Thought experiment

spantini

COO of me, inc.
Ok. So making your recording space "soundproof" isn't desireable because you'll want some reflections to give "body" or "substance" to an instrument. In this pursuit, you tame and contour reflections with absorbers, deadeners and certain reflective materials - all placed in strategic areas and positions.

Now what if you were to approach this from the opposite end. Say you begin with an anechoic chamber (room) with negative decibles. Could you possibly place reflective materials of varying shapes and sizes in strategic positions to reflect enough desired frequencies and vibrations via specific paths, avoiding the absorbant areas and terminating at one or more microphones, to achieve the same or similar results? Would these results be acceptable for music production? Desireable?

I suppose placing reflective materials to focus frequencies on a microphone, avoiding the anechoic areas would be more sterile, like miking a small combo amp in a closet, or using a shotgun mic in the open.

This is just a thought experiment, so not looking for real world solutions.
 
This is just a thought experiment, so not looking for real world solutions.

Just as well. It's likely that by selectively placing reflective surfaces within an anechoic chamber would result in decent recordings. However, it would be serious expensive.
 
I know you have it in quotation marks but soundproof suggests no sound gets in or out.
That doesn't necessarily relate to how the room sounds.
With the time and money you could soundproof a tiled bathroom. It's still going to sound, inside, like a tiled bathroom.
 
Yes...and it's something I've noted a few times in recent months in these studio treatment discussions..."soundproofing" gets too mixed up with actual acoustic treatment for room sound quality.

Not picking you, spantini... :) ...just my own thought stuff.
Guys seem to always ask about "soundproofing"...but I don't think that's what they are really after...or maybe they are, but then they don't realize that soundproofing will not do anything for actual sound quality, so even if they need the soundproofing, they need to also consider acoustic treatment.
Most times...they don't really need absolute soundproofing...more like, some sound control.
 
I often wonder why one can't just have both soundproofing and then treat the internal space for a good sound.
 
There's no reason you couldn't.
If you attempted some degree of soundproofing by filling the wall cavities with dense material, for example, the room is still going to have the same internal reflections it always had.
 
Also while the shape and size of a room are obvious causes of issues with the "sound" of a room, they don't really have a lot to do with it's ability to retain/block sound energy from escaping. IOW a anechoic chamber could still have considerable "leakage" outward if that is the way it was constructed. Though i doubt anyone would do so.
 
I know you have it in quotation marks but soundproof suggests no sound gets in or out.
That doesn't necessarily relate to how the room sounds....

Yes...and it's something I've noted a few times in recent months in these studio treatment discussions..."soundproofing" gets too mixed up with actual acoustic treatment for room sound quality.

Not picking you, spantini... :) ...just my own thought stuff.
Guys seem to always ask about "soundproofing"...but I don't think that's what they are really after...or maybe they are, but then they don't realize that soundproofing will not do anything for actual sound quality, so even if they need the soundproofing, they need to also consider acoustic treatment...

:) I knew you guys would understand, that's why I put it in quotes. In fact, sound generated within the anechoic chamber can become quite prominent to the human ear with no outside sound to mask or otherwise diminish it.
 
I often wonder why one can't just have both soundproofing and then treat the internal space for a good sound.

You can...but in the typical home rec world...complete "soundproofing" is a very difficult and costly undertaking, mu more than the acoustic treatments, which themselves can be costly.

Sound transmission reduction can be had, at different levels, depending what you have to work with and how much money you want to spend on that...and to some degree, acoustic treatment can also provide some sound transmission reduction, because it's absorbing sounds (at least internally)...but in most home rec situations, the existing structures were never built with either in mind, especially complete soundproofing, though I do see these days with new construction, especially condos/apartments, that there is more desire and interest in creating quieter living spaces, so they do employ a bit of soundproofing technology, but not at any typical studio-grade level.
with
Soundproofing has to have a specific reason to be of any value..."I live in an apartment with touchy neighbors"..."there's a an airport a 1/4 mile away"...etc...b ut I sometimes see people just assuming that if they are building a home studio, they need to implement soundproofing as a normal part of the build.
If you live in areas where there are no critical noise considerations...you don't really need to go nuts with soundproofing, and instead just focus on the acoustic treatment, for a better sounded studio space. I see people who only obsess over soundproofing at times.

Where I live...if I'm outside...I can hear my neighbors way down the street when they are having a pool party...people laughing, music playing...but it's not a bother. When I step inside my house, I don't hear any of that...and in my new studio space, it's eerily quiet, and I didn't even try to specifically soundproof, because I realized it wasn't necessary to throw money into that, when I could get more bang-for-buck on other facets of the build.
I'm sure when I add the acoustic treatment panels I am juts getting ready to start making...today...:)...it will become that much more quieter.
 
In simple terms, yes. Most people have rooms that don't sound great and they want to tame reflections at certain frequencies to fix that.
It is also possible to have a room that's too dead and you could liven that room up with strategically placed reflected surfaces.

You might notice a lot of larger studio rooms have open sections of concrete or wood floor or flat wood panelled walls or other features where you expect they'd have more absorbent materials.
The point is they don't want the room to be dead - They want it to be controlled.
 
Oh I'm living in that reality right now.
As I filled up my new studio...the room just got better and better sounding, compared to how it was empty.

So as I started to plan out the acoustic treatment, one aspect I've been very aware of is that I did not want to over-stuff it with treatment, and make it completely dead. That approach is necessary in very small rooms, because they have nothing of quality to offer by being more "live"...but with bigger spaces, you have a lot more flexibility, or basically you can get away with a lot less treatment.

I've done my own "guesstimating" of what I need...and when I plugged in the numbers on a few acoustic treatment seller sites, where they could calculate your basic treatment plan for the size of the room...their numbers for panels pretty much aligned with mine.

I was originally thinking more thicker panels all around, back when the room was empty...but now I'm going with only 2" panels all around, with only the corners getting the large bass traps, and my clouds will be a bit thicker at 3", since I have the vaulted ceiling, and audio will push up in there more.

Besides that...I also have been considering a way to easily neutralize the wall panels if I want to liven up the room, and I have a simple way that I can just hook a hard surface panel to the face of any absorbing panel.

When I actually place all my gear where it needs to go, the room will liven up again as the middle opens up. Right now it's all filled up, and there is actually more stuff in there than I will have when done setting up.

There will be some experimentation...especially since I'm trying to walk a thin line between a great tracking AND mixing space...which is why I wanted the option to easily liven or deaden the room as needed.
I'm sure the million dollar studios have it all worked out with motorized panels that can be adjusted with a button push. :D
 
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