All right. So, we've been spending a lot of
time sort of discussing low frequency analysis, mid-frequency analysis,
high-frequency reflection control, isolation techniques,
internal room acoustics, thinking of these as
separate disciplines in separate subjects
and they are separate disciplines in separate subjects.
Kind of like studying the left hand on the piano and the right hand on the piano.
But there is that moment,
when you have to play both hands at the same time.
We're at that moment.
For lack of a better term,
we're just going to call that integrated acoustic design.
As you get better at this,
as you fall more in love with this subject and
embrace it and read about it and study it and get more passionate,
you'll realize that actually a lot of these subjects do cross over into the other.
Sometimes when we're thinking about the shape of our room,
we're also thinking about the room ratios.
In fact we're always thinking about the room ratios.
Even when we're doing a little bubble drawing,
just trying to get the right relationships of rooms,
I won't draw a circle, I'll draw an oval.
Maybe I'll turn the oval 90 degrees because I'm already
thinking that the room should be wider than it should be deeper.
Why? Because I want the sidewall
further to the edge because I want to first reflection further out,
because I know if it's going to come back later in distance,
it'll come back later in time.
So, already very early in the design,
you play in the left-hand and the right-hand together.
If you have experience at doing this and
also if you're capable of doing it, but that's okay.
You could draw a circle for the moment and
then that circle could become an oval and then the oval could become a rectangle,
maybe an angle, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The goal is still the same.
The goal is to have
an accurate listening environment that
has the correct amount of quietness. That's the goal.
It's not that complicated that houses all the things that the studio has to house.
People, equipment, et cetera, et cetera.
Favorite fish tank, plant has views, et cetera.
So it's the same goals that we spoke about.
But as you refine your design,
don't be afraid to go back and look at what it looked like in earlier subjects.
So, as you're sketching,
we might have an idea that these walls are going to be about 12 inches thick.
Why? Because I picked up a detail that showed
a double wall construction and it was about 12 inches thick.
But now as you get further in your design,
you realize that studio ended up being next to a noisy machine room in a factory.
Why? Because the site that I was going to get turns out not to be the right site.
I end up getting another site because it's less expensive.
So, now that double wall may have to become a triple wall.
That's okay. That's called iterative design.
I actually think all design is iterative.
Looks a little bit depressing when that happens,
gets a little bit frustrating you have to go back,
that's why we have tracing paper,
that's why we have computers.
It's easier to erase a line on a computer.
It's easier to erase a line on tracing paper,
but it's very expensive to get that wall incorrectly built in the real world.
So, low frequency control seems like a separate subject.
High-frequency control seems like a separate subject.
But they will come together.
The other example is when we use one surface treatment to
actually accomplish two different things into different frequency ranges.
In fact, we do this quite often and you should do this quite often.
So, what would be an obvious example.
We know that we want a certain membrane absorber.
Maybe a two foot by four foot membrane absorber out of wood for instance or a thin metal
that's manufactured by a company or we make it
from a design and we know we want it in a certain location,
let's just say over the mixing position.
Why? Because that's the perfect place to squash that mode. All right.
Excellent place to put that membrane absorber at low frequencies.
But at 2K or 1K,
what's that object doing?
Well, it's reflective.
It's not doing anything at 2K other than reflecting. It's reflecting.
Wait a second, at 2K, I better get those sound waves,
those frequencies, to behave differently.
Well, they're going to behave more like lines. What do I want to do with them?
Do I want to have them come straight back down causing a flutter echo?
Obviously not. What should I do with them?
Well, maybe I want to absorb them.
Okay, if that's what you want to do,
so I'm going to put a very thin piece of insulation in front of it.
So that cloud could behave a certain way at 2K or 2 thousand hertz,
but very differently at a 125 Hertz.
So, I now have one object that's working at
two frequency ranges or I don't want it to absorb,
I want it to reflect sound to the back of the room.
So, maybe I'll put it in an angle.
So, now I won't put absorption on it,
but I'll change its geometry.
So, the same material doing different things at different frequencies.
Remember virtually everything in acoustics happens differently at different frequencies.
Everything in acoustics is frequency dependent.
Same with our treatments,
same with our design thinking.
So, when I'm looking at a room,
when you're looking at a room,
you're really looking at eight rooms.
If you take the eight octave bands,
that room is behaving differently.
Sometimes not a lot,
but it will be behaving differently at eight octave bands.
You've actually making eight rooms.
You're making a 63 Hertz room,
a 125 Hertz room,
250 Hertz, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
If that's a little bit too much,
why don't we just look at a 125 Hertz room and a 1K room.
They're different and they should be different. What's the goal?
Even distribution across the entire frequency range to try to get as uncolored,
a response as possible in the critical listening positions.
It's a mouthful, but that's our goal.
Don't be afraid of these treatments.
Don't be afraid of making a mistake when you're sketching,
that's why we have tracing paper.
Try out a particular treatment,
test it at all frequencies.
Make sure it's behaving at all frequencies exactly how you want it to behave.
If not, go back to the drawing board,
refine your choice, et cetera, et cetera.
[MUSIC]