In recording studios, not all acoustic padding, panels, absorbers and diffusers are equal. There is so much more to an acoustic treatment than just padding the walls with foam. To produce a true and accurate sound in your home studio, follow some advice about the acoustic treatment that should be applied during the design and construction phase.
What is Acoustic Treatment?
Soundproofing your home recording studio is not the same as an acoustic treatment. Soundproofing minimizes the amount of sound that leaks in or out of the room. It is often called sound isolation.
Acoustic treatment is about minimizing – or even balancing – the amount of echo and reverberation within the studio itself. Sometimes the sound and “interference” of the room that is picked up by microphones can make or break a recording.
Good acoustic treatment improves the quality of a recording so it most closely matches the sound of the performance.
In an untreated studio, or a poorly treated one, sound waves from instruments and voices bounce off surfaces in the room and then collide with fresh sound waves coming from the instruments and voices. This diminishes the nature and quality of the recording. No amount of computer filtering, EQ and mixing can get rid of it.
