Room Acoustics

Only a select few have passed the Epiradiateur test. Do Vicoustic Wave Wood panels have what it takes to balance a room's sound and receive the highest honor a piece of wood can receive when it comes to fire safety -- the coveted M1 fire rating?  

First Audiophile: Did you hear the one about the high frequencies at The Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall at the Old Town School of Folk Music?

Second Audiophile: Yeah, but it went over my head.

 

Auralex will be bringing acoustical systems by the armfuls to MusikMesse 2008, and with all of the crazy noise that's sure to come from a trade show, they probably won't be bringing nearly enough.  

We only have one Earth, and if we destroy it, we'll have nothing left to acoustically treat. That's why Auralex is introducing their Eco-Friendly StudioFoam at the upcoming MusikMesse show.  

Jason Carson of Record Plant shows us the SSL-4 Super Live Room, which is used often for recording orchestras and projects like most iTunes Exclusive tracks. To give you an idea of artists who have recorded those tracks, think of musicians like Paul McCartney, Sting, and Smashing Pumpkins.  

With a crack squad of top-notch audio/video professionals like the seasoned Gearwire team, netting high-quality interviews and product demos at NAMM is as simple as . . . it's as simple as . . . it's as simple as . . . a train-wreck, apparently.

Incredibly, we are not the flawless production machine we come off as. Enjoy.

 

Room acoustics is something that Brian Zieske paid detailed attention to when setting up Gallery of Carpet Recording. Though some engineers would have deemed his space unusable, Brian has set the space set up to optimize the capture of live energy between bandmates.  

sE Electronics Ghost Acoustic system is nothing like the ghastly-sounding ringwraiths that Frodo had to deal with every time he wore the ring. The Ghost Acoustic system actually helps get rid of noise rather than make it, and its one of the important Gunpoint Studio tools that keeps things sounding good without astronomical costs.  

Gunpoint Studios is a Chicago studio that shares its building with Music Zone Rehearsal Studios -- 75 rooms of practicing bands. Bob Popp of Gunpoint takes us on a tour of both.  

SM Pro Audio has released The Mic Thing, an acoustic treatment panel used to isolate the mic in your home studio.  

There's a lot more to soundproofing than just covering your walls in Auralex foam. Mike Waxman explains that in this video where he talks about absorption, reflection, and diffusion and his custom made sound panels.

M...  

IK Multimedia's ARC - Advanced Room Corrections - software promises to do everything short of physically redesigning your studio to improve your monitoring system. The combination of speakers and room acoustics have traditionally...  

In conjuction with Audyssey, a provider of sound equalization solutions, IK Multimedia has announced the first acoustic room correction system available in plug-in format. Futuristic, like food in pill form, the Acoustic...  

One of Casey Farina's biggest obstacles in his spatial sound project dubbed Project CONDOR was finding a location large enough to house eight large spherical blimps. Casey talks about how the Broadway Armory was the ideal...  

"It's like playing eight simultaneous games of Asteroid," is how Casey Farina describes maneuvering the blimps in his Project CONDOR. The spherical shape gives maximum lift to the dirigibles, but it also sets the things to...  

Sound artist Nicolas Collins has presented work all over the world; performances like Sleight of Hand (2004, Norwich, UK) - "For any number of performers with radios and screwdrivers," and Mortal Coil, (2002, Amsterdam)...  

Sound artist Nicolas Collins has a very long history of messing around with sound; and he's got a list of high-quality creds to show for it. He teaches in the sound department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago...  

Chris Schrader runs sound at Hogs 'N Kisses in Lake Geneva, WI. As you may imagine, this venue does not have a state-of-the-art sound system... Pat Ogle talks with Chris about making sound work with a rectangular room, a...  

Now that we all know how to make blimps and control them with Bluetooth, Project CONDOR'S Casey Farina talks about the compositional challenges facing the musicians who participated in his sound project. Would it be better...  

Summer NAMM has been occupying us at Gearwire for a couple weeks, but right now we're going to take a break and return to Casey Farina's Project CONDOR. As you recall, Farina is a doctoral student at Northwestern University....  

The German-based sound reinforcement specialist HK Audio introduces the Live Sound Reference Calculator, designed to help live audio techs with all their myriad duties. The duties that most of us don't want to think about:...  

In this Part 2 video shot live from the floor of 122nd AES in Vienna, Austria, Gearwire's Dan Agosto shows off some of the more visually appealing offerings in Jocavi's line of acoustical panels. These panels are wall...  

Dan Agosto drops by the Jocavi Acoustic Panels exhibit at AES in Vienna and walks us through some of the options. Irregularly shaped surfaces on walls sharply reduce the reflection of sound and are commonly used in professiona...  

Sound proofing is a constant source of groanage for home recordists. If you live on a busy street, close to an airport, or even just want to make yourself a control room there are several limiting factors. This is why...  

Acoustical Solutions sells Sonex and RPG soundproof tiles, as well as the soundproofing/fire protection material known as Firestop. At first glance, soundproofing and fire protection might not seem related, but Acoustical...  

According to recent press releases from acoustical tile companies, the price of some acoustic tiles will go up by as much as 15 percent on March 1st. The raw materials needed to make Sonex and RPG acoustic tiles have gotten...  

BAG END's E-Trap is a tunable bass trap which attenuates frequencies down to 20hz. In part two of our look at the E-Trap, we get a look at exactly how it works, including before-and-after results from an actual studio where...  

Auralex shows off its SonoSuede Pro series. Sonosuede is a set of eight one-inch thick panels and four two-inch corner panels that create acoustically neutral spaces. Sonosuede is made from a synthetic suede (real leather...  

If you are just starting to think about how to soundproof and acoustically control your recording space, Auralex has some advice for you. The first thing you should know? "Soundproofing" begins with the construction of a...  

BAG END presents the E-Trap. Since the explosion of home recording, basement studios, and other spaces not specifically designed to record in, there is a definite need for acoustic control of troublesome frequencies in these...