Post by Admin on Mar 16, 2014 10:48:12 GMT -5
How to create a great sounding studio environment in a typical room in your home
by Tweak tweakheadz.com/acoustic-room-treatment/
One can really delve deep into this subject and a lot of people do. Acoustics is a science. Recording is an art. I try to keep a focus on what will help make better art. After all, I have a home studio. I make music because it is part of my blood, not to make a platinum record. If my room is not acoustically textbook perfect, I don't care. But I do care, to the point of passion, on how things sound in here. And how I feel in the space where I spend more time than anywhere else on this planet.
Tweak's room is a mixture of bass traps and acoustic foam
So, the critical thing, for me, is to have a good sounding room that enhances what I am doing--recording instruments, vocals, sampling and listening critically while mixing and editing. Lets not forget, listening for pleasure too. Your audio pleasure factor is a good guide. A bad room really grates on my nerves in a short period of time. My ears get tired and I get a headache. Its like eyestrain for the ears. Anyone that has ever painted the walls in an empty room knows what an extremely annoying room sounds like. As you start moving furniture back into the room it starts sounding better. For a music studio, you want to do this in a more exacting way, to make the room actually sound pleasant and friendly to the ear.
All rooms are boxes. It is good to think of them from "outside the box" to get some control over what is happening to sound. Generally, a small room will have more problems than a large open area as sound reflections will be magnified at the frequencies the box. Small rooms need more treatment as sound will bounce around the room, off the walls and ceiling many more times than a larger room. Also a square room is more problematic than a rectangular room, as having the walls the same distance apart can create strong "standing waves". You may have heard that in your room where a particular bass frequency rattles the walls but others do not. If you haven't, pull out a bass and play the scale and you'll find it.
If you have a choice between a square or rectangular room, choose the rectangular one. If you have a choice between a big or small room, go big. Don't put speakers in corners; corners magnify bass. In a rectangular room, I find it sounds better to have the studio oriented where the speakers are pointed in the direction of the wall farthest away, not to the short wall.
High and Upper Mid frequencies
For me the most irritating culprit is the one most easily fixed. I refer to the room's "pinginess" or "flutter echoes" in the mid and high frequencies. If you clap your hands and you hear several reflections, you need to add material that will diffuse and trap them, stop them from bouncing back and forth. Acoustic foam works on the high frequencies and will instantly add relief to the ears. Get several some 4x4 panels (or 2x4, which are easier to ship), 3-4 inches thick if possible and hang them up on the walls. How much to add is to me a matter of taste. You don't want to kill all the liveliness of the room or else everything will sound dead and weak.
If you ever experienced a totally "dead room" such as an anechoic chamber, you know that too much deadness is a bad thing. You can hardly hear anything unless it is right in front of you! It can be disorienting. We need some reflections to hear ourselves properly. When you walk in your studio, you should immediately feel the difference your sound treatment makes in a pleasant way. If it starts feeling like you are in the Twilight Zone, you probably added too much. So the trick is not killing everything, but those frequencies that are exaggerated and annoying. Some people like to preserve the liveliness of the room as it makes their instruments or voice sound better. Others want a a more quiet, dry room. I tend to the latter camp because i do a lot of sampling, but it is really up to what works for you.
CONTINUE READING AT WEBSITE ABOVE
by Tweak tweakheadz.com/acoustic-room-treatment/
One can really delve deep into this subject and a lot of people do. Acoustics is a science. Recording is an art. I try to keep a focus on what will help make better art. After all, I have a home studio. I make music because it is part of my blood, not to make a platinum record. If my room is not acoustically textbook perfect, I don't care. But I do care, to the point of passion, on how things sound in here. And how I feel in the space where I spend more time than anywhere else on this planet.
Tweak's room is a mixture of bass traps and acoustic foam
So, the critical thing, for me, is to have a good sounding room that enhances what I am doing--recording instruments, vocals, sampling and listening critically while mixing and editing. Lets not forget, listening for pleasure too. Your audio pleasure factor is a good guide. A bad room really grates on my nerves in a short period of time. My ears get tired and I get a headache. Its like eyestrain for the ears. Anyone that has ever painted the walls in an empty room knows what an extremely annoying room sounds like. As you start moving furniture back into the room it starts sounding better. For a music studio, you want to do this in a more exacting way, to make the room actually sound pleasant and friendly to the ear.
All rooms are boxes. It is good to think of them from "outside the box" to get some control over what is happening to sound. Generally, a small room will have more problems than a large open area as sound reflections will be magnified at the frequencies the box. Small rooms need more treatment as sound will bounce around the room, off the walls and ceiling many more times than a larger room. Also a square room is more problematic than a rectangular room, as having the walls the same distance apart can create strong "standing waves". You may have heard that in your room where a particular bass frequency rattles the walls but others do not. If you haven't, pull out a bass and play the scale and you'll find it.
If you have a choice between a square or rectangular room, choose the rectangular one. If you have a choice between a big or small room, go big. Don't put speakers in corners; corners magnify bass. In a rectangular room, I find it sounds better to have the studio oriented where the speakers are pointed in the direction of the wall farthest away, not to the short wall.
High and Upper Mid frequencies
For me the most irritating culprit is the one most easily fixed. I refer to the room's "pinginess" or "flutter echoes" in the mid and high frequencies. If you clap your hands and you hear several reflections, you need to add material that will diffuse and trap them, stop them from bouncing back and forth. Acoustic foam works on the high frequencies and will instantly add relief to the ears. Get several some 4x4 panels (or 2x4, which are easier to ship), 3-4 inches thick if possible and hang them up on the walls. How much to add is to me a matter of taste. You don't want to kill all the liveliness of the room or else everything will sound dead and weak.
If you ever experienced a totally "dead room" such as an anechoic chamber, you know that too much deadness is a bad thing. You can hardly hear anything unless it is right in front of you! It can be disorienting. We need some reflections to hear ourselves properly. When you walk in your studio, you should immediately feel the difference your sound treatment makes in a pleasant way. If it starts feeling like you are in the Twilight Zone, you probably added too much. So the trick is not killing everything, but those frequencies that are exaggerated and annoying. Some people like to preserve the liveliness of the room as it makes their instruments or voice sound better. Others want a a more quiet, dry room. I tend to the latter camp because i do a lot of sampling, but it is really up to what works for you.
CONTINUE READING AT WEBSITE ABOVE