Why Do I Need Acoustic Foam?

[MetalDave]

Acoustic foam sucks!

[Ethan Winer]

I agree with most of what you said. However, acoustic foam is not the only type of treatment, and it's generally not the best either. But you are 100 percent correct that most people do not appreciate the importance of acoustic treatment. I'd rather have $500 total in gear and a well treated control room, instead of $50,000 in gear in an untreated room.

--Ethan

[.tom]

agreed... but then, you're an expertwelcome to the board ethan

[brandondrury]

Wow! It looks like I've made it! Ethan Winer is now a member of RecordingReview. Poor guy! ha ha Welcome to the forum, Ethan. Feel free to push your Realtrap products. I know you make good stuff and we could all learn a thing or 10 from you.

I built my bass traps in 2005 and if I could go back, I would have just saved the 60 hours of work, blood, sweat, and tears and bought something I know works. Oh well.

I'd rather have $500 total in gear and a well treated control room, instead of $50,000 in gear in an untreated room.

Definitely! Forget the fancy mics, preamps, compressors, and converters. The room has to come first.

Acoustic foam is probably the most important aspect of any studio.

Hmmm. How do I approach this? I guess I have to reword it to fit my logic/style/whatever.

Acoustical control is one of the most important aspects of any studio. There are many ways to control acoustical reflections and I don't consider studio foam to be the best. Take a look at the low end absorption coefficients.

Of course, it depends on what you want to do. I typically record rock bands and I take the Bob Rock school of thought on the live room. Make the room as live as you can stand it before tracking (especially drums) and then use blankets or whatever to tame it if needed. If more drastic work needs to be done in the room bass traps or rigid fiberglass are more desirable in my opinion.

When I track vocals, I keep my trusty Ninja Turtle blanket on a mic stand.

As for the control room, the most gigantic issue is room modes caused by low end reflections ruining the frequency response of your studio monitors. Studio foam does zero to accomodate this.

Until recently acoustic foam was not taken seriously. This has resulted in a mind set in believing that acoustic treatment is not necessary and just a waste of time and money.

Really? Who says that acoustic treatment isn't important? It's ROBO important!

Use of acoustic treatment is the only way you can tell if what you are recording, editing, mixing or monitoring is accurate

I don't agree. It's very possible the treatments failed or were inadequate for the room. The only way to really tell if a studio monitoring system is accurate is to listen to your mixes on other systems. If they do not translate way, you probably have problems with your room.

[MetalDave]

I have to agree with Brandon, Ethen, please edjucate us an how to treat a room.... Even if it means buying some of your products. What is the best dimensions for a drum booth? a vocal booth? guitar? and so on... Everyone wants to know how to make a great sounding room... let us know. I have been trying to get these answers from this firum with nothing but how stupid I am about it. I know I am stupid about this, that is why I ask... How do we tune a room for certain types of recordings? Again, tell me as if I have never even thought about it before. Lets not talk about throwing a bunch of fiberglass around on the floor or putting tiles in the corner. Let talk specifically how to make... lets say a good drum room first. This is the room I have always had the most trouble with. Drum rooms... Then we can go from there. I have done quite a few trials and errors on this subject. I am sure some of you have done more. Foam just seems to be a good way to change a room espesially if you want to move some of it and get a bit of resonance from the room. I have used egg flats, Carpet, curtains have worked pretty good for me. It seems the smaller the room the better the recordings. I have put things in the corner of the room and hung a full length curtain in a circle around musicians. This has done really well for me. I still want to learn more about what I believe to be very Important tuning the room.

[brandondrury]

I have been trying to get these answers from this firum with nothing but how stupid I am about it.

Who called you stupid? They'll be getting a private message from me with a warning immediately.

MetalDave, you may want to read the ACTION PACKED adventure book "Master Handbook Of Acoustics" by Alton Everest. It's not the most exciting reading, but it really helped me with a basic understanding of acoustics and a few not-so basic concepts.

I generally think that acoustics is too big of a topic to be discussed well on a forum, but check out Ethan's site as he has some great articles that are pretty damn in depth for being online. I'd say that Ethan's site and the Master Handbook of Acoustics is enough. I decided I didn't want to go any deeper than that. If I do, I'm paying someone else to do it.

It seems the smaller the room the better the recordings.

Interesting. My experiences have been the exact opposite.

[MetalDave]

Thanks brandon, thats all I wanted to know. What do I need to do to learn how to build a great room.I am building one now and I don't want to do something and have to undo what I did. I have already spent thousands on trying to get a good room before. Then I listen to the recordings and hear this room. The room I so hate because I try so many different things and spend all kinds of cash and still have the room in my recordings! Maybe this is why I have been so inclined to not want any room sound at all. Why I hate ambience. Why I feel stupid. It has nothing to do with what anyone has said, it is how I feel like I ask a question and get nothing but Don't do this or that and sometimes I just take fiberglass and toss it about the room. And blaw blaw blaw.... what does a person have to do to get the aswers about this?

[sandy007]

Hi
I don’t have so much idea regarding this subject. Just I suggest you to take steps accordingly.

[Tony Ramone]

Here's a big question: what if your live room and acontrol room are the same place? All I've got available to me is my garage (concrete floor! nightmare!).

[String7th]

Tip for all, this book helped me a lot on understanding how sound waves travel and how to control them in smaller rooms. It even talks about how to approach odd shaped rooms like vaulted ceilings, and short walls.

Acoustic Design for the Home Studio