As more and more people are working from home, creating a productive and comfortable workspace has become increasingly important. One aspect of a home office that can greatly impact productivity is the acoustics of the space. Acoustic treatment is the process of improving the sound quality of a room, and it can greatly enhance the working environment for home workers. In this article, we will explore the basics of acoustic treatment for the home worker.

What is acoustic treatment?

Acoustic treatment is the process of improving the sound quality of a room by reducing unwanted noise and improving the acoustics of the space. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, including soundproofing, sound absorption, and diffusion.

Why is acoustic treatment important for the home worker?

When working from home, there can be many sources of unwanted noise that can distract and disrupt your focus. Traffic noise, noisy neighbors, and even the sound of your own voice bouncing off hard surfaces can all contribute to a distracting work environment. By implementing acoustic treatment in your home office, you can greatly reduce these unwanted noises and create a more peaceful and productive workspace.

Types of acoustic treatment

There are several types of acoustic treatment that can be used to improve the sound quality of a room. The most common methods are sound absorption, soundproofing, and diffusion.

Sound absorption involves using materials that absorb sound waves, such as acoustic panels, curtains, and carpeting. These materials are designed to reduce the amount of sound that bounces off hard surfaces, such as walls and floors, and can greatly improve the acoustics of a room.

Soundproofing involves creating a barrier that prevents sound from entering or leaving a space. This can be achieved through the use of soundproof curtains, acoustic doors and windows, and insulation materials. While soundproofing can be expensive and time-consuming, it can greatly reduce the amount of outside noise that enters your workspace.

Diffusion involves scattering sound waves in a room to create a more even distribution of sound. This can be achieved through the use of diffusers, which are designed to reflect sound in multiple directions, rather than allowing it to bounce off a single surface.

How to implement acoustic treatment in your home office

The first step in implementing acoustic treatment in your home office is to identify the sources of unwanted noise in your space. This could include traffic noise, the sound of your own voice, or the noise of your neighbors. Once you have identified these sources of noise, you can begin to implement acoustic treatment to reduce their impact.

One easy and cost-effective way to improve the acoustics of your home office is to add acoustic panels to your walls. These panels are designed to absorb sound waves and can greatly reduce the amount of sound that bounces off hard surfaces. Acoustic panels come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, so you can choose the ones that best fit your space.

Another way to improve the acoustics of your home office is to add soundproof curtains to your windows. These curtains are designed to block outside noise and can greatly reduce the amount of traffic noise or other outside noise that enters your workspace.

Conclusion

Acoustic treatment is an important aspect of creating a productive and comfortable workspace for the home worker. By implementing sound absorption, soundproofing, and diffusion techniques, you can greatly improve the acoustics of your home office and reduce the impact of unwanted noise. Whether you work from home full-time or part-time, investing in acoustic treatment can greatly enhance your productivity and help you stay focused and motivated throughout the day.

If you’re a podcaster, you know that good audio quality is essential. No matter how great your content is, if your audio quality is poor, your listeners will quickly tune out. One of the key components of good audio quality is proper acoustic treatment. In this article, we’ll explore why acoustic treatment is important for podcasters, and give you some tips on how to do it effectively.

Why is acoustic treatment important for podcasters?

When you record your podcast, your microphone picks up not only your voice, but also any sound reflections in the room. These reflections can cause a range of problems, from a hollow or boxy sound, to echoes and reverb. These issues can be distracting for listeners and make your content less enjoyable to listen to.

Acoustic treatment can help to minimize these sound reflections and improve the overall quality of your audio. By adding sound-absorbing materials to your recording space, you can reduce the amount of sound that bounces around the room and create a more focused and clear sound.

How to do acoustic treatment for podcasting

There are a few key things to keep in mind when setting up acoustic treatment for your podcasting space:

1. Identify the problem areas: Start by identifying the areas of your recording space where sound reflections are most noticeable. This may be a room with hard floors and walls, or an echoey space with high ceilings. You can test the acoustics of your space by clapping your hands and listening for echoes.

2. Choose the right materials: Once you’ve identified the problem areas, you can choose the right materials to address them. Sound-absorbing materials such as acoustic foam, blankets, or rugs can help to reduce sound reflections and improve the overall sound quality.

3. Place the materials strategically: It’s important to place the sound-absorbing materials strategically to get the most benefit. For example, you may want to place foam panels on the walls behind your microphone, or hang blankets or curtains around the recording area to create a makeshift sound booth.

4. Test and adjust: Once you’ve added the acoustic treatment, it’s important to test and adjust to get the best possible sound. You may need to experiment with the placement of the materials or add more or less to achieve the desired effect.

Conclusion

Acoustic treatment is an essential part of creating high-quality audio for podcasters. By addressing the sound reflections in your recording space, you can create a clear, focused sound that will keep your listeners engaged. By following these tips, you can effectively set up acoustic treatment for your podcasting space and take your audio quality to the next level.

Podcasting has become a popular and accessible medium for anyone with an interest in sharing their thoughts and ideas with the world. Whether you want to build your personal brand, share your expertise on a particular topic, or simply have fun talking with friends, podcasting can be a great way to do it.

The ease with which podcasts can be distributed and consumed means that there is growing demand for new, unique content. So whilst you may not be a subject specialist, simply telling your story can attract listeners. It is said that every one has a story to tell. You would be surprised at how many people would be interested in the story you have to tell, borne out of your own unique experiences.

If this sounds tempting, read on for our top tips on getting started.

1. Develop a concept for your podcast
The first step in becoming a podcaster is to develop a concept for your podcast. This should be something that you are passionate about and knowledgeable in, and that you think will be of interest to others. Some popular podcast niches include: news, politics, technology, health and wellness, personal development, and entertainment.


2. Invest in podcasting equipment
To create high-quality audio for your podcast, you’ll need to invest in some equipment. This includes a good microphone, headphones, and a computer with editing software. The cost of this equipment can vary widely, but you can find good options for under £100. As you gain experience and your podcast becomes more popular, you may want to invest in more advanced equipment.

3. Acoustically treat your space
One area often overlooked by upcoming podcasters is acoustic treatment. Recording audio content in spaces that are not acoustically treated results in content that sounds boxy, bright and reverberant. This degrades the quality of the audio captured and final mix of any podcast you publish. Materials such as acoustic foam panels are a great start to taming the sound in your recording room.


4. Record and edit your episodes
Once you have your equipment and concept, it’s time to start recording and editing your episodes. You can record your podcast in a variety of ways, such as using a digital recorder, your computer’s built-in microphone, or even your smartphone. When you’re finished recording, use editing software to clean up the audio and add any additional elements such as background music or sound effects.


5. Find a hosting platform
Next, you’ll need to find a hosting platform for your podcast. Some popular options include Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. These platforms allow you to upload your episodes and make them available to listeners. Many hosting platforms also provide analytics to help you track your listenership and engagement.


6. Promote your podcast
Finally, you’ll need to promote your podcast to attract listeners. This can be done through social media, your website, and other online platforms. Additionally, you can reach out to other podcasters in your niche and ask them to feature your podcast on their show.


As you become more experienced with podcasting, you may want to consider monetizing your podcast through sponsorships or merchandise sales. Podcasting can be a fun and rewarding experience, and with a little bit of time and effort, you can create a successful podcast that resonates with listeners.

Create the perfect space for work, hobbies and leisure with Pro-coustix professional acoustic treatment.

Most garden rooms are multi-use spaces with a majority being used as office, multi-media rooms or music practice spaces. However the clean contemporary finish with glass doors, wooden flooring and flat ceilings that these rooms contain don’t lend themselves well to interior acoustics. This creates an unpleasant listening and working environment affecting end user satisfaction and use of the rooms. Often owners of brand spanking new garden rooms come to us seeking help to improve the acoustics in their spaces.

Our expertise in improving interior acoustics puts us in the best place to help you attain the optimum acoustics for your space wheter you are using the room as an office, listening room, home cinema or a chill out lounge.

Our acoustic treatment solutions start from the basic acoustic foam options in dark grey, white, light great and purple to the high end reall wood veneer diffuser panels and fabric covered acosutic panels.

How much acoustic treatment do I need?

Every room is different and the use you are going to put the room to once it is complete will determine how the nature and amount of acoustic treatment you will require. Some rooms e.g. home cinemas, music studios or listening rooms will benefit from a combination of absorption, diffusion and bass traping whilst others used as office space or home gyms will do just fine with absorption.

The type of acoustic treatment you choose will mainly be determined by your budget, the space available and decor you are looking to achieve, maintain or complement.

Broadly speaking acoustic treatment options range from;

• Entry level – Acoustic foam bass traps and panels cut in a variety of profiles.
• Mid level –  Acoustic foam panels combined with fabric covered panels with the fabric covered bass traps giving better performance on the lower mids and lowe frequence is.
• Premium –  Fabric covered panels, fabric covered bass traps and diffuser panels.

Our team is on hand to provide you acoustic treatment advice whatever stage your garden room is at. In our article on home cinema acoustics we advise that engaging our team of acoustic treatment experts at design stage and incorporating our solutions into your build will result in  acoustic treatment that blends with your room, reducing the clunky, industrial look that retrospectively adding acoustic treatment can sometimes create.

If this is something you are interested in please call us on 01442 899 294 or use the form below to get in touch and we will be more than happy to help you get the most out of your garden room.

For help with your home cinema or listening room acoustics please scroll to the bottom and complete the form.

The next time you visit your local cinema make it a point to observe and touch the surfaces of the walls of the cinema.

Acoustic treatment plays a great role in making spaces functional and proper application of acoustic design principles will ensure you create a truly immersive space in your home cinema.

Many home cinema enthusiasts keen to bring the big cinema experience home will spend thousands of pounds on the latest projectors, speakers, amplifiers and cables and completely omit the room all this equipment is going to be sat in well apart from ensuring they have the most comfy cinema like seats.

Infact many times home cinemas are built by contractors who may have great design and build skills but have absolutely no idea about how to make spaces acoustically functional for the intended use.

We would always recommend engaging an acoustics expert in advance of your build. However not many people have the luxury of new builds/extensions for their home cinemas, instead resorting to converting an existing room for this purpose.  New build, extension or conversion the importance of interior acoustics is often only realised once the space is in use. Bright reverberant spaces, muddy low ends or excessive bass boom degrade the quality of sound in your home cinema and result in a poor listening experience.

If you are looking to bring the home cinema experience home here a few things you must do!

1- Reduce excessive reflections

The reason why your local cinema has absorbent walls carpets and ceilings is because excessive reflections from hard reflective spaces colours sound and impacts on the sound waves being generated by loud speakers. Home cinema 5.1 and  7.1 systems are designed to reproduce sound in a sequence that  creates an immersive spacial effect to the listeners, with mirco-second delays and effects introduced to create the illusion of space and distance. In rooms that are not adequately treated these precise effects are drowned out by secondary waves reflecting off the surfaces the sound is bouncing off. Creating a listening experience which can be overwhelming and unsatisfactory.

Treating your walls

Introducing absorption is absolutely critical to improving your listening experience. Ideally you should be aiming to completely eliminate flat reflective surfaces with absorption however in many cases the practical multi-use nature of home cinema rooms makes this impractical. Users should aim for as much absorption as their interior decor will allow anywhere above 40% of the reflective spaces.  Acoustic treatment for these vertical reflective surfaces doesn’t have to be thick, 30mm foam panels or 25mm fibreglass panels will more than suffice with 50mm panels strategically placed at primary early reflection points.

Treating your ceiling

For home cinema systems with atmos technology,  ceiling treatment should be omitted as the speakers use the ceiling to create depth in the sound being replicated by the speakers. Ceilings in rooms where non atmos speakers are installed should look to introduce absorption equivalent to about 40% of the ceiling area. Again 30mm panels will suffice complimented by 50mm panels at primary reflection points.

Treating your floors

Avoiding hard wooden or reflective surfaces is recommended but where this i not practical then introducing medium pile rugs will help reduce reflections off the floor.

2- Control that bass

Low end rumble in movies is essential in creating  an immersive cinema experience. The vibrations of the bass as it fills the room can be used to great effect. However small rooms are not particularly suited to low frequencies. The dimensions and characteristics of the room in many cases interact with sound waves creating standing waves. These waves can be more dominant than sound waves being created by your speakers, which can result in;

Muddy low ends when listening to music or rumbles that aren’t as deep as the sound designer and producer intended them to be.

Excessive boom in your room, creating points where the bass is reinforced and others where it is cancelled out. This excessive boom is created by the presence of bass modes which can degrade your listening experience.

Issues with bass propagation to neighbouring spaces and rooms causing unnecessary disturbance to occupants of neighbouring rooms.

Introducing bass traps into your home listening space will help soak up the energy of these low end modes creating a much more accurate and pleasant listening experience.

The choice of bass traps one goes for will depend on among other things budget, space and decor. At the cheaper end of the bass trap spectrum are acoustic foam bass traps and corner kits which work well and have the added advantage of being easy to mount and available in various profiles. The down side of most foam solutions is, colour options are limited and the dark grey foam creates a studio like feel in rooms which is an issue in multi-use spaces.

Fabric covered fibre glass or mineral wool bass traps perform better and are more expensive, however, offer the user a choice of colours of the fabric which can be used to  complement or match existing decor. Bass traps of up 100mm thick will suffice with typical lengths of between 900 and 1200mm.

Placement of bass traps

It is a well know fact that bass energy builds up at points where two or more significant surfaces meet. The significance here being in relation to the wavelength of the bass frequencies. As such bass build up happens in corners and edges of rooms. It is important to install bass traps in or as close as possible to corners first and then work your way along the vertical and horizontal edges of the room.

Quantity of bass traps

Whatever option you choose the idea is to try and get as many bass traps into your corners and edges as are required to improve the low end in your room.

It has been said you can never over bass trap a room and this holds true for most home cinemas especially if your bass traps are concentrated at the points of maximum bass build up i.e. corners and edges.

3- Diffuse your sound

Diffusers are acoustic treatment elements that scatter sound waves that are incident on them. This has the opposite effect of  absorbers in that, instead of absorbing the sound and converting it into heat energy and reduce the overall sound energy in a room. Diffusers on the other hand scatter incident sound waves reducing their significance whilst maintaining the overall sound energy in a room. Diffusers have an acoustic effect of broadening sound out creating an acoustic effect of spaces that are larger than they actually are.

Scatter plates may be combined absorption cores to create a diffuser that absorbs and scatters sound. These diffusers work really well in small spaces where both effects are desirable.

Placement of diffusers

Diffusers work best at their optimum listening distances however in our experience we have found that our diffuserflex panels are best placed in areas where the reflective surface is less than a meter away from the listener. This creates a spread of sound around the listener transforming they listening experience when compared to having absorption or no treatment on these surfaces.

Some diffuser panels can also be straddled across vertical corners, where the air gap between the panel and the corner lowers the frequency at which they start to be effective acting as bass traps.

Quantity of diffuser panels

Once the surfaces closest to the listening position have been identified a run of diffuser panels placed just above listening height or above the height of seating will suffice. If used as bass traps a vertical run from floor to ceiling works well. If used to treat early reflection points it is important to maintain symmetry in the room with panels on the left mirrored on the right.

Aesthetics

A final word on acoustic treatment of home cinemas. It is important to note that a room that is optimally treated is a listening paradise however if done post build or retrospectively this comes at the cost of aesthetics in the room. Acoustic treatment can look clunky and industrial. The user will have  to strike a balance between quality of sound in their home cinema and aesthetics, working to balance the two especially in multi use spaces.

If you are fortunate to be at the stage of embarking on building or converting a space into a home cinema then many solutions can be incorporated into the build. Bass traps, absorption panels and even speakers can be mounted flush with your walls introducing optimum acoustic treatment without intruding on the aesthetics and decor of your room.

If you would like to see how our acoustic treatment can be incorporated into your build project fill out the form below and we will be only too happy to help you.

Are you looking for a solution for  the deafening echoes and reverberation in your scout hut when occupied with excitable beavers, cubs, scouts or explorers?

Scout huts and activity spaces that are poorly treated suffer from long reverberation times, flutter echoes and excessive reflections which impact on the audibility and clarity of any vocal information to be conveyed, whilst multiplying the noise levels from occupants in the room.

The typical nature of the interior of these buildings namely,  plasterboard ceilings either peaked or flat, plain walls and easy to clean vinyl or laminate floors, provide the perfect environment for soundwaves to bounce around creating a harsh listening environment.

This environment impacts on the experience of the scouts, in particular children with special needs due to the degradation in the clarity of voices of those speaking, when projected across the room.

Over the last 10 years we have built a reputation as a trusted provider of practical and functional acoustic treatment products that help improve sound quality in scout facilities right across the UK.

We are offering you a free virtual survey to understand the acoustical challenges you are facing and run through some of the options we can provide.

If you would like any help improving the acoustics in any of your rooms, please click on the link below and let’s get you on your way to improving your building acoustics.

Our go to solution which is fire rated for public installations and offers high acoustic sound dampening and absorption are our melaflex acoustic panels. 

Give us a call today on 01442 899 296 and let us take the headache out of the acoustics in your scout’s hut.

Our Melaflex acoustic panels and baffles are;
• Cost effective compared to traditional cloth covered fibreglass panels

• Extremely light and won’t affect load bearing of ceilings they are mounted on

• Are easy to install in-house with supplied adhesive and fittings

• Fire rated to the highest standard to comply with UK building regulations

• Offer excellent absorption across the entire  frequency spectrum

• Availalble in brilliant white which won’t discolour over time

• Can be cut into stunning 3 D shapes for bespoke requirements stc

• Fibre free resulting in a cleaner workspace due to no fibres escaping from the panels


Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Autism in short is a complex, lifelong developmental disability that typically appears during early childhood and can impact a person’s social skills, communication, relationships, and self-regulation.

Going by the name it is clear that there are a number of ways that autism manifests itself in children with some being oversensitive (hyper sensitive) and others being under sensitive (hypo sensitive) to various sensory stimuli around including sound.

From the work we have done with special needs schools it is clear that there is an important role that acoustic treatment plays in helping children who are over sensitive to sound. While acoustic treatment may not stop the sounds entering or leaving a room the absorption of sound that is resonant in spaces can go some way in making children feel safer and improve their overall wellbeing.

In the home your autistic child may for example avoid going to the kitchen or entering the hallway  simply because of the excessive stimulation they get from these rooms, which are generally very bright and reverberant. Modern interior decor with laminated flooring, bare walls and minimalistic furnishings can further exacerbate the situation for anyone who is hyper sensitive to sound. Creating an environment that is both uncomfortable and unpleasant.

There are simple solutions which could include using noise cancelling ear phones, ear plugs or ear defenders to block out excessive noise. However, anyone who has used these knows how cumbersome it is to have to wear this as you go about your day, and that’s for adults leave alone children. Furthermore these solutions aren’t necessarily socially friendly with the user being cut off from those around them reducing their social interaction and thereby creating even more issues.

A more practical solution is to acoustically treat spaces that are regularly used to reduce the resonance and reflection of sound waves, creating spaces that feel quieter and cosy. Where cost is an issue treating a room which can be used as a calming space can help deal with the constant auditory over stimulation around the house.

Acoustic treatment may take many forms including using simple soft furnishing, carpets, rugs and curtains however these can only go so far  in improving the acoustics of a room. In most acoustically bright rooms the biggest culprit is the ceiling, with high ceilings multiplying the issue several fold.

The use of purpose design acoustic materials such our Melaflex acoustic panels which are easily mounted onto ceilings and walls will significantly improve the absorption of reflected sound waves creating spaces in any room making the spaces much more pleasant for anyone with hyper sensitivity to sound.

Melaflex foam lends itself well to indoor use for a number of reasons namely;

• It is extremely light and can be added retrospectively using non destructive methods to any surface including listed buildings.
• Mounting of melaflex panels is easily accomplished with impalers or spray adhesive. This DIY acoustic solution drastically reduces the cost of acquiring and benefiting from acoustic treatment in your home.
• Melaflex foam is supplied in brilliant white or light grey meaning the panels will blend perfectly with most interior walls or ceilings diligently carrying out their work of improving the acoustics in the room they are installed in without interfering with the interior decor or aesthetics or your rooms.
• Unlike fibreglass panels, melaflex panels can be shaped into any 3 D shape, with profiles being cut to match existing features or to introduce interesting aesthetics to the room they are installed in.
• Melaflex foam is fibre free and doesn’t need any special precautions whilst handling it. Unlike fibreglass it doesn’t release fibres in the air which are known to cause irritations.
• Finally melaflex foam is a Class ‘0’  fire rated meeting the most stringent fire ratings out there lending themselves well to use in rooms like kitchens.

I hope this article gives you some practical guidance on how you can make your home a better living space for your loved ones. If you would like any help with any of our acoustic solutions please give us a call on 01442 899 294 and we will be only too happy to help.

Acoustic treatment FAQs

How much acoustic treatment will I need?

This depends on the size of the bare surfaces you have in your living space. Typically absorption of 30% will make a marked improvement in the acoustics of your living space with every additional bit of treatment improving further the acoustics.

Where should I place the acoustic treatment?

Because of the unique properties of melamine foam it can be punctured by curious hands we recommend installing the panels on the ceiling and above door height this will ensure the panels are out of reach of anyone curious enough to try and investigate the panels which could damage the panels.

Does the white foam get discoloured?

No Melamine foam will retain its bright white colour for years unlike polyurethane foam which starts to brown in days as it starts to oxidise when exposed to sunlight resulting in unsightly looking yellowish foam.

How should I clean the panels once installed

Melamine foam panels are simple to clean with a duster or lightly vacuumed over. Care should be taken not to brush hard against the panels as this can result in the structure getting damaged.

Using the wrong spray adhesive to mount foam can be a very frustrating experience especially when mounting  panels on walls and ceilings, most spray adhesives are not designed to hold foam panels onto walls and ceilings rather are designed to join bits of foam together to make composite parts.

Carpet spray adhesive although cheaper doesn’t have the adhesion, tackiness and webbing to enable it mount foam panels permanently onto walls and ceilings. This is because carpet spray adhesive is designed to work with gravity not against it. Tiles are sprayed and the weight of the tile plus that of people walking over the carpets or objects resting on them, keeps the tiles in place.

Mounting foam panels however on vertical walls and ceilings requires a purpose made adhesive that has the right adhesion and is able to sit on the foam surface and not get soaked in. The right combination of these very exacting characteristics make ATAC Heavy Duty spray adhesive the  ultimate choice for permanent mounting of foam panels on walls and ceilings.

ATAC spray adhesive has been manufactured to high quality standards to ensure you get a quick, clean and effective bond on your acoustic foam. This spray adhesive is ideal for use on both polyurethane polyether and polyester foams.

ATAC spray discharges in a thick webbed stream allowing the adhesive to coat the foam panel and not get soaked into the foam. The heavy duty formulation of ensures that once parts to be mounted are bonded they remain in place.

ATAC spray is specially formulated to ensure it does not distort or shrink the acoustic foam it is applied to which would happen using other non specialist spray adhesives.

This spray adhesive will bond acoustic foam to wood, chipboard, plasterboard, metal and furniture.

One of the first obstacles many voice over artists come across when trying to set up their own personal vocal studio is the unsuitability of the environment in which they are recording vocals. The change in working arrangements since the pandemic has meant many voice over artists who would normally rely on fairly well equipped office studios and spaces are having to make do with what they have at home.

Producing vocal content in a space or room that is not effectively acoustically treated can result in poor quality audio being captured which in turn affects the professionalism of any audio content being created. In a world where first impressions matter it is important that your audio content hits the spot in terms of clarity and quality.

Many voice over artists will have a fairly good idea of the gear they require to start recording from home. Microphones, monitors and sound cards have come down in price that you can get a starter kit for a few hundred pounds which will have good response curves and should create good sound.

Investing in high quality gear

When audio equipment is designed, manufacturers spend a lot of time measuring the response across the frequency spectrum. Professional equipment is designed to accurately capture or replay sound that is being produced without distorting in any way or form. The closer the equipment is in reproducing the audio captured the higher the quality and hence price.

Audio equipment is tested in multi million dollar facilities with anechoic chambers and suspended floors. Speakers are placed on solid plinths to ensure that the surface they are resting on doesn’t colour the sound produced.

Unfortunately these test conditions are far from the typical listening or recording space. So a microphone with the flattest response rate in a test facility could sound mediocre in a room that is not sufficiently treated.

Using acoustic treatment to improve your sound quality

The best way to tackle sound quality in voice over recordings is by considering the influence your room has on the sound you capture. The sound that is recorded by your microphone consists of a combination of sound waves hitting the microphone directly as you speak and reflections, echoes and reverberations of sound waves that have bounced off walls and flat reflective surfaces of the room you are in. This resultant sound is what is captured and converted into a digital signal ready for processing in your  Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

In order to reduce the influence of the space you are recording in on your content, every attempt has to be made to negate the effect of reflective surfaces around your recording space. Introducing acoustic treatment is the quickest and easiest way to do this.

Acoustic foam for Vocal Booths

There are a number of materials that are used for acoustic treatment however acoustic foam is by fat the most popular for a number of reasons.

• Acoustic foam can be easily machined into various shapes.
• Acoustic foam is  a light material and can be mounted without damaging walls using removable solutions like isotack removable strips
• Purpose designed acoustic foam is combustion modified and unlike the old “egg crates” will extinguish once a flame is removed making it safer to use.
• Unlike fibreglass, Acoustic foam doesn’t contain fibres and means the air in your enclosed working space is free from potentially harmful fibres found in poorly manufactured fibreglass panels.

Finally and most importantly,

• the vocal frequency range is  1500hz – 3000Hz, very seldom do you find commercial vocal recordings on the extreme low end of the audible frequency. These frequencies are effectively attenuated by acoustic foam of a suitable thickness and density.

Acoustic panels or bass traps or both

As mentioned above, the frequency range of vocals means that panels of suitable thickness and density should be sufficient in improving the quality of vocals being captured. There is absolutely no need to purchase bass traps, diffuser panels or fibre glass panels when recording vocals. The traps would only use up space that would be better used for panels at a cheaper cost.

The ideal vocal recording space

If you are recording vocals for voice overs, jingles and narration you almost certainly want to deaden your vocal recording space as much as possible. We would recommend 100% deadening for recording vocals. Digital effects such as phasing, echo and reverb can then be applied “in the box” once the audio has been captured.

Completely deadening your room will ensure you have a great audio recording to start with on which to carry out your post capture editing.

Care should be taken to take into account the deadness of the room if you decide to carry out your mixing in the room as the deadened surfaces will almost certainly result in a mix that is not portable and will be distorted when played on different players/speakers in the typical untreated room.

For vocal booths, the patterns on the tiles are mainly an aesthetic choice as is the arrangement of tiles when placed on the walls or ceilings. All the acoustic tiles in our voice over studios section will work well, with thicker tiles giving greater absorption.

Portable adjustable acoustic filters for voice over artists and podcasters

If you are stuck for a dedicated room to acoustically treat of are looking for a solution to  use when you have to travel to meet guests then a portable acoustical screen or set of screens will work well.

The flexisorb acoustical isolation filter and privacy screen is one such screen designed to sit on your table top and wrap around your recording equipment, be it a laptop, workstation or microphone. By adjusting the wrap around your device you can vary the acoustics in the area immediately surrounding the microphone, resulting in content that is comparable to that produced in sound deadened rooms.

The isolation wraps have another advantage over box type filters in that you don’t have to fiddle trying to get your head into a box and does away with the otherwise unwanted boxy effect that a box creates which colours the sound you are capturing.

That’s just about it on acoustic treatment for voice over artists. There is obviously a lot more to take into account but I hope by the end of this article you can tick off one thing that needs to be sorted to get that professional sound audio content.

It is a well known fact that using acoustic foam in your studio will improve the sound quality of your studio. However with so many companies available selling acoustic foam it is easy to see why many producers venturing into acoustic treatment make the wrong decisions when looking for the right material to treat their rooms. This confusion is brought about by the fact that there are so many companies out there selling furniture foam passed off as acoustic foam. This foam is normally cheaper and is no wonder why every other question on our twitter feed is. “Why is acoustic foam so expensive?”

Acoustic foam has become the treatment material of choice for many home music producers for a number of reasons however the top three reasons are;

• Acoustic foam offers great absorption for mid to high end frequencies.
• Acoustic foam is relatively more affordable compared to high end options
• Acoustic foam is easy to handle and shape into aesthetically pleasing and performance enhancing shapes

Broadly speaking, there are three types of open cell foam used for acoustic applications. These are, in order of increasing price.

• Polyurethane polyether foam
• Polyurethane polyester foam
• Melamine foam

Polyurethane polyether foam

Polyurethane polyether foam has a large range of applications and comes in a variety of densities and colours. Acoustic applications are best suited to densities that are 29kg/m3 and above. Furniture foam converters generally tend to use the 25Kg/m3 foam or less and pass this off as acoustic foam. Whilst this foam may look similar to acoustic grade foam the performance shows that this foam falls below that of higher densities. This is basically down to physics. Although the structure of lower density polyether foams is the same as higher density foams lower density foam doesn’t have enough air pockets to absorb the sound waves impacting on them which reduces the observed performance.

Lower density foam whilst appearing cheaper may cost more in the long run because trying to get equivalent absorption values in your studio will mean purchasing more foam which is probably not a good idea because excess absorption can leave your room sounding flat.

If you are on a tight budget look for polyether foams that have higher densities 29Kg/m3 or greater, are darker coloured as these foams will tend to discolour with time and darker colours age gracefully. Also consider the fire rating UL 94 HF1 is the most stringent acoustic foam fire test and means you are not taking chances in your studio.

Polyurethane polyester

Polyurethane polyester foams are the Rolls Royce of acoustic foams and come at a premium which reflects the performance you can expect from these foams. Professional acoustic foam brands use polyester foams because the performance is guaranteed. Polyester foam is manufactured to very high standards because the applications these foams are used for require only the best foam.

Polyester foam lends its great performance to the greater percentage of open cells meaning more air pockets exist which soak up the energy of sound waves. Polyester foam is manufactured in blocks and tested for air resistance at intervals to ensure that the performance is uniform which ever part of the block is used. This precision led manufacturing process means that polyester foams aren’t riddled with blow holes leaving a shiny aesthetic surface that delivers performance time after time.

Polyester foams provide controlled absorption across the entire spectrum with thicker foams offering effective absorption down to 125Hz right through to the top end of the frequency spectrum. This wide band of performance means polyester foam is the choice for professionals looking to introduce absorption into their studios. Polyester foams take longer to discolour when compared to their polyether counterparts.

Melamine Foam

Whilst not traditionally used in music studios melamine foams are fast gaining recognition as an acoustic treatment option for studio acoustic treatment. Priced higher than polyester and polyether foams melamine foam offers the perfect combination of absorption and light weight.

Melamine foams achieve this extraordinary feat by exhibiting a true 3D filament structure. This structure means that melamine foam doesn’t have any closed cells but rather millions of air chambers which significantly increase its performance in the mid to high frequencies. Although thicker panels will shift the absorption down to the lower end of the spectrum for domestic purposes the cost doesn’t justify the performance.

So where then does melamine foam come in handy? The answer is simple. Firstly the extremely light weight nature of this foam means that melamine foam panels can be stuck on to ceilings of large buildings without any concern of the impact on roof loading. This property means that melamine baffles and blocks are used in large building, factories, gymnasiums, churches and swimming pools.

Secondly melamine foam is available in brilliant white and is the only type of foam which holds its colour without getting discoloured when exposed to UV rays. This lends it well to use for indoor applications where darker coloured tiles would present an aesthetic challenge. Melamine panels are handy for home cinemas and used for treating walls and ceilings at reflection points as well as treating home studios that double up as work offices.

Melamine foam can be cut into a number of shapes although most popular are flat panels with bevelled edges. Melamine comes in standard White, grey and light grey however the white panels may be spray painted using specialist equipment to any colour.

Finally melamine foam is class 0 fire rated which is lends it well to applications where building regulations mean only materials with high fire ratings can be used without impacting on the aesthetic of the room it is applied to. Other foams can be treated to make them class 0 rated but this involves impregnating them with graphite and carbon which results in black sheets. Not exactly the best for indoor use.

Melamine foam however is quite brittle and can easily get damaged so needs to be handled with caution.

I hope this helps you understand what to look out for when you are next shopping around for acoustic foam for your studio. Just remember if it looks like furniture foam and is priced like furniture foam then it most likely is furniture foam.