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I should have spent today working on my unfinished podcasts, but that pile of acoustic foam had been sitting in my living room for just way too long. So I put it up and snapped a photo.
This is where the podcast happens!
This is where the podcast happens!
Category Photography / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1280 x 960px
File Size 339.6 kB
Thanks, J-Ott! I just got the foam up today, but right away, I can really hear the difference. I can pick out a lot more detail from my A5s than I was able to before. I'm looking forward to recording my voice again-- hopefully this will get rid of all the reflections I'd been hearing.
Yeah-- so you know, I realized that my audio engineering lecture was pretty darn boring, so at FA:U, I did something a lot more fun in my first hour. When I come back to Furry Fiesta next year, the first hour of my panel should be a lot more fun.
And with much less talking about foam.
And with much less talking about foam.
Cut a carrot sillouette in black paper to put over that apple :p. My understandment of this area is limited to a couple of visits to radio stations, one of then with egg boxes in lieu of acoustic treatment, but I can say it's a quite impressive setting.
Now, will you bring us an exclusive interview with Paul the octopus?
Now, will you bring us an exclusive interview with Paul the octopus?
Heehee! That's a cute idea!
Yeah, before I put the wedge foam up, I had eggcrate foam. Eggcrate is terrific in that it works and it's cheap, but wedge foam is better at breaking up sound evenly. There's also pyramid foam, but this stuff was a little bit cheaper.
I still use eggcrate in the back of my studio, where this photo isn't showing.
I don't think my German is good enough to interview Paul, sadly.
Yeah, before I put the wedge foam up, I had eggcrate foam. Eggcrate is terrific in that it works and it's cheap, but wedge foam is better at breaking up sound evenly. There's also pyramid foam, but this stuff was a little bit cheaper.
I still use eggcrate in the back of my studio, where this photo isn't showing.
I don't think my German is good enough to interview Paul, sadly.
I'd better not have some big bruiser cousin of yours come knocking on my door, XL!
Really, the most expensive thing in there is the iMac. Everything else I found good deals on or bought used. For instance, Auralex is the biggest acoustic foam manufacturer out there, and if I had gotten all of that foam as Auralex, it would easily be 2 grand. But Foam By Mail sells a lower grade foam with less stringent quality control, which is why some of those pieces are colored slightly off and don't line up as nicely as they could. But it still controls reflections just fine and costs a lot less. I was able to get all that for just over $300.
There's always more things I'd love to add (speaker optimizer, Digi003 interface, dbx 1074 quad comp.....) but the important thing is that it gets what I need done!
Really, the most expensive thing in there is the iMac. Everything else I found good deals on or bought used. For instance, Auralex is the biggest acoustic foam manufacturer out there, and if I had gotten all of that foam as Auralex, it would easily be 2 grand. But Foam By Mail sells a lower grade foam with less stringent quality control, which is why some of those pieces are colored slightly off and don't line up as nicely as they could. But it still controls reflections just fine and costs a lot less. I was able to get all that for just over $300.
There's always more things I'd love to add (speaker optimizer, Digi003 interface, dbx 1074 quad comp.....) but the important thing is that it gets what I need done!
Heh, well, it's only complicated because I make it that way.
Voice recording can be super easy, and I stress that during my panels. You don't need a lot of fancy gear to make a good voice recording. The reason I use so much gear is because I do more than just record. I edit, I mix, I build sound effects, I just do a lot of different things with the same space. Having the fancy gear gives me more flexibility in what I can do.
Voice recording can be super easy, and I stress that during my panels. You don't need a lot of fancy gear to make a good voice recording. The reason I use so much gear is because I do more than just record. I edit, I mix, I build sound effects, I just do a lot of different things with the same space. Having the fancy gear gives me more flexibility in what I can do.
The foam breaks up the sound inside the room. Reverb is the immediate echoes you get when a sound reflects back and forth against the walls, like when you're singing in the shower. That's bad stuff for audio recordings, because it can make it hard to understand what's being said. Also, it's pretty easy to ADD reverb if you need it. It's really hard to get rid of it.
Since my office has flat, hard walls facing each other, without the foam, there's a LOT of reverb. The foam breaks up the sound inside the room. When the sound hits the wedges on the foam, it spreads out the reflections in different directions so that it dissipates without ever bouncing back and forth between the walls. That reduces the reverb in the room and makes for better recordings.
That's why the foam looks all funny with all those wedges. You need irregular-shaped foam to do the job-- flat foam will stop SOME reverb, but wedge foam is better. And there are other shapes, too-- eggcrate foam, pyramid foam, any sort of goofy irregular shape does the job.
Since my office has flat, hard walls facing each other, without the foam, there's a LOT of reverb. The foam breaks up the sound inside the room. When the sound hits the wedges on the foam, it spreads out the reflections in different directions so that it dissipates without ever bouncing back and forth between the walls. That reduces the reverb in the room and makes for better recordings.
That's why the foam looks all funny with all those wedges. You need irregular-shaped foam to do the job-- flat foam will stop SOME reverb, but wedge foam is better. And there are other shapes, too-- eggcrate foam, pyramid foam, any sort of goofy irregular shape does the job.
Not much at all. :P
Acoustics is a pretty voodoo science. There are tricks you can do when you're building a room like making sure none of the walls are parallel with each other. But in my situation where I had a boxy room and was trying to kill the reflections, best thing I could do is just place the foam in a way that no sounds would be able to bounce back and forth, and then just listen. I did a lot of sitting in my listening spot, clapping my hands, then adjusting chunks of foam near the end.
Acoustics is a pretty voodoo science. There are tricks you can do when you're building a room like making sure none of the walls are parallel with each other. But in my situation where I had a boxy room and was trying to kill the reflections, best thing I could do is just place the foam in a way that no sounds would be able to bounce back and forth, and then just listen. I did a lot of sitting in my listening spot, clapping my hands, then adjusting chunks of foam near the end.
Heh, no Mac Pro, though I wish I had one. I've got an iMac, a Mac Mini, a MacBook Pro and then a super old PowerBook G4 that's not in that picture. The last CPU-only desktop Mac I had was a mirrored doors G4, which I sold last year to a budding musician at my company.
And all I have are Macs. Two years ago, I finally got rid of my last non-Mac computer and haven't looked back. I'm 100% Macintosh in my studio.
Acoustic foam spreads out audio. Echoes happen when sounds bounce back and forth-- that's why you hear echoes in a hallway when you have two walls facing each other, but usually not in lecture halls where the walls taper away from each other. Since I don't have the option of rebuilding the walls in my studio, the next best thing is to use irregular-shaped pieces of foam to dissipate the audio around the room. Audio is still bouncing around in there, but the foam makes it go around in random directions so that it never rattles back and forth between two points. That prevents echoes-- or, really, more appropriately reverb.
Technically, echoes are when a sound repeats itself distinctly from the source sound, like when you go to a canyon and yell "Hello!" and a moment later you hear "Hello!" again. Reverb is what you call the very quick and sudden reflections that happen immediately after a sound, like when you're singing in the shower or talking in a hallway. It's not distinctly separated from the source, but it absolutely changes the sound.
And all I have are Macs. Two years ago, I finally got rid of my last non-Mac computer and haven't looked back. I'm 100% Macintosh in my studio.
Acoustic foam spreads out audio. Echoes happen when sounds bounce back and forth-- that's why you hear echoes in a hallway when you have two walls facing each other, but usually not in lecture halls where the walls taper away from each other. Since I don't have the option of rebuilding the walls in my studio, the next best thing is to use irregular-shaped pieces of foam to dissipate the audio around the room. Audio is still bouncing around in there, but the foam makes it go around in random directions so that it never rattles back and forth between two points. That prevents echoes-- or, really, more appropriately reverb.
Technically, echoes are when a sound repeats itself distinctly from the source sound, like when you go to a canyon and yell "Hello!" and a moment later you hear "Hello!" again. Reverb is what you call the very quick and sudden reflections that happen immediately after a sound, like when you're singing in the shower or talking in a hallway. It's not distinctly separated from the source, but it absolutely changes the sound.
Hehe, don't we all wish we had a mac pro? ^_^ I can see you fully converted to the mac bandwagon, and I'm hoping to do the same. When I buy a desktop computer hopefully it'll be a mac mini. XP's gonna feel it's age soon, Vista's unbearable and 7's rubbish.
Huh, so that's how echoes form. I will admit my knowledge of acoustics is quite limited, thanks for enlightening me ^_^
Huh, so that's how echoes form. I will admit my knowledge of acoustics is quite limited, thanks for enlightening me ^_^
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