Gear / Technical Help > Ask The Tapers

Acoustic treatments for “Mastering Room”?

(1/5) > >>

down2earthlandscaper:
So I have an extra private office that’s not being used. I thought it might make a good “mastering room”.
I was looking into sound deadening methods to keep the sound in the room, and acoustic treatments for the walls to reduce reflections, etc.
I found this product (and many others like it) on amazon.
https://smile.amazon.com/JBER-Acoustic-Soundproofing-Resistant-Treatment/dp/B08R3J6XZG
Is something like this necessary? I imagine it’s more for a recording studio/isolation booth, but can anyone see any benefit to having a room such as this for mastering recordings (or any other reason to do this other than Covid Boredom??)

voltronic:
It is hard to say if something like this is "necessary" without being in your physical space.  Do you have a set of high-quality monitor speakers, correctly positioned? If not, then doing this is not worth it.

Acoustic treatments for mixing / mastering rooms can do a number of things, depending on how sophisticated you want to get. One of the simplest things is dampening early reflections in the treble bouncing off nearly surfaces, and reducing standing waves in the bass.

You might want to go through a test tone program and listen carefully for anything that is excessively tubby in the bass, or extremely harsh in the treble (this is assuming those problems aren't coming from deficiencies in your monitors). When you find a problem area, take note of that frequency for something that needs addressing.

I wouldn't buy those panels from Amazon. I do have direct experience with the Markerfoam acoustic treatments, and recommend them. They may not be the prettiest, but they work very well and are priced far below the big name brands. Keep in mind that the thinnest panels will only absorb high treble frequencies. Go thicker if you need to absorb lower in frequency.

I like the Blade Tiles and the corner Bass Traps especially. The big 54x54 panels are very effective also, but might be more than what you need. Some blade tiles arranged in a checkerboard pattern usually do a decent job of taming enough reflections.

https://www.markertek.com/brand/markerfoam-noise-control

Gutbucket:
Volt posted above while I was typing with much of the same recommendations, so apologies for any redundancies below..

Keeping the music in the room and external sound out is "isolation", which is different and more difficult than "treatment" of the room intended to improve listening acoustics within it.

Isolation-
Close it up tight as you can which helps at low mid through higher frequencies, as any air gaps represent a path defeating isolation.  Not much you can do to isolate (or treat) low frequencies.

Treatment-
Try multiple options to find the best arrangement of speakers and listening position and then work from that as starting point.  Arrange everything else around that.  Just like recording, position is number one. The most effective "treatment" is reducing the influence of the room as much as possible by using an arrangement with the speakers placed well away from the walls and a relatively close "near-field" listening position to them.

A clean stark room with nothing in it looks nice but is unlikely to behave well acoustically.  Lots of cushy furniture, storage shelving, and other stuff of life in the room is all good.  Don't worry about clutter, that's good diffusion. Keep as much furniture and bookshelves and stuff in there as you can.

Some stereo test signals are useful.  Send mono pink noise sent to both speakers and arrange things to achieve a tight cohesive mono image between the speakers.

[edit- all the stuff above is fundamental and costs nothing.  It will improve the performance of whatever playback gear you are using.  The limit beyond this is likely to be defined by the quality of your monitors]

Before you go out and buy foam or anything else, play around with thick couch cushions, mattresses, thick layered blankets, thick rugs stuff like that if you wish to experiment with reducing reflections.  Anything you put on the walls to absorb reflections really needs to be sufficiently thick to work effectively.  The one inch thick foam stuff is only effective at high frequencies, it needs to be more like 3" or 4" thick.  Anything absorbent will be more effective if you mount or hang it off the wall with an air gap behind it.  If the room needs to be normal looking, you might hang a few carpets, or put 2"-3" foam on the backside of large paintings or wall hangings and mount them off the wall with an air gap behind them.

If you are serious about it, make room response measurements along the way and use that to guide you.  That's an entire discussion in itself.

[edit- Use good monitors that you can trust, such that your recordings translate well to other systems outside your own room.  This is probably where any money is best spent.]

Justy Gyee:
any recommendations for a surface mount ceiling tile options for noise isolation treatments?
have a full basement that id like to keep the sounds inside of.
did some quick research online, but wondering about first hand experiences.

Gutbucket:
As mentioned previously, isolation is more challenging than acoustic treatment.

If the goal is reducing the nuisance level of level of sound escaping the room the two key factors are the air-tightness and mass of the boundary (the ceiling in this case).  If its an unfinished basement ceiling with exposed joists, sheet-rocking the ceiling is likely to be a somewhat effective option.  But if making that effort make sure there is not an easy path around that massy, air-tight boundary, like the walls or door at the top of the staircase or whatever.

I was involved in building demo rooms for a regional stereo retail chain many years ago.  It was cost driven and the primary concern was increased isolation, not treatment.  Those rooms featured a double layer of sheet rock on all walls and ceiling to increase the mass of the boundaries, and a heavy double pane glass door with a tight seal.  There was no specific acoustic treatment installed in those rooms other than furniture, carpet with thicker padding, and the equipment racks and lots of speakers. I think they later installed some diffuser panels on the walls, probably because that imparted a "serious audio" vibe as much as improving things acoustically, although it likely provided a bit of both.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page