{"id":10588,"date":"2013-02-20T10:38:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=10588"},"modified":"2019-07-30T11:17:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T11:17:41","slug":"how-to-plan-for-diy-acoustic-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/how-to-plan-for-diy-acoustic-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"How to plan for DIY Acoustic Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter how good the monitors or the digital to analogue converters that recreate your waveforms are, it is almost certainly the room in which you\u2019re sat that will be letting you down sonically. Many of us, working domestically these days, have smaller than ideal spaces in which to monitor and record. So what can be done, and on a budget?<\/p>\n

Common problems<\/strong>
\nBefore we begin, we should consider how a typical room deals with the sound generated within it. That is an important distinction. This series is not about sound proofing, which is an all together different animal. None of the treatments here will help soundproof your room!<\/p>\n

Essentially sounds within any room reflect off the surfaces whether that be totally from a shiny hard surface such as a tiled wall (acting as an acoustic mirror if you like) to total absorption (as if there were no surface there). The latter can be experienced in what is known as an anechoic chamber. I\u2019m not sure any of us would like to work in as dead a space as that! However what we need to do is to tame the reflections, or manipulate them to provide us with an even and predictable frequency response.
\nStanding waves<\/p>\n

The first nasty to look for are the standing waves. Those are the waves that reflect and interact with each other either causing a large boost or dip in frequency response at your listening position. These reflections you can often hear in the bass end of your rooms as a boost occurs as certain notes and not others. Already you\u2019re experiencing the unevenness of your listening space.<\/p>\n

Make a plan!<\/strong>
\nThe first step, I\u2019d say you need to do, is to draw out a plan view of your room as accurately as you can. Don\u2019t forget to measure the height of the room and note that down separately. Armed with those measurements you need to use a mode calculator such as www.mcsquared.com This will tell you typically where your problem spots are in the frequency range and what you need to tame.<\/p>\n

The chances are that the problems will be mostly with the bass frequencies, especially in small rooms where they can reflect sooner without dissipating as the wavelengths are so long. This, regrettably is where the most absorption is required. You could buy a foam product to achieve this or look to the rockwool slab to mop this up for you. We\u2019ll look at how to address bass frequencies in our next post in this series<\/p>\n

The next thing to note are the simple reflections to your listening position. Those higher frequency slap backs you hear from the plastered surface of the wall. These really bounce about and blur your perception of what you hear from the monitors, killing your stereo imagery.<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, we\u2019ll look at simple ways in which you can address these in your room with both the common foam products as well as more builder-friendly materials you can grab at your local DIY store.<\/p>\n

Written by professional recording engineer and production lecturer Russ Hepworth-Sawyer for the Andertons Music Blog. Check out the original post Acoustic treatment on a shoestring budget\u00a0<\/strong>on www.andertons.co.uk\/blog<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0for a more in-depth look at analysing your room in preparation for acoustic treatment.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/h2>\n

Altering the fabric of the building to reduce echo and reverb inside a Church<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask the Expert \u2013 Controlling volume overspill in an old church building<\/a> – part 1<\/p>\n

Controlling volume overspill in church part 2 \u2013 identifying the noise-makers<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask the Expert \u2013 how to prevent audio feedback in church<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter how good the monitors or the digital to analogue converters that recreate your waveforms are, it is almost certainly the room in which you\u2019re sat that will be letting you down sonically. Many of us, working domestically these days, have smaller than ideal spaces in which to monitor and record. So what can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10204,"featured_media":3664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[676],"tags":[1496,8,1495],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to plan for DIY Acoustic Treatment | Musicademy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guest blogger Russ Hepworth Sawyer talks to us about acoustic treatment and how to prepare and plan for DIY acoustic treatment in your room.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/how-to-plan-for-diy-acoustic-treatment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to plan for DIY Acoustic Treatment | Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest blogger Russ 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