Sound baffles in new studio

[Richard Crowley]

I don’t want to make it completely dead like a sound booth…

Why not? Nothing shouts “sloppy amateur hour” like a sound track with room reverb and close reflections. It immediately makes people think you recorded it in a public toilet. It seems quite unlikely that you can make it TOO absorbing (like anechoic chamber).

———————————————————————————
Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[John Fishback]

Is this studio for audio, video or both? Does it need to be isolated from environmental noise (internal or external to the building)?

Regardless, there are two parts to preparing a room: sound isolation and acoustical treatment.

Isolation is achieved by putting mass between the outside world and the studio. Isolation is not accomplished by placing Sonex on the walls. In your case you might build a room within your room. IOW, literally place a new wall filled with insulation (so there’s no resonance inside the wall) and covered with a couple layers of 5/8″ sheetrock around the interior. Also, since parallel surfaces in a studio are anathema ,as they create standing waves, you can angle the new walls (and don’t forget the ceiling).

Acoustical treatment depends a lot on the use of the room. Do you want live areas, dead areas, something in the middle? There are three main types of acoustic devices you can use to shape your room’s acoustics: base traps, absorptive materials (for mid frequencies) and diffusion panels. There’s a lot of good info about this here.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Mark and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

I’m in Baltimore. I’ve been in the Pratt St. Building. I did audio for the BGE, Excelon, Constellation, get together some years back.

If you’d like to talk about this, I’ll be here friday for a while, then available tuesday. I won’t do the work, but I can help you figure the space out.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader
410.296.2868

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Bruce Watson]

[Mark DAgostino] “Creative Media Productions – Exelon
Baltimore, MD”

You’re in Baltimore? You’re in serious luck. Talk to Ty Ford. His acoustic and broadcast background is just what you seem to need. And he’s local to you.

Edit: Ah, I see Ty has posted. Good enough, I’ll get out of the way now. 😉

[Ty Ford]

Thanks Bruce,

I’ll be with Mark next Tuesday to see the space.

Regards,

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Mark Dagostino]

This is a video studio, not that it matters but I forgot to note that. I do believe a room can be too “dead” and over the past 35 years I’ve cared about the quality of audio as being equally as important as the video I capture, if not more so. In fact, I’d rather watch lesser quality video with a great soundtrack, than outrageously great video with poor sound.
I’ve never embraced “sloppy amateur hour”.

Mark D\’Agostino
Video Producer
Creative Media Productions – Exelon
Baltimore, MD
MacPro,2.7 Ghz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5, 64GB 1866 Mhz DDR3 ECC, AMD FirePro D700 6144MB, AJA Io XT, Yosemite 10.10.5