Meeting Topic: Acoustics at it's prime
Moderator Name: Sy Potma
Speaker Name: Jay Porter of Primacoustics
Meeting Location: The PA Shop, London, Ontario, Canada
Jay Porter was once a graduate of OIART in London Ontario, and thought his experiences in life, as come to work for Primacoustics. He came to talk to use and covered a variety of things to think about when designing a recording studio or acoustic treatment in any critical listening environment. Talking from room modes, to absorption and reflections, how to deal with acoustic phenomenon's, and also talked about specific Primacoustic products.
Starting off, he talked about the goals of recording studios and critical listening environments, and why acoustic treatment is important. This lead into the general myths of acoustic treatment and general miking, such as how people think that EQ in the monitoring signal path can help with the rooms acoustic problems, and room modes. Acoustic problems in a room need to be fixed in the room with acoustic treatment, doing electronic adjustments to compensate for the room is something most people think can be done, but in truth does quite little to help the problem, and can cause more problems.
Room modes were addressed, along with treatments to help with them. Since room modes are between 50 to 140 Hz, it is hard to treat them, and is much easier to build a room with proper ratios from the start. However, Jay was talking from the standpoint of the audience that have rooms they would like to make into a good critical listening environment. Different techniques to deal with acoustic phenomenons were discussed, such as absorption, diffusion, and the design of the room. Different materials and techniques for these types of acoustic treatment, such as the absorption panels, diffusers, and bass traps. Different room designs were discussed, such as "live end dead end" rooms, and the placement and quantity of acoustic treatment in any room to deal with the acoustic problems that are occurring.
After talking about how to deal with existent problems, it was briefly discussed what to think about when designing a room from scratch to minimize problems from the beginning, such as parallel walls, ratios, de-coupling, and wall designs. Regardless of the room design, acoustic treatment will be necessary, however with proper room design, the treatment will be minimized.
Specific products were spoken about during the presentation that are made by Primacoustics, and how they help with the specific acoustic phenomenons being discussed, as well as their materials and the reason for their physical design. Such as the Impaler Series hardware, Owens Corning 705, the Flexifuser and soft diffusion, the Radiator, the Diaphragmatic Resonator, and the London 12 Room Kit. Because Radial Engineering is part of Primacoustic, some new gear by Radial was discussed, such as the Workhorse and the API 500 Series modules.
Written By: Alex Krotz
