Home Studio Tips: #2 Room Treatment
Jul 23, 2014 13:51:45 GMT -7
The Bad Poodle Experience, Eddie, and 4 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 13:51:45 GMT -7
Ok,
now that you have your monitors in the right place let's think about some room treatment.
There are basically 3 types of room treatment. Absorbers, Diffusors and Bass Traps.
Hopefully you've got your set up (computer/recorder/board/monitors) close to the middle of the room between your 2 L/R boundary walls.
As discussed in the Monitor Placement tips, symmetry is important.
If you are in a rectangular room (which will be easier to achieve good sound than a square room) it would be best if you were set up facing one of the shorter walls.
The first thing you want to do is create a "Reflection Free Zone" or RFZ at your critical listening spot. We'll do that with Absorbers. (I'll get to some recommended types later on this page)
The 3 most important spots are to the left and right of your listening position and above your listening position.
The idea is that you don't want reflected sound from the side walls or the ceiling above you to be mixing (and messing) with the direct sound from your monitors. Pardon my funky drawing
As far as absorbers go, you can build them yourself out of either Owens Corning 703 or Roxul "Safe-n-sound". The Roxul is a little easier to find. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry it. There are plenty of DIY recipes for them out on the web.
If you want to buy them my favorite place to get them is ATS Acoustics. They are pretty darn affordable, $50 for a 2' x 4' panel with mounting gear in either 2" depth or 4" depth.
Foam, even expensive so called "acoustic foam" is really for pillows and has only a small fraction of the effectiveness of the Roxul or 703 based panels. I never recommend it.
If you order from ATS, specify "open back".
Here's the science behind that. If you get a 4" thick panel and leave a 24" air space behind it, the panel will be 2 times as effective. The 4" panels help with lower frequencies (bass trapping) than the 2" but still get all the highs.
I've done a lot of records in "One Room" type studios where the drums are right in the room with all the gear.
If you have your gear all in the same room a few extra panels for the ceiling will really help, especially with low ceilings. double especially above the drum kit and where you record your vocals. Absorption there gives your microphones the impression that you are recording in a bigger room. Also helps with detail of the cymbals.
Most of the harsh sound that you hear in an untreated room comes from ceiling reflections. That's where the bad 'zing' comes from. I don't recommend putting carpet in your studio room unless you have to. There's something un satisfying about a guitar amp on a carpeted floor. You can turn it up but it's still not fun sounding.
If you have a square room some bass trapping will help for sure. Some of these same 4" panels mounted diagonally in the corners will help a great deal. Diffusion is a more complex concept which reflects sound from a surface with calculated varying depths and is not so effective in smaller rooms.
In addition to AST other places for acoustic treatment materials that you can check out would be
GIK and also Real Traps. Both GIK and Real Traps have good info on their sites also.
Having some decent treatment in your room can be startling. Everything will sound better, even rehearsals, and be less fatigue-ing.
This is a lot of info so feel free to ask me questions that relate to your own setup.
now that you have your monitors in the right place let's think about some room treatment.
There are basically 3 types of room treatment. Absorbers, Diffusors and Bass Traps.
Hopefully you've got your set up (computer/recorder/board/monitors) close to the middle of the room between your 2 L/R boundary walls.
As discussed in the Monitor Placement tips, symmetry is important.
If you are in a rectangular room (which will be easier to achieve good sound than a square room) it would be best if you were set up facing one of the shorter walls.
The first thing you want to do is create a "Reflection Free Zone" or RFZ at your critical listening spot. We'll do that with Absorbers. (I'll get to some recommended types later on this page)
The 3 most important spots are to the left and right of your listening position and above your listening position.
The idea is that you don't want reflected sound from the side walls or the ceiling above you to be mixing (and messing) with the direct sound from your monitors. Pardon my funky drawing
As far as absorbers go, you can build them yourself out of either Owens Corning 703 or Roxul "Safe-n-sound". The Roxul is a little easier to find. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry it. There are plenty of DIY recipes for them out on the web.
If you want to buy them my favorite place to get them is ATS Acoustics. They are pretty darn affordable, $50 for a 2' x 4' panel with mounting gear in either 2" depth or 4" depth.
Foam, even expensive so called "acoustic foam" is really for pillows and has only a small fraction of the effectiveness of the Roxul or 703 based panels. I never recommend it.
If you order from ATS, specify "open back".
Here's the science behind that. If you get a 4" thick panel and leave a 24" air space behind it, the panel will be 2 times as effective. The 4" panels help with lower frequencies (bass trapping) than the 2" but still get all the highs.
I've done a lot of records in "One Room" type studios where the drums are right in the room with all the gear.
If you have your gear all in the same room a few extra panels for the ceiling will really help, especially with low ceilings. double especially above the drum kit and where you record your vocals. Absorption there gives your microphones the impression that you are recording in a bigger room. Also helps with detail of the cymbals.
Most of the harsh sound that you hear in an untreated room comes from ceiling reflections. That's where the bad 'zing' comes from. I don't recommend putting carpet in your studio room unless you have to. There's something un satisfying about a guitar amp on a carpeted floor. You can turn it up but it's still not fun sounding.
If you have a square room some bass trapping will help for sure. Some of these same 4" panels mounted diagonally in the corners will help a great deal. Diffusion is a more complex concept which reflects sound from a surface with calculated varying depths and is not so effective in smaller rooms.
In addition to AST other places for acoustic treatment materials that you can check out would be
GIK and also Real Traps. Both GIK and Real Traps have good info on their sites also.
Having some decent treatment in your room can be startling. Everything will sound better, even rehearsals, and be less fatigue-ing.
This is a lot of info so feel free to ask me questions that relate to your own setup.