hallway

A mixing room has to have some life in it, although you should have a mix of absorption (especially bass traps) and diffusion. If the room is too dead, however, you’ll be mixing in a very artificial environment, and among other things, you will tend to use way too much ambience effects (reverb and delay).

When speaking or singing in a room, the room returns the sound of one’s voice to the ears. This acoustic feedback contributes to the impression of the room environment, affects the difficulty (or ease) of speaking or singing, and affects how the voice is projected.

Finding your Studio’s Sweet Spot Measure the total length of your room from the front wall of your workstation to the back wall and then multiply it by 0.38. Then measure the length from the left to right wall and divide it by 2. The spot where those two lines meet is your room’s sweet spot !

Testing Room Acoustics for Musicians

1. Most notably, the shape of a room will determine how the sound waves bounce.
2. When first entering a room, take a walk around and notice the sound of your footsteps.
3. Close the door, stand in the middle of the room, and clap loudly.
4. You will also need a good set of speakers.

To avoid this problem, mount your acoustic panels flat on the walls, and be sure to spread them evenly throughout the entire room. To get maximum effectiveness from a limited number of panels, avoid placing panels on BOTH points of opposing walls…and instead, stagger their positions as shown in the above picture.

The minimum perimeter occurs if all 4 panels are placed so that their long sides are touching, with only 48′ of perimeter. By spreading them out with 4′ gaps in between the panels, the perimeter of the entire set of panels increases to 72′, and the efficiency of the layout increases by 50%.