Acoustic Treatment - How Do You Know When You Have it Right?

[Bob Vinsick]

I just treated my new room in my new house with Acoustic panels from Acoustimac and some old 703 and 705 pieces I had laying around that I covered with Acoustimac EZ-Wraps. I use this room as both a control room and tracking room.

Everything looks so good. I have a room that is around 12 x 14 and has hardwood oak floors. I made 2 clouds, one that is 4x8x2" that hangs above the mix position and one that is 4x6x2" that is 2' away from the "over the mix" cloud. A 2x4x2" panel is between the two clouds. They look real nice.

I treated each corner with 2x4x4" panels. The walls have 2x4x2" panels where I placed a 4x4x2" on each wall to the sides of the monitors. I have a lot of panels in this space. There are 8 2x4x2" panles on the ceiling, 9 2x4x4" in the corners and back of the room and 8 2x4x2" panels on the walls.

The first time I listened to the monitors, I felt that the highs were missing. After listeneing to commercial CDs, I realized that everything sounds much clearer than I ever heard in my other rooms, which were treated, but not to this extent.

My question is; How do I know if I used too much absorbtion? How do you know when you have it right?

I know I need to be careful not to overmix highs now, but everything sounds so tight and solid. I can hear the stereo image better too. When I turn up the volume, the sound stays intact and is way more solid than ever before.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Bob Vinsick

How do I know if I used too much absorbtion? How do you know when you have it right?

When someone buys treatment products from a vendor, the first place to look for technical advice is the vendor they bought from.

The answer is you measure the low frequency response and ringing times at high resolution, and RT60 times in third-octave bands. Look at the before/after data presented in this video:

Hearing is Believing

--Ethan

[Bob Vinsick]

Ethan,

Thanks for your input. By the way, you were the vendor for the 6 sheets of 705 and 4 sheets of 703 that went on the ceiling.

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Bob Vinsick

By the way, you were the vendor for the 6 sheets of 705 and 4 sheets of 703 that went on the ceiling.

Oh, in that case...

As you can see in the video I linked above, shorter decays times are generally better, but the key is for the times to be uniform over as wide a range as possible. So, the "ideal" decay times depends a lot on the size of the room. In a 14x12 foot room, times similar to what's shown in the video are a good target for you to aim for.

--Ethan