How to place sound absorbing panels

You have finally made up your mind! After so much procrastination, you have decided to perfect the acoustics of the studio in which you record your music, edit your videos and/or produce your podcasts; or maybe you are reviewing the acoustics of the rehearsal room where you practice with your band. The fact is that you immediately began to inquire about the subject, but you realized that you had to deepen or review some concepts of acoustics.

In particular, you would like to learn how to place sound-absorbing panels, to make sure that the sound bounces correctly between the walls, eliminating those annoying echoes and unwanted sound effects that affect the quality of your work. On the other hand, this activity involves a certain amount of energy, time and money, and you want to make sure you are achieving the best possible result.

I fully understand your perplexities and, for this reason, I have decided to create a guide that can support you in the acoustic preparation of your studio, with particular attention to the positioning of the sound-absorbing panels. It will be enough for you to dedicate a few minutes of your precious time to reading the next paragraphs to treasure some fundamental notions and a few simple tips that will clear your mind and allow you to proceed quickly with your project. Happy reading and good luck in your business!

Index

• Preliminary information
• Types of sound absorbing panels
• How to position the sound absorbing panels

Preliminary information

Before proceeding with the practical explanation of the arrangement of the sound-absorbing panels, I believe it is essential to make some preliminary considerations that will allow you to organize the work by adapting it to your specific needs and to the conformation of the room on which you want to perform the acoustic treatment. I want to reassure you immediately: these are not particularly complex concepts to assimilate.

I would like to specify, to avoid misunderstandings, that this is a very different procedure from that of acoustic insulation and soundproofing, which require very different types of materials and interventions and are mainly aimed at shielding an environment to ensure that the sound does not enter and does not go out. When we talk about acoustic treatment, in fact, we mean the set of measures implemented to ensure that the sound is directed correctly within the environment.

First of all, therefore, it is advisable to understand how the sound propagates within a room: starting from the audio source, in fact, the sound waves are projected in all directions. Only a small part, therefore, arrives directly at the main acquisition point (the microphone in the recording studios or the ear in a rehearsal room or in a home theater, for example), while everything else bounces in a seemingly random way walls, surfaces and objects.

In the latter case, we speak of reflected sound which, often and willingly, translates into echo, reverberation, or other unwanted sound effects. The acoustic treatment, basically, has the purpose of limiting as much as possible all the phenomena of sound reflection in order to guarantee a greater presence of the direct one, which is more natural, balanced and unaltered to the ear: in essence, more compliant with the original one.

The sound-absorbing panels, as the name suggests, have the specific task of absorbing the rebound of sound waves and containing their projection inside the room. If, therefore, you perceive an excessive presence of the aforementioned unwelcome acoustic phenomena, you will necessarily have to locate the areas and surfaces that are responsible for them and evaluate, through specific procedures, the best solution to apply. However, I will tell you about this later in a dedicated chapter.

Having made these opportune premises, it must be said that the design of the acoustic treatment of an environment is subject to an almost infinite number of variables, but that a lot will also depend on personal needs. If, for example, you are trying to optimize your home recording studio, you most likely don’t need excessive sound absorption, which could flatten the sound too much making it lack thickness and colorless.

If, on the other hand, you want to improve the quality of the recording of your podcasts making it look as professional as possible, there are solutions that are particularly congenial to this type of use and also very discreet from an aesthetic point of view, which can be applied as a barrier to the microphone for make sure that it only captures the voice, without picking up ambient sounds coming from other directions.

First of all, therefore, it is necessary to know the various types of sound-absorbing panels, in order to choose the most suitable ones for the project to be carried out. For this reason I have dedicated the next chapter to the exhibition of the various models that can be found on the market, also indicating their field of use.

Types of sound absorbing panels

When it comes to acoustic panels, the classic square coverings of spongy material immediately come to mind, which can be applied to the walls using specific glues, or even better, using self-adhesive Velcro tapes. In reality, over time, different types of sound-absorbing panels have been designed, whose configuration has been specially modified to meet a multitude of use needs.

One of the most common is certainly the one concerning the setting up of a home audio recording studio: if, therefore, you are looking for information on how to improve the acoustics of the home recording studio, but also if you want to know how to position sound-absorbing panels. rehearsal room, you should know that there are two main types to which, basically, it is necessary to refer.

The first are the very ones I mentioned in the introduction of this chapter, that is the square, rectangular or hexagonal sound-absorbing panels, usually composed of porous material (such as polyester fiber ), able to let the air penetrate inside and better retain the sound.

They can be of variable color, thickness and density and are very often characterized by the presence of a three-dimensional pyramidal design, which makes them particularly suitable for retaining medium/high frequencies.

Alternatively, you can opt for the monopyramidal version, which can be arranged in alternating patterns in order to improve the aesthetics of the environment.

I suggest, during the purchase phase, to pay particular attention to the noise reduction coefficient (or NRC, i.e. Noise Reduction Coefficient ): this value, in fact, represents the amount of sound that is absorbed by the surface of the panel. The higher this indicator is, the greater the ability of the material it is made of to absorb sound.

If you find a strong presence of intense and excessively dark and resonant bass, then I suggest you resort to the second type of panels, called bass trap which, especially in small rooms, allows you to increase the control of the aforementioned frequencies by dampening the sound pressure. The latter have a 90 ° shape that allows them to be positioned in the corners of the walls, where ideally these frequencies reach their maximum peak.

Another very useful solution, applicable in particular when using panoramic microphones (also called omnidirectional, for example in the case of condenser ones ), is to install insulating screens in order to delimit the origin of the sound: on the market you can find some very comfortable kits composed of foldable sound-absorbing panels and special brackets that allow easy positioning.

The latter can be an ideal additional solution to integrate into your recording room or, for example, to improve the production of podcasts or the audio/video editing of your movies.

If, in addition to the technical and qualitative aspect of the acoustic treatment, you also have the aesthetic aspect at heart and therefore want to install sound-absorbing panels that best fit with the furnishings of the room where you have placed your recording studio, the home cinema, the Hi-Fi system, or you want to maintain the sobriety of environments such as offices and meeting rooms, there are valid solutions that can perfectly meet this need.

These are in all respects design elements which, at the same time, perform a fundamental absorption function through the use of more noble materials (such as wood ) or particular coatings to cover the polyester fiber.

How to position the sound-absorbing panels

In the previous chapters I have dealt with some topics that I consider essential for the correct implementation of the acoustic treatment: I trust that the knowledge of some basic notions of acoustics, of the different types of panels and their primary function, will help you to design the sound diffusion in the best possible way. space you want to dedicate to your professional or hobby activity.

We now come to the central node of this tutorial, learning how to position the sound-absorbing panels. First of all, I suggest you place those dedicated to medium/high frequencies and, as a rule, the first point where you need to intervene is located right behind the sound source (for example behind the monitors of a recording studio, especially if equipped of rear bass-reflex ).

This is, in fact, a crucial point which, if left untreated, can give rise for example to the annoying effect of comb filtering: the latter consists of a distortion of the sound waves capable of putting a strain on the capabilities of our auditory system, confusing direct sound and reflected sound in a particularly “subtle” way. The first square sound-absorbing panel, therefore, will be positioned at the center of the stereo sources and at the height of the listening point.

Next, you will need to install at least two others slightly higher, both on the right and on the left, ideally in correspondence with the speakers. If possible, therefore and based on the size of the room, it would be advisable to install others to cover as much surface as possible of this specific wall.

Now, it is necessary to determine the other points of first reflection, that is the lateral areas of the walls, ceiling and floor where the sound is projected directly. There are several methods to identify them: if you can use the help of a friend, one of the most common procedures, called the mirror rule, requires the latter to take care of sliding a mirror along the walls and the floor.

In the meantime you, positioned at your predefined listening point, will have to observe its reflection until you can clearly see the sound sources in their maximum expansion. Alternatively, you could use a laser pointer that follows the inclination of the speakers or amplifiers in a straight line.

There, certainly, it will be necessary to intervene primarily as a starting point for the positioning of the panels. At this stage, I suggest that you focus your attention on the upper part of the walls, leaving out the areas close to the floor and postponing them, where necessary, to a later stage.

Start, therefore, from about 60 cm in height and insert the first panel and, afterwards, leave an empty area of ​​the same size, then apply the second panel and so on (obviously a lot depends on the amount of elements you have and on the size of the wall).

Repeat the same pattern above, perhaps creating a symmetrical pattern that is also pleasing to the eye, for example by placing the first panel above the first empty space, leaving 10-20 centimeters away from the latter and continuing with this design.

The time for bass traps has come: in this case, you need to place them mainly in the highest corners of the walls, always starting from the rear one. If you have more bass traps available, I suggest you continue to descend from the corners to create columns and then mount one horizontally in the center of each wall, at an angle to the ceiling.

If you are looking for instructions on how to place sound-absorbing panels in the rehearsal room, the instructions just provided always remain valid, but I recommend that you adapt the amount of surface covered and the type of panels to the musical genre that characterizes your sound, for example by increasing the presence of bass traps in correspondence with the reflection areas of the bass player or subwoofer, in order to better contain these frequencies.

Even the ceiling and the floor, as anticipated, are reflective surfaces: where possible, therefore, the advice is to place some panels above the listening station (or the listening stations in a rehearsal room), while for the floor it will be sufficient to place a carpet on it, perhaps as thick and extended as possible. Less complex than expected, right?

 

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