Believe

[The_Metallurgist]

I'm going to re-position my mix station and see how it turns out. Thanks again Dave, I'm eventually going to use the master handbook of Acoustics to help finish at least my mixing room here in the basement.

Just some babble during my coffee break...

I'm afraid I consider anything with the word Pensado in a sentence to be little more than a publicity stunt.....or simply entertainment to draw in the punters. The video Olli kindly detailed, was entertaining (not wishing to appear sarcastic, I hasten to add!). Sadly it lacked any real depth and merely dealt with major generalisations, the sort of stuff which helps to perpetuate myths and fuel misunderstandings perhaps? But what can be done usefully in an hour with a subject so technical?

The 38 Percent Rule was popularised by Wes Lachot, an acoustician and studio designer. He shows that the “theoretically” best listening position is 38 percent into the length of a room when measured from either the back or front wall. This offers the best compromise of peaks and nulls for any given room size. You will note that I followed it with the word “EXPERIMENT”, which I will herewith shout out because the ideal location will depend on many factors like speaker design, furnishings, windows, wall properties, carpets, curtains, ceiling height, blah blah....plus other factors that affect low-frequency response. I will make the observation here, because it's relevant, that many acousticians argue amongst themselves, and often out in public about who is right and who is wrong. I'm rarely in any mood to take sides and I deplore those who do, quite frankly. If we don't read the technical journals and well known and greatly respected bibles and actually inform ourselves about the vagaries of room acoustics and the challenges and disparities held even within the theory, then we are acting unprofessionally as mixing/audio engineers i say.

As for treating corners? Bass generally collects in corners. Treating the corners is therefore part of the way to addressing acoustic issues, but i appreciate that variability is a process fact and nothing ever follows a consistent performance - that's life. I would add however, and this bit many books and entertainment videos seem to pass by, is that any sound directed at an untreated corner will be reflected back from whence it commenced, and depending on the corner's fabrication, the amplitude can arrive almost as strong as when it left (depending on frequency and distance). The implications should be pretty obvious...

There is NO substitute, in my experience, for reading several darn good technical books on the matter, which can even occasionally present conflicting or even inaccurate information.....aahhhh, the Joys of Theory eh? Then we will know just as much as the so-say experts who, if I may state the obvious, also get their know-how from books and technical papers as well as performing their own trials (ref Ethan Winer). The benefit which accompanies an expert, of course, is experience out in the field, and everyone will experience something different. While some books will endeavour to print experiences between their covers, the nature of acoustics means that no two-situations will ever be repeated and every room must be approached on a case-by-case basis, a point which screws up many of us, especially when money is involved in formulating solutions! Lol.

The Master Handbook of Acoustics is a good read Draper (the 6th edition especially so because of it's addition of the section specifically focused on small room acoustics). However, I would strongly recommend Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms by Floyd Toole as an excellent complement to it (2008...i don't think it's been revised yet???). And if you REALLY want to get down and dirty....the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) have some splendid technical papers which go back to the 1940's and make fascinating study regarding bass absorbers and diffusers. I've observed that many designs of acoustic treatment available commercially today share similarities with the BBC's original findings. I appreciate you won't want to take this course of action in your current space, and understandably so, but nevertheless their experiments make for fascinating reading (subjective! lol). I'd also throw in Ethan Winer's book The Audio Expert, if you have time or get the chance, at least as a future reference. While it's a less academic approach to acoustics (which makes it more reader-friendly), he does make some points which hold validity which are based on the Theory, but he doesn't weigh the reader down with maths. What I especially like about Ethan is his approachability.....he is always willing to help, AND he appreciates good audio quality as a fellow audiophile.

Draper, one of the physical issues that won't help in your current situation, is the storage chaos which surrounds you, which you've alighted to. This will cause all sorts of reflections and absorptions which are no doubt arranged as unsymmetrical and random as they could possibly be. A crucial element to addressing room problems is the need for symmetry, which you are firmly aware of. I dare say though, that you aren't plagued by flutter echoes, eh? Lol Best get back to your old room ASAP

There is one factor which never changes (ummmm, apart from temperature and humidity which influences it!), is the speed of sound in air, at 1ft/ms. Any sound arriving after the direct sound upto about 30ms will cause comb filtering, and stuff arriving later than this will appear as a delay. Bass, because of it's energy, will take ages to decay, despite banging around all the walls several times! So, to “infer” that 70 percent of a room's acoustic problems can be overcome simply by speaker placement suggests partial irresponsibility, at least to me. But clearly, speaker placement has a major role in helping to address issues....which is where the 38 Percent Rule comes in

Well, coffee's over and babbling stops...must get on.
D