The acoustic characteristics of space

Musical spaces
There are a number of factors that must be considered when building a recording
studio from scratch. Too much absorption in a room can be bad for mixing
purposes, and probably wont combat the problem of leakage (the escapement
of sound). But rooms that are too live will make it nearly impossible to create a
credible mix. The floor of a
studio needs to be floating on
a multitude of layers,
resulting in the stop of
resonance spreading. Studios
should also have at least an
outer wall and inner wall,
with more often than not,
some type of absorption in
between. Any glass panels
should be doubles, with one
slightly at an angle helping
diffuse the sound as it travels
through. Additionally, the
doors in studios should be extra thick, in order to stop sound escaping, resulting
in a cleaner and more accurate mix and master.
The building of a studio is just one factor, not to mention the ambience and
reflective nature of the room. This is not only important for instruments being
recorded but also for the mixing stages as well. All these rules and ways of
building a studio apply to multiple sound houses, for example, music venues and
the theatre.
Acoustic characteristics
Virtually everyone underestimates the importance of acoustic treatment. People
usually spend all of their money on high end gear, thinking its the higher
priority, then after a month or two of unsuccessful projects, they stumble upon
the real cause of their frustrations sound proofing and acoustic treatments.
Very often, musicians will use these two terms interchangeably, mistaking one
for the other, when really each one is completely different. Soundproofing is
intended to minimise the level of sound that passes through the walls by
blocking them with heavy dense building material. The benefit of this is that you
can record whenever you wish without worrying about you or your neighbour
disturbing each other whilst in action. Acoustic treatment on the other hand,
aims only to control the reflections within the room to make better sound
recordings. Examples of acoustic treatments are: bass traps, acoustic panels and
diffusers.
A direct sound is quickly followed by early reflections and then a gradual decay
of reverb. The larger the room the more likely the reverb time will be longer, but

this will also be determined by how reflective the surfaces are. Also, studios tend
to have a live end/dead end design absorptive features by the engineer, but
more ambience for the clients at the rear. Too much liveliness in a studio control
room will not allow you to mix effectively. Opposing parallel walls in studios can
give rise to a phenomenon called standing waves. These occur when sound is
reflected back along its own path causing phase differences to interfere with a
rooms amplitude response. Problems that usually occur with this would be
increasing and decreasing volume levels at various frequencies. The effected
frequencies will be those whose wavelength is mathematically related to the
distance between the opposing surfaces (wall to wall, floor to ceiling, any flat
surface parallel another flat surface).
Acoustic treatment
Absorption coefficients are numbers between 0 and 1 which indicate how well a
specific type of material can absorb that certain source of sound energy.
Different frequencies have different absorption coefficients this would be a
factor to take account of when building a studio.
Due to sound being omnidirectional, when playing music out of
monitors/speakers, sound will reflect off walls. As sound travels at extreme rates,
this causes for us as hearers to hear the direct sound source, as well as the
reflections of what just happened a millionth of a second later. As a result, this
could cause the mixing process to be a nag, as when played back off the
monitors in the studio it sounds radio ready, but when placed in the car stereo
system, it doesnt. Furthermore, to solve this problem, acoustics such as: skyline
diffusers can help as they use their different heights of wood in order to scatter
the sound reflections across the acoustic source. However, a less expensive
approach can also be used, and this is simply by placing your speakers away
from any corner of a wall, and letting them sit on a speaker stand with possibly a
monitor isolation pad, in order to reduce the level of vibrations. Overall, speaker
placement is very crucial and can be extremely beneficial in the outcome of your
projects if placed right.
Spectral analysis is the analysis of a spectrum of frequencies.
Lastly, equalisation is a device circuit or piece of software that lets you control
the relative amplitude of various frequencies within the audible bandwidth. As a
result, this can: correct specific problems, overcome deficiencies in the frequency
response of a microphone, and allow contrasting sounds from several
instruments or recorded tracks, and many more. There are two main types of EQ:
Bell (or peak) EQ and Shelving EQ. Shelving EQ refers to a rise or drop in a
frequency response. On the other hand, the Bell EQ is the most common EQ and
is created by a peaking filter and as its name implies a peak-shaped bell curve
can either be boosted or attenuated around a selected centre frequency.
A graphic equalizer is a high-fidelity audio control that allows the user to see
graphically and control individually a number of different frequency bands in a
stereophonic system. A typical graphic equalizer consists of several audio

filter/amplifiers, each centred at a specific frequency in the audio range. Most

graphic equalizers have two identical sets of filter/amplifiers, one for each
channel in a stereophonic system.

By Akai. M