Does Acoustic Treatment Make A Difference?

You might have noticed those wall panels in a recording studio, or the unusual shapes suspended from the ceiling at a restaurant and wondered about their purpose. These are elements of acoustic treatment, a crucial aspect that greatly influences the quality of sound in a space. 

Acoustic treatment controls sound waves, reducing unwanted echoes, reverberation, and background noise. This not only enhances the listening experience by providing clearer, more defined sound but also contributes to a more comfortable and pleasant environment. Whether you are recording music, having a conversation, or simply enjoying a meal, the right acoustic treatment can make a significant difference. But does it really work? 

The short answer is Yes. However, there are several factors that demonstrate this. It is a scientific fact that acoustic treatment can reduce echoes, reverberation, standing waves, and background noise, resulting in improved sound quality of a room. But how does it make a difference and where can it be used to make a difference? 

Where Does It Make a Difference?

A recording studio, particularly a live room, can be a very lively place for soundwaves to interact with their environment with multiple sound sources and obstacles in their way. Acoustic panels, diffusers and bass traps can absorb, diffuse, and trap the undesirable characteristics that these interactions can create.  

These solutions do not stop the sound interacting with its environment, but they do help you control what you hear when they interact as your recording still needs to sound natural. 

However, the control room of a recording studio requires more treatment because it needs to be a ‘dead’ space as there are normally many more obstacles for the soundwaves to interact with. As well as the desk, you have monitors, walls, and windows that the soundwaves can reflect and reverberate off.  

The soundwaves emitting from monitors for example produce a lot of bass frequencies which require bass traps between the pair (for more accurate stereo imaging) and on the corners of the room. This will allow you to control what you hear in the mix. 

Today’s modern open plan offices do not consider that with less obstacles for sound to interact with, sound or noise has much more space to occupy and linger in. Whether that is phone calls, meetings, or colleagues having a conversation it stays there throughout the day. This is also true of commercial spaces such as shopping centres, lobbies, and restaurants. 

Why Do We Need It to Make a Difference?

This build-up of sound can start to affect our ability to listen as our ears are trying to process everything we hear, and over time this sensory overload can cause listening fatigue. This can often manifest itself as tiredness and irritability causing people with disabilities, mental health issues and people in general, discomfort and anxiety. 

A biproduct of the build-up of sound can also be less productivity it has been proven in a study by Mehta, Zhu, and Cheema (2012) that mid-level sound/noise of around 70 dB is the optimal level for thinking creatively.  

The study involved subjects performing tasks measuring thinking creatively and open-mindedness. A soundtrack was played at 50 dB, 70 dB and 80 dB for each group with a fourth having no soundtrack at all. The 70 dB group performed better than those without the soundtrack. For comparison 70 dB is around the level of a busy restaurant or the sound of a shower. 

How Does It Make A Difference?

The main characteristics of an office space are hard, floors, ceilings, and desks which are all very reverberant. The acoustic panels in the StudioATK-60 Acoustic Treatment Kit by Imperative Audio will absorb some of this reverb and reduce the reflections from the hard surfaces.  

Also, a dedicated meeting room such as the Esmono Sound Isolation Booth can help isolate the conversation to that room and increase privacy. 

Similarly, the characteristic of a restaurant or related establishments are hard floors, ceilings, and tables often with many more people so the build-up of sound can be much louder.  

The sound of echoes, shouting, and general talking bouncing around the room can be absorbed and isolated with panels next to tables and baffles or clouds hanging from the ceiling. This can help isolate the conversation you are having at the table and help create a better overall atmosphere. 

To help you understand more about the difference acoustic treatment can make we created this simple test of the difference acoustic panels can make to the sound quality of a room. 

What to Consider When Acoustic Treating Your Space 

Size and shape of the room 

A larger room will typically require more acoustic treatment to account for the longer room reverb and potential for build-up of standing waves. A smaller room will naturally require less treatment but may require certain treatments such as bass traps to be thicker or larger to counteract the proximity effect of the room.

Positioning

As a rule of thumb for a mix or tracking position, working length ways in a room yields the best results. Avoid being too close to corners, walls, and reflective surfaces such as windows or mirrors. Finding the best sounding position in a room with no treatment will in turn help to then get the most out of the acoustic treatment you add.  
 

Type of treatment 

Acoustic treatment usually falls into 3 categories – Absorption, Diffusion and Bass trapping. Absorption as the name suggests will absorb sound within the room and reduce reflections (ambience/reverb) with the thickness of the panel determining which frequencies will be absorbed sufficiently (thicker the panel the lower frequency it will absorb). Diffusion often takes the form of a reflective panel in an irregular shape; this is designed to break up and disperse frequencies back into the room to dissipate naturally. Diffusion will help to even out the internal sound whilst still leaving the room ambience intact, often used in conjunction with absorption. Bass Traps – see point below. 
 

Identifying reflection points 

Once the best position has been established the next step is identifying reflection points. Early reflection points will be the surfaces closest to your mix/tracking position (typically to your immediate left/right, above and behind speakers for a mix position). Adding absorption treatment here will immediately focus the sound and improve stereo image as you are now hearing your speakers direct without reflections. Late reflection points are usually found further down the room and are made up of mid/lower frequencies, lower frequencies take longer to form and are slower to travel than higher frequencies, meaning they will form and hit a reflective surface further down the room. You can either add absorption or diffusion (or a mix of both) here depending on how much ambience you wish to keep in the room.  
 

Bass Traps 

Typically bass trapping is utilised in the corners of a room as corners can be hot spots for frequencies to collect and multiply. This collection of frequencies can turn into a resonance or room mode, usually in the form of a bass frequency being amplified, and by utilising thick absorption treatment to absorb these frequencies before they can collect in a corner will prevent excessive bass build up. 

Acoustic Treatment does make a difference to our recordings, our mixes, our workplaces, our downtime and most importantly our lives. There is an abundance of solutions at your disposal to improve the sound that you hear in most rooms and with our dedicated solutions and team to assist with the products and their placement you will be able to get the best sound out of your room. 

If you want to know more about the terms we are using throughout this article, check out our Glossary.