Recently I did some extensive rearainging in my studio. I noticed something that I had never paid much attention to before. Certain locations around my room (13X27X9) seem a lot more lively (mics pick up better) while other spots seem almost dead (very quiet for some reason.) I'm wondering if anyone knows of a formula for calculating the active/null zones within a room and how these areas can be best utilized (or avoided) in reguards to where to place mics or instruments/vocalists. My room is fairly well treated (many thanks to Ethan Winer for great advice) so that is not an issue. It's the actual space inside the room that has some interesting properties of it's own that I am trying to figure out.
Hot spots and null zones
- Thread starter Dani Pace
- Start date
CIRO
Eu mesmo
Ethan Winer
Acoustics Expert
I don't know of any formula for that. The sound at any given cubic inch within a room is the sum of the direct sound plus many competing reflections arriving from all the nearby surfaces. The larger the room, the farther away the boundaries are, so the less the sound varies around the room. This is why live rooms in million dollar studios are generally very large.
--Ethan
The phenomina I'm talking about goes beyond just sound. I can actually feel a difference in air pressure, had a few friends stand in the same places and they noticed the same thing. My studio is in an old house (circa 1930) so maybe it's haunted or something, I haven't eliminated any possibilities yet. The part that has really caught my attention is that I find that other rooms in other houses have similar properties. The most noticable is the quarter distance null zone in rectangular rooms. Should this area be avoided for recording purposes?