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Your home recording studio might not have the same priority in the eyes of your family as it does in yours, so the choice of location is usually limited to what is not being used by other family members. Where most people do not go, where nobody can hear you, and hopefully you cannot hear anybody. Still, when deciding about your studio location, there are some things to keep in mind. In any case, it might be good to understand why some rooms are better than others. And if your career eventually demands a proper studio construction, you will know what to look for. 

 

Dimensions. 

There are some “rules of thumb” to consider when choosing a room for a recording studio. Not all rooms sound the same.  The size and volume of the room makes a big difference; the shapes, furniture, and building construction all have a major effect on how the room will sound. The worst possible room dimensions result in a perfect cube where width and length and the height of the room are the same.  Such configuration will result in exact same Modes and standing sound waves from all sides.If you have a choice – avoid cubical rooms for your recording space, have effect on how the room will sound. In reality, the choice is limited to a spare bedroom, basement, or closet, unless you park your car outside and take over the garage. You can also choose to make an all-in one studio or you can separate your office to form an Isolation room. (A room Mode creates resonance in a particular frequency and longer reverb decay time.  As a result there will be a lot of places where the sound waves boost one another and where they cancel each other, creating dips and peaks. The goal of acoustic room treatment is to minimize the dips and peaks in room response, as well as even out the reverberation decay of the various frequencies). Square rooms where width equals length, but is not equal to height, are better than the cube rooms, but they will present the similar challenge of modes for two dimensions: width and length. Similarly bad sounding rooms are the rooms where room dimensions are multiple of each other. For example a room that is 8 ft wide x 16 feet long and by 8 feet tall, because all dimensions are divisible by 8 and will have the same modes. So what is the “Good dimension” then?  For a long time the Golden Mean was the ratio of 0.618, which some feel is an ideal for spacing the modes in the room. For example a room that is 16 ft long by 10 ft wide x 9 ft high – the modes of the room will be distributed nicely. In general, for recording studios, the larger the room the better.  Keep that in mind when you are thinking of dividing the existing room by building a wall.

For the voice over actor, finding the room that is the quietest is more important than the room that is acoustically better.  The reason is that it is much more difficult and much more expensive to soundproof your room, and then still have to treat it with sound absorption blankets, than acoustically treat a room that is already quiet, to remove reverberations and standing waves. Producer’s choice acoustic blankets for sound absorption from VocalBoothToGo.co.uk proved to be a good solution for that.   Even in the prefabricated vocal booths hanging the acoustic blankets on the inside will get you a good sounding recording space. So the obvious choice is – pick the space that is farthest from the street noise and from family traffic and activities. Room shape also has an effect on the sound. In theory there should be no parallel walls in a room, so no standing waves can be formed. But in practice everything is built rectangular, plus it is much more difficult to calculate the correct modes in a room where surfaces are not parallel and if not built properly this can make the room sound worse, not better. So if the Golden Mean is a guide, then rectangular rooms are the best.  Ideally a rectangular room will have dimensions that have ratios with favorable modal distribution (and not multiples of each other). 

The angled walls, air duct covers, alcoves, niches in the wall – all of these can cause resonance and reflections. But whatever your room is, there are lots of effective products that can treat your room to deal with acoustic problems. Besides the acoustic properties of the room itself, there is an issue of the external noise coming into your studio.  In the home recording studio settings there are two concerns – blocking the outside noise from coming into your studio and isolation of the rest of the house from the sounds that you will be making. Lucky for voice over actors, they do not need to be concerned with a larger studio, like for band recording or control room.  Book narration can be done in a very small room.  Especially for voice over you do not want to have any “room tone” in your recording.  For singing or playing, some room tone may be appropriate.  Voice over is designed to go OVER an existing sound track, so there is no place for room tone in voice over. The room must be as dead as it can be. What the producer wants to hear is pure voice with even and true frequency distribution.  If necessary the sound engineer will add a “tone“ to it. 

Once the location is selected – do you want to have a one big room that is both an office and a recording studio, or do you want to have an office and then a sound booth for recording?One big room for both recording studio and office is convenient, but is more challenging in terms of soundproofing and acoustic treatment.  Plus, there are usually lots of devices that create noise, such as air conditioning, computer fan, phones, chairs, even electricity humming through the wires can be picked up by highly sensitive microphones. Many people choose a closet for their vocal booth. The clothes in the closet help with sound absorption and, if the closet is large enough, it can comfortably fit the actor, the microphone and the laptop.  So it seems to make sense to do it that way.   And it works for many voice over actors, especially the beginners.  The problem is that closets are not built to be sound proof, plus the clothes in the closet are not in the same place all the time and may not even be the same clothes all the time, so in the long run  your recordings will not be consistent.  This can be a problem for professional voice actors whose accounts might need pick up line or revisions and redo down the line, because their sensitive mic will pick up one sound one day and a different sound another day. 

Having a special sound booth for voice over recording allows you to create the space that is most suitable for your voice over needs and produces consistent recording every time. Going a dedicated sound booth route versus converting large bedroom into a studio, is more economical, because it is much less expensive to soundproof a small 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 booth, rather than a whole 10 x 16 bedroom. Plus you can leave all the humming noise producing devices outside of your booth.   You can build such a booth by yourself or get a prefabricated one.  But then you would still need to acoustically treat the booth so it has absolutely no reflections ( sounds “dead” ) inside.  You can make one yourself out of a thick 5/8 inch plywood, or you can get prefabricated rigidly built sound booths from various sound booth manufacturers.  Mobile soundproof(er) vocal booths from VocalBoothToGo  include the sound proof layer and the inside acoustic treatment.  They also can be folded away if not in use or transported in a regular size car in bags, which is a unique feature that makes it a vocal booth of choice for on location recording, rentals or audiometry.  This is a kind of true mobility that no other vocal booth manufacturer can offer.

Sound reflections and reverberation management in a Voice Over Recording Studio.

What are sound reflections and reverberations and why do you need to care?

When we talk about sound reflections, think echo. If you are in mountains, a cave, large hall or an empty room say something or just clap your hands – that sound gets back to you as an echo ( reflections) and repeats itself over and over (reverberations) until it loses its energy and dies (reverberant decay). This is because the sound reflects from one hard surface and goes to the other and reflects over and over again until it loses its energy.

The same exact process happens in your studio, except that you might not hear it as loud as in a cave, but a sensitive microphone will pick it up and you recording will be “inadequate”.

 

HOW THE SOUND BEHAVES IN A VOICEOVER STUDIO

A sound energy can be reflected by the surfaces in the room and bounce around or it can be partially absorbed, lose some of that energy and bounce around a bit less, or it can hit an odd shaped object , break apart and go in different directions with diminished energy (diffused).These behaviors can be problematic in a recording studio – sound waves bouncing inside the room can interfere with each other, cancel or reinforce the energy at certain points, which makes recording in the room difficult.

How your recording is affected by the way sound waves behave in a room depends on a

number of factors – the frequency of the sound wave; the shape and dimensions of the room; the materials that the walls and ceiling and floor are made of and covered with; how many doors and windows are there, and where they are placed, location of the microphone and voice actor in relation to the nearest walls, etc., and the contents of the room ( furniture, tapestry, equipment etc.)

 

One of the biggest factors that determine what happens with sound in a room is the frequency of the sound wave. As we discussed in the previous article, lower frequency wavelengths are long, and sound waves are more powerful.

Low frequency sound waves cannot be reflected by a small obstacle, so it bends around objects in the room and passes through lighter materials. At mid and high frequencies , say 100Hz or so and above – sound waves are more straightforward and easier to control.

Their behavior in the room can be compared to that of a tennis ball: they bounce from hard surfaces and being slowed down (absorbed) by soft surfaces.

FIRST REFLECTION:

 

THEN IT WILL BOUNCE FROM A CORNER:

 

THEN FROM THE OTHER WALL:

 

And so on until it loses its energy. The harder and flatter the surface – the stronger the reflected sound and the longer it will be bouncing around before it dies.

(This is just a simplified example, in reality a surface has to have a dimension equal to a wavelength to reflect sound in this manner. So our 100Hz wave will bounce off a roughly 12 ft wide wall. But will diffract (bend around) around objects that have dimensions smaller than 12ft wide. Also, sound waves are omnidirectional, meaning that they go in all directions at once, so when they reflect they also interact and affect each other). However throw a ball against a pillow and it will stop, because the direct energy will be absorbed by the pillow. That’s the basic idea.

 

WHY REFLECTIONS ARE BAD FOR YOUR RECORDING

In reality a voice over actor is positioned right in front of a microphone, so the microphone will pick up the sound coming directly from you, the speaker, but it will also record the sound waves reflected off by nearby walls and other surfaces.

The problem is that the microphone will record the sound from the voice over actor a very short time before the sound reflected off the walls gets to it too. How long the delay depends on  how far away the nearest reflective surface is. This delay between the two sound waves (direct and reflected) can result in phase differences in the waves.As the direct sound waves of your voice and the reflected sound combine, the time/phase delay can cause cancellations and/or reinforcements in the sound waves, changing the tonality of what you are recording. This effect is known as “comb filtering”. And if the tonality is changed, you are not recording what you are really saying, or rather not the way you say it.

 

ARE THERE BAD AND GOOD REFLECTIONS?

Well, ideally you do not want any reflections in your recording. You want only direct sound to be recorded. But some reflections are indeed worse than others.

 

First reflections

The worst and most powerful are the so- called first reflections. These are the sound waves that bounced the first time, less than 20 milliseconds or so after the direct sound. Sound travels at a rate of about one foot per millisecond, so that means that any reflective surface within about 10 feet or so of the recording position will cause problems. There are also Secondary (second bounce) and tertiary (third bounce) reflections.

 

Flutter echo

Flutter echo happens when the sound waves are reflected directly between two parallel surfaces – say opposing walls in a small room – back and forth. Try it in a smallish room with hard parallel bare walls: clap your hands and you’ll hear a rattling sound – that is flatter echo. Most apartment and house rooms have parallel walls, so flutter echo can be a real problem when you are recording with a microphone.

 

Reverberant decay

Reverberation is the sound left ringing in the room after the direct sound from the sound source stops. It is those secondary and tertiary reflections, it is that remaining reflected sound that tends to wash together. For most recording too much reverberation that lasts too long is a problem – recording clarity will be compromised, and there may be phase problems. Equally important is making sure that the reverberant decay across the frequency range is even. If the reverberant decay for high frequencies is different than for low frequencies, the room will have a characteristic sound that probably won’t be desirable – a bright ring, boomy low end, or uneven midrange. However, if the reverberant decay is too short, the room will have a dry, dead feeling and sound that will be uncomfortable.

 

HOW TO MANAGE REFLECTIONS AND REVERBERATIONS

If you are thinking of setting up your voice over recording studio you might be choosing a spot in a bedroom a walk in closet or may be in a spare room. If you start with an empty room with hard surfaces on the walls, ceiling and floors what do you do to manage reflections and reverberant decay? There are two different methods: absorption and diffusion, each of which is effective for solving certain problems. But in small rooms such as home recording studio diffusion is not as effective as absorption. We will stop on Diffusion briefly, because they are not exclusive and combination of the two methods can be used successfully.

 

DIFFUSION

“Diffusion” is breaking a single sound wave into smaller reflections and dispersing them in different directions. Because there are no big reflections going back to the microphone, first reflection problems are reduced, and because diffusive materials are irregular in shape, flatter echo is eliminated. Although reverberation won’t be eliminated, scattering and breaking up the reflections tends to result in a smoother reverberation at a lower level.While any irregular surface can break down reflections at some frequencies to a degree, to figure out exactly how to make a diffuser that evenly scatters a broad frequency range of sound waves requires specialized diffusion materials. Such specialized diffusors are hard to build and they can be expensive.

 

ABSORPTION

Remember the example of echo in the mountains? Now why is it so quiet when the snow is falling? That is because the snowflakes absorb the sound and speed up the reverberant decay. For voice over recording studios, absorption is the main method for managing first reflections in mid- and high-frequency range, flutter echo and reverberant decay.

The idea is to use sound absorption materials placed at the main reflection points to reduce –absorb – sound energy so that the level of the reflected sound waves is significantly quieter than the direct sound.

Absorption works best with high- and midrange frequencies. Lower frequencies require large quantities of absorptive material for effective energy reduction. Very high frequencies have very little energy compared to low frequencies, so thin, soft materials can be used to absorb them. As the frequency gets lower, thicker and heavier absorptive materials are required. Those thicker sound absorption materials are even more effective at controlling high

Frequencies. There is an array of sound absorption materials that can be used and we will talk in detail about it later. Most fall into the category of porous absorbers. These materials consist of mineral wool, acoustic blankets, clothing, curtains, carpets and acoustic foam. The sound-absorbing effect comes from the fact that the sound energy can penetrate the material on hitting the surface. Here, the sound energy is converted into heat energy, so that only a small part is reflected in the form of sound energy. In other words, the material has absorbed some of the sound. The sound absorption in acoustic foam and acoustic sound absorption blankets works differently.

Acoustic foam is a popular material for lining up the recording studios. They are often shaped in a conical or egg crate shape. The make of acoustic foam is different from the make of the packing foam even though they might look the same and even youtubers may claim they can stuff the packing foam in the box and it works great. Packing foam made  out of CLOSED channel foam, so the air trapped in the channels provides more cushioning. But for the sound to be absorbed it has to have a way to enter the material. This is why acoustic foam is made with OPEN channels. So called “Open Cell Foam” The sound gets in and then travels through the twisted channels bouncing off the internal walls and losing its energy. The reason for the egg crate surface of the foam is to increase the absorption area and allow more opportunity for the sound to get in. The thicker the foam the more sound it absorbs. This is why unechoic chamber lined up with acoustic foam with two feet deep wedges.

The other difference is that acoustic foam is generally rated as fire retardant – an important factor because some types of foam are extremely flammable and therefore not safe for residences and businesses. Acoustic blankets on the other hand work differently. Unlike moving blankets filled with low quality mixed with recycled polyester and cotton fibers, specialized acoustic blankets known as “Producer’s choice”, filled with highly absorptive cotton. As the sound gets in it agitates the cotton fibers and by making them vibrate it loses its own energy.The thicker the blanket, the more filler it has, the better its sound absorption efficiency and broader its frequency range. Using blankets in pleated fashion increases the absorption surface and increases the total quantity of absorption material in the room.

 

Fiberglass Insulation. 

Glass fiber is another common absorptive material. The rigid variety such as Owens Corning 700 fiberglass series provides decent absorption in high and mid frequency range. Rock wool Safe and Sound is used to fill the space between drywall during construction for better soundproofing. It also can be used in the corners as bass trap. RockWool and Glass fiber, of course, can be a major irritant, so make sure to cover it and do not disturb, to prevent strands from getting into the air. Regular household materials such as soft furniture with fabric upholstery, pillows, curtains and drapes, blankets, carpet and so on, all absorb sound to one degree or another at mid and high frequencies.

 

HOW MUCH ABSORPTION TO USE?

So you have to get rid of reflections so do you just line up the walls, floor and ceiling of your studio with sound absorbing material and start recording? But it’s not quite that simple. Many types of absorptive materials only work well on higher frequencies, leaving midrange sound bouncing around without much control. This can result in an odd, dark –sounding room with no high end. If you have too much absorption in the upper frequencies, the mid- and high-frequency reflections will be reduced, but the bass frequencies will be bouncing around, resulting in a boomy, bassy room that sounds muddy. Too much of the overall absorption and the room will sound too dead and it will be uncomfortable to work in.

The idea is to use just enough to control first reflections and to tame reverberation decay. Keep in mind that you can always add more absorption if the room still seems too live.

The right balance is the key to finding the right amount of absorption in the proper location so they will be as effective as possible – enough to control the mid and high range, and enough bass traps to end up with a balanced room response and an even reverberant decay across the frequency range.

 

HOW DOES IT RELATE TO VOICEOVER RECORDING?

The purest and cleanest of all is the direct sound energy. This is the sound that travels in a direct (straight) line from the voice actor to the microphone. Sound energy reflected from objects in a room confuse the direct sound of our voice and make recording “mudded”. You want to have everything in the recording,emotions and different intonations and do not want to hear any sonic additions from your recording room. Unfortunately, you must record in a “box” or room that has walls, ceiling, and a floor. When you speak into a microphone the sound radiates in many directions. Sound of your voice goes through the room until it hits an object or wall, then it reflects back and gets recorded by your microphone over what you are saying at the moment. Unlike the reflections in a control room where the sound comes from a speaker and reachesthe engineer at some distance, in voice over recording you position yourself right in front of the microphone. So your first reflections would be the reflections from the nearest reflective surface: laptop screen, walls to the right or left from you and a wall in front or behind you, if you are sitting close to a wall. Wherever the closest reflective surface is – that will be your first reflection point to treat  coustically.Do not forget the ceiling and the floor. They are also reflective. Reflections arrive at your microphone delayed in time and add sonic distortions to your voice narration. To minimize the sound of the room sound absorption works best for small recording studios such as home voice over studio.

For a voice over actor who does individual work (one person commercial or book narration), having a small acoustic booth might be an easier and more effective and practical way to create the great sound recording environment, rather than acoustically treating the whole room.

Portable or small acoustic vocal booths are easy to set up and also easy to take with you if you have to move.

 Untreated reflective surface reflecting the sound back at the microphone.

Reflective surface was treated with acoustic blanket. Reflected sound comes back with considerably reduced energy.

 

The right balance is the key to finding the right amount of absorption in the proper location so they will be as effective as possible – enough to control the mid and high range, and enough bass traps to end up with a balanced room response and an even reverberant decay across the frequency range.

 

VocalBoothToGo.com

(VocalBoothToGo.co.uk) specializes in providing effective and inexpensive acoustic room treatment products, such as Producer-s choice acoustic blankets for sound reflection control, Noise control products, mobile sound booth, portable vocal booths and Vocal booth Rentals. support@vocalboothtogo.com

Within our industry most people would agree that The Simpsons is certainly one of the top shows ever made. Creator of The Simpsons Matt Groening later brought out another show called Futurama which shared much of the same success as its predecessor. Futurama ran for four seasons ending in 2003 on the Fox network. Later, in 2010 through to 2013 Comedy Central reprised the show bringing out new episodes and content. Now 19 years since the initial end to the series on Fox, Hulu are looking at reprising the show once more and have announced much of the former cast will be returning to the screen.

In recent months it has become more apparent there could be one huge missing factor with the show’s return to television and that is the absence of John DiMaggio from the cast list. John had successfully played and delivered on the iconic lead role of the robot ‘Bender’ throughout the show’s existence and that left a large gap in its return; the show would be missing its lead voice actor.

What has emerged in recent weeks is that in late 2021 the rates offered to the cast by Hulu were ‘lowballing’ the actors. DiMaggio allegedly offered a counter proposal at a more industry standard and competitive level. From that point talks appeared to have ended between DiMaggio and Hulu.

Since then, DiMaggio has promised to keep fans and followers updated and has continued to tweet on an irregular basis when the situation has called for it. Multiple publications have suggested DiMaggio simply wanted more money to reprise the role but in his recent Tweet he shares that he feels the entire cast deserves more money, not just him. He goes on to share that the fundamental root of his issue lies in that the industry itself is looking to disparage the performers by taking advantage of them. Cautiously, DiMaggio did not give away much more than this in his Tweet, however most of us can use our own observations to identify that the industry is on weak footing now when it comes to appropriate rates and fair treatment.

Hulu later announced that should DiMaggio decide not to return to the show then the role of Bender will be recast. This has caused outrage amongst peers and fans alike. Fans and artists have stated they will not watch the show and talent cannot simply be replaced. Thousands of artists have come to support DiMaggio including fellow cast members from the show. The reach expands far beyond Futurama and has impacted voiceover artists from other hit shows such as Sean Schemmel who is the lead in Dragonball Z; his response, showing support, can be viewed on the replies to DiMaggio’s February 16th Tweet.

It would have been easy for DiMaggio to have conformed to the demands in front of him and continue playing a character he loves. However, fighting against lowballing and standing up for fair rates not only benefited his own career but elevated voice actors worldwide. He has become an industry pillar not only for his amazing talent as a voice over artist but as a symbol of strength, commitment, and perseverance. In recent days Hulu has confirmed DiMaggio’s return to the show.

John DiMaggio through honest conversation, commitment and conviction was able to challenge, educate and convince Hulu that standards needed to be higher. Hulu have bettered themselves by working more closely with the cast and listening to not only the industry but their fan base too. This goes to show that when one person steps out against an injustice others will follow. This process has been a beautiful reflection of actors coming together, fans backing them and channels changing their behaviours to better the industry.