How To Acoustically Treat A Room | Studio Hacks | Universal Acoustics 

Dave is the kind of friend that every musician should have

2:02 Before 29:51 After Huge difference!

Wow, you can really hear the difference!

I have just one important question: Is your lovely afro considering as a bass trap in this project, and how effective it is?

In my personal experience that foam stuff really doesn’t do much of anything. It only dampens the high frequencies and ends up causing more problems with mid range perception and does nothing about the peaks, nulls and standing waves that are the real issues with small rooms.

Bea's hair is a mobile acoustic treatment. No wonder everything he plays always sounds good!

Can hear the difference, it's great and it also made you clean up and organize your gear! Looks clean and in inspiring.

“Absorption coefficients and RT-60” That’s how you know Dave knows his stuff. Get some waterfall graphs while you’re at it! Don’t be afraid to explain the math boys it’s great info. Ps. Great video. A lot of this info was comprehensive and practical for so many home studio setups.

Dave always comes across as the most informed and intelligent guy. Would love to sit down with a pint and just nerd out with him.

Dave is a really good teacher. His demeanor makes him really easy and relaxing to listen to, and he does a really good job of explaining things in great detail, but not overwhelmingly so. I, for one, would be 100% down for having Dave do more videos on audio technology/physics and studio tech stuff. Despite having a Bachelor's degree in music production I definitely learned a few things from this video, which is awesome! Great content guys, I've been loving the stuff coming from this channel recently!

I start treating my room yesterday but now I have to redo everything. Thanks guys!!

A highly practical, realistic and very informative video on the the down and dirty of acoustic treatment for a home studio mixing space. Thank you Dave and Rabea for providing a DIY video on affordable acoustical treatment that cuts through all the theory and mathematics. It was entertaining as well. Good laughs. Excellent results as well. I could appreciate the difference it made.

Despite some dumb 3 page length comments I'll tell you why I LOVE this video, as well as all your videos. You're covering every aspect of being a musician realistically and those kind of videos are priceless. Thanks for the enlightenment and keep up the good work.

3:59 There is no way that it could work as a bass trap, with a foam kind of density you need at least 18" of that stuff to act as a bass trap. That foam can only work to tame high/med freq first reflections and will absorb very little

Huge difference in speaking quality before / after. Much more pleasant after the treatment. Nice job guys!

The space mist "ahhs" get me every time i come back to this video

always come back to this vid for reminders

No offense, just to humbly teach a little... I am a Sound Engineer, I studied 4 years in Chile, South America. First of all clarify that the absorbent materials have an absorption coefficient ranging from 0 to 1, with 1 being the maximum possible absorption, in addition, these absorption coefficients act differently for each frequency band and that is specified in the technical data sheet of each material. In the case of insulating foam, it only acts efficiently for high frequencies and in some cases, medium frequencies. Applying foam to the entire room is an error and it is absolutely useless, rather than overshadowing your listening space, leaving low and medium low frequencies aside (unless your problem is especially at high frequencies, you can treat them with that material, or diffusers at best). On the other hand, the acoustic measurements must be carried out with a mic with Omnidirectional polar pattern and a flat frequency response. Subsequently, a shot must be made with a blank gun and capture that impulse following different rules (ISO 3382) to analyze the response of your room with their respective T60 and RTmid with some software like Smaart or REW. There are different ways that are also valid, you can use a sweep of 20 to 20000 hz with your speakers, or with an omnidirectional sound source. Ideally, you can reproduce and measure frequencies under the Schroeder frequency and place your microphone at the listening point to know what you are listening to in that mixing position.

Great video guys. Just wanted to chime in and add that for anyone wanting to delve into theory a bit, the master handbook of acoustics is a great book, but it does go quite in depth with the maths. Also, I’m aware this video is kind of an advertisement for the acoustic panels, but you should have mentioned the benefits of using rock wool as acoustic treatment; for anyone looking to make their own panels it does the job great and the finished product looks better in my opinion

I figured this out before via "brute force plus trial and error", and I really like this video. I never did graph analytics, I just listened. Your method is, of course way better and faster! Awesome! Thanks a lot for showing us :)

Wallpaper glue and a paint brush!! Easy as hell to apply, but not so easy if you need to move them! Great vid, thanks for the pink noise and plugin pointer!

Nice! Oh and the plugin is called SPAN by Voxengo. There's also a setting to flatten the graph to a straight horizontal line rather than the slight upward slant you've got by default. I think the default value is 4.5 whereas 3.0 gives you totally flat. Not sure why Voxengo defaulted to the setting with the slant.

I've just treated my room - I used wooden frames,, stuffed with loft insulation and wrapped in hessian. Cheap, but made the whole thing a bit more difficult. Building the mounting the corner traps was pretty hard, although the clouds were easy.. Huge improvement.

Definitely sounded flatter at the end. Worth the price foam treatment, they are quite cheap. Couple that with mini isolation booth, and a good dynamic isolation mic like a Shure sm58, and you can get some really great recordings from a bedroom. For a solid beginner setup: You can get that Shure mic ($120 Canadian), a sufficient interface like the UMC202hd ($120), XLR and Balanced TRS cables ($25 on Amazon for both), room treatment foam ($50-100 depending on room size and quality), and a mini isolation booth (~$120 for the very highly reviewed LUX models), and a set of budget monitors (~$175 for something like the JBL 104s. New models all the time, JBL is a good low budget brand). So lets see... about $635 CAD, or ~$450 USD and you would be all set for a reasonably good sounding beginner set up. For $450, I don't there is a much better way to spend your money to get better fidelity. Software and instruments extra of course :p well.. Instruments at least ;)

Wow this is bringing back some memories of things I studied over 25 years ago when doing an audio engineering course.

protip - if you use decorator's chaulk it'll stick the foam to any painted wall - just a tiny pea sized amount on each corner. Then when you want it off simply use a flat scraper - won't take the paint off at all!

HUGE thanks to you guys, for this video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really glad you guys are showing what actually happens with these projects (unless you're super handy). Def a PSA to not use that glue as a main way to attach the foam. But seriously so many vids use time lapse and everything looks perfect, appreciate you showing the sweat and general "we'll sort it out as we go" messiness that goes into these projects

big improvement!

Dave knows his stuff

Dave knows his shit. Been studying this stuff at BIMM so I can confirm :D

Sound even better? Come on, that's not even possible, you're a beast!!

I came across this video looking for advice on hanging acoustic treatments. I'm not new to this kind of audio geekery; I've built all of my acoustic panels and traps myself in my home shop. However, I've moved recently and my new space is much different in dimensions than the old one, so I was searching around to see how others are solving their acoustic problems, and if there's any newer thinking than when I last treated a space. I have to say that I've learned nothing new here, BUT, and this is a huge take away, I've discovered Rabea and Dave. You guys are brilliant musicians. I'm listening to Toska as I write this and thinking, "How have I never heard of these guys before???" Dorje is next! I'll be over at Bandcamp spending some $$ to support you and I hope more do. I saw that you were here in the States a few years ago. I would love to see you come back. Just brilliant guys.

You did a really great job. It is not easy to try to optimize the typical size home studio recording room, but you approached it well and very clearly. There are some tricks to take things to the next level (e.g. first optimizing the RT-60, followed by real bass management), but that is more involved and more costly. Two things I recommend in any event are: 1) A good speaker / room listening optimization software (e.g. IK Multimedia's ARC or one of Sonarworks great True-fi or Reference products), which are designed to compensate for room, speaker and/or headphone anomalies-- preferably after you deal with the major stuff. 2) Getting familiar with a good (and often free) interactive room testing and optimization calculator, such as: Amroc, which will help take things to the next level for you.

Dave! and Bea, I can't thank you enough. This is on the top of my to do list in the coming year or so, so seeing you do it was really helpful. I also want to thank you for leaving in your mistake. We all make them, and it's more instructional for me to see how an error is corrected, than it is to simply be told to avoid it. And considering I now understand wave forms (to a degree), Dave! obviously knows his stuff. You can't effectively teach someone unless you understand it. Well done gentlemen.

The internet still needs more Dave.

I'm a minute in- it already sounds nerdy- and I already love it

Thank You for sharing your time and skills. I cant wait to due my room. The echo / reverb in your voices were canceled out .Never realized until your befor and after test how much it can change the listening amplitude of a room. Awesome love it.

Dave swinging his big brain around!

This is GREAT! I'm a massive fan of Toska..... I got a little home studio as well here in the Philippines. This video will definitely help me improve my room.. Awesome video, guys!

Fantastic,...man like hanging out with my buds and figuring shit out together ,...love love love this.

really cool that josh homme decided to help rabea out on this one

Good job, interesting too. Disturbing lack of egg cartons though.

Great idea to do this, and to video it so everyone can learn about treating a small room, which most of us have for music.

Very good job. I noticed the difference before you replayed the beginning of the video. Great job guys.

This is one of the best videos I have seen for this sort of home studio setup. Thanks Gents!

like this ⬆⬆

This was really informative. Thanks to both of you for putting this up on RU-vid!

AWESOME!!!!!! Loved this and you guys are awesome. Both of you have been a huge inspiration to me

Well, that was a half an hour well spent! I've learned a lot. Great video, guys!

This is one of the best vids on tuning a room that I have seen. Straight to the point .. its a yellow book (Dummies) that even a kid can understand ...good stuff

The Mirror Hack - 2018's greatest tip thus far!

More Dave more Dave! Thank you for doing an excellent soundproofing tutorial.

Very interesting, thanks rabea! There is a significant difference. Gonna do some similar stuff in my living room, based on your advise.

Those results are incredible!!!

Awesome! What a major difference!

Having a friend who's a sound guru is a sweet perk. I learned a lot. Thanks for posting this :)

This is exactly what I was asking for, perfect! Thanks for sharing Bea!

Excelent video. exactly what i was needed to help with my home studio!

i have zero plans of doing this but it was bloody interesting thanks guys

A great improvement to the flatness of the room and I enjoyed all that lovely physics talk.

The bad guy from mission impossible knows his stuff! All kidding aside, this is a really cool video. And very impressive

Big difference! thanks for posting!

An eye-opener! Or ear-opener should I say. Thanks for going through the process. I had to listen carefully to the routing instructions towards the end of the video, but eventually got two graphs showing in SPAN (dual mono).

Between Bea and Rob's channel Dave is a busy guy! Good ish, keep em coming!

Only those who KNOW about the science of acoustics can understand what that guy said throughout the video. Anyway that dude really knows his stuff. Great information. :)

So much knowledge in this video. Saved for when I set up my first cute home studio

This was one of the most enjoyable nerdings in a long time. Dave is a genius when it comes to this sort of thing! Excellently informative without being confusing! Cheers guys :)

Much better looking, much better sounding!

Sounds great! Loved all of Dave’s tips.

I've quite enjoyed this. Rebuilding out house and gave this a look to figure how to treat my man corner, TY,

Great video. I have been thinking about doing this to my music/gaming room.

Sounds much better.

Very goood video! Loved the board with velcro and the mirror tricks, super interesting stuff!

Thanks gentlemen, you are freaking amazing!!

Dave is the Man. Excellent video Bea. Was good seeing Ben again. You guys rock. \m/

HUGE difference and very informative.... you sir can have my like👍👍

Love these kind of videos with Dave. Reminds of the vlogs recording aeromancy in the cove.

Dave!!

wow nice to see Josh Homme here, he surely knows some sounds

Proper useful - thanks chaps!

Awesome video, having just also finished studying this module at uni if anyone's looking to do a similar test i can recommend a piece of software called Room EQ Wizard (REQ). It's a similar tool that automatically generates frequency response and takes your sound card calibration into account too.

Great video Rabea and Dave ,very interesting ,Dave got somes several strings at his bow , very good , cool tips

Dang, that adhesive is really good lol...I'm gonna order some!

Amazing difference.

Great video guys, thanks for this - very helpful!

Look at that Revv head in the back!!! Killer amps.

Great man! Definitely sounds much better! Good job 👍🤘🤘

Idk, I love the mathematical process hehe... Love the process you've made since this video, really shows how much you've grown your studio :D

Sounds beastly boys.

Sounds way better. Nice job.

This was incredibly helpful. Thank you.

Yeah man. The voices really changed. First there was a fair amount of reverb and tinny treble in the voices, and after, far less reverb and the tinny high end is virtually gone. I get that you’re getting sponsored merch here, but ultimately you did actually improve the acoustic dynamic of the room to an extent. Good on ya. You could probably clean it up a bit more with a few more tricks, but it totally made a positive difference. Nice job. Interesting video. I’m sure you’ll love your new setup

Muchas gracias, muy informativo

It does sound a lot better. I believe there's a relation between the frequencies being absorbed and the thickness of the panels. So your low end problem will need much more mass than foam. If you ever solve the low end bump I'd be very interested! I believe we all start with getting foam because it's cheaper and covers the top half of the spectrum, but I myself am looking for the great low end solver! Maybe it's just a bigger room and all hope is lost??

Massive improvement.

Dave seems like a top bloke.

19:14 editing done right.

Ha Ha that is the most I've heard Dave speak in 4 yrs of youtube videos

Great video, thanks Rabea!