Alternative to acoustic treatment?

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nbtech_2001

New member
My odd shaped room is all I have at the moment for doing my mixing therefor I cannot really "acoustically" treat it the way I want, right now anyways. What if I put a graphic EQ in between my monitors and "tuned" my listening position with pink noise and a SPL meter? I would try and get the flattest response in my sitting position by notching away some overly enhanced frequencies from my room. Is this a solid workaround? What are the efficiencies, or the inefficiencies? Thanks
 
Eq'ing your monitors will do little to nothing. You still have reflections all over, and that will mess with your ears. There is really no substitute for acoustic treatment. What do you mean odd shaped though? Because you can pretty much treat any room.

Drew
 
Re-tox_stl said:
you can pretty much treat any room
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Exactly. And "exactly" to the rest of your post, but I just wanted to quote the most important part to me. There are no short-cuts.

I know it's cooler to spend money on a nice shiny piece of gear, like an EQ, than it is to buy boring fibreglass panels. But one will do nothing to help your recordings and the other will do everything to help them.
 
EQ'ing a space -- *IF* you have an EQ that can make up for a potential 30-40dB deficiency and tight enough to affect peaks and nulls only a few Hz wide will work just fine - for that particular square centimeter in space. Although if you're bringing the low end back into a null point, you're also going to cause your woofers to come flying out, probably on fire, potentially causing injury. And of course, the problems can be completely different a few inches away.

Proper treatment (and I don't mean a bunch of foam sheets) works - more or less every time. EQ'ing fails - More or less every time.
 
nbtech_2001 said:
What if I put a graphic EQ in between my monitors and "tuned" my listening position with pink noise and a SPL meter?
Click to expand...

It does not work, don't bother.

It does not matter how odd shaped the room is, you can improve the acoustics with the right treatment, there are a 1,000 (even more) threads on this.

Alan
 
Ok, it's settled that graphic EQ will not suffice. My room has sliding mirrors on one entire side so I've never thought about trying to treat my room because of obvious issues with still using those sliding doors. I guess it's also settled that there just doesn't exist a graphic EQ with 30-40db attenuation?? Or does there?
 
Witzendoz's post is some great lateral thinking. A closet full of clothes and soft goods would be a great "natural" acoustic treatment even if half the wall is still mirrors. (OT aside: I've resorted to putting reporters into closets in hotel rooms to record radio and TV commentaries many a time!)

...and that's the thing. Acoustic treatment isn't an "all or nothing" project. It's a case of "every little bit helps". Even at the professional end, the acoustic treatment tends to be a compromise between practical/budget considerations and the need for perfect sound. Just do what you can and it'll help.

A few other thoughts: if you can't open the mirror doors for some reason, could you hang thick, heavy curtains in front? If they were on a track they could be open most of the time but closed when mixing.

A great "natural" acoustic treatment is books on shelves. Turn your mixing room into a library. Similarly, soft furnishings in the room help out too.

If you check plans for bass traps, there are lots that can sit in the corners and look like part of the decor.

Etc.!

Bob
 
nbtech_2001 said:
I guess it's also settled that there just doesn't exist a graphic EQ with 30-40db attenuation?? Or does there?
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Typically, the 30-40dB issues are null points -- So you'd need 30-40dB of boost --- for that particular point in space (meanwhile, your woofers will explode). And that's even *if* that point in space can support that frequency. If there's a 35dB null point in a particular frequency range in a particular point in space, well -- I've never actually tried to go ahead and add enough of that frequency to make up for that deficit. And one would think that point in space simply cannot support that frequency -- Dump as much in as you like, it's being canceled out anyway.

As far as some other suggestions - bookcases as diffusors (which really doesn't work very well), curtains (which only affect the top end), etc. -- Those are *tweaks* to a room that's already in good shape. 90% of your problem energy is in the low end. "tweak" the high end stuff in a room and then 100% of your problematic energy is in the low end.

ALWAYS start with the low end. All the time, every time, absolutely positively no exceptions, ever, period. Broadband trapping and plenty of it, tuned absorbers for exceptionally problematic spaces --- It's not even worth trying to tweak a space until the giant elephant in the room is handled. And once it is, you'll actually be able to hear any other existing problems.
 
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removing mirrors, bass traps, blankets, seems reasonable. How would I go about confirming that I have a relatively flat listening position? Is an SPL Meter beneficial for this?

Thanks
 
A SPL meter will tell you the broadband (however weighted) sound pressure level at any given point. You'd need some sort of real-time analysis (along with the proper measurement equipment) to shoot the space.

Behringer's measurement mic isn't too bad... A transparent enough preamp is a little more difficult. But in most cases, you're not going to get within +/-10dB across the range anyway, so you'll be looking for peaks and null points probably in the +12/-35dB range. Easy enough even for a reasonably colored preamp.
 
Massive Master said:
ALWAYS start with the low end. All the time, every time, absolutely positively no exceptions, ever, period. Broadband trapping and plenty of it, tuned absorbers for exceptionally problematic spaces --- It's not even worth trying to tweak a space until the giant elephant in the room is handled. And once it is, you'll actually be able to hear any other existing problems.
Click to expand...

MM - For a large open room you think corner base traps are the best place to start?
 
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