If there is a topic in audio that is not taken seriously enough, it must be the acoustics.
Acoustical treatment of room makes or breaks the sound that comes out of it. Would you paint with your eyes closed ? You could. Would that mean that everyone would find it beautiful ? Certainly not. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Often, the records sound georgous where you create them, but translate very badly anywhere else. Unfortunately, if things go well for you, it will be listened to mainly anywhere else…
Even if acoustics is a complicated field, and a proper acoustical design cost a lot, there are some guidelines that can follow in order to tweek your room.
To start with, a great sounding room satisfies mainly two criteria:
- It sounds flat (all frequencies sound about the same level)
- It sounds dead (fast decay time, or as common knowledge would recognize as “echo”).
Obviously, one cannot work on one aspect without interfering with the other. Acoustics is a complicated science, but you can take care of it effectively if you know a bit what you’re doing. Here are the tricks that have applied many times at different places for different clients.
If you want to decrease the overall decay time without changing drastically the frequency curve, you need to get some absorbing material that is thick enough too absorb low frequencies as well as the highs. One of the most common mistake people do is to put carpet everywhere.
Rule #1: Never use carpet ! It absorbs the high frequencies without absorbing any mid or bass. You room will sound muddy.
For the floor, you’re better to go with wood which has a good equilibrium in terms of frequency content. Therefore, we will count on the walls and the ceiling for the absorption of reflections. Stay tuned for the following !