Recording studios operate from a variety of building types and are constructed around certain limitations such as location, size, available space, home, warehouse, or ground-up building.
Less dense products reduce the transfer of sound from one side of the wall to another
Ex. the use of steel studs substituted for wood.
The control room should use two panels of glass
The pane on the inside of the control room should be tipped or angled down toward the floor to help with the reflection of not only sounds, but lights.
The second should be laminated glass
Monitors
Studio monitors are the speakers that reproduce the sound that we listen to in the control room.
Monitors that should be chosen are ones that reproduce an even response (minimal peaks and dips) and have a wide frequency response.
Modern Recording Techniques Book
Pg. 73 - 110 and 523 - 538
Studio Acoustics and Design
When designing or redesigning an acoustic space, the following basic requirements should be considered:
Acoustic isolation - prevents external noises from transmitting into the studio environment through the air, ground or building structure.
Frequency balance - the acoustic environment shouldn't alter the sound quality of the original or recorded performance
Acoustic separation - the acoustic environment should not interfere with intelligibility and should offer the highest possible degree of acoustic separation within a room.
Reverberation - the control of sonic reflections within a space is an important factor for maximizing the intelligibility of music and speech.
Cost factors - Not the least of all design and construction factors is cost.
Studio Types
Professional Recording Studio - A commercial business, so its design, decor, and acoustical construction requirements are often much more demanding. In some cases, an acoustical designer and experiences construction team are placed in charge of the overall building phase of a professional facility.
Audio-for-visual Production Environment - Used for video, film and game post production and includes such facets as music recording for film or other media, score mix down, automatic dialog replacement and foley.
The Project Studio - Usually intended as a personal production resource for recording music, audio for visual production, multimedia production…etc. Range from being fully commercial to private and personal. Differs from the professional studio in that the cost and building constraints are main factors in the design considerations.
The Portable Studio - Laptop and Mbox.
Primary Factors Governing Studio and Control Room Acoustics
Acoustic Isolation - Isolation techniques help keep external noises to a minimum. Transmission loss refers to the reduction of a sound signal as it passes through an acoustic barrier. TL=14.5logMf-16. the primary goal in building studio walls is to reduce leakage done by; building a massive wall structure, eliminating open joints, and dampening structures. Iso-rooms and iso-booths can be used to separate louder instruments from softer ones.
Room Reflections and Acoustic Reverberation
Reverberation- the persistence of a signal that continues after the original sound has ceased. It can be broken down into three components; Direct sound, Early reflection, and reverb. the direct signal is made up of the original, incident sound that travels from the source to the listener. Early reflections consist of the first few reflections that are projected to the listener off of major boundaries within an acoustic space.
