Need room acoustically check and foamed - L.A.

[keano]

Looking for someone in the L.A. area who can check out my rooms acoustics electronically and help with foam, paneling. This is a budget job. Not high end. Studio is an extra room in my house.

Spoke to someone from here who was super helpful and nice but $1700 is way above my means for a consultation.

[Ethan Winer]

Any competent acoustician will charge you at least $600 for a personal visit. For someone like you on a budget, that money is always better spent on buying more / better bass traps and other treatment. A good treatment vendor will be glad to advise you for free on what to buy and where to put it for your given budget. I do that all the time.

--Ethan

[keano]

But don't you need acoustic readings to know if you are getting a reliable tone. Maybe some areas won't need foam as much as other areas for a flatter reading no?

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by keano

But don't you need acoustic readings to know if you are getting a reliable tone. Maybe some areas won't need foam as much as other areas for a flatter reading no?

Yes and no. Yes it can never hurt to shoot the room, but if you use broad band and IF the company knows what they are doing, you really don't need too.
BTW you can shoot your room yourself with free software.
Room EQ Wizard Home Page

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by keano

But don't you need acoustic readings to know if you are getting a reliable tone. Maybe some areas won't need foam as much as other areas for a flatter reading no?

No, it doesn't work that way. I can tell what a room needs just by looking.

Seriously, the goal in all smallish rooms is broadband absorption. The guide is very simple, and the following will get you 99 percent of the way there. All rooms need:

* Broadband (not tuned) bass traps straddling as many corners as you can manage, including the wall-ceiling corners. More bass traps on the rear wall behind helps even further. You simply cannot have too much bass trapping. Real bass trapping, that is - thin foam and thin fiberglass don't work to a low enough frequency.

* Mid/high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the side walls and ceiling.

* Some additional amount of mid/high absorption and/or diffusion on any large areas of bare parallel surfaces, such as opposing walls or the ceiling if the floor is reflective. Diffusion on the rear wall behind you is also useful in larger rooms.

--Ethan

[Glenn Kuras]

No, it doesn't work that way. I can tell what a room needs just by looking.

NICE!! Actually doing this stuff long enough you CAN almost get it right by just looking.