Acoustic Treatment Principles for Home Studios

Some Tips on How to Make a Room Sound Better for Recording

Mar 20, 2009

Recording sound at home often sounds boomy and coloured because of room acoustics. These can be improved with small changes.

Recording gear has become cheaper and better that in the past. However, the acoustics of domestic rooms is often poor. Understanding some basic techniques for improving it will result in better sound. The issues with a home recording space are

Soundproofing is expensive in a home. If the environment is too noisy, this cannot be fixed on a budget, though recording at quiet times of the day may be a solution.

Sound within the recording studio reflecting off the surfaces can be tackled. Rooms with lots of reflective surfaces can be tackling with two approaches. Absorption soaks up the sound in something like acoustic foam or heavy curtains. Diffusion breaks up large plane surfaces into lots of angled reflecting surfaces so that sound bouncing between parallel surfaces does not have a chance to build up the strong reflections that make sharp room resonances.

Sound Absorbing Materials

Acoustic foam is commonly used, but thick curtains, carpets and soft furnishings can play their part. Use acoustic foam and not cheap packing foam - the latter is extremely flammable and hazardous in the home in large quantities, and does not have particularly good acoustic properties. In smalls rooms bass traps, triangular pieces of foam designed to go in corners, can be particularly effective in reducing room resonances. Too much absorbing material gives a very dead sound, which can be hard to play in.

Sound Diffusing Materials

Diffusion breaks up reflections by reflecting sound in random directions. Bookshelves and CD cubes can do this if they are not placed in large blocks, so the surface is broken up irregularly. Freestanding slatted wooden doors can act as diffusers to break up reflections.

The LEDE (Live End, Dead End) studio

This is often used for control rooms, where absorbent material is used at the speaker end of the room, and diffusion is used to break up reflections from behind the listener. The same principles can be used for a recording space, and gives some control of the 'liveness' of the recording. This is good for voice recordings and radio plays. If a dry recording with little room tone is needed record towards the dead end, if the sound needs to be a bit more live then move the talent and microphone towards the live end until the balance is right.

The advantage of using LEDE for a home recording space is that provided the speakers are placed at the dead end the same room can be used for monitoring a mix after the recording is made.

By working with the existing furnishings, and fitting absorbing or diffusing materials to a few freestanding panels which can be stowed away when not in use, a home studio does not have to destroy the decor of a room while still sounding good and not breaking the bank.

Each room is different, so it is essential when using acoustic treatment to listen carefully for the results, more is not always better. The dead end is usually tackled first, using acoustic foam and bass traps if necessary. Speech is an easy test source for a quick indication of boominess showing resonances that need absorbing materials. A handclap can show if there are flutter echoes in the high frequencies, multiple reflections from hard surfaces that call for diffusion.

References

Recording Studio Design, Philip Richard Newell, Focal Press ISBN 0240520866, 9780240520865

The copyright of the article Acoustic Treatment Principles for Home Studios in Music Studios/Recording is owned by Richard Mudhar. Permission to republish Acoustic Treatment Principles for Home Studios in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.