Modern Recording Techniques

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CHAPTER 3
Studio Acoustics and Design

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The Audio Cyclopedia defines the term acoustics as "a science dealing with the production, effects and transmission of sound waves; the transmission of sound waves through various mediums, including reflection, refraction, diffraction, absorption and interference; the characteristics of auditoriums, theaters and studios, as well as their design." We can see from this description that the proper acoustic design of music recording, project and audio-for-visual or broadcast studios is no simple matter. A wide range of complex variables and interrelationships often come into play in the creation of a successful acoustic and monitoring design. When designing or redesigning an acoustic space, the following basic requirements should be considered:

• Acoustic isolation: This prevents external noises from transmitting into the studio environment through the air, ground or building structure. It can also prevent feuds that can arise when excessive volume levels leak out into the surrounding neighborhood.
• Frequency balance: The frequency components of a room shouldn't adversely affect the acoustic balance of instruments and/or speakers. Simply stated, the acoustic environment shouldn't alter the sound quality of the original or recorded performance.
• Acoustic separation: The acoustic environment should not interfere with intelligibility and should offer the highest possible degree of acoustic separation within the room (often a requirement for ensuring that sounds from one instrument aren't unduly picked up by another instrument's microphone).
• Reverberation: The control of sonic reflections within a space is an important factor for maximizing the intelligibility of music and speech. No matter how short the early reflections and reverb times are, they will add an important psychoacoustic sense of "space" in the sense that they can give our brain subconscious cues as to a room's size, number of reflective boundaries, distance between the source and listener, and so forth.
• Cost factors: Not the least of all design and construction factors is cost. Multimillion-dollar facilities often employ studio designers and construction teams to create a plush decor that has been acoustically tuned to fit the needs of both the owners and their clients. Owners of project studios and budget-minded production facilities, however, can also take full advantage of the same basic acoustic principles and construction techniques and apply them in cost-effective ways.

This chapter will discuss many of the basic acoustic principles and construction techniques that should be considered in the design of a music or sound production facility. I'd like to emphasize that any or all of these acoustical topics can be applied to any type of audio production facility and aren't only limited to professional music studio designs. For example, owners of modest project and bedroom studios should know the importance of designing a control room that's symmetrical. It doesn't cost anything to know that if one speaker is in a corner and the other is on a wall, the perceived center image will be off balance. As with many techno-artistic endeavors, studio acoustics and design are a mixture of fundamental physics (in this case, mostly dimensional mathematics) and an equally large dose of common sense and dumb luck. More often than not, acoustics is an artistic science that melds physics with the art of intuition and experience.

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