Building Live Studio Recording Room | Bad Racket Cleveland, Ohio
There are several considerations to take into account when building a live recording room or selecting a room to record in. The room itself is very important, because no matter how good the sound is, the environment affects how we perceive the sound and how the microphones pick up the sound. If the room is in the city, sound leaking in (and sound leaking out) can be an issue.
The overall dimensions of the room determine how different sized oscillations (or frequencies) of sound act. Every room has one main frequency that fits best in its dimensions. Rooms with no parallel walls are best. This is why an acoustic guitar is rounded and not a square. A square or cube shape would resonate one note louder than all the others. The natural resonant frequency of the space. These days a computer algorithm can be used to determine the frequency response can be expected of a given space.
Most acoustic treatments either use absorption or diffusion. Absorption is where absorbing type material is added to the room to soak up the sound and deaden it up. Foam or egg crate cardboard, rugs, fiberglass, or mineral wool all work at varying degrees for different frequencies. Of all these materials mineral wool or rock wool is by far the cheapest and most effective over the most frequencies compared to the others. You can make your own mineral wool panels by just using a wooden frame and a piece of cloth and some staples. You can even make them out of your favorite color fabric. You can be proud to display your one of a kind panels in any room and even move them around to change it up a bit and experiment.
Diffusion is where a different shape piece is added to the wall to change the geometry so that the acoustic profile is more random, and to get a flatter frequency response. By reflecting the sound at different points, different frequencies resonate, and the sound is more balanced. Check out our articles about design, acoustics, or check out our recording studio rooms
