Is acoustic foam treatment necessary?

N

njs2011

New member
I've been working on my own home studio on a budget for a little while now. I record acoustic guitar and vocals. The studio is open in one room (there isn't a control room and vocal booth seperate.) Currently I record with Shure SM-57s and SM-58 dynamic mics but i've been checking out the Rode NT1-A Studio Condenser mic.

My question is if putting something along the lines of Auralex Acoustic Foam in the studio will help the sound quality significantly or not.. Right now my recordings have a live-ish kind of sound to them and I'd like a studio sound with not as much background room noise. Also if so, what kind of foam and how much should I use? Thanks a lot!

-Nick
 
Is there a sticky for this?

Start with bass traps. Putting up foam without bass traps will only make the sound worse, as you are killing your high frequencies, but not the low ones, which is where the bigger problem is.
 
njs2011 said:
I've been working on my own home studio on a budget for a little while now. I record acoustic guitar and vocals. The studio is open in one room (there isn't a control room and vocal booth seperate.) Currently I record with Shure SM-57s and SM-58 dynamic mics but i've been checking out the Rode NT1-A Studio Condenser mic.

My question is if putting something along the lines of Auralex Acoustic Foam in the studio will help the sound quality significantly or not.. Right now my recordings have a live-ish kind of sound to them and I'd like a studio sound with not as much background room noise. Also if so, what kind of foam and how much should I use? Thanks a lot!

-Nick
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Yes, foam does help recording spaces, but unless you get some bass traps like Crows said then the cake will only be half-baked :D

Also, keep in mind that when people say "bass trap" around here, 99% of them are NOT talking about the Auralex LENRD traps (although I have some, and find them useful for mid-range frequencies personally!)
 
On the other hand voc and ac guitar aren't generating a lot below a couple hundred Hz. Some 2" fiber panels around the mic area, and one or two above, will block and attenuate the room return and knock down some of the nasty hard early reflections.
Likely you won't want (or need) enough to make it closed in like a booth', and being on stands, moveable, hung whatever it's variable as to how dry' and you're not trying tackling the whole room.

Here's a neat place to plug your room into (or any room) to get an example of what we're up against, why the low frequency cautions.
http://www.hunecke.de/en/calculators/room-eigenmodes.html
 
guitaristic said:
Yes, foam does help recording spaces, but unless you get some bass traps like Crows said then the cake will only be half-baked :D

Also, keep in mind that when people say "bass trap" around here, 99% of them are NOT talking about the Auralex LENRD traps (although I have some, and find them useful for mid-range frequencies personally!)
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When you say people aren't talking about the Auralex Bass Traps, what are they talking about?
 
njs2011 said:
When you say people aren't talking about the Auralex Bass Traps, what are they talking about?
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Justin Beiber, Ipads, Federal Reserve, gas prices, Obama, American Idol. You know, the usual.
 
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njs2011 said:
When you say people aren't talking about the Auralex Bass Traps, what are they talking about?
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They're referring to a wooden frame filled (usually) with mineral wool or rigid fiberglass and then covered with material. These bad boys can be kinda expensive, but they're not so bad if you build 'em yourself! The LENRD traps are only really effective down to about 150 htz, but real bass traps can plunge much lower depending upon their thickness and the materials used!
 
njs2011 said:
I've been working on my own home studio on a budget for a little while now. I record acoustic guitar and vocals. The studio is open in one room (there isn't a control room and vocal booth seperate.) Currently I record with Shure SM-57s and SM-58 dynamic mics but i've been checking out the Rode NT1-A Studio Condenser mic.

My question is if putting something along the lines of Auralex Acoustic Foam in the studio will help the sound quality significantly or not.. Right now my recordings have a live-ish kind of sound to them and I'd like a studio sound with not as much background room noise. Also if so, what kind of foam and how much should I use? Thanks a lot!

-Nick
Click to expand...

I think the NT1A is simply a terrible microphone.
 
Turtis21 said:
Im sure its that High Freq bump that turn some people off.
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Yeah, probably. Honestly I think it's all based on what kinda mics you start recording with in the beginning....if it's the NT1A type, with the bump, then you probably won't mind it. I think the people who don't like are the ones who started with something flatter.


Different strokes for different folks! :guitar:
 
Hi Nick,

Acoustic foams can definitely reduce unwanted room boundary reflections and minimize them at the microphone position. There are two types of acoustic foams: open celled and closed cell foams. Auralex makes an open celled foam. Closed cell foams have a better absorption curve for guitars and vocals. Their rate and level of absorption mates better with vocals and guitars than open celled foams. Closed cell foams require less foam thickness than open celled ones. Start with treating 50% of the room with a closed cell foam and live with it for awhile. You will know what additional amounts to use after that first week or so.

Cheers,
Mike
 
I'm ready for whatever comes my way...

I don't think acoustic treatment is that important (until you get a lot of other things right). Most bedroom studios suck as far as acoustics, and that will definitely affect (or effect :)) your sound. But, you can get some super good recordings and mixes without any treatment. Technique, monitors, good mics are all more important IMO. I've even read some articles from big time producers who don't have acoustic treatment in their home studios where they do a lot of professional mixing. So, I think treatment is a great idea, but there are other things to worry about first. If you've got all the basics, and some good equipment, then treatment may be the next step.

So, I wouldn't recommend acoustic treatment to noobs, or even moderately experienced. That said, I'm not that great, but I plan to do some bass traps this summer :)
 
aaronmcoleman said:
I'm ready for whatever comes my way...

I don't think acoustic treatment is that important (until you get a lot of other things right). Most bedroom studios suck as far as acoustics, and that will definitely affect (or effect :)) your sound. But, you can get some super good recordings and mixes without any treatment. Technique, monitors, good mics are all more important IMO. I've even read some articles from big time producers who don't have acoustic treatment in their home studios where they do a lot of professional mixing. So, I think treatment is a great idea, but there are other things to worry about first. If you've got all the basics, and some good equipment, then treatment may be the next step.

So, I wouldn't recommend acoustic treatment to noobs, or even moderately experienced. That said, I'm not that great, but I plan to do some bass traps this summer :)
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Well if you think about it logically, you may THINK that you are getting good recording in an untreated room but you won't know because your hearing your tracks in that room. Some pros mix in untreated rooms. But they have YEARS of conditioning their ears, and they have undoubtedly learned thier rooms.

Even if you throw that out. New Mic that really improves your sound? if you have a decent one now that'll run you AT LEAST $500 bucks for a LDC, more for a stereo set of Smallies. New Monitors? even if you have $300 KRK's your aren't going to get a HUGE improvement until you get into the $800 dollar range and those aren't any more help untile you fix the room. New software processors? You can use free ones but theres no match for pro ones and in that dept you are shelling out $200 at least. New AD/DA? you aren't even going to hear it in a bad room and it'll run you 1k. Pre professional level guitar? new drumset? vocal lessons? all those can push several thousand. I think (Haven't got a chance to myself yet) you could DIY treat a room for just early reflections and bass trapping for under $500 and see HUGE RIDICULOUS improvement. Once you have enough gear to give you the basic ability to record what you want the room is the first place you should look to improve your sound. It's not easy but if recording audio were easy this forum wouldn't exsist.
 
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