Recording - November 2015 - 25

By James Lindenschmidt

equal or even multiples of one another,
which minimizes harmonic relationships
that accentuate problem frequencies.
If you have the space, you can use
some of the suggested room ratios for the
three dimensions of the room (length,
width, height). There are several good

ratios that work well, such as the
Sepmeyer ratios of 1:1.14:1.39 (for a
room with tall ceilings) and 1:1.6:2.33
(for a room with short ceilings).
So in a room with low ceilings, the latter ratio means a good room would be 8'
x 12.8' x 18.64', which is about the size

Figure 1. Frequency response of a typical room. Note the difference of 40 dB or more
between the highest peak (at about 60 Hz) and the deepest nulls (at about 190 Hz).

of a one-car garage. This room is only
about 1900 cubic feet which is a bit small
(2500 is a good minimum), so a lot of
bass trapping will be needed, but welltreated rooms this size can work surprisingly well and are simple enough to build.
2. Most listeners don't have treated
rooms, so why should a mix engineer?
This is another common one, and I can
see the logic of it. Mix engineers often rely
on "real world" situations to verify their
mixes, hence the popularity of less-thanaccurate monitoring systems like earbuds,
NS10s, and Auratones. The idea of monitoring on something similar to what the
final listeners will use makes sense, right?
Unfortunately, the answer to this one is
just as counterintuitive as many other
things with acoustics. First we have to take
a look at what happens in an untreated
room. The short version is: comb filtering.
Reflected sound waves interfere with direct
sound waves from the speakers, creating
all sorts of acoustics artifacts and problems, such as the jagged frequency
response from comb filtering:
As you can see in Figure 1, there are
large, narrow peaks and nulls in the
response of this room, more than 30 dB
RECORDING November 2015

25



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2015

Contents
Recording - November 2015 - Intro
Recording - November 2015 - Cover1
Recording - November 2015 - Cover2
Recording - November 2015 - 1
Recording - November 2015 - 2
Recording - November 2015 - 3
Recording - November 2015 - 4
Recording - November 2015 - 5
Recording - November 2015 - Contents
Recording - November 2015 - 7
Recording - November 2015 - 8
Recording - November 2015 - 9
Recording - November 2015 - 10
Recording - November 2015 - 11
Recording - November 2015 - 12
Recording - November 2015 - 13
Recording - November 2015 - 14
Recording - November 2015 - 15
Recording - November 2015 - 16
Recording - November 2015 - 17
Recording - November 2015 - 18
Recording - November 2015 - 19
Recording - November 2015 - 20
Recording - November 2015 - 21
Recording - November 2015 - 22
Recording - November 2015 - 23
Recording - November 2015 - 24
Recording - November 2015 - 25
Recording - November 2015 - 26
Recording - November 2015 - 27
Recording - November 2015 - 28
Recording - November 2015 - 29
Recording - November 2015 - 30
Recording - November 2015 - 31
Recording - November 2015 - 32
Recording - November 2015 - 33
Recording - November 2015 - 34
Recording - November 2015 - 35
Recording - November 2015 - 36
Recording - November 2015 - 37
Recording - November 2015 - 38
Recording - November 2015 - 39
Recording - November 2015 - 40
Recording - November 2015 - 41
Recording - November 2015 - 42
Recording - November 2015 - 43
Recording - November 2015 - 44
Recording - November 2015 - 45
Recording - November 2015 - 46
Recording - November 2015 - 47
Recording - November 2015 - 48
Recording - November 2015 - 49
Recording - November 2015 - 50
Recording - November 2015 - 51
Recording - November 2015 - 52
Recording - November 2015 - 53
Recording - November 2015 - 54
Recording - November 2015 - 55
Recording - November 2015 - 56
Recording - November 2015 - 57
Recording - November 2015 - 58
Recording - November 2015 - 59
Recording - November 2015 - 60
Recording - November 2015 - 61
Recording - November 2015 - 62
Recording - November 2015 - 63
Recording - November 2015 - 64
Recording - November 2015 - 65
Recording - November 2015 - 66
Recording - November 2015 - 67
Recording - November 2015 - 68
Recording - November 2015 - 69
Recording - November 2015 - 70
Recording - November 2015 - 71
Recording - November 2015 - 72
Recording - November 2015 - Cover3
Recording - November 2015 - Cover4
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