Sound for Video Session: Acoustic Treatment

In this session we discussed acoustical treatment, what it is, what it does, and why would you want to consider using it in your edit/mix room.

I recently ordered and installed a series of bass and broadband panel traps from GIKAcoustics and in this session, show you the before and after test results using Room EQ Wizard.

It appears that the biggest difference is that the panels greatly improve time-domain issues. What are time-domain issues? Time-domain refers to how long sound energy persists. If you get a lot of sound bouncing around in a room such that it stays for a relatively long period of time (e.g., 500ms), that can wreak havoc on the new sound coming out of your monitors. The result is muddy sound where it is difficult to hear all of the different frequencies. So using these panels greatly reduces the length of time that any sound continues to bounce around the room and the result is much clearer sound. This makes editing and mixing much easier and your results more reliable.

Also, the biggest issue in small rooms is generally bass. Bass has a tendency to hang around a lot longer than treble sound. Because foam acoustical pads only really absorb treble, they're generally not as effective.

Come nerd out with us for 30 minutes...