Treatment FAQ

where to place acoustic treatment

by Abraham McKenzie Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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  • Treat The First Reflection Points. Start by treating the first reflection points on the horizontal axis. ...
  • Pay Attention To The Weak Areas. You should consider placing some acoustic treatment between the speakers and your front wall. ...
  • Don’t Forget The Corners. If possible, mount some of your acoustic foam across corners of your room. ...
  • Build An Acoustic Cloud. This next recommendation is easiest if you have a drop-down hanging ceiling. ...
  • Use Furniture. Acoustic treatment can also be placed directly behind you on the back wall of your room. ...

Part of a video titled Acoustic Panels - What & Where - YouTube
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Between each of the two sets of side wall medium curves and place our curved corner traps in any twoMoreBetween each of the two sets of side wall medium curves and place our curved corner traps in any two of your corners. You can also add two to four more clouds.

Full Answer

Where do you put acoustic treatment on your headphones?

Acoustic treatment in the walls of a purpose-built recording studio control room. This is a Non-Environment (NE) type control room with flush-mounted studio monitors and thick broadband absorption systems built into the sidewalls, rear wall and ceiling. What you don’t see is the ceiling absorption system, which is several feet deep!

Where to place acoustic panels to satisfy the room acoustics?

For best results, it makes sense to place acoustic treatment in the areas which have the greatest impact, right? Well at the trihedral corners …all 3 sets of parallel walls converge, and any absorption located here catches room modes from all 3 …

How to get your room to sound great with acoustic treatment?

In a very small room, absorption would be the primary type of treatment. The most important surfaces to treat are those where the reflections arrive the earliest after the direct sound. Usually this will be the floor, ceiling and sidewalls. To locate …

What are some examples of acoustic treatment layouts?

Mar 07, 2014 · You must cover large surface areas on the walls with low-frequency management technology. Where you place the diaphragmatic absorption depends on many variables. It depends on your room size and volume. How much energy you place within your room (usage) and any noise issues you may also have.

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Where do you put sound treatments?

Best Placement Plans for Improving Acoustics
  1. Place acoustic panels at the first place on the wall where sound waves tend to hit before reaching the listeners ears.
  2. Place 3' to 6' up from the floor in areas where much of the sound is produced by people sitting or standing in enclosed spaces.

How do I know where to put my acoustic panels?

Part of a video titled How should I position my acoustic panels? General tips how to space ...
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Additional panels can be used on the ceiling. For additional absorption or in the horizontal. RoomMoreAdditional panels can be used on the ceiling. For additional absorption or in the horizontal. Room corners for better base response. But most of your treatment. Will likely work best at ear.

Where is the best place for acoustic foam?

You can place acoustic foam Corner Cubes in the top corners (G.) for added absorption and as a neat way of joining 3 foam Corner Traps together. The vertical corners in front of you are a priority and you should also have an equal number of traps on the left and right.

Where do you put acoustic treatment in home theater?

It is recommended that two acoustic panels are placed on either side of screen or TV and face the back of the room. If you have a perforated screen (such as a projector screen made of fabric) you can put panels behind it to help reduce these additional reflection points.Jul 30, 2020

Where do you put acoustic foam in a room?

If possible, mount some of your acoustic foam across corners of your room. This can be done between two horizontal walls or even the ceiling and side-wall. This will inherently create a large air gap behind the foam. This can be your start to absorbing those low-frequency resonances mentioned above.

How high should I hang my acoustic panels?

For rooms with standard height walls, panels are usually placed at roughly 24″ (60.9cm) up from the floor for sitting (control room) and 40″ (101.6cm) for standing (music studio). For rooms with longer walls, the height of panels will often be staggered in effort to spread out the acoustic treatment on the wall.

Will acoustic foam soundproof a room?

Acoustic foam will not soundproof your room. Acoustic treatment products treat the room the absorbing materials are placed in. The materials treat the room by reducing reverberation, echo and standing waves etc. Absorbing materials such as acoustic foam and mineral wool do not stop sound from leaking out of the room.

Does acoustic foam reduce noise?

Acoustic foams are installed to reduce noise pollution as they remove echoes and background sounds not by blocking the sound but by absorbing it. Acoustic foams are used to control the reverberation sounds make and this is quite different from soundproofing.Jul 14, 2015

How do you sound proof a room?

Cover walls with thick blankets, moving pads, tapestries, or quilts. Virtually any soft material will work, though thicker ones absorb more sound than thinner materials. If you don't mind adding an industrial look to the room, fasten sound-absorbing panels to the walls and, if necessary, the ceiling.Feb 5, 2021

What is ideal absorber of sound?

In general, soft, pliable, or porous materials (like cloths) serve as good acoustic insulators - absorbing most sound, whereas dense, hard, impenetrable materials (such as metals) reflect most. How well a room absorbs sound is quantified by the effective absorption area of the walls, also named total absorption area.

How do you hang acoustic panels from the ceiling?

Methods for acoustic panel or bass trap ceiling mounting

Attach one piece of wire onto each of the 4 eye hooks on the back of the panel. Then attach the other end of the wire to four equally-spaced hooks in the ceiling. Hooks not provided. Any hook rated for a hanging plant should work just fine.

Do acoustic panels keep sound in?

Acoustic panels do not block any sound and are not designed to keep sound in or out of a space. Acoustic panels work for sound absorption which is not the same as sound blocking.

Soundproofing vs. Acoustic Treatment

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In pro studios, where control rooms are used for mixing and live rooms are used for recording…different acoustic treatment strategies exist for eac...

What to Do If The Money’S Already Spent

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What is the term for the reflection that travels across the room and strikes the left sidewall?

That reflection is termed primary. The primary reflection travels across the room and strikes the left sidewall. This is called a secondary reflection. The primary and secondary reflections have different time signatures than the straight -line or no reflections energy.

What is the difference between primary and secondary reflections?

The primary and secondary reflections have different time signatures than the straight -line or no reflections energy. The secondary reflection then travels back to its original wall source or primary. This is called the tertiary or third reflection point.

How does ceiling reflection affect listening position?

Floor and ceiling reflections have an impact on the listening position. The ceiling reflection energy is responsible for sound stage height. The existing physical height of the ceiling can be “acoustically exceeded” through the proper use and application of diffusion. It does vary with room acoustic use. A listening room works best with a combination of absorption and diffusion technologies. A control room may prefer more of an absorptive approach so that a more critical listening sound stage can be realized. All room surfaces contribute to your sound stage. We have a different question to ask with each usage. Each usage we have to ask where to place acoustic panels to satisfy that room acoustics for that usage.

What is the impact of ceiling reflections on sound?

Floor and ceiling reflections have an impact on the listening position. The ceiling reflection energy is responsible for sound stage height. The existing physical height of the ceiling can be “acoustically exceeded” through the proper use and application of diffusion. It does vary with room acoustic use.

Why do control rooms prefer absorptive approach?

A control room may prefer more of an absorptive approach so that a more critical listening sound stage can be realized. All room surfaces contribute to your sound stage. We have a different question to ask with each usage. Each usage we have to ask where to place acoustic panels to satisfy that room acoustics for that usage.

What is sound stage?

A sound stage is literally that, namely a “stage of sound” that a two-channel system is capable of achieving in an acoustically treated room. It is that space between your left and right channel speakers, but it is also that space that extends wider and even taller than your loudspeakers themselves if the room is acoustically treated correctly. We must strike a balance between the straight-line energy from the speakers which strike your ears first and the reflections from the sidewalls, floor, and ceiling. If we get the balance correct, we have a sonic presentation in front of us that exceeds the physical space the speakers are in. There is more presentation width, height, and depth. There are more detail and definition along with more space between the instruments and voices. This is room acoustics at its best. Identifying surface area issues and then finding out where to place acoustic panels.

How many dimensions of sound can be created?

Three Dimensions of Sound. Three dimensions of sound space can be created between your speakers. You can have a height, width, and yes, even depth in your sound stage. The speakers themselves give you the energy to start with, but you must take that energy and then the room energy and make them both work together.

What is acoustic foam?

Computer programs. Acoustic foam, i.e. absorption, is a very popular method of acoustic treatment because it is both readily available and relatively inexpensive. This is great news! Acoustic foam works by reducing the amount of sound energy within a room.

How does acoustic foam work?

Acoustic foam works by reducing the amount of sound energy within a room. The sound energy does not disappear, rather, it is converted into other forms of energy. Recall that sound is micro-vibrations within air. As those vibrations pass through foam, the material membranes vibrate as well.

What happens when sound waves pass through foam?

As those vibrations pass through foam, the material membranes vibrate as well. The result of these vibrations is friction and heat. Viola… sound energy is dissipated as heat. With this understanding of acoustic foam, it should be clear that any porous or cloth-like material absorbs sound.

Does acoustic foam absorb sound?

Viola… sound energy is dissipated as heat. With this understanding of acoustic foam, it should be clear that any porous or cloth-like material absorbs sound. This means that blankets, couches, pillows, window curtains, laundry, and the clothes you are wearing right now function as sound absorbers.

Does acoustic foam absorb high frequencies?

Therefore, using only thin acoustic foam will disproportionately absorb high frequencies without providing benefit in lower frequency regions. The result is an unnatural sounding room that is no longer musical. This leads us to our one simple trick to improve your acoustic treatment without spending more money.

Can you overdo acoustic foam?

Don’t Overdo It. Acoustic foam can be a fantastic first step in improving a rooms’ acoustics; however, if used in excess it can make a room sound lifeless, unbalanced, and unnatural. There is a very common trap that I myself fell prey to when first starting out.

Can foam make a room sound lifeless?

Acoustic foam can be a fantastic first step in improving a rooms’ acoustics; however, if used in excess it can make a room sound lifeless, unbalanced, and unnatural.

How far should your back wall be from your ears?

Note your back wall should be at least 10 feet from your ears.

How to place a monitor in a room?

Don’t lie them on their side. Put them on stands at head height when possible and pointed towards your head. Read the manufacturer recommendation on how far from the walls and then set there symmetrically within the room.

What is reverberation echo?

Reverberation and flutter echo is the simplest problems to recognize in any room and are especially common in rooms with a lot of empty wall spaces and hard surfaces. Both issues can be handled with simple solutions.

How much of the interior surface of a recording studio should be covered?

A basic guideline to treat your typical home recording studio is to cover 22% to 25% of the interior surface with acoustic treatment.

What Is Acoustic Treatment

Room acoustic treatment is a process when you transform your bad-sounding room into a professional recording environment. This is done by hanging acoustic panels on walls and other specific areas for your room.

What Type Of Acoustic Panels Exist

Acoustic panels are made from different materials such as foam or fiberglass. But more important is the type of acoustic panel. In general, they absorb the sound to make the room more recording-friendly.

Acoustic Treatment For Home Recording Studios

As long as you understand how different types of acoustic panels work, it’s time to learn how to place them in our room. The proper placement is critical for a good-sounding environment. In this guide, you will learn how to treat the recording room acoustically.

Floor Treatment And Furniture

Many home studio owners have discussions and argue about floor treatment and furniture placement in studios. There are no right or wrong ways to do it and debates will continue. Because it may work in one studio but fail in another one.

Conclusion

The proper acoustic treatment for a home recording studio is critical. Because houses and rooms are not designed for recording, you have to make it great for recording and mixing. And acoustic panels are the best way to treat recording rooms acoustically.

How high should a speaker panel be?

That is to say: a 2ft by 4ft panel should be placed so that it is 4ft high.

Where should acoustic panels be placed?

For managing surround systems, acoustic panels should be placed centered at speaker reflection points. For managing sound in from voices (in an office, for example), acoustic panels should be placed at the level sound is being generated at. There are plenty of details to think through, like what to do if you’re trying to manage sound ...

How to approach a surround system?

In general, you should methodically trace out the reflection points, placing one or a couple of acoustic panels at each spot based on how much you anticipate the waves have spread out by the time they get to the wall. Start with once each, and scale up as needed.

Why is a high ceiling good?

This can be good in some situations: if the ceiling is high enough and the volume low enough, sound can spread out so much that it dissipates and loses the energy to be reflected down. In an office environment or recording space where you’re only trying to capture low-volume audio, high ceilings can help.

Why is sound spread out in a long room?

Long and/or wide rooms have a unique problem: since the room is long/wide/or both, the sound has further to travel, and more time to spread out. This means that, while in a “shorter” room a few panels can capture sound on a given wall, the longer the room is the more spread out that wound will be, requiring more surface area of panels to collect it.

Can you put 10 panels up?

You can’t just put 10 panels up anywhere and expect them to absorb all the sound you want to be removed from the space. So, take some time to consider your goals while planning your space, and let the direction above about the best height and placement of panels drive your decisions.

Where are early reflection points?

First reflection points are the first points on your sidewalls, floor, and ceiling where reflections can bounce off and come back to listening position.

How to control reverberation?

Reverberation can simply be controlled by using appropriate acoustic panels more or less evenly spaced throughout the room , to get general dampening. However, reverberation can also be dealt with by diffusion, which will help turn the excess decay into a more controlled ambiance instead of removing the sound energy.

Where is flutter echo found?

Flutter echo specifically happens between any two flat, parallel walls, and is usually found in the upper half of most rooms since the sound isn’t broken up by desks, chairs, amps, etc. up there, and can be treated using either absorption or diffusion.

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