Recording - August 2012 - 8

Note to faithful writers: When sending your letters by email, please remember to include your name and where you hail from.
Noises in, noises out—noises off
I just finished reading Brian Gadson’s article “Noises In—Noises Out” (April 2012) and wanted to add my own personal experience of working with Brian to finish “soundproofing” my studio. My neighbor’s dog’s annoying high-pitched barking was infiltrating my studio, despite the floated floors, double doors, and room-within-a-room construction. Brian asked me to record what the barking sounded like, from inside the booth. I’ll let him tell you just what he did to do fix the problem (see below). Brian taught me that studio construction is a blend of math, art, and seeing the big picture while still paying attention to the smallest details. Thanks for continuing to publish articles like this, so we musicians can focus on recording music of the highest audio quality!
Terry Wollman via email

Brian Gadson elaborates, so we can confirm no animals were hurt in the process:
Terry recorded what he could hear of the dog bark from inside the studio. I looked at the WAV file with a spectral-analysis program to see which frequencies were still audible at a level where they became the problem. Now I don’t remember where exactly they were and at what level (this was a while ago), but the principle in solving the problem is the same regardless of the specific frequencies and solutions. We looked at the specific frequencies involved, with an understanding of the sort of treatments that work at those frequencies, and then we looked at the weak links he had in the sound reduction treatment of his studio, which was a former freestanding garage. For one thing, even though the main overhead garage door had a new wall framed behind it, this was still an area of weakness. To address this, we framed in the space in front of the garage door, and, while limited by how much wall thickness we had to work with, we installed mass, air space, and the best types of absorption for the problem frequencies. I believe we used a soundboard, 703 panel, air, drywall, and ply siding for the finished front of the garage door, because we wanted to maintain the garage-door look. We also found an area in the structure where an old window had just been covered over with siding, without any insulation at all. So we insulated that area of the wall with thermafiber insulation and closed it up with some more mass. As I mentioned in my article in the April issue, even a single spot where you’re not doing as much as you should be doing to block sound can result in big problems! It really came down to using the best materials for the frequency range we were trying to block out, within the limitations we had to work with. That principle can be applied to all acoustics-repair situations, large or small.—BG

Solutions you already have
Mike Metlay made some very good points in his recent Fade Out column “Solutions Are Easy—Finding The Right Problem Can Be Tricky!”. Inspired by his editorial, I’d like to offer this: “The Solution to Your Problem May Already Exist!”. It’s possible that a solution to a problem you have may already exist in the programs you currently use. I’m sure just about everyone reading this could be shown something in their DAW software that would make them say, “Wow, I didn’t know I could do that!”. DAWs are packed with features. The only way to know them is to put in the time learning the software. I find that what I do wrong when upgrading software is to install the latest update, and then figure out how I can set it up so I can use it just like I used the earlier version. This gets me back to work, but puts off learning the new features to another time... but if you don’t make time to learn those new features, why are you upgrading at all? Training yourself doesn’t have to cost any money, either. Webinars are usually made available for download a short time after the live presentation was given. Most likely your DAW manufacturer has free video training, webinars, and tutorials also. [If you don’t mind spending a little money, there are some great subscription-based and title-based online tutorial companies out there, like ASK Video (www.askvideo.com) and macProVideo.com, where you can learn about software and more at your own pace.—Ed.] Help files are a resource, although I find them more suitable to figuring out how to do something in the middle of a project as I’m working. There used to be a day when we could “RTFM” but the day of the printed “FM” is long gone for many DAWs and going fast for others. And guess what—I don’t have a PDF reader on my DAW computer. Yep, one less software installation to break my system...
Michael Nickolas nickolas@recordingmag.com

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RECORDING August 2012

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Recording - August 2012

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