Posicion Monitores

Minimizing Acoustic Distortion in Project Studios
By
Dr. Peter D’Antonio
RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc.
Recording studio design has changed dramatically since I
first entered the audio industry back in 1971. In those
Jurassic days project studios were called “semi-pro”
studios, because they did not possess the electronic and
acoustical performance of the professional 16 track
studios. In theintervening 27 years, the hardware gap has
been narrowed, if not erased, by new electronic digital
technology. On the other hand, the acoustical gap has
widened. This is due to the fact that the professional
studio designers have made extensive use of advanced
computerized acoustical measurement tools, computer
modeling and simulation, room acoustics and
psychoacoustics research andinnovative acoustical
products. Until recently, project studios have
concentrated primarily on the electronic “gear” and
essentially ignored or worked around acoustical issues.
As the project studio format becomes more and more
popular and finds more and more acceptance on the
Billboard charts and in post-production, acoustical issues
become the most sonically glaring omission.
In view of theway Project Studios have evolved, an
emphasis on electronic hardware is understandable.
Project studios have historically grown by sequential
addition of gear. The owner would initially purchase the
necessary gear to get started. When the budget allowed, a
new microphone, signal processor, or loudspeaker would
be added. In this scenario, at some point a critical mass of
gear is installed andthe project studio owner would then
have to decide whether he wanted to add new bells and
whistles or actually hear what he or she is doing more
accurately. With the amount of hardware in mass
circulation, many owners are in this position and studio
acoustics is a very real issue. A more contemporary
scenario for the Project Studio is to include a basic
acoustical package at the inception.There is more
awareness of the importance of accurately hearing what is
attempting to be accomplished in the studio at the expense
of that special bell or whistle that can be added later.
Also, as the cost of acoustical materials for Project
Studios has dropped and more choices have been made
available, including acoustics does not necessarily have to
be an either-or choice. Additionally,as computerized
measurement programs have become more affordable,
Project Studio owners can determine for themselves the
improvement even modest acoustical design can offer.
In this article I hope to address the relevant acoustical
issues facing project studio design, make some

suggestions about addressing these problems and the real
world limitations of these suggestions.
The mostrelevant point is transferability. The audio
product created in a recording studio needs to sound
similar in a wide range of listening rooms. Thus, the
audio product must be transferable to these different
listening environments. The first step in this process is to
understand the sonic ramifications of potential acoustical
problems in the room in which the audio product is
created. This meansthat a recording engineer must be
aware of the acoustical signature of the room he/she is
working in, so that the room’s signature is not embedded
into the audio product. A simple example of this is
mixing in too little low end in a room with significant low
frequency modal emphasis. When played back in a room
with uniform or deficient low frequency response, the mix
will sound thin, but moreimportantly it will sound
different. Another example is mixing with near fields in a
console arrangement with strong console reflections. The
mixer will unconsciously and unsuccessfully try to
equalize the resulting comb filtering. When the audio
product is played back in another listening environment,
timbre and imaging corruption will be heard. Since we
have little control over the...