Treating Rich's Room with Russ Berger and Auralex

The goal of any studio control room has always been to create a balanced listening environment where your mixes will translate to the end consumer. Like many others in our profession, I own a personal ‘producer room’ that varies in use from television composing to stereo and 5.1 mixing for DVD’s. Recently, I undertook the big leap of acoustically treating it - in a series of several steps. Here is how I went about it and how my experience might help you out. Quickly, you come to realize that the treatment of any room becomes a team effort. It began with contacting famed acoustic designer Russ Berger of Russ Berger Design Group (RBDG). Once Russ had collected and analyzed information on my space, he made his suggestions and also put me in touch with the team at Auralex. They reviewed my room and recommended what treatments would work for my needs. Finally, electronic design engineer Vincent Miraglia of Analog Design Group went through an acoustic and audio analysis of my studio and imparted suggestions on setup. Many lessons were learned along the way. You take the pros and cons of your space, the suggestions from the various engineers and designers, and balance it with a realistic blend of budget and expectations. Also realized is the fact that you can ‘do it right’ or simply do it in steps. Hey, nobody said this would be easy. The first tangible changes made to the room were Russ’s suggestions. We moved my workstation table away from the wall a few inches, and out of the corner, where bass was building up from my front right speaker. Next, we de-coupled the subwoofer from the floor, using the Auralex MoPAD Monitor Isolation Pads. The monitors were then lowered and toed inwards, so the tweeters were in line with my ears while sitting in a comfortable mix position. When mixing surround, I was to stand my center speaker upright, versus laying it on the side. Also we moved the rear surround speakers away from the wall to minimize reflections. So far so good. Now it got more complex. Russ also recommended I flip my mixing position to the opposite wall it was currently at, and construct an additional wall to help alleviate the unevenness in my room. This was the first part of budget versus reality, and although I knew that was the absolute correct way to do it, I didn’t want to go in that direction at this time. Although it was primarily due to budgetary issues, I was comfortable with the room as it was - and we all know how important vibe and ergonomics are when composing and producing. The mixes were already translating correctly at mastering houses such as Sterling Sound and Gateway. I just wanted to make them better.

EX 1: Rich's room plan with suggested Auralex products.

Treating The Room The next step involved working with Auralex, where Northeast Regional Manager Kate Cardwell explained what each product was and how it could help me. The fundamental issues I needed to deal with were Low frequency anomalies due to lack of bass trapping and room dimension, Flutter Echo (that annoying echo created by the parallel walls), several strong axial modes (caused by it’s particular dimensions) and the above-mentioned issues with placement. I had an 8ft high concrete ceiling, drywalls on all sides, an alcove and a closet, not to mention living on the 3rd floor of a condo complex! Therefore, the room needed some diffusion, absorption, bass traps and isolation. Ouch.

EX 2: the real room after treatment, with pArtScience diffusors, traps, and absorptive panels.

Making It Better After much thinking and planning, I decided to begin with 4 EliTE CT45 corner traps, 4 pArtScience SpaceCoupler diffusors and 4 pArtScience Space Array diffusors, and SonoFiber absorptive panels. I would wait on ordering the B24 and B22 ProPanels. Again, I realize I will need them, but Im doing this in a process that’s comfortable for me. Also, I want to hear the room change with each step. The next phase began with placing the CT45 ProPanels into the corners of my room. These are 2X4 fabric-wrapped fiberglass bass traps with beveled sides - so the fit snugly into a 90-degree corner. Light in weight, we were able to put them up with just a few finishing nails. Playing back a few commercial CD’s, I could immediately hear the room get ‘tighter’ on the bottom. It became even more noticeable when playing mixes I was working on that had plenty of low-end. Score one for the ProPanels. Next, we found the center of my mix position on the rear wall and hung the 4 SpaceArray next to eachother in a grid pattern. These Russ Berger designed 24”X24” tiles are make from Paulowina wood, and offer an attractive way to diffuse sound. My first test - simply clapping my hands - revealed the fact that these work! That ‘ping’ I previously heard was virtually gone, and my room had improved with about a half hour of effort. Not only were the acoustics better, but also these tiles are elegant and look like art! The next part was a bit harder. We took the four SpaceCouplers and attached them to eachother via bolts so they could be suspended above the mix position. Drilling into a concrete ceiling is some undertaking! The SpaceCouplers (also part of Russ Berger’s pArtScience product line) were designed to increase the perceived sonic ‘footprint’ of smaller spaces by redirecting and diffusing the sound. Also constructed of Paulowina wood, they are based upon the concept of loosely coupled spaces. The SpaceCouplers not only gave the room an attractive ‘professional’ look, it helped scatter the first reflections out of the speakers and eliminate even more of the flutter echo. I was sold immediately. With all the effort, planning and action, my room sound dramatically improved. Each change, be they small (moving a speaker off the wall) or large (hanging SpaceCouplers on the ceiling) impacted the acoustics in some way. When summing all the modifications, it not only sounds better, but I’m more confident than ever that my mixes translate on any system. Before beginning a process such as this, I can’t recommend enough visiting the Auralex website and reading their Introduction To Acoustics. They also have a separate website entitled acoustics101.com, which offers great advice on construction and acoustic room design. I learned quite a bit by printing out all the Chapters and thoroughly reviewing it. In a perfect world with a bigger budget, I would’ve had Russ Berger come on site and make the necessary modifications. I very well may do that in the next series of steps. But for now, the SpaceArrays, SpaceCouplers and ProPanels have delivered more than advertised, and Im ready for the next mix! Special thanks go to Russ Berger and the team at Russ Berger Design Group, Kate Cardwell and Tracy Chandler at Auralex, and Vincent Miraglia at Analog Design Group. It takes a great team to make a great product, and this is just the beginning!