No matter how much money is spent on recording equipment, you can’t get the most authentic sound unless the recording and listening space is optimized. SINOYQX recommends 10 ways to help you improve the acoustics of your studio space.
- Choosing the room
Ideally, the room should have non-reflective surfaces and non-parallel walls to disperse the sound; it will not be square and will have sloping ceilings and walls.
All these factors will prevent reflections from building up, interacting and causing acoustic chaos. This is the ideal scenario, but this is not the case for most people where you have a room of equal size, or at least a rectangular room, which is not specifically designed as a space for recording.
- The basics
Firstly, there are some basics that can make a room acoustically better. There are basically ways to reduce the echoes in your room.
Place a sofa at the back wall, fill the bookshelves with books and hang large curtains over the windows. Don’t use egg cartons, they don’t work as well as acoustic materials.
If one wall or ceiling is particularly reflective, don’t worry, as long as the opposing surfaces are absorbent this can be improved (e.g., thick carpet on the floor towards a clean ceiling).
If you can, place your monitors some distance away from the wall to avoid reflections, which is not easy in small rooms, try placing them 70-90 cm away.
The manuals for monitor speakers usually given instructions on how far away from the wall to place them, and some monitors are even equipped with compensating changeover switches if you need to place them closer than the recommended distance.
They should also be placed in a symmetrical acoustic space, each on the same speaker stand or acoustic foam panels (SINOYQX Melamine foam to reduce resonant frequencies).
Do not place them on different surfaces as this may affect the soundstage and frequency response.
- Listening position
Confirm the listening position in the studio environment. Some acoustic experts recommend the 38% rule, i.e., 38% of the room length from the front wall, never sit on the back wall.
Confirming that you are at the same distance of 2 metres from the two monitor speakers is a good start and forms a perfect triangle.
The monitor speakers should be positioned at head height with the tweeters pointing towards your ears. So, in effect this leaves the third point of the triangle slightly behind your head, try moving your head slightly forward and backwards.
- Find the problem
Finding acoustic problems in a space requires a standard omnidirectional measurement microphone and spectrum analyser to measure the condition of the room. A simple solution is to use Dynaudio’s free measurement app ‘Dynaudio Meter’ for an initial check, which can measure your frequency response etc. The flatter the frequency response the better.
The flatter the frequency response the better, any bumps or dips must be dealt with or compensated for, sound pressure can also be measured and standing waves can be found.
Some of these wavelengths are enhanced at certain points and some wavelengths are relatively attenuated at certain points, all due to the behavior of the sound waves in the room.
- Reverberation time
Flat frequency ringing is the ideal condition for obtaining the correct room sound. However, it is also necessary to test the reverberation times to reduce or at least eliminate them where possible.
Frequency maps can be very specific and make reflection and frequency problems easier to see. As soon as any problems are identified, it is time to start improving them.
- Acoustic treatment
Sound absorbing wool deals with high and medium frequency reflections and can be placed on the side and rear walls with sound absorbing panels (SINOYQX Melamine Foam). They are usually made of a soft porous material, such as foam, and are used for absorption to reduce reflections at medium and high frequencies.
For absorption at lower frequencies, use bass traps, which are usually placed in the corners of the room. There are also specific frequencies that can be adjusted to by simply rotating its top to absorb low frequency energy between 50 and 100Hz.
Importantly, the walls are littered with acoustic melamine foam and bass traps. But ideally you don’t need a completely dry room, we need a room with a good balance of sound.
- Diffusion treatment
Dispersion deals with problem frequencies by spreading the sound waves evenly, with the diffuser placed at the point where the sound waves are first reflected.
Let us hear the direct sound as much as possible, as the signal will spread into smaller reflections, which will not make the room sound too stuffy.
In addition, diffusion panels can also increase the optimal monitoring position or listening position, allowing for a more flexible monitoring experience. Unlike acoustic absorption, they are made from harder materials and are designed to allow reflected sound to be dispersed evenly, so are usually made of wood or plastic.
- Spatial calibration
Some systems can test your room and calibrate your equipment or playback frequency response to compensate for any errors they find in the room, reducing the need to add acoustic foam or diffusion panels.
Genelec’s high-end system, the GLM software suite, is designed to adjust the parameters of your own speakers through an intelligent control system. Using a measurement microphone, the software adjusts to detected anomalies without the need for acoustic processing!
- Monitoring headphones
It is possible to listen to a mix simply by using monitor headphones to completely exclude the room from the sound.
Headphones can be a great way of monitoring, especially if you have problems with sound insulation. However, just like monitoring speakers, not all headphones provide a flat response.
And monitor headphones are no substitute for speakers – the mix must still be further confirmed through the monitor speakers.
For more information about the SINOYQX Melamine Foam, please reach us at sales@sinoyqx.com, or voice to us: +86-28-8411-1861.
About SINOYQX
SINOYQX is a huge chemical entity based on gas chain, manufacturing urea (AdBlue), melamine, melamine foam, melamine cyanurate (MCA), polyphosphate (MPP), polyvinyl butyral resin (low-polymerization PVB resin), and other chemical products. The annual capacity of AdBlue is 150,000Litters and 600,000Tons of Granule; Melamine 50,000Tons; Melamine foam is 200,000M3, the Melamine Cyanurate (MCA) is 50,000Tons. And the Transulate (an Equivalent of 3M Thinsulate) is 20,000 Sqm, per day.
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