newton bach // Blog

This song transformed Playing For Change from a small group of individuals to a global movement for peace and understanding. This track features over 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world. They may have never met in person, but in this case, the music does the talking.

I've come to the realization, and I'm completely embarassed to admit it, that proper sound treatment of my mixing room is as important, or even more important than all the fancy plug-ins I'm tempted to buy. I have a great set of Alesis studio monitors, flat response, but I couldn't figure out why my mixes always sounded like they were in a box when I took them outside and gave them the "car test", they never translated well to other sound systems. Was it the limit of what my DAW could achieve, or maybe the plug-ins added small sample delays giving a hollow sound, when I tried to EQ why could I not detect changes unless they were drastic?

The answer, is the environment in which I mix the music. So far, I've gone to my local music store and purchased three 2 x 4 panels and two "bass traps", all made of foam, black, and really they look kind of cool. Just these few additions have changed how I hear the mix by alot. But now, I want more! There's still a boomy bass resonance throughout the room, and these commercial panels are just way too expensive to treat the entire room.

I call this part one because I'm still in the middle of the process, but I thought I'd share what I'm doing because either it may help, or some of you acousticians can give some helpful advice. This is essentially a non-technical, trial and error process for me, I'm an ear player on bass, so I've got to go with playing this one by ear too.

I don't want to spout out all kinds of theories about bass traps, but here is one of the best resources I've found, that's not too technical for the average guy: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html and there's lots of great info at http://www.realtraps.com

I work in construction in real life as an electrician, and I've talked to professional insulators on the job, and they had no idea what corning 703 or 705 was, and actually I'm not really sure myself. However, on further study, it appears that that the material is consistent with the density of what we call "mineral wool", which in construction is normally used for stuffing big holes for fireproofing. I went to my local commercial building supplier (not home depot or ace harware) and got five 2 x 4 x 4" thick sheets for 41 bucks. I also bought a box of cheap 2 x 2 ceiling tile. What I'm planning to do is to cut the 2 x 2 sheets in half, and the 2 x 4 batting in half longways, and dressing it up with some wood molding, covering all four walls at the top. In other words, there will be a 12" strip around the room at the top at a 45 degree angle, I will place the ceiling tiles cut in half at even intervals, with space inbetween, to hold the insulation, then dress the entire construction with some cloth. The important thing is to leave an air gap between your actual construction and what it rests on, ie the ceiling tile. I picked ceiling tile because I feel it will still reflect some higher frequencies, but will be a more sufficient barrier in combination with the mineral wool to not allow the bass back into the room, I believe it will allow the lower frequencies to pass one way, yet, remove sufficient energy for their return. Anyway, that's the hope :)