Treatment, panel, kit and acoustic correction for home studio

Introduction to soundproofing a music studio and acoustic treatment

If you want to find acoustic solutions for your home studio, I dare to imagine that you are already perfectly familiar with the basics of acoustic treatment, and that we can therefore skip this chapter. Otherwise I invite you to read our tutorial on echo absorption and resonance reduction.

Of course, we will talk in this tutorial about the acoustics of the recording studio, and not its management, which takes up codes similar to a classic listening piece, but with a listening position and a sweet spot which require positioning the panels differently.

Traitement acoustique home studio- PYT Audio

So let’s get straight to the heart of the matter by asking ourselves:

  • How to treat your recording studio?
  • What are the advantages of PYT to get the most out of your studio?

This is a thorny question which, as a manufacturer of acoustic products, and therefore of acoustic panels for home studios, has led us to various reflections on the advice we could give you …

We have the very technical side that an acoustician can justifiably defend, with a normative aspect which leads to a qualitative and relatively standardized result. However, as an audiophile I can’t help but think of the musical aspect and the soundscapes that the producer may want to put in place to optimize his final rendering …

First, your premises will have a more or less complex base to work with.

To be able to define more precisely how to build your home studio, you will need to carry out a control measurement.

Construction de home studio pro- PYT Audio

Acoustic processing and correction for recording studios: for whom?

Who is this article for?

Anyone wishing to treat their recording studio. And more precisely :

  • Anyone wishing to record sound in optimal conditions
  • Any professional wanting to reinforce its acoustics to find a very high quality sound recording quality

Home studio music

Piano dans un home studio dédié à la musique

If you are an individual and you have a room dedicated to the practice of music at home.

Home studio bedroom

Chambre non traitée acoustiquement

If you use your bedroom as a recording studio and want to optimize its acoustics.

Professional home studio

Home studio professionnel non traité acoustiquement

If you are a professional practicing in the world of music or the audio world (DJ, mixer, …)

Make your home studio: the measurement

Logo Rew

The “REW” software as well as a measurement microphone, and of course a sound source (a powerful amplified speaker) will help you in this process.

Thanks to this measurement we will try to understand what is the original reverberation rate of the room, and its influence on the perceived sound quality.

We will especially be interested in the RT60 which will give you a precise idea of ​​the reverberation time over a wide spectrum. You will find an explanatory schema of this index on your right.

And we’re also going to be interested in the D50 which is the index of intelligibility and clarity of the different frequencies.

These 2 measures will allow you to better understand the original quality of your part, the quantity and the type of panels that will have to be used to improve it.

Calcul du temps de réverbération de l'écho

Home studio acoustics: RT 60

Let’s take a look at different curves to better understand the RT60 (click on the image to enlarge).

Here are 2 measurements of the “manager” part that you can find on the page our achievements.

First of all, it is important to specify that this room was selected and worked for a Hifi listening in a living room, with a wall treatment only, and a relatively low absorption surface. The materials of the room are inert and “natural” (room, bricks, solid parquet, with little concrete and drywall) favoring its musical qualities and naturally controlled reverberation times.

In green, the furnished room (33m²), with open curtains and without acoustic panel.

In pink, the identical room with the curtains closed and a light acoustic treatment composed of 15 SMAD acoustic panels on the walls, and 6 poly cylindrical SPAD diffusers in front of the TV.

Studio soundproofing: the difference with studio acoustic panels

At the start, we see that the room is average, with a reverberation time that does not yet seem excessive: between 0.55 and 0.75 seconds on the sensitive area of ​​the ear, so between 500 and 7000hz.

On paper, so we are on a correct result, but this results in listening to a feeling of aggressiveness, its diffuse, lack of precision and weak dynamics.

In pink, we see that with little acoustic treatment, in a room with a large volume, we can reduce the reverberation time by about 30%. A much more suitable reverberation time is thus obtained, which must be between 0.3 and 0.5 seconds. But beyond the simple improvement of this reverberation time, we see that the curve no longer makes a “bell” between 500 and 7khz. Thanks to the acoustic treatment, we obtain a better controlled spectral shape: a descending (or decreasing) slope from the bass to the treble, which induces a more natural and soft sound to the ear!

PYTAUDIO PRODUCTS SMAD REFERENCE
PYTAUDIO PRODUCTS SPAD LOW PROFILE EXCLUSIVE EDITION

Listening to it translates into much better readability, better precision: without any aggressiveness and with much more dynamic. This is proof that even a slight acoustic treatment greatly changes the sound performance of the room!

It is important to note that with a much more reverberant room, the figures for the reverberation reduction with the same acoustic treatment would differ. The difference between before and after would be even more impressive (but we are not here to sell dream with extreme conditions).

Studio acoustic treatment: extreme case

Let’s take a look at a second case: a case of “extreme” acoustic treatment of another 20m² room.

This part has an extremely low RT60 index. Note that all of the walls, ceiling, and floor are 100% treated.

These data are those of a fellow acoustician who needs extremely low values ​​for research and development needs.

This type of result is not desirable if you want your sound recording to be musical and lively.

In fact, there is a very important intelligibility. However, the sound is dead, muffled, and no room atmosphere appears. Everything must be added artificially during production. This can be a goal for certain sounds (especially those of voices). However, this is very restrictive and costly.

Courbe RT 60 lors d'un traitement acoustique Home Studio

Build your home studio with home studio acoustic panels: D50

Courbe D50 avec utilisation de panneau acoustique home studio

The D50 is a value that allows you to understand the clarity and definition of the different frequencies. Indeed, it measures as a percentage the first decreases of SPL level on 50ms compared to the decrease in its entirety. It particularly targets the voice.

Let’s take a closer look at the results for our various measures.

In blue we find our hyper absorbed room. Here, the room obtains results close to perfection, since we are almost permanently at 100%. This means that the intelligibility of the different frequencies is perfect.

In the case of a recording that requires it, especially for voices, an extremely matte piece makes sense. Indeed, the sound recording is not subject to any room constraints which would interfere with the distinction between the articulation of the microphones. This will promote a perfectly distinct, clear and therefore audible voice.

Traitement acoustique Studio avec des panneaux acoustiques PYT Audio
Prise de son home studio optimisée

In the case of a classic piece (green and pink curves), a value between 80 and 90% means that the intelligibility is very good. An excellent value is between 90 and 100%. Below 50%, it is accepted that the frequency band is bad.

On our green and pink curves, we can see that between 40 and 300hz, the result is bad. Certainly, this influences the result but it is not catastrophic because the ear is not very discriminating before the 500hz.

However, we could consider using bass trap to improve this value and get a tighter and faster bass.

For the rest, we see once again that the basic values ​​were good. Likewise, the acoustic treatment, even light, has contributed to improving the quality of the room.

How to use our acoustic kits according to these different values to create your home studio?

Our solutions have been designed to maintain musicality.

Your room may sound dull but not “dead”. It can be very dynamic and very deep, but not aggressive, thanks to proprietary technologies. This is very important because everything that the acoustics of your room does not make in your sound recording, you must add it artificially to the mix (and the acoustics plays in particular on the perceived spatialization, which is complex to transcribe digitally ).

Our solutions have therefore been designed to be modular, you can move your panels so as to create different soundscapes according to your needs!

Insonorisation d'une pièce de musique
Créer son Home Studio avec des panneaux acoustiques

Why is it important? Because we will be able to vary the placement of the panels to look for specific reverberation effects.

With different techniques and stages, we will be able to correct the large defects not catchable in post-mix such as aggressiveness, echoes, non-transparency / blurring effect on the transients of the instruments and the intelligibility of the voice. Then, by going further, we will be able to intervene on the balance of the energy distribution on the set of frequencies.

Soundproofing a musical room: how to set up your home studio?

The question then arises:

  • How to use PYT Audio home studio acoustic panels to achieve these results?
Traitement acoustique- positionnement des panneaux acoustiques

As a priority, we will work on the RT60 to obtain a less reverberant room to suppress the echo. This is to preserve a good sound.

Unlike what we can do for a HiFi system where we will try to process primary and secondary reflections, as well as work for a “single” point (that of the listening position). In the case of a recording studio, we will try to treat the room to obtain a general sound.

We will therefore seek to treat in a rather symmetrical manner as in the schema on the right. This step may suffice and already provides significantly more favorable acoustics.

With this base, we will then be able to arrange studio acoustic panels: either absorbent or diffusing.

If you feel that your room is still too reverberating or if your RT60 is still too high, you must add absorbent panels “in the empty boxes”. This will make your room more matte with an RT60 still going down.

If you find that your room is starting to sound quiet enough and not aggressive, with an RT60 approaching 0.4 seconds, then you may want to consider using poly-cylindrical or low profile diffusers.

mur acoustique

Diffusers, useful to improve the acoustics of a recording studio?

PYTAUDIO PRODUCTS SPAD POLY-CYLINDRICAL EXCLUSIVE EDITION

What is a diffuser?

A diffuser is an element that intelligently returns energy and reflections in multiple directions to suppress echoes, resonances, or flutters echo. All this without absorbing energy, unlike an absorbent panel.

The huge advantage of these panels is therefore to keep this notion of energy which is fundamental for a natural and lively sound. Our technologies improve the depth and precision of sound.

The low profile diffuser is a compromise between absorption and diffusion. Its base takes up the chassis of an absorbent panel and it uses diffusion bands to simulate a shroeder diffuser in a “slim” format.

It makes it possible to conserve and redistribute energy in an optimized way but by absorbing a room to continue lowering the RT60.

This panel is ideal for use on the ceiling.

The ceiling must be treated in a second step, unless you have an flutter echo (listen to the audio file on your right) between the floor and the ceiling. This will require you to process a significant portion of the ceiling.

Create a home studio: acoustic panels for ceiling

Panneau insonorisant

This allows me to make a transition all indicated on the ceiling, and our ceiling option.

The ceiling treatment is not systematic but allows to significantly reduce the RT60.

It is a question of treating in a balanced way the ceiling with a quantity of panel which will vary from 1 for 3m² to 1 panel per m².

The advantage of our ceiling option is that it allows orientation of the studio acoustic panel in multiple positions.

This thus allows the diffusion of the residual waves which are returned by the panel.

Our solution also makes it possible to obtain a spacing between the ceiling and the panel of 15 centimeters, which appreciably optimizes the absorption factor of the panel. Indeed, the wave will strike the panel either directly, or after being returned by the wall and absorb by the back of the panel.

Make a home studio: bass trap

Finally, the bass trap can be used in the case where, as in our example, the piece generates defects which hamper the intelligibility of the bass. It could be worse, the room creating redundancy problems or an excess of bass which would be characterized, among other things, by a very important RT60 between 150 and 40Hz.

The solution would then be to treat the 4 corners of the pieces with two bass traps in each corner in order to channel this protuberance.

In fact, the bass amplifies in the corners of the room.

Beware, however, of serious problems which can find their origins in multiple factors which are sometimes difficult to identify. Analysis of the curves does not always make it possible to identify them.

In fact, slightly inert materials, such as placo, can quite vibrate at certain frequencies to create an amplification of certain acoustic phenomena.

PYTAUDIO PRODUCTS TUBE TRAP REFERENCE

Why trust PYT Audio for the acoustics of your home studio?

We therefore invite you to consult us so that we can assist you in the search for the most suitable solutions according to your needs.

PYT Audio has already had the opportunity to work with many customers, particularly in the field of home studio.