Patrick and I recently moved into our new home in Puerto Rico, and we’re each building our own studios. I knew it would be difficult to remove the echo from my concrete room, but I didn’t realize it would be this hard.
In our last studio In Puerto Rico, the echoes are horrifying, but at least the ceiling is made of drywall. In my new house, the walls and ceiling are both concrete and the floor is brick. Before I move anything into the room, it looks like I’m filming in a commercial bathroom.
I have one goal with my new setup: I want to be able to sit down in a chair and start recording without messing with the camera or microphone. Of course, I could use the podcast microphone in the frame, but I didn’t want to see the microphone and I could have used the lav microphone, but then I would have to take it off every time I stood up.
To build the set that I wanted, I needed to position the microphone off the chassis on a stand, and by moving the microphone further away from my mouth, I knew I would get more noise in the room. Sennheiser sent me their legend MKH 416 pistol mic, and I really want to make a sound to do this microphone justice.
I went in first and added carpet and curtains. Then I started adding small soundboards and large acoustic pads around the room. After a month of fiddling with it almost every day, I decided to put another blanket of sound over my head. I still couldn’t get rid of the 100 Hz resonance in the room though, but I was able to reduce it in Premiere.
What I’ve Learned
Thin sound-dampening items like carpets, curtains, and acoustic blankets do a great job of cutting down on high frequencies, but bass notes can easily pass through them. To trim lower nodules, you’ll want the 4-6 inch panels to be mounted 4-6 inches from the wall and ceiling. I made a really thick panel and put it right next to me, and it did nothing to cut the 100 Hz resonance in the room. I assume this means I’ll have to put panels everywhere, and that’s something I don’t want to pay for and also something I don’t want to see in the background of my canvas. Furthermore, I already own the sound blanket, so I got it working.
There’s no doubt that the acoustic panel on the ceiling is an ugly addition, but it cut the echoes enough for me to get good sound with the help of an equalizer.
If you’re trying to process a room for sound quality (rather than recording a conversation), bass management is going to be a much bigger issue. Here is a video of some DIY treatments similar to mine.
For extremely professional advice, see Acoustics Insider.
