Acoustic Treatment: Have We Been Tricked?

[@heychrisgreen]

Thanks for watching! 🙂What’s the best acoustic treatment solution you’ve ever implemented?

[@Herfinnur]

Going out into the woods for recording

[@rome8180]

@@Herfinnur if you can find an outdoor environment that isn't too noisy and doesn't bother neighbors, this makes a lot of sense. No walls = no reflections.

[@jdc6681]

Sound is energy. As the amount of sound increases, the amount of energy increases and that energy, if not absorbed, will bounce back into the room (and mic) causing unwanted results. Given that Billie's typical vocal energy (volume) range goes from a whisper to average speaking volume, holding a mic less than 5 inches from her mouth, she can get away with singing in a small untreated room (no meaningful sound reflections). If she's belting it out, you better believe she'll need some absorption/diffusion to deal with that increased energy reflecting off the walls, ceiling, floor, mirrors, windows, etc. and back into the mic.

[@rome8180]

Yep. That's exactly what I was thinking. I believe they recorded in that bedroom specifically for her first few albums. She's since started belting more, so I imagine they don't do that anymore. Plus, that bedroom was tiny and full of furniture. The bed alone takes up half the room.

[@heychrisgreen]

That’s why I’ve decided to sing like Billie Elish from now on 😁

[@josuastangl7140]

But the ratio of direct sound vs reflections from the room will stay the same regardless of volume. If you record quieter and then gain it up/make it appropriately loud later, you're gonna increase the room sound just as much. Using compression further highlights the room reflections.

[@halcyo]

The musical PART and PERFORMANCE is like 90% of what makes any recording great. Gear, room, and production/mixing are icing on the cake. The sound of whatever space you're in doing it is all just part of what makes each project unique. Yea, sometimes you want super dead and controlled, but it's absolutely not the "paint color" you want for everything.

[@perrykeshahwalker5321]

I agree I've gotten the best sound for vocals hanging up moving blankets as opposed to buying expensive acoustic treatment now I'm not saying not to buy it expensive acoustic treatment I'm just saying what worked for me in a medium sized room

[@efulmpuy132]

Yes it work for me too. I have no budget to buy some acoustic treatment so i made some diy stuff and try everything to prevent sound bouncing back to my mic, and yes, blankets, towel, shirt, works for me. But dont compare with other expensive acoustic treatmen😂

[@Gracebeliever077]

When I first learned a few years ago that Billie Eilish and her brother made those songs in that bedroom, I was super excited for her. I'm not trying to be somebody with my music, but since I've been messing with a DAW for 22 years, I was like, yeahhh buddy! Good for them!

[@joejurneke9576]

Carpet on the floor, acoustic ceiling tiles, furniture, bookshelves, etc all help to break up reflections. Simple things work pretty well. Bare walls, hardwood floors, hard ceilings all create issues.

[@TRXST.ISSUES]

Anyone serious about their music career should invest the time and effort into treating their room. Doesn't matter if you have $200 or $10,000 - do what you can if you take this seriously. If it's a hobby, treat it as such.

[@TheAT5000]

Audio engineers always used to travel to locations with room responses they wanted to record with. Here's a thought; what if your brain can subconsciously recognize something that was recorded in a certain type of space, and connect certain feelings with it? Is that not why we add reverb? Weren't the first plate reverb just a way to overcome the fact that studios couldn't physically fit a cathedral in them? That's the recording side, now, for the mixing side you can use room EQ wizard and apply a corrective EQ at the mixing position to make sure you have the most accurate sound possible, or... You can start you mix on headphones, they are the cheapest and easiest way to get your panning perfect. You can throw a high pass and low pass filter on your master bus and get your midrange decent. Then bring your daw, on your laptop, in to your car to mix the low end. Then go back to headphones to make sure the high end doesn't hurt. Remember, get it right at the source, and everything after is much easier.

[@Gang-25j]

you can't change room reverb when it's recorded in the sound

[@ThiagoMatarazzoGuitar]

The content is great... But your mousepad is AMAZING!

[@josuastangl7140]

I've gotten pretty great results with thick mattresses in the past, but you need a lot of them. Building your own broad band absorbers and bass traps is also pretty easy and cheap. Mixing just on headphones is possible, but much easier if you’re already an experienced engineer and learned on speakers first to know what information the headphones are gonna tell you and what they will misrepresent. Stereo imaging and ambience like reverbs and delays is different on headphones. They’ll always sound dryer and more isolated than a pair of speakers in a room.

[@rome8180]

A cheap solution I came up with for vocals was moving blankets hung from clothes racks. You can basically build a modular, mobile vocal or instrument booth this way. You'll want the clothes racks to be strong enough to hold a couple heavy moving blankets. And you'll also want them to be tall enough that you're not just singing over the top of them. I think I managed to get all the moving blankets and clothes racks I needed for this setup for around $100. It's super convenient because you can put it anywhere in any room of the house. It does still help to pick the room that already sounds the best. I like to set up in my bedroom because there's a bed, tons of bookshelves, racks of clothes, etc. Even with all that, though, I was shocked at how much drier my vocals sounded with my makeshift setup.

[@rome8180]

Forgot to add that you can go the extra mile and put a moving blanket over the top of the setup as well, creating a kind of blanket fort.

[@jameslifetimelearner]

I’m building mine out of PVC and modular for disassembly,about 6’x6’ concave shell,gobos and towels on desk.

[@teddyboamah]

Gems!!! 🥶🥶🥶

[@heychrisgreen]

Thanks for watching!

[@kvmoore1]

I've turned a bedroom closet into an acoustically treated vocal booth by covering all the walls, ceiling, and door with yellow mattress padding foam. It worked beautifully as a vocal booth. However, I found out later that mattress padding is made of flammable materials. It was a cheap solution for acoustic treatment, but it was definitely a fire hazard. For that reason, I would never do that again, knowing what I know today. I also found out that even some dedicated acoustic foam that you buy is also made with flammable materials!!! WOW!!! This stuff will be around electronic equipment, so it need to be fire resistant, NOT FLAMMABLE!!!!! That brings me to this question: Would hanging a moving blanket on the wall or using mattresses be a fire hazard (meaning flames would spread quickly in the event of a fire)? Is there a very affordable fire retardant material that can be used for cheaply constructing your own acoustic panels that would also be just as effective for their intended purpose? On a side note, that isolation filter around the microphone looks like a very good idea. There are also portable small affordable vocal booths that you can buy online made out of PVC pipes that come with an acoustic blanket. You can set it up in a small apartment and set and breakdown only takes a few minutes. I might consider getting me one of those. However, for mixing, the mixing room still needs to be treated in order to hear the sound accurately that's coming from the studio monitors.

[@okaymazi]

Great video! if you could link the specific moving blanket, that'd be great :)

[@heychrisgreen]

I’ve been digging through my email and can’t find the original purchase.. I’m sorry it’s been at least 10 years since I bought it. There’s many on Amazon that look similar but the one I’ve got is very thick and feels like cotton rather than vinyl.. look for heavy blankets. I believe the one I have cost me about $50 but honestly any thick comforter with a few holes cut out for hanging would do just as well!

[@okaymazi]

@@heychrisgreen I might know exactly what you're talking about as I owned a similar one some years back now that i remember, I'll update if i find it, thanks for the reply

[@jimbarrett5462]

The primary roadblock that I’ve run into when researching this is that comforters, closets full of clothes, foam panels, mattress forts, etc do not dampen any bass - Just the high frequencies and some of the mids. Bass traps are basically the only resolution for that problem and I’m just not comfortable with paying hundreds of dollars for those. At a certain point I’ve just got to live my life and deal with whatever repercussions arise.

[@rome8180]

There are affordable ways to make your own bass traps using rockwool/mineral wool/fiberglass. Whether or not you actually need bass traps depends on what you're doing. For mixing using monitors? Probably. For recording vocals, probably not. Absorbing the highs and mids will likely be enough, in my experience. The noticeable echoes that make a vocal recording sound bad will not be in the lows.

[@heychrisgreen]

If you have speakers or studio monitors you will certainly have lots of problems when mixing bass.. that’s why I’ve gone 100% headphones 😅 Most of the time I’m cutting a lot of low end from our vocals and acoustic instruments but I can see that low end always being a problem.. I believe most companies call anything thicker than 4 inches a bass trap.. you need mass and air gaps to soak it all up but I’ve rarely heard of home studios being successful at that 😬

[@DeadOriginalMusic]

what's the brand for the vocal reflection

[@heychrisgreen]

Aston Halo Reflection Filter amzn.to/3BupUI0 (Amazon affiliate link)

[@Polentaccio]

So true about acoustic treatment and over doing it for tiny spaces.. Just finished my basement but carved out a 12x14 space for my drums, console, guitar cabs etc. By the time i did double 5x8 and staggered studs on outside walls and then 2 layers of drywall with sonopan and res channel for the ceiling, I was obsessing about treatment. My buddy came in and said listen, this is a home project studio. Your ceiling is now 7.5 or 7 in spots.. your walls are close. How much more are you going to invest in the room? So I settled on panels I made myself. 6 inch panels for a few corners, 3 inch throughout room, and a cloud with lights built in. End of the day, small spaces you just don't want the flutter. The rest, you learn your room through reference mixes or corrective software and using headphones. It is virtually impossible to get rid of pressure/bass in small rooms. You also kill your high end by doing that. My advice would be, do up a room you can afford and that inspires you. End of the day, i could have spent way more on double doors or rockwool everywhere but at a certain point, enough is enough. Be realistic about your goals and what you expect. Ultimately a good song and good performance matter more than anything else. Valentine's studio is also seriously lacking in mojo.. I wouldn't want that.

[@stringsdiezel]

There is a trade off in home spaces between sound isolation and acoustic treatment. If you properly isolate a space to make is sound-proof: the dimensions of the room become an exact battle you're fighting with modes and reflection. If sound isolation isn't important: bass frequencies don't necessarily reflect and will often continue through the wall and either out of the house or until they reach the concrete foundation of a basement. My mix room is roughly 12' x 12' (give or take a few inches) and has a maybe 7' ceiling. On paper, it is a bad shape and too small to treat well. In reality, the back wall includes a bi-fold door and un-insulated wall where bass easily escapes. I built custom treatment for it (15" x 15" or bigger bass traps in all 4 wall/wall corners and 15" x 24" on the front ceiling/wall corner. 10" deep traps that handle first reflection absorption as well as some floor/wall bass trapping in the front half of the room. A cloud. A rear diffuser.). I also included some active bass traps and room-correction. Room measures +/- 2.5dB below 100Hz and +/- 1.5dB above 100Hz.

[@DJJohnnyTapia]

Not having any monitors, and only headphones is diabolical 😅

[@jamesjames77777]

Two microphone stands, made into a “T” shape. Hang a blanket/duvet over them and you’ve got a vocal booth 👍

[@heychrisgreen]

Great idea! 😁

[@lucastindallfishing2473]

Most people have never even been in a well treated room so y would anyone think that u have to have that to create something that people would like the sound of or bring out an emotional response

[@ParaaShakti]

that mouse pad is cool

[@heychrisgreen]

Thanks! 😁