production Room: Dutch & Dutch 8c for songwriting, editing and daily production.

Main Control Room: Guzauski Swist GS4 main monitors, dual GS18 subwoofers and a Dangerous Music D-BOX.

The MMA Studios main control room at night: flush-mounted main monitor stacks left and right of the screen, the central workstation with analog racks, large-format portrait murals on acoustically transparent fabric, lit in deep magenta and blue.

Lightffusor™

Where acoustics meet daylight.

A transparent rear-wall diffuser that combines genuine acoustic diffusion with natural daylight and an unobstructed view into the garden. Reference performance without sealing the room off from the world.

The Lightffusor by day: transparent acrylic diffuser slats in front of the rear-wall windows, with an unobstructed green view into the garden.
The Lightffusor at night: the transparent rear-wall diffuser glowing in deep magenta, its slat structure acting as acoustic diffusion.
Acoustic Spaces engineered the room to perform. Frank Kissing designed it to inspire.
Visual identity

Visual identity & artwork

The room's face, printed on sound-transparent fabric.

The studio's striking visual identity was designed by Frank Kissing. The large-format, graphic-novel-inspired artwork is printed on acoustically transparent fabric, directly in front of the hidden acoustic treatment, so the room's character and its acoustics occupy the very same surface.

It is this graphic design that gives MMA Studios its unmistakable cinematic atmosphere.

Daylight view of the MMA Studios control room: large-format graphic-novel-style portrait murals printed on acoustically transparent fabric covering the side walls, the red city-skyline artwork behind the monitor wall, warm wood floor.

The command position

Analog soul at arm's reach.

At the center sits an Argosy workstation surrounded by selected analog equipment from elysia and SPL, complemented by a rare Legendary Audio Masterpiece processor designed by Rupert Neve.

The command position at MMA Studios: analog processors from elysia and SPL within reach on the Argosy workstation wings, a large-format portrait mural on acoustically transparent fabric behind, daylight from the Lightffusor rear wall.

The room in detail

Inside MMA Studios

Wide view of the full control room in daylight: portrait murals on both side walls, the red skyline artwork behind the monitor wall, workstation in the center.
Left side of the room: portrait mural beside the red comic-style skyline and the flush-mounted monitor wall.
Right side of the room: portrait mural on acoustically transparent fabric, speaker stacks and the workstation wings.
Symmetric front view: both murals framing the monitor wall and the central mix position.
Entrance door and mural wall, showing the room depth and the warm wood floor.
Mix position with analog gear, producer chair and the daylight rear wall in the background.
Evening mood: the Lightffusor rear wall glowing softly while the room stays dark and focused.
Close view of the Lightffusor diffuser slats with the green garden behind.
The lounge corner: cognac leather sofa on warm wood flooring, daylight falling through the Lightffusor windows with the garden behind.
Cognac leather sofa beneath the window, framed by the large-format portrait mural on the lounge wall.
Side view of the glowing Lightffusor diffuser panels in magenta light.
42
Purpose-engineered resonators
2
Rooms, one reference standard
1
Lightffusor™ rear-wall diffuser

MMA Studios
for the TEC Awards.

A room designed like a record: dark, warm, and built to make you feel something. Submitted with pride for the Studio Design Project category.

About the NAMM TEC Awards