Acoustics
Welcome back!
During the well documented recording of the last album, I had to do a TON of running back and forth between the control room, the car, the boom box in another room and all stereos in between to make sure I had an accurate mix that translated well to other systems. That got pretty fucking old and of course during all that nonsense, I realized that the problem was not my monitors or my ears, it was my listening environment. I vowed to take action once I had some time to start thinking about recording the next album.
So during the last year or so I had done some serious reading and research. All the while keeping my goal in mind of hoping to avoid enduring running all over the place listening to the same mix and taking copious notes, then going back and fixing things, then running the stereo merry go round again. I considered just replacing my monitors in the interest of cost but then I knew I’d be in the same boat no matter if I had crappy computer speakers or the best Genelecs or Tannoys money can buy. I knew I had to do something to improve the listening environment, short of hiring an acoustical engineer to design acoustical improvements to the control room which I was sure would cost a mint – I was not interested in that. Or so I thought.
I was pretty much at a loss on where to start, so I started with all the recording magazines I had subscriptions to, reading them at leisure as I was not in a huge rush and had plenty of time before we would begin the new record, at least a year! Some of the recording mags I read regularly are Sound on Sound (SoS), EQ and Electronic Musician. I kept an eye out for anything that had to do with control room, monitors or listening. I noticed that SoS (SoS is a great recording mag from the UK) has a monthly column they do that is called Studio SoS or something to that effect. I had not given that column much thought in the past, usually breezing right through it to get to the meat of the mag – the gear reviews. For the Studio Rescue, readers write in describing their studio problems and two guys from SoS staff go out and help them get better sounds and make improvements wherever they need it. Then they usually summarize while (in true British fashion) interjecting allot about how their host had fabulous tea and “biscuits” – cookies to us Yanks, in a shameless ploy for more tea and biscuits at whatever studio they decide to help out next month. I noticed that they were always hanging blankets or acoustic foam and worrying a lot about the room. Acoustic foam seemed like a good idea, maybe I could hang some of that and it would help a little with the low end problems. In the studio/rehearsal space Rob and I had back in the day, we completely plastered the inside of the place with four inch packing foam, not giving much thought to anything except covering every inch of the place, an uncharacteristically unscientific approach for us!
Thus the search ensued for acoustic treatment foam and information on how to apply it to a particular room. My searches brought me to Auralex. Lo and behold, right there on their front page was a link to the Personalized Room Analysis. Hmmmm . . . now they really had this skeptics attention. How much could that cost? A couple hundred? I might want to invest in that, might be worth it. Much to my surprise, it is completely free and included phone consultation if you need it. Now I’m really quite excited! (I’m still wondering what the catch is, cuz there is always a catch!) They have a form to download and fill out where I explained what I thought the problems were in my room. They also require a drawing to scale (if possible) of your room including all furniture and monitor positions. I eagerly set about measuring my control room and furniture, then filled out the questionnaire as best I could. I then got out my slide rule, pencils and mechanical drawing templates and made a precise drawing of my room on graph paper, calculating everything to scale as best I could. THIS is the kind of stuff I like! I supply a plethora of exact and concise information in an orderly fashion and there is no possible way they can give me terrible advice right?
Amazingly right! I faxed in my form and drawing, just knowing that it was going to the black hole of faxes (which is right next to the giant pile of single socks and misplaced sunglasses that all humanity has lost since the dawn of the industrial age) in some huge company never to be seen or read by anyone important – this was free after all! Within a week or so I got a pdf file emailed to me from a real acoustical sound engineer. Somebody with an actual engineering degree! Somebody with a measurable amount of knowledge! Fantastic! The letter she sent me outlined what I needed to buy, generally how to put it up, where to put specific things and pointed me to some links on Auralex’s web site that would help with application of the acoustic treatment. There were still a few things that were not clear to me and after trying to resolve my queries over email, I decided to put the phone consultation idea to the test. I got right through to the engineer who wrote my consultation and she was EXTREMELY knowledgeable, very technical and knew exactly what she was talking about. Most of the time when you call a company for technical help, you get the front line humps who don’t know shit about anything and are following a technical support question and answer tree written by somebody else who doesn’t know shit either. Thankfully this experience was top notch, because I wanted to go into the next record feeling like I had the best possible chance for an easily translatable mix.
I bought what Auralex recommended with a 20% off coupon I had been saving for something 
special from Sweetwater. I think I spent about $700 give or take. The things I was most interested in and had the highest hopes for were the diffusers and in particular the bass traps that Jimmy and I would install in the corners of the room. I felt I had to work really hard to define all the low stuff in my mixes and in my mind the bass traps were going to be my saving grace and add to my peace of mind. Jimmy and I scheduled a Monday evening during Monday Night Football to transform our listening environment.
I recalled how when Rob and I sound proofed our rehearsal space years ago, we had a hell of a time cutting that foam with razor knives. It took a couple of passes to cut through 2 inch foam and even more to cut through 4 inch. Auralex’s web site reads that you can use an electric knife to cut the foam. Right! I went out and bought new razor blades just incase, but I did have an electric knife that had only been used a couple of times at Thanksgiving. I was a non-believer but with Jimmy’s encouragement, we’d give it a go anyhow. I figured we’d only have to make a cut or two at the most regardless.
We unpacked all the diffusers, foam panels and bass traps. We decided to mount the diffusers with Velcro and use spray glue as recommended by Auralex to mount the foam stuff. One of the empty boxes made a perfect container to spray the glue on the back of the foam. We re-read our
consultation, looked at pictures of other studios on Auralex’s web site and set to work. It took us about six hours, most of the time spent hanging the diffusers above the mix chair, on the back wall, and in the center behind the monitors. Our foam came in gray and maroon so we made nice aesthetically pleasing designs with the colors hoping it would be a nice soothing look when we were done. Jimmy and I took turns spraying the back of the foam with the glue in the box. It was a hold your breath and spray exercise and we both still got pretty high off that crap despite trying to hold our breath while spraying! We did have to make a few cuts and much to our amazement, the electric knife cut the foam PERFECTLY! It looked like factory cuts and I could not believe it. My thoughts immediately went back to Rob and I cutting all that foam in our old rehearsal space with razor knives and totally hating life. If we only knew about using an electric knife back then! After we were all done, the diffusers looked like hell because they were bright white so I took a recommendation from Auralex’s web site once again and the next day went and got some faux stone paint and painted them gray stone. They turned out looking fab. I read also that they recommend backing the diffusers with 1″ thick rigid fiberglass panels so I went off to Lowes to buy a box of drop 1″ ceiling tiles. I cut them to fit in the diffusers and remounted them. The fiberglass backing in the diffusers is supposed to help them even more to absorb and diffuse the high end in the room. The only problem I had was the Auralex spray glue had not arrived in time for our installation so we used 3M spray glue from Lowes and it worked to get the stuff mounted, but in the weeks that followed, most of the foam had slowly separated from the wall and I had to re glue almost every panel with the Auralex glue. Not that it all came down at once, each day I would walk in there and half a panel would be separated or a corner would be hanging down or something like that. Minor stuff but I had the right glue so I fixed it whenever I needed to. Jimmy and must have done a fine job! Everybody who goes in that room makes a positive comment on the look and more importantly, the sound of the room. It really sounds phenomenal in there and it seems to be well worth the effort.
After about another week I managed to finish hooking up all the audio connections for the computer and recorder and installed my brand new Event Studio Precision 6 active near field monitors that I had read so much about and had to buy. I also had spied a pair of Yamaha NS-10M’s that Steve had in his basement, apparently a parting gift from the KIX breakup, so I traded him my active Roland digital monitors for the Yamahas. NS-10’s are the de facto studio reference monitors and have been for many many years. A lot of big time mixing engineers carry their own NS-10’s with them. Apparently the NS-10’s have the sound of the average stereo, they don’t sound great or hi-fi so to speak, but the important thing is they sound like everything, boom box, TV, crappy stereo, good stereo, the Yamahas seem to have it all covered. A good set of monitors to have for reference.
With everything hooked up, the monitors set up on the Auralex MoPads and angled in properly to the mixing position, I proceeded to flatten the room using an analyzer, a pink noise generator, two stereo 31 band equalizers, one for the Yamahas and another for the Events and a special mic that is made for this application. Much to my surprise the Events had a monstrous peak around
125hz, I mean it was just through the roof, probably +8dB. I managed to tame it just fine with the EQ though but I was a little worried about that peak, that seemed just a little out of control to me for some reason. I moved on to listen to some of my favorite records from a production standpoint. Guns & Roses Appetite has some really great sounds on it, drums guitar and bass, KIX Midnite Dynamite, Motley Crue Dr. Feelgood, Metallica Master of Puppets and Extreme Pornograffitti – two Michael Wagener produced killer sounding records, AC/DC Highway to Hell and Def Leppard, produced by the modern day Jedi Master of producers Mutt Lange, along with some older analog albums. Paul McCartney and Wings, Pink Floyd Animals, Led Zeppelin Physical Graffitti and so on. I have to admit that even as skeptical as I am the sound transformation in that room is simply out of this world. All those CD’s I have been listening to in there sound like I am right in the room with the band. I can really hear into the mix which is especially remarkable when listening to analog recordings. I think Jimmy and I are pretty damn happy with the effort we put in, even though I was sure it was only going to make a slight difference. It turned out to be night and day difference. The lesson here for me was don’t spend big coin on the mic you’ve wanted for a while or that Focusrite or Joe Meek compressor or those high dollar monitors, you won’t be able to hear them anyhow unless your listening environment is at least halfway decent.
Check back soon for more – Mark