1
00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,440
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Pay there

2
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:15,880
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

3
00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:19,360
Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech

4
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 1: are you? It is time for a classic episode of

5
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:28,040
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. This episode originally published on June first, twenty sixteen,

6
00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:33,480
Speaker 1: and it is titled SSH How Soundproofing Works. And Noel

7
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:39,160
Speaker 1: Brown now an incredible executive producer, a host of ridiculous history,

8
00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:40,839
Speaker 1: a host of stuff they don't want you to know.

9
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,599
Speaker 1: Back then he was a producer, but like a supervising producer.

10
00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,760
Speaker 1: Now he wears so many hats which we get to

11
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,920
Speaker 1: see whenever he's on one of our all hands meetings.

12
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,920
Speaker 1: He joined the show to talk about how soundproofing works.

13
00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,640
Speaker 1: So enjoy this classic episode. So one of the things

14
00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,040
Speaker 1: I like to do on the show is at the

15
00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,240
Speaker 1: end of every episode, I invite you guys to send

16
00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:12,080
Speaker 1: me requests, ideas topics for future episodes. And today's episode

17
00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: is due to that. So I'm going to read a

18
00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:21,840
Speaker 1: little bit of listener. May dude, we used to have

19
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,640
Speaker 1: a whole Clackson all right, here he goes, Hey you

20
00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,000
Speaker 1: tech Stuff. First off, I want to thank you for

21
00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,440
Speaker 1: putting out your content as I'm a huge fan of

22
00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,480
Speaker 1: this casual learning movement. Might need a better term for that.

23
00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,039
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you'd be able to do an

24
00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,920
Speaker 1: episode on acoustics and sound dampening for studios, like how

25
00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 1: they're measured, tuned, made, et cetera. It would be awesome

26
00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: and spectacular as I would be able to harness the

27
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,760
Speaker 1: power to put together a kick ass setup. Thanks again

28
00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:52,800
Speaker 1: for what you do. Dubnosis well dubbed, We're going to

29
00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:54,920
Speaker 1: do that for you. And that's really the reason why

30
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,480
Speaker 1: I asked Noel to come in here, because Noel, as

31
00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:01,919
Speaker 1: a producer and sound engineer type person, has had real

32
00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 1: world experience with this, and so we're going to rely

33
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:10,160
Speaker 1: heavily upon his perspective some of the stories he has

34
00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:12,840
Speaker 1: to tell about the process of trying to make a

35
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,119
Speaker 1: room more soundproof or tuning a room so that you're

36
00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,359
Speaker 1: getting the sound you want while you're recording, Because, as

37
00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,440
Speaker 1: it turns out, sound is a pretty tricky thing when

38
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,160
Speaker 1: you boil it down. Sound is vibration, right, It's just

39
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:33,160
Speaker 1: particles banging together. It is a thing you gotta wrangle.

40
00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:37,760
Speaker 1: We often consider sound to just be this thing we

41
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,040
Speaker 1: perceive with our ears. But what's really happening is a

42
00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:46,360
Speaker 1: little more granular than that. Sound is particles that are vibrating.

43
00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:51,160
Speaker 1: Typically we're hearing things that are coming through over the air,

44
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:55,000
Speaker 1: like actual air around us. So you listening to this

45
00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:59,040
Speaker 1: right now, you can hear my voice. Well, what's actually

46
00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,239
Speaker 1: happening is that some are vibrating some air molecules, and

47
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:08,440
Speaker 1: that is compressing and decompressing those molecules. It's changing the pressure,

48
00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:13,120
Speaker 1: increasing and then decreasing the pressure at frequencies and amplitudes

49
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:16,120
Speaker 1: that your ears pick up and then you perceive a sound.

50
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,880
Speaker 1: So this is happening through all sorts of media, not

51
00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,280
Speaker 1: just air. It can pass through solid matter, it can

52
00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:25,120
Speaker 1: pass through liquid and depending on how the particles are

53
00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:28,079
Speaker 1: packed and the space between them, sound may move better

54
00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:33,160
Speaker 1: through one medium than through another. Now, knowing that sound

55
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,960
Speaker 1: can travel through different media, you also need to know

56
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,120
Speaker 1: that it can transfer from one medium to another medium. So,

57
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: for example, if I'm shouting really really loudly in a

58
00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:47,480
Speaker 1: little room, some of that sound when it makes contact

59
00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:51,400
Speaker 1: with the wall, actually causes the wall to move. Now,

60
00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,160
Speaker 1: it's not causing the wall to move a lot, but

61
00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,480
Speaker 1: it is making the wall vibrate a little bit, those

62
00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:00,120
Speaker 1: vibrations get transferred through the wall to the other side,

63
00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,200
Speaker 1: and that's why if you're in a place that has

64
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,960
Speaker 1: flimsy walls, you can hear someone in another room. The

65
00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 1: sound is actually transferring through.

66
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 2: Not to mention in the room itself, that sound is

67
00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:14,080
Speaker 2: actually reflecting back at you. And the quality of the

68
00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 2: sound can depend can vary greatly depending on the material

69
00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:19,560
Speaker 2: that the room is built out of or treated with.

70
00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: Right right, So some of the sounds getting transferred through

71
00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:25,320
Speaker 1: the material, some of the sound is being bounced back

72
00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 1: from the material towards you, and a lot of that

73
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,400
Speaker 1: depends upon the hardness of the material, Like a really

74
00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:34,400
Speaker 1: hard material is going to bounce a lot more sound

75
00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: back at you, which is why if you are in

76
00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,599
Speaker 1: a large room with a lot of hard surfaces you

77
00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:43,640
Speaker 1: get that echoe sound. Or if you're out someplace like

78
00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,120
Speaker 1: at a canyon and you do a shout and you

79
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,760
Speaker 1: get that echo back, it's because the sound is going

80
00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,680
Speaker 1: out hitting the walls of the canyon, bouncing back to you,

81
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,880
Speaker 1: and that's when you get to experience that effect. Well, obviously,

82
00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:02,120
Speaker 1: this means that if you want to create a place

83
00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:07,800
Speaker 1: where the sound can't escape or leak into and a

84
00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,200
Speaker 1: lot of recording studios, you want both of those things right.

85
00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,680
Speaker 1: You don't want the sound from the studio to leak outward,

86
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:15,400
Speaker 1: but you also definitely don't want outside sound to leak

87
00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:18,840
Speaker 1: in to the stereovery important then you have to figure out, well,

88
00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:21,200
Speaker 1: how do we limit how do we work within the

89
00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:26,600
Speaker 1: physical constraints of the way sound works, so that we

90
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,280
Speaker 1: can limit that as much as possible and try to

91
00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:35,520
Speaker 1: have the purest experience as we can. So one thing

92
00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,880
Speaker 1: you can remember is that sound, because it's a physical

93
00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: activity and because it relies on energy, the way it

94
00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:45,560
Speaker 1: works is that you've got a source of the sound.

95
00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 1: Sound waves travel outward concentrically outward from that source, and

96
00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,479
Speaker 1: they get weaker as they travel out that that energy

97
00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:56,720
Speaker 1: starts to dissipate. You can think of it kind of

98
00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,480
Speaker 1: like you know, each each time of part article has

99
00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:03,160
Speaker 1: to bang up against another one to move it, some

100
00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:05,599
Speaker 1: of that energy ends up getting lost. So the further

101
00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:07,440
Speaker 1: way you are from a source of sound, the quieter

102
00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:10,279
Speaker 1: it is. That's why that happens. So one way you

103
00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,560
Speaker 1: can limit the way sound comes out of a room

104
00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:16,400
Speaker 1: is you make an enormous room, like you have a

105
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,800
Speaker 1: little room in a really big room. But that's not

106
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:22,760
Speaker 1: necessarily the most practical approach.

107
00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,599
Speaker 2: Actually, there's a studio I used to intern in Athens,

108
00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,440
Speaker 2: Georgia called Chase Park Transduction, and they essentially built their

109
00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,600
Speaker 2: studio inside of a larger warehouse space. So they're renting

110
00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,040
Speaker 2: a space in the strip of big, giant, very high

111
00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:39,120
Speaker 2: ceilin warehouse spaces. But when you go into the studio,

112
00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,720
Speaker 2: you're in the warehouse. But then there's a smaller basically

113
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,920
Speaker 2: building inside that warehouse that is the one that receives

114
00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,520
Speaker 2: all the acoustic treatments. But it's like you said, I

115
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,000
Speaker 2: mean that is one way of dealing with it is air.

116
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, the room within a room approach is often how

117
00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,880
Speaker 1: it's referred to, and sometimes it is not as obvious

118
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,600
Speaker 1: that like it may be that it looks like the

119
00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,200
Speaker 1: room you're walking into. It might be like it's it's

120
00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,080
Speaker 1: in a little alcover hallway, but that hallway is actually

121
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,280
Speaker 1: showing where the walls are where there's an air gap

122
00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:17,240
Speaker 1: between the two walls to mitigate any sound coming into

123
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:17,800
Speaker 1: the space.

124
00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:20,400
Speaker 2: Sure, even this glass window that we have in the

125
00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,520
Speaker 2: booth that we're recording in right now, it's a double

126
00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:26,240
Speaker 2: paned window. So in between these two relatively thick pieces

127
00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,800
Speaker 2: of glass is a little layer of air, which in

128
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:30,880
Speaker 2: and of itself acts as a bit of a sound

129
00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:32,440
Speaker 2: dampening insulation device.

130
00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,960
Speaker 1: Right exactly, So some other little elements of sound that

131
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,480
Speaker 1: we need to remember. There are two main components to

132
00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:43,320
Speaker 1: a sound wave that are important to keep in mind.

133
00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:46,400
Speaker 1: One is amplitude or volume. So if you are looking

134
00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:50,200
Speaker 1: at the way we typically show a sound wave which

135
00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,080
Speaker 1: is on like an X versus y graph, you know

136
00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:57,720
Speaker 1: those those sine wave style graphs, the height and depth

137
00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:00,920
Speaker 1: of the troughs that represents the amplitude how out the

138
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,680
Speaker 1: sound is. Then you have the frequency of sound, the

139
00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:08,560
Speaker 1: number of times sound cycles within a second. That determines

140
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,360
Speaker 1: the pitch of a sound.

141
00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:14,520
Speaker 2: So a low frequency, obviously would be a perceived as

142
00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:18,040
Speaker 2: a lower deeper note or tone, and a high frequency,

143
00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,760
Speaker 2: with those peaks and troughs moving gradually more closer together,

144
00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:23,160
Speaker 2: is going to be perceived.

145
00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 3: As a higher pitch.

146
00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:24,920
Speaker 1: Right.

147
00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:26,760
Speaker 2: A good way to think about this too, is if

148
00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,600
Speaker 2: anyone's familiar with the instrument the theremon. There are two

149
00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:32,680
Speaker 2: controls on a theremin. One is the antenna that goes upward,

150
00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:35,000
Speaker 2: and there's an antenna on the side. The antentna on

151
00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,600
Speaker 2: the side, you use your hand by moving it closer

152
00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,960
Speaker 2: to or farther away, you are changing the amplitude, and

153
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,199
Speaker 2: that's perceived as a change in volume. The antenna going up.

154
00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:46,679
Speaker 2: As you move your hand closer to it or farther away,

155
00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,800
Speaker 2: you are changing the frequency. So with those two controls

156
00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,800
Speaker 2: you can basically shape the way the sound is.

157
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,440
Speaker 1: Perceived, right, And it's important to remember these things because,

158
00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:01,240
Speaker 1: as it turns out, different approaches to sell proofing are

159
00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:03,559
Speaker 1: effective for different frequencies.

160
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 3: Definitely, right, So there might be one.

161
00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,880
Speaker 1: That you're like, oh, this is this is perfect. I

162
00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:11,000
Speaker 1: can't hear my neighbors anymore. But then it turns out

163
00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,040
Speaker 1: that when your neighbors put on an album that has

164
00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:16,280
Speaker 1: a lot of base in it, it comes right through.

165
00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:18,000
Speaker 3: Or start yelling at each other for whatever.

166
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:20,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, if the amplitude is loud enough, it may be

167
00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,600
Speaker 1: that your soundproofing isn't going to be us.

168
00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:25,520
Speaker 3: When people yell, sometimes they tend to raise.

169
00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:27,320
Speaker 1: The pitch all right, right right, the pitch goes up

170
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,880
Speaker 1: enough that I got you. Yeah, So these are things

171
00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:31,920
Speaker 1: that you have to take into consideration if you're trying

172
00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,439
Speaker 1: to soundproof, and obviously what you are trying to accomplish,

173
00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,640
Speaker 1: like the reason why you're soundproofing, that'll play into it

174
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:40,320
Speaker 1: as well, because if all you're trying to do is

175
00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:42,839
Speaker 1: just make it quieter so that you know, you don't

176
00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,640
Speaker 1: have like you're designing a building, maybe it's a hotel,

177
00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,080
Speaker 1: and you want to make sure that the people talking

178
00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:52,120
Speaker 1: in one room doesn't bleed over into other rooms. That's

179
00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:54,800
Speaker 1: one type of soundproofing. If you're trying to make a

180
00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,680
Speaker 1: professional recording studio, that's another type.

181
00:09:57,800 --> 00:09:58,040
Speaker 3: Well.

182
00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,920
Speaker 2: From a construction standpoint, like the base level soundproofing is drywall,

183
00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,840
Speaker 2: so you have drywall, and that is where if you're

184
00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,040
Speaker 2: in a hotel that only uses drywall, people are gonna

185
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:08,960
Speaker 2: be able to hear every single thing that's going on

186
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:09,400
Speaker 2: next door.

187
00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:09,640
Speaker 1: Right.

188
00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:12,680
Speaker 2: It's when you start basically stuffing that drywall with other

189
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,920
Speaker 2: denser materials or you know, highly rated soundproofing materials, that's

190
00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:19,720
Speaker 2: when you can really cut down on that transfer between

191
00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:20,200
Speaker 2: the rooms.

192
00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:20,640
Speaker 3: Right.

193
00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:24,920
Speaker 1: And also there are some other techniques you could use

194
00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:27,720
Speaker 1: as well that I'll get into that, and it's all

195
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:30,120
Speaker 1: about how do you make it harder for the sound

196
00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:32,439
Speaker 1: to travel from one place to another, because sound is

197
00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:34,679
Speaker 1: going to travel no matter what. It's not like we

198
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:40,080
Speaker 1: have created a material that just sucks up sound totally.

199
00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:43,320
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of materials that resist vibration and

200
00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,200
Speaker 1: that means that they don't transfer sound very well. But

201
00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,559
Speaker 1: and in fact the studio has some of that around us.

202
00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,120
Speaker 1: But you know, there's other stuff you have to take

203
00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,640
Speaker 1: into consideration as well. Now, there are four general elements

204
00:10:56,679 --> 00:10:59,320
Speaker 1: to soundproofing, and we've we've kind of touched on a

205
00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,360
Speaker 1: few of them, but one of the big ones is

206
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:07,600
Speaker 1: called decoupling. Now, decoupling is a construction term. When you're

207
00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:11,680
Speaker 1: talking about decoupling, you're talking about the way the walls

208
00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:15,079
Speaker 1: of the soundproofed area are actually constructed. So you were

209
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,160
Speaker 1: just talking about dry wall. The typical way a wall

210
00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,040
Speaker 1: is constructed is you've got studs and attached to the

211
00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:25,280
Speaker 1: studs are the anchor points for the dry wall. And

212
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:30,360
Speaker 1: in a typical wall, the studs are connected on either

213
00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:32,959
Speaker 1: side by drywall for one side of the wall and

214
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:34,400
Speaker 1: dry wall for the other side of the wall. So

215
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:37,760
Speaker 1: if you can think of it like the interior wall

216
00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,120
Speaker 1: versus the exterior wall of a room, The problem with

217
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:44,480
Speaker 1: that is that when sound hits the dry wall, then

218
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:47,520
Speaker 1: sound can travel through the dry wall through the studs,

219
00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:50,720
Speaker 1: which transmits sound. They're a pretty good conductor for sound

220
00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:53,080
Speaker 1: to the other side of the drywall, and then you

221
00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:55,959
Speaker 1: get sound bleeding out or you have sound bleeding in

222
00:11:56,040 --> 00:12:00,440
Speaker 1: from the outside. So decoupling is a process where you

223
00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:05,120
Speaker 1: would build a wall so that the studs don't touch

224
00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:05,960
Speaker 1: both sides of.

225
00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:07,120
Speaker 3: The wall exactly.

226
00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,560
Speaker 1: You would have a series of studs that one side

227
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,640
Speaker 1: the interior wall are attached to, and a different series

228
00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:15,480
Speaker 1: of studs that the exterior wall are attached to. They

229
00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:20,160
Speaker 1: both extend well into the gap between the two walls,

230
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,120
Speaker 1: but they don't touch the other side.

231
00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:26,480
Speaker 2: So one side could be receiving sound waves and potentially

232
00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,360
Speaker 2: transfer those but since they're not touching, it's much more

233
00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:30,640
Speaker 2: difficult for that to happen.

234
00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:32,680
Speaker 1: Right, because air is not as good a conductor of

235
00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,360
Speaker 1: sound as a solid object is, which is weird.

236
00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,280
Speaker 2: You wouldn't think that because I mean, here we are

237
00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:39,400
Speaker 2: in a room talking to each other, right, and the

238
00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:41,719
Speaker 2: air is basically what's connecting us.

239
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,040
Speaker 1: But the interesting thing though, is that the way you

240
00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:46,240
Speaker 1: can tell this, it's very easy way to tell it's

241
00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,160
Speaker 1: the old kid game of a telephone where you get

242
00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:52,920
Speaker 1: two cans in a string, right, you punch holes in

243
00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:54,960
Speaker 1: the bottom of the cans, you run the string through

244
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,840
Speaker 1: the holes, you stretch it taut, and then you can

245
00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:00,520
Speaker 1: whisper into one can and hear it on the other side.

246
00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,440
Speaker 1: But if you whisper that same volume across the room,

247
00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:06,880
Speaker 1: you can't hear it. So again, that shows that the

248
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,120
Speaker 1: physical media is actually more or medium i should say,

249
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:14,720
Speaker 1: is actually more efficient at transferring the sound than air is.

250
00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:20,200
Speaker 1: So air pockets are actually really important when you're soundproofing,

251
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:24,520
Speaker 1: you know, designing a soundproof room. Typically you would pair

252
00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,000
Speaker 1: decoupling with some of the other elements, and I'll go

253
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:29,640
Speaker 1: ahead and mention what those elements are, and then we'll

254
00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,040
Speaker 1: talk more about how you would put it all together.

255
00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:37,600
Speaker 1: So you've got absorption another important element. This is obviously

256
00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:42,880
Speaker 1: using a material that slows down sound. It absorbs some

257
00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,679
Speaker 1: of the sounds, so that sound essentially loses some of

258
00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:49,560
Speaker 1: its energy and it thus is quieter. It doesn't it

259
00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,520
Speaker 1: doesn't leak out as much because the amplitude gets reduced

260
00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:57,200
Speaker 1: as a result. So absorption you achieve usually through using

261
00:13:57,240 --> 00:14:01,360
Speaker 1: some sort of insulation material like I mean, fiberglass is

262
00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,240
Speaker 1: a simple example where you would put that in the wall,

263
00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 1: in the gap between the two sides of the wall

264
00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:08,520
Speaker 1: to two pieces of drywall.

265
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:10,040
Speaker 3: I saw one even saying denim.

266
00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:12,800
Speaker 2: You can use different like fabric type materials, the cotton

267
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:13,480
Speaker 2: or something like that.

268
00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:15,960
Speaker 1: The important thing is that whatever you use, you cannot

269
00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:19,840
Speaker 1: pack too densely exactly, because if it's too dense, that's

270
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:21,880
Speaker 1: going to transfer sound and you're back to the same

271
00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 1: problem you were at before. And you also want to

272
00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:27,000
Speaker 1: still have some air gap there too. You don't want

273
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:31,800
Speaker 1: the material to make contact completely through the gap. You

274
00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,320
Speaker 1: would pack kind of like half of the gap, a

275
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,440
Speaker 1: little more than half of the gap. Typically with insulating

276
00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,640
Speaker 1: material you leave an air gap, and that really creates

277
00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:45,760
Speaker 1: a great cushion for sound. We'll talk a little bit

278
00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,640
Speaker 1: more about how that can go wrong, though. The coupling

279
00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: in particular can make certain things a little more difficult.

280
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:56,680
Speaker 1: There's also damping sound dampening. This is where you use

281
00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:00,280
Speaker 1: some sort of material that resists vibration. So like the

282
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:02,720
Speaker 1: foam we have here, there's some we've got some dampening

283
00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:04,680
Speaker 1: foam in here, but the typically you look at a

284
00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:08,520
Speaker 1: lot of things like adhesives that are used to dampen sound.

285
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,280
Speaker 1: One of the ones I keep hearing about over and

286
00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:16,240
Speaker 1: over is green glue. Green glue is yeah, so it's

287
00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:20,680
Speaker 1: very popular, particularly apparently in Canada, but it's popular along

288
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:24,440
Speaker 1: among soundproofing technicians. It is considered to be one of

289
00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,760
Speaker 1: the most effective for the least amount of money solutions

290
00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:32,240
Speaker 1: for sound damping material. But typically this would be a

291
00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,520
Speaker 1: layer that would also be part of your wall that

292
00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:39,920
Speaker 1: resists the vibration of sound and so it won't transfer

293
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:45,480
Speaker 1: sound as well. It's again something that you would apply

294
00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 1: between two constrained layers, so it's not like it's not

295
00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,720
Speaker 1: like you would coat this on the interior wall. That

296
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:53,440
Speaker 1: would be a bad idea. It would be on the

297
00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,000
Speaker 1: backside of the interior wall.

298
00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:59,080
Speaker 2: It might even be something you could use as an

299
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:03,320
Speaker 2: adhesive for other sound dampening material exact acoustic Follmer tile.

300
00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,760
Speaker 1: And then the last element is really the simplest is mass.

301
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,680
Speaker 1: It's just that heavier things are harder to move than

302
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,360
Speaker 1: lighter things, right, It's just the basic idea, like if

303
00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:19,720
Speaker 1: you had a cart filled with concrete blocks, it would

304
00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:21,520
Speaker 1: be a little heavy to push. But if you had

305
00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:23,440
Speaker 1: that same cart and it was filled with feathers. It's

306
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:23,960
Speaker 1: easy to.

307
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:25,240
Speaker 3: Push, So I've got something for you.

308
00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:27,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, it uses all of those elements in a pretty

309
00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:31,600
Speaker 2: perfect example, one of the more perfect examples of soundproofing

310
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,080
Speaker 2: that we can see in the real world. I'm not

311
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:37,000
Speaker 2: sure I think Microsoft has maybe outdone them at this point,

312
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,080
Speaker 2: but there is a place in Minneapolis, Minnesota called ore

313
00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:44,080
Speaker 2: Field Laboratories and it contains what was I believe again

314
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:47,600
Speaker 2: until recently, the world's most silent room.

315
00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:50,280
Speaker 3: Yes, world record for the most silent room.

316
00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 2: It is ninety nine point nine to nine percent sound absorbent,

317
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:57,720
Speaker 2: and in order to accomplish this, it uses a combination

318
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,600
Speaker 2: of very very very heavy materials. It's got concrete walls,

319
00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,480
Speaker 2: steel reinforcement, and then on the inside of the room,

320
00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:09,000
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a picture right now, it has these

321
00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:13,040
Speaker 2: alternating sort of thin looking things. So you've got like

322
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,600
Speaker 2: three and then going from left to right, and then

323
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,560
Speaker 2: three right next to it, going vertically, and they alternate

324
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:23,719
Speaker 2: throughout every panel in this room and then even on

325
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:26,399
Speaker 2: the floor. And what you stand on is a metal

326
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:29,440
Speaker 2: grate that goes on top of another series of these

327
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,320
Speaker 2: alternating little units, and.

328
00:17:32,359 --> 00:17:36,440
Speaker 3: Apparently The longest anyone has been able.

329
00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:38,720
Speaker 2: To stand being in this room alone with the lights

330
00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:41,359
Speaker 2: out is forty five minutes, because people start to hallucinate

331
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:43,720
Speaker 2: right this level of silence.

332
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,159
Speaker 1: I've heard such things. It's the sort of thing every

333
00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:48,520
Speaker 1: time I hear it, I have the reaction that I

334
00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,080
Speaker 1: think ninety nine percent of people have, which is I

335
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:53,680
Speaker 1: bet I could go longer. Sure, And of course I'd

336
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:55,800
Speaker 1: probably be in there for like three minutes and be

337
00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:58,880
Speaker 1: convinced I'd been in there for three hours, because once

338
00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:02,119
Speaker 1: you get to a point where or something that you

339
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:05,720
Speaker 1: have taken for granted, you know, just the ambient sounds

340
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 1: that you can hear once that's gone, that really does

341
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:14,919
Speaker 1: make a big difference, and it is a psychologically powerful experience.

342
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:16,560
Speaker 1: But I still kind of want.

343
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:16,800
Speaker 3: To do it.

344
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:20,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great way of kind of summing up

345
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,080
Speaker 1: all of these elements. Now, if you want to really

346
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 1: sound proof of room, the best thing to do is

347
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,359
Speaker 1: to incorporate as many of those as you possibly can,

348
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,199
Speaker 1: because they're different. Ones are good for different parts of

349
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,560
Speaker 1: that frequency range we're talking about, So some of them

350
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,320
Speaker 1: are really good for those mid to high range frequencies.

351
00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 1: Some of them are a little better at the low frequencies.

352
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:43,440
Speaker 1: So obviously you want to have a good combination otherwise

353
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:47,040
Speaker 1: you're gonna have certain sounds come through even if you've

354
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,040
Speaker 1: perfectly blocked the room for other ones, and that can

355
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:51,040
Speaker 1: be really frustrating.

356
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,359
Speaker 2: There's literally a cutoff or a threshold where if you

357
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:57,840
Speaker 2: looked on a graph that can show you what frequencies

358
00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:02,359
Speaker 2: are happening, you could literally track okay, at this frequency,

359
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:03,600
Speaker 2: now I can hear it.

360
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,880
Speaker 1: Noel and I will be back to talk more about

361
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:20,199
Speaker 1: how soundproofing works after this quick break. So kind of

362
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:24,679
Speaker 1: going back to decoupling a little bit, the size of

363
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,600
Speaker 1: the air cavity between the two sides of the decoupled

364
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:33,399
Speaker 1: wall determines something called the resonant frequency of that So

365
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,560
Speaker 1: here's one of the problems with decoupling. That air cavity

366
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,400
Speaker 1: ends up acting kind of like a spring, right, So

367
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,080
Speaker 1: springs actually have a resonant frequency, and if you end

368
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,720
Speaker 1: up vibrating something at the resonant frequency, it causes that

369
00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:49,920
Speaker 1: thing to vibrate very very easily.

370
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,080
Speaker 3: Sure, the big example of this.

371
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:55,560
Speaker 1: That everyone is familiar with is the crystal glass. Absolutely,

372
00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:58,880
Speaker 1: the opera singer hitting that note, that's the resonant frequency

373
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 1: for it you can actually see the last to form

374
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:01,840
Speaker 1: and ultimately break.

375
00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 3: Now or even someone that can play those glasses where

376
00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:07,440
Speaker 3: they fill it up with water and run their finger

377
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:08,240
Speaker 3: around the rim.

378
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 2: In order for it to start making that tone, it

379
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,399
Speaker 2: has to reach that resonant frequency exactly, So basically self

380
00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:15,640
Speaker 2: oscillate exactly.

381
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,080
Speaker 1: So here's the problem with the decoupled walls is that

382
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,520
Speaker 1: that air gap, because it's acting like a spring and

383
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,280
Speaker 1: because it can resonate if it's not at the proper

384
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:29,680
Speaker 1: thickness for the air gap, that resonant frequency may be

385
00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:33,000
Speaker 1: within the range of sounds that you're going to generate

386
00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:35,280
Speaker 1: either inside or outside the room, within the range of

387
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,640
Speaker 1: human hearing, which means they're going to impact that sound

388
00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,639
Speaker 1: proofing it. If something actually is played at that frequency,

389
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:44,840
Speaker 1: it'll go Not only will it go through the wall,

390
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,440
Speaker 1: it'll go through the wall more easily than it would

391
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:51,879
Speaker 1: have if you hadn't decoupled the wall because that resonance.

392
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,000
Speaker 1: So that is one of the things you actually have

393
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:57,919
Speaker 1: to take into account. And one of the solutions to

394
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,800
Speaker 1: that is don't make it too thin of an air gap.

395
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 1: So another way of experimenting this with this yourself, if

396
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,720
Speaker 1: you want to just have some fun, And by fun,

397
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,119
Speaker 1: I mean like you know, mister Wizard style fun. You

398
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 1: get a bottle and you know, if you blow across

399
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 1: the opening of the bottle, it produces a tone. Well,

400
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how hard you blow, it's always going

401
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,119
Speaker 1: to play that one tone. But if you add water

402
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:28,920
Speaker 1: to the bottle, you have decreased the volume of air

403
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,120
Speaker 1: the bottle can hold and that changes the tone.

404
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, back to the glasses.

405
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:35,479
Speaker 2: They could have, you know, the same size glasses, but

406
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,480
Speaker 2: they generate different tones from each one by putting a

407
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 2: different amount of water in each way.

408
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,439
Speaker 1: Right, right, it's not just the size of the glass,

409
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,240
Speaker 1: but how much liquid is in the glass. So what

410
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: you would like to do is make sure that your

411
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:53,119
Speaker 1: soundproofing technique was going to take care of those maybe

412
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:58,359
Speaker 1: mid to high range frequencies, and then make sure that

413
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: the air gap would push would resonate at one of

414
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,160
Speaker 1: those frequencies so that the other elements of your soundproofing

415
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 1: take care of it and it doesn't pass through. If

416
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 1: your resonant frequency is too low and you didn't really

417
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,680
Speaker 1: protect against that, it's going to pass right on in.

418
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 1: So there's also something called the triple leaf effect. And

419
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: I had to look this up in a couple different

420
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: locations to find out what the triple leaf effect is

421
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,600
Speaker 1: because I don't know if you know this, NOL. I

422
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,720
Speaker 1: haven't built any houses recently, that's fair. So the triple

423
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,760
Speaker 1: leaf effect is all about a construction of a wall,

424
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: like a dry wall, and they refer to each sheet

425
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: of drywall as a leaf. Sure, so you've got the

426
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,959
Speaker 1: interior wall that is one leaf. You've got the exterior

427
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,880
Speaker 1: wall that is a second leaf. In a triple leaf approach,

428
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,560
Speaker 1: you actually have a third sheet of a dry wall

429
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,720
Speaker 1: that's in between the two. It's inside the wall.

430
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 2: It's further compartmentalizing it essentially, right, And you might do

431
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:58,399
Speaker 2: this and think, oh, well, that's going to end up

432
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,359
Speaker 2: protecting against sound even better.

433
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: Not necessarily, it actually can cause a problem because it

434
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:09,439
Speaker 1: can create if the air cavity between the middle leaf

435
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,480
Speaker 1: and one side is too small, it can create those

436
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: resonance problems. So people actually refer to as the triple

437
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:16,000
Speaker 1: leaf problem.

438
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 2: So this is not necessarily a technique you want to

439
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,360
Speaker 2: go for. This is describing a problem.

440
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

441
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, So there are some proof technicians who say, if

442
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:26,400
Speaker 1: you have a triple leaf wall, and you're having these

443
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 1: resonant issues. The solution is actually to tear open the wall,

444
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 1: remove that triple leaf, that third sheet of dry wall,

445
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: the one that's in between the other two. Take that out,

446
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:41,439
Speaker 1: and then it'll create a thicker air gap between the

447
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 1: two sides, and that will end up changing the resonance problem.

448
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 3: I guess I could see that.

449
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,920
Speaker 2: I mean, it does introduce more of a variable into

450
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,440
Speaker 2: the equation, and as opposed to just having two having

451
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 2: a third one there there is more ways the sound

452
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 2: could potentially bounce around or catch that resonant frequency.

453
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,640
Speaker 1: Right, And you know we talked the bit about echo

454
00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 1: and about how sound can bounce off of hard surfaces.

455
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:03,880
Speaker 3: We talk about the Bunnymen.

456
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: No, we didn't talk about the Bunnymen.

457
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 3: You know they're playing in Atlanta soon, are they really? Yeah?

458
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: Oh wow? I would much prefer to see them than

459
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: insane clown posse.

460
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 3: But you already missed insane clowns.

461
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: I know they played earlier this week, yesterday, day before yesterday. Yeah.

462
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: I actually wanted to invite them over so we could

463
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: explain how magnets work. But that's that's neither here nor there.

464
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:22,640
Speaker 3: No no in their heart.

465
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 1: I hope so well, you know, they get made a

466
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,919
Speaker 1: whole video about it. But the echoes can be an

467
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 1: issue obviously in recording studios things like that, you don't

468
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,440
Speaker 1: want there to be If there's going to be any echo,

469
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:35,719
Speaker 1: you wanted to be there on purpose, not because of

470
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 1: just that's the way the room was built. Same here

471
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: for our studio. We don't want too much echo here.

472
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: And we are in a building that's made out of concrete.

473
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 1: Now that in some ways that's good because it helps

474
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,879
Speaker 1: dampen sound from other areas. Unless something is making direct

475
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: contact with the concrete, then we can all hear it everywhere.

476
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,439
Speaker 1: Like whenever there's construction going on, you can hear it

477
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 1: move through the concrete coll and floors and ceilings.

478
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 3: Gremlin.

479
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,360
Speaker 1: It is disturbing.

480
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:05,199
Speaker 3: They're very strange.

481
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 1: We play the game what construction equipment? Do you think

482
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:09,199
Speaker 1: that is?

483
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just don't know because the sound can mutate

484
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 2: based on what it's vibrating too, you know, right, it

485
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 2: might be a little drill that's vibrating a giant piece

486
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 2: of metal, and then that's vibrating something else, and the

487
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 2: time we gets to us, it sounds like there's a

488
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 2: giant playing hopscotch ups there.

489
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be a little distracting. Fortunately, most of

490
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,239
Speaker 1: the spaces in the building we're in now have been

491
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: built out because when we moved into this building we

492
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: were one of the first offices here.

493
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 3: It was bad.

494
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that just meant that we had construction noises

495
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:44,400
Speaker 1: pretty much consistently throughout the whole experience. So that has

496
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: been reduced dramatically over time. But one of the other

497
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 1: things is that you know, we when since we have

498
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,199
Speaker 1: all this concrete, we have to figure out how to

499
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:55,720
Speaker 1: eliminate that echo. And the way you do that is

500
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: typically by putting softer material on top of the harder

501
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 1: material and that that again dampens the echo. So you know,

502
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: if you if you have a castle, you probably are

503
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: hanging tapestries for a couple of reasons. One, it acts

504
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,880
Speaker 1: like an insulator so you don't lose as much heat

505
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 1: in those cold winters, and do when you're screaming at

506
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 1: your servants because your food isn't on the table when

507
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 1: the bad guys are attacking your castles. Mutton, Yeah, you

508
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,879
Speaker 1: want you don't want that to echo throughout the castle

509
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: unless you're a villain, and which I know.

510
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 2: When I'm decorating my castle, I tend to go with

511
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 2: tapestry I do.

512
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: I did too. I'm tapestry heavy when I do that,

513
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: But it's it's sort of stuff you can do inside

514
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 1: like a home studio too. You can hang fabric heavy

515
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: fabric to help, kind.

516
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 2: Of like the theater style curtain is excellent not only

517
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 2: because of its of what it's the denseness of it.

518
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 2: It bunches up like so you can kind of squeeze

519
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 2: it together where it creates these natural kind of ripples

520
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 2: which not only absorb the sound, they sort of diffuse

521
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:58,119
Speaker 2: it a little bit in the same way what I

522
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 2: was describing with that World's Quiet Room. These alternating patterns

523
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 2: of material that have little spaces in between them, they

524
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 2: act as a diffuser for the sound.

525
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: Right. And there's one other thing that we can talk about,

526
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: or i'll briefly mention, which is sound cancelation. It's a

527
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: little different from soundproofing. Actually in a way, it's the opposite,

528
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: because you actually have to create sound with sound cancelation.

529
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: The way sound cancelation works is if you were to

530
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 1: look at that graphic representation of a sound wave, let's

531
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: say it's a steady tone because that's the easiest way.

532
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:30,439
Speaker 3: To imagine it.

533
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: So it's a stay tone that I don't know, three

534
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: hundred herts and you're looking at a three hundred hertz

535
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: sine wave, and you see where the peaks and troughs are.

536
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: If you were to create a complementary sine wave where

537
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: it is out of phase, so the peaks and troughs

538
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: match up with the troughs and peaks, then they cancel

539
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 1: each other out. That's the crazy thing about sound because

540
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: you typically think if you add more sound to sound,

541
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 1: it just gets louder. Like if you've ever been in

542
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: a restaurant that has lots of hard surfaces, it becomes

543
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: really difficult to have a conversation if it's a busy

544
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: night because everyone everyone starts to talk over everyone else

545
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: and it just kind of echoes. Well, it turns out

546
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 1: that if you do add sound to sound, but you

547
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: make sure it's out of phase, it cancels it and

548
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,159
Speaker 1: then it's as if there's no sound at all. And

549
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: that's what noise canceling headphones do. They create a sound,

550
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: they detect the incoming sound waves, they create complimentary sound

551
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: waves that phase that out, and then you get silence

552
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 1: as a result.

553
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 2: So an example of that phenomenon that you don't want

554
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:34,639
Speaker 2: that actually has to be corrected. If you're in a

555
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,400
Speaker 2: recording studio and let's say you're recording an acoustic guitar

556
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,479
Speaker 2: and you want to mic it in two places. So

557
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 2: you might put a mic on the soundhole of the

558
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 2: acoustic guitar. Then you might want to put a mic

559
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 2: a little further up on the neck somewhere. If those mics,

560
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 2: since they're recording the same signal essentially, but they're spaced apart,

561
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 2: there is the potential for phase issues between those two mics.

562
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 2: So while it's not going to straight up cancel out

563
00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 2: the sound, it's going to change the quality.

564
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 3: Of the sound in a way that you might not like.

565
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 2: It might make it tinnier, or it might give it

566
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 2: almost like one of those phaser kind of a jet

567
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 2: engine psychedelic guitar types.

568
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 3: Sound, you know, right, you know where it's filtered through

569
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 3: that sound.

570
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 2: So what you have to do is you can correct

571
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,479
Speaker 2: this after the fact, But there are devices that you

572
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 2: actually can test the phase at the point you're recording

573
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 2: and then space the mics apart accordingly. And there's even

574
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 2: ways to like adjust the phase using these devices. So

575
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 2: it's interesting how you're describing as sort of a practical

576
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,520
Speaker 2: use of this phenomenon. And then there are also versions

577
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:41,479
Speaker 2: of that happen in a recording situation that you actually

578
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 2: have to be careful.

579
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: Right, you have to correct for Yeah. So for soundproofing,

580
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: there are a couple of different measuring systems to determine

581
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 1: how soundproofed a room is, and they may or may

582
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: not be useful to you if you are trying to

583
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 1: do something like create a recording studio. So, for example,

584
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: in the United States, we typically use something called the

585
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 1: sound transmission class to explain how soundproofed a room is,

586
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: and that's really a measurement of how well sound within

587
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 1: the ranges of human voices travels through walls. So sounds

588
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: outside of those frequencies, sound transmission class isn't concerned with them,

589
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: because it's really more about building walls so that sound

590
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: doesn't pass or walls and floors and ceilings, not just walls,

591
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: but all the surfaces so that sound does not pass

592
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 1: easily through one and into another. This would be like

593
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: what hotels would be really concerned with, or people who

594
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: are building homes that range by the way is about

595
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five herts to four thousand herts

596
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: or four killer herts. That's the typical range of frequencies

597
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,719
Speaker 1: of the human voice. So that's really what sound transmission

598
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: class is concerned with. And it's designated by a number,

599
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: and in general, the higher the number, the better the

600
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 1: quality of soundproofing is. So if you were in a

601
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 1: room that has like a really kind of lousy dry

602
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: wall partition, it doesn't have a whole lot of you know,

603
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: like it doesn't have that absorption insulation or anything like that,

604
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: the number might be somewhere around twenty. But let's say

605
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: you're in a high end hotel that has taken great

606
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: pains to create decoupled walls with good absorption insulation, maybe

607
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 1: some dampening material in there too, that might be closer

608
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: to sixty. And so the higher number designates that it's

609
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,760
Speaker 1: more sound proofed than the other one. But again for

610
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: that given range of frequencies, the stuff outside of that

611
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: maybe not so much. Outside of the United States, people

612
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: tend to use what was called the Sound reduction Index.

613
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 1: It's the SRI. So that rating tells you how many

614
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,600
Speaker 1: decibels in reduction the material will provide. So if a

615
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: sound is a certain amplitude a certain amount of decibels, which,

616
00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: by the way, is not a it's a logarithmics, so

617
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,959
Speaker 1: it's pretty complicated, but it'll tell you how many decibels

618
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: it will reduce a sound that is generated from one

619
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 1: space and into an adjoining space. It's dependent also upon

620
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: frequencies because some are designed to it. It's something that's

621
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,320
Speaker 1: specifically designed to cut out those mid to high range frequencies,

622
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: but it won't necessarily like that material won't necessarily cut

623
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 1: out low frequencies. So if you get this SRI number,

624
00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: you have to also ask, well, what range of frequencies

625
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 1: is that for, because it's not a blanket statement. It's

626
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 1: not saying that any sound at any decibel will be

627
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: reduced this amount. Then you finally have noise reduction coefficient.

628
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: So this tells you how much sound a material can

629
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: absorb versus reflect. It's expressed as a percentage, so really

630
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: the percentage that you're looking at is the percentage of

631
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: sound absorbed by that material. A carpet with a rubber

632
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: underlay might have a point for rating. For example, that

633
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: means it would absorb forty percent of the sound that

634
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 1: hits it, reflecting back sixty percent. Like a hard concrete

635
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 1: wall might be a point oh five, meaning it absorbs

636
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: only five percent of the sound that hits it and

637
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 1: ninety five percent gets reflected back. So those are those

638
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: are how you would you know, that's like the metrics

639
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: you would use. You would use actual instrumentation to detect

640
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: how the sound is reverberating in the room. And you would,

641
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: you know, obviously use things like microphones and stuff outside

642
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 1: of a room to detect if there's any sound leaking out.

643
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: There are also some things you got to take into account,

644
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 1: some natural weak spots. If the room has a vent

645
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: in it, which you kind of hope it will because

646
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: otherwise things get real stuffy, real fast. The vent also

647
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: may need to be treated. Ideally the vent will be

648
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: treated with some of this material to dampen some of

649
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 1: the sound. Otherwise it's just a conduit for sound to

650
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: travel through.

651
00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the room we're recording in right now, it

652
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 2: was built out for us with some of these specs

653
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 2: in mind. We would shows the material based on the rating,

654
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,720
Speaker 2: and we went with obviously a higher number. And then

655
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 2: this glass window that I was telling about earlier that's

656
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 2: specifically designed for a studio type environment.

657
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 3: And what we have on the walls in here are.

658
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 2: Similar to the layout of that World's quite as room

659
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 2: I was talking about, except these are acoustic tiles that

660
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 2: are made up of their squares, and they're made up

661
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 2: of strips in a single direction, but the panels are alternating,

662
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,799
Speaker 2: So we have one where they're facing up and down,

663
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:28,640
Speaker 2: the one next to it they're going left to right,

664
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 2: et cetera, and they alternate, and that helps break up

665
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:36,479
Speaker 2: the sound and make it a more dampened sound within

666
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 2: the room and keep the sound from escaping as well.

667
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 3: But we actually do have event in this room, and

668
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 3: it's not particularly well treated.

669
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,400
Speaker 2: So what I actually end up having to do is

670
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 2: use a very nifty bundle of software to take a

671
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 2: print of the room tone, so you can there's a

672
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 2: base level where if Jonathan and I were quiet right now,

673
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 2: you probably and we sent this out without running.

674
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 3: This process, you would hear base level room tone, air

675
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:03,400
Speaker 3: conditioning sound, whatever.

676
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,919
Speaker 2: So what I can do with the software is analyze

677
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 2: thirty seconds a minute, the longer the better of that

678
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 2: baseline sound. Then the computer analyzes that and then I

679
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 2: apply it to the whole audio file and it gets

680
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 2: rid of it and right, no artifacting at all, I

681
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 2: want to say artifacting, I mean there's no digital debris

682
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,840
Speaker 2: leftover where you can hear. Oh, here's the sound of

683
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,240
Speaker 2: the effect working. It's completely transparent. And this sweet software

684
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 2: is about two thousand dollars, so right, they're a really

685
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 2: good job.

686
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: There are a lot of software packages out there that

687
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,400
Speaker 1: attempt to do something similar to that, like a Audacity

688
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: has the noise Removal tool, which is a very similar thing.

689
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 1: It's looking at specific frequencies and then it looks through

690
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 1: the entire track or those frequencies to remove those. Problem is,

691
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: of course, that if you have other stuff laid on

692
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: top of it, Audacity doesn't necessarily it's not necessarily able

693
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,400
Speaker 1: to go in and remove just the stuff that you

694
00:35:57,480 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 1: want removed and leave everything else untouched.

695
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,879
Speaker 2: So well, my experience with things like this has always been,

696
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 2: now it doesn't work, you can always tell, you can

697
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 2: always hear it kicking in or whatever, but just in

698
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 2: case it evens interested in. The software I'm talking about

699
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 2: is by a company called Isotope, and it's a package

700
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 2: called RX Advance, and it's a suite that has multiple

701
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,399
Speaker 2: little modules that can do different things like let's say

702
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,440
Speaker 2: you're picking up a hum or some kind of radio interference.

703
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 3: It can isolate things like that.

704
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 2: But the one I always use to give it to

705
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,799
Speaker 2: that air conditioning noise is it's called d noiser and

706
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 2: it's it's fantastic cool.

707
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:32,719
Speaker 1: And the other thing that you have to worry about

708
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:35,040
Speaker 1: besides the vents are obviously doors. You want to have

709
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: make sure that your doors have proper ceiling all around it, ceiling,

710
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:40,720
Speaker 1: sea l that kind of seal.

711
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like in a recording studio control room, you might

712
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 2: see a door that has a heavy rubber strip on

713
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 2: the bottom of it that when you close it, it

714
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,000
Speaker 2: literally makes a seal between the door jam and the

715
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:55,320
Speaker 2: bottom of the door, right, so it's air tight.

716
00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:58,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, because otherwise sound will just travel underneath.

717
00:36:58,239 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 3: Right underneath it. Yeah, the gap.

718
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 2: You've done all the other work and then you have

719
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 2: a gap in the bottom of your door.

720
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:04,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, you might as well have done nothing right.

721
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: It's it's not gonna it's not gonna give you the

722
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:09,720
Speaker 1: results you want. So Noel, you know we were talking

723
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: before we start recording that you know, the concept of

724
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 1: making sure the sound within a room sounds right, and

725
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: this goes beyond soundproofing, but it was also part of

726
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:25,799
Speaker 1: the question sent in to us. We'll be back with

727
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:39,399
Speaker 1: more about soundproofing after this quick break, So walk us

728
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 1: through kind of the process. If you were setting up,

729
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 1: say a recording studio for music that would be obviously

730
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: you would want to make sure that everything is just

731
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,759
Speaker 1: right to capture the music as the artist intended. You know,

732
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 1: you might do some alteration on it on the back end,

733
00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,839
Speaker 1: but you want it captured as pure as possible at the.

734
00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, this goes into kind of recording philosophy in some ways.

735
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 2: Some people might want more of a live room that

736
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 2: has some character, some nice acoustics or something like that,

737
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 2: and for certain things, like say recording a vocal, you

738
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 2: might want a room with as little character as possible.

739
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 2: So you're just getting the quality of that voice through

740
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 2: that really nice microphone and microphone pre amplifier which is

741
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 2: what you plug a microphone in that kind of boosts

742
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 2: that signal and makes it audible and makes it at

743
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,280
Speaker 2: a level that can then be recorded into the computer

744
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 2: or a tape machine or what have you. So that's

745
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:36,879
Speaker 2: one way of looking at it. Like for a quiet room,

746
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 2: like a completely dead sound booth. Let's say, then you

747
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 2: might have different little tricks you can do. So at

748
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,399
Speaker 2: a drum room, for example, there are ways you can

749
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,399
Speaker 2: use panels of wood on the floor. You might take

750
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 2: a strip of wood and place it right underneath the

751
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,960
Speaker 2: kick drum the bass drum, and have a microphone kind

752
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 2: of at the end of that, so you're the sound

753
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,520
Speaker 2: of the drum are sort of reflecting off of that

754
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 2: wood and creating kind of a cool diffuse room sound.

755
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 2: So when you mike drums, you're micing them up close.

756
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:11,319
Speaker 2: You're putting a microphone right up on the tom tom

757
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:12,920
Speaker 2: or the snare or the kick, and then a lot

758
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 2: of times people will mix in the sound of the room,

759
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 2: which is the whole kit, and then kind of blend

760
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,120
Speaker 2: those signals together, so you get that direct sound, but

761
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 2: you also get this nice roomy tone. So in that situation,

762
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 2: you might want a little character in your room, and

763
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 2: you might use things like I'm talking with these strips

764
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 2: or what have you to achieve some sort of character.

765
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 3: Now, let's say we're talking about.

766
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:34,840
Speaker 2: A control room, which is where you're going to be

767
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,359
Speaker 2: mixing your music. So you have really high end, very

768
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,320
Speaker 2: nice high fidelities studio monitors which gives you your playback,

769
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 2: and you know, the best studio monitors are considered to

770
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 2: be very flat, that's the word that's used, where the

771
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 2: frequency response isn't particularly it's.

772
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 3: Not messed with on the speaker side.

773
00:39:57,520 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 2: So everything that's coming out of there, you know, is

774
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,440
Speaker 2: to be accurate based on what you're doing, what you're

775
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,800
Speaker 2: putting into it, the frequencies you're adjusting on your mixing

776
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 2: console or in your computer. The monitors themselves aren't imparting

777
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 2: any tone or quality beyond what you're doing to it.

778
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 1: Right, They're just neutral and only presenting the stuff that

779
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: you've told it to you.

780
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of times they're referred to as

781
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,440
Speaker 2: reference monitors because the idea is, and it's not always

782
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,560
Speaker 2: the case that the way it sounds on those monitors,

783
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:28,680
Speaker 2: it's going to sound like.

784
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 3: That anywhere you play it.

785
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 2: Obviously, there are things that happen after you finish a

786
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 2: record called mastering, where you kind of adjust to account

787
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 2: for different types of systems that it might be played

788
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 2: on to make sure it sounds as good as possible

789
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 2: on any system. Sure, but in a control room when

790
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:50,000
Speaker 2: you're playing back your music you don't want bad reflections.

791
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 2: You don't want that sound coming out of the speakers

792
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 2: to bounce back at you in a way that changes

793
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 2: the quality of that sound. You want it to be

794
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 2: as flat and clean as possible. So there are little

795
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 2: extra touches you could put in a control room that

796
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 2: absorb certain frequencies. Like with you said, certain materials will

797
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 2: absorb certain frequencies better. There are things you might put

798
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 2: in the back corners of the room that fill up

799
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:15,600
Speaker 2: a corner where two walls meet, called base traps, and

800
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 2: they are these kind of tall they can be round

801
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 2: or squared off, and they're made of kind of dense

802
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 2: fiberglass material covered in a particular type of fabric, and

803
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,799
Speaker 2: those absorb some of those base frequencies so that it's

804
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,320
Speaker 2: not bouncing back at you and muddying up your mix.

805
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:32,520
Speaker 3: Right. Then, you might have a lot of times you'll.

806
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 2: See in a recording studio in the control room where

807
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 2: you have your big mixing console, and then directly behind

808
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:39,800
Speaker 2: it against the wall, out of times there's a couch,

809
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:41,800
Speaker 2: and then above that couch there might be a weird

810
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 2: looking wooden panel that has smaller arrays of these alternating little.

811
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,480
Speaker 3: Tiles sort of like what I described we.

812
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 2: Have in our room here, but smaller and a little

813
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 2: more dense, and those are designed to do different things

814
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 2: to other frequencies like the mid range or the high

815
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,240
Speaker 2: Another thing that's really important in these control room settings

816
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 2: is where the monitors speakers are placed. So what you

817
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:10,000
Speaker 2: might do is have an engineer that specializes in you know,

818
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:14,600
Speaker 2: building out recording studios and tuning room as what they

819
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 2: call it, go in there and use a device that

820
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 2: measures the way frequencies bounce around the room, and you

821
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,840
Speaker 2: would generate what's called a test tone or some white

822
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 2: noise even which.

823
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:27,720
Speaker 3: Is just like you know, static kind of sound.

824
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 2: And then you can use this device, this handheld device,

825
00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:32,560
Speaker 2: it might be cooked up to a computer. There's lots

826
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 2: of different ones that will then take a print and analyze, Okay,

827
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 2: this is what the sound's doing. This is where this

828
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,880
Speaker 2: room needs some work, where we need to move the monitors.

829
00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:43,600
Speaker 3: A little further away or a little closer to the wall,

830
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:44,440
Speaker 3: et cetera.

831
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:46,920
Speaker 2: So that's just a few of the ways that you

832
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 2: can affect how the sound is actually heard within a

833
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:54,920
Speaker 2: room for different situations, whether you're recording, whether you're mixing,

834
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 2: and listening. It's all about there are different scenarios that

835
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,120
Speaker 2: require different.

836
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 1: Sure, and anyone who's listened to you know, live albums

837
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:09,760
Speaker 1: versus studio albums, or for me, even just with classical music,

838
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 1: Like if you ever listen to classical piece that was

839
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,839
Speaker 1: recorded in a big sound studio where you know they

840
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 1: got the whole orchestra in there, it can sound really amazing.

841
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:20,120
Speaker 1: But then if you hear the same sort of thing

842
00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: but it's played in a concert hall even without an audience,

843
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:27,960
Speaker 1: the effect is measurably different. You get that character you

844
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 1: were talking about of the space, and different spaces have

845
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,400
Speaker 1: very different characters. Just as musicians may have a favorite

846
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: type of amplifier that they like to use because of

847
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 1: the tone that it helps, the tones that accentuates versus

848
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 1: the ones that it doesn't accentuate as much, you have

849
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: the same sort of stuff with these rooms. Now, Noel,

850
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. Let's say that some of

851
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:55,080
Speaker 1: our listeners out there are wanting to set up like

852
00:43:55,160 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 1: a little home recording area. Maybe they want to do podcasts,

853
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 1: maybe they want to record some acoustic music, nothing too complicated.

854
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: What would be some general guidelines you would give somebody

855
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,800
Speaker 1: who wants to set up a space in their house

856
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:14,640
Speaker 1: meant for recording, like were what would just be some

857
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 1: general tips, not like the super like you're gonna go

858
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: and remodel your home kind of approach, but more simple

859
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:26,760
Speaker 1: ways that you can at least limit problems with sound

860
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 1: from exterior sources or interference with the sound that you're

861
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: creating in the room. What are some of your tips

862
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: you would give.

863
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of different ways that you

864
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 2: can make spaces in your home work, and all depends

865
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,359
Speaker 2: on what kind of music you're trying to record, So

866
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,280
Speaker 2: the choice of microphone would make a big difference. For example,

867
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 2: So the microphones that we use in the podcast studio

868
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 2: are what are called dynamic microphones, and then we've talked

869
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 2: about this in the past episode. I believe they tend

870
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,200
Speaker 2: to record best things that are very close to them

871
00:44:57,239 --> 00:45:00,799
Speaker 2: and don't necessarily pick up as much ambient sound as

872
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:03,839
Speaker 2: what's called a condenser microphone would. Now some might say

873
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,799
Speaker 2: that a condenser microphone gives a richer, bigger sound, but

874
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:10,440
Speaker 2: it also depends on how you use it. So I

875
00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 2: might recommend for recording vocals trying to go with like

876
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:17,399
Speaker 2: get a really nice dynamic microphone, like one of these

877
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 2: sure SM seven B microphones we use.

878
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:21,359
Speaker 3: And they're you know, they're about three hundred bucks.

879
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 2: They're not cheap, but they allow you to record much

880
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 2: closer proximity. So if you're recording a guitar, for example,

881
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 2: through an amplifier, you'd put it right up next to

882
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 2: that amplifier and crank it so that it's not recording

883
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,640
Speaker 2: the signal to noise ratio is what it's called, is

884
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:39,879
Speaker 2: in favor.

885
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 3: Of the signal.

886
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 2: So the sound of the amplifier is the main concern.

887
00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 2: There's really no worry about recording any room tone, and

888
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 2: you don't even have to crank up that high because

889
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 2: the mic is so close. But in terms of little

890
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 2: things you can do for dampening, I mean, get a

891
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:59,920
Speaker 2: pack of egg crate or like some acoustic tiles from orlex,

892
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:00,479
Speaker 2: you know, and.

893
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 3: It's not cheap either.

894
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 2: But then just make some little clusters, you know, make

895
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:05,759
Speaker 2: a few little squares on your wall if you can,

896
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,799
Speaker 2: like if you have a closet door, maybe put three

897
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 2: or four panels and then record facing that.

898
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 3: You know, there are also these shields you.

899
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:16,840
Speaker 2: Can get you can attach to your mic stand and

900
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 2: basically is like a almost like a half moon shaped

901
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 2: shield that goes behind the microphone so you're facing it,

902
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 2: and that cuts down on reflections. There are lots of

903
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 2: little tricks like that that you can do, but at

904
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:33,120
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's just about how you

905
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 2: use the stuff that you have for podcasting. Definitely go

906
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 2: with a dynamic microphone. Talk very close to it, Cealy,

907
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 2: it's only getting your voice and it's not recording your

908
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 2: cat or the sound of your air conditioning.

909
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 3: Things like that. The lower you can turn up.

910
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 2: The mic and still get a really good signal, the

911
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:53,040
Speaker 2: better off you are, because if you have to crank

912
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:55,479
Speaker 2: it up really high, you're really far away from the mic.

913
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 2: You're going to be picking up a whole lot of

914
00:46:57,719 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 2: that room sounds.

915
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can tell you from experience. I record a

916
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 1: couple of shows from home just for fun that that

917
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,960
Speaker 1: aren't work related, and I used to use a condenser

918
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: mic because they were easy. I had a USB condencer mic,

919
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,799
Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with the mics. I'll even tell

920
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 1: you I had a blue Snowball for a while, and

921
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:22,200
Speaker 1: we have one here. Sure, we've used it occasionally, mostly

922
00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: to connect through Skype or whatever. We don't record through it,

923
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: but we use it to pick up our voices so

924
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,000
Speaker 1: people on the other end can hear us. And I

925
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: also had a blue Yetti microphone. Both of them are great.

926
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:36,239
Speaker 1: I love them, but for podcasting, like you were saying,

927
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 1: they pick up pretty much everything. And in fact, if

928
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 1: you were to go back and listen to some of

929
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:42,719
Speaker 1: those podcasts I did, you would hear, like, what's that

930
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: weird clicking noise and hearing in the background, And that

931
00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:48,760
Speaker 1: clicking noise would have been my dog's toenails clicking against

932
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 1: the hardwood floor, as as he just ran across the

933
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:53,919
Speaker 1: floor and he wasn't making any other noise.

934
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:55,480
Speaker 3: It's just click click, click, click click.

935
00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 1: But that condenser mic picked up everything.

936
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,160
Speaker 2: And it all comes back to what we talked about

937
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 2: sound being sort of this organic thing that moves. I mean,

938
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:04,479
Speaker 2: you're never going to completely get rid of every bit

939
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:07,800
Speaker 2: of room noise unless you are going above and beyond.

940
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 1: Do you going to that crazy world's most silent room approach?

941
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 2: But you can mitigate how much of the sounds you

942
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,520
Speaker 2: don't want are recorded based on where you set up

943
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 2: the mic. You want to be as far away from

944
00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 2: any noisy sources as possible. You certainly wouldn't want to

945
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 2: record a podcast right next to your fridge.

946
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,840
Speaker 1: If you have an option, if you have an internal

947
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 1: room where it doesn't share an external wall, that would

948
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: be a good choice, Like like the place where my

949
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: microphone is set up. I don't have a room that's into.

950
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: All of my rooms face outward one way or the other,

951
00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: so I don't have a room that I can that

952
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:47,640
Speaker 1: is that is isolated where I could record from. So

953
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: my mine is not ideal because I also live across

954
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 1: the street from railroad tracks and marta tracks and a

955
00:48:57,040 --> 00:49:01,440
Speaker 1: busy road. So I'm just fortunate that when my house

956
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 1: was being built they built it with that in mind.

957
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 1: They were building the external walls so that they would

958
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:12,439
Speaker 1: dampen that sound as much as possible, because the home

959
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 1: builders knew, well, we're right next to some train tracks,

960
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:17,359
Speaker 1: so we have to take that into account when we're

961
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 1: designing this. Un Fortunately, it doesn't often impact my recording.

962
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 1: Once in a blue moon, if there's a freight train

963
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 1: going by blasting its horn, you're gonna hear it, But

964
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:28,239
Speaker 1: otherwise it doesn't come through.

965
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,360
Speaker 2: So just to wrap up on this whole home podcast

966
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 2: set up, I can give you a really good practical

967
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 2: example our show stuff you missed in history class.

968
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:38,480
Speaker 3: The hosts live in different cities.

969
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 2: Holly Fry lives here in Atlanta and records in our studios,

970
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 2: and Tracy Wilson lives in Boston and records from her home,

971
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:47,640
Speaker 2: And so when she was getting ready to move, we

972
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 2: had to figure out how we were going to set

973
00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:50,920
Speaker 2: this up. So I kind of looked into it and

974
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,040
Speaker 2: did some research and recommended what to get, and what

975
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 2: we ultimately went with is she has this.

976
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 3: It's called the sound.

977
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,040
Speaker 2: Shield, I guess is the best way of referring to it.

978
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 2: A company called sc Electronics. The product is a reflection

979
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 2: filter ex portable vocal booth, and the idea is that

980
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:10,320
Speaker 2: the way it's pitched on Sweetwater, which is the music

981
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 2: equipment site that I'm looking at, it is a portable

982
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 2: acoustic treatment to reduce room ambience in untreated recording spaces.

983
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 2: So it works pretty well as advertised. So it's this

984
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 2: thing that kind of wraps around the back of the

985
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 2: microphone connects to the mic stand, so she has one.

986
00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:29,479
Speaker 3: Of those behind her against the wall.

987
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:31,880
Speaker 2: She has a heavy curtain like we talked about earlier

988
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 2: as well, and so that helps dampen the sound that way.

989
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 2: And she's using this SM seven B dynamic. Sure vocal

990
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 2: mic or microphone doesn't have to be a vocal mic,

991
00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:42,839
Speaker 2: but she.

992
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:43,680
Speaker 3: Is next to a window.

993
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 2: So whenever the trash pickup comes, or if there's a

994
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:49,000
Speaker 2: motorcycle or something like that, you know, we've got to stop. Yeah,

995
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,399
Speaker 2: so you deal with what you have, and I think

996
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 2: she's a pretty good example of a successful home setup,

997
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:57,040
Speaker 2: as well as is yours, Johnathan.

998
00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:01,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you listen back to some of the episodes

999
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:03,720
Speaker 1: that we recorded before we moved to Pont City Market,

1000
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,879
Speaker 1: there was a brief period where we were set up

1001
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: in an office like an actual It wasn't designed to

1002
00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:14,759
Speaker 1: be an audio recording studio, but was an office at

1003
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:21,120
Speaker 1: the old office space and Buckhead that shared a window

1004
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 1: facing Peachtree or near Peachtree. And if you listen carefully

1005
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 1: to some of those old podcasts, not just Tech Stuff

1006
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:32,560
Speaker 1: but all the other ones we record at How Stuff Works,

1007
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:36,600
Speaker 1: you might occasionally hear a little high pitched noise and

1008
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:38,800
Speaker 1: wonder what that was, And that was baton Bob.

1009
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:42,440
Speaker 3: There was also sirens. Those were the bane of our existence.

1010
00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, sirens. We would stop for like if we heard

1011
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:50,440
Speaker 1: a siren. Baton Bob. Yeah, Baton Bob is a kind

1012
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 1: of a fixture here in Atlanta. He is quite the

1013
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:57,359
Speaker 1: character and often can be seen marching up and down

1014
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,880
Speaker 1: the various streets of Atlanta in a tutu and twirling

1015
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:04,839
Speaker 1: a baton and blowing a whistle. And he's a smile ambassador.

1016
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:09,200
Speaker 1: I love Baton Bob, Absolutely love him. Great guy. Uh,

1017
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: not fantastic to have to record a podcast when you're

1018
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: here he is whistling up and down the street.

1019
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:16,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, And talk about diy setup.

1020
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 2: We had those windows covered over with I made these

1021
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:24,319
Speaker 2: panels out of that pink panther foam insulation for construction. Yeah,

1022
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:27,320
Speaker 2: and I nailed them and stapled them to pieces of

1023
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:31,040
Speaker 2: luon and uh then had them attached to the window

1024
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:33,239
Speaker 2: to cover them over. And then on top of that,

1025
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:38,400
Speaker 2: we had this bright red acoustic foam in sheets that

1026
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:40,840
Speaker 2: we you know, stapled on top of that and it

1027
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,160
Speaker 2: still didn't block out well and it could high frequencies.

1028
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:48,840
Speaker 1: We couldn't do anything permanent because that that wasn't something

1029
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,080
Speaker 1: we were allowed to do in that space. It wasn't

1030
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:53,799
Speaker 1: meant to be a recording studio. So we were just

1031
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:57,240
Speaker 1: doing the best with what we had. But uh, yeah,

1032
00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:00,440
Speaker 1: it was it was. It was difficult, So it can

1033
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:03,279
Speaker 1: be a challenge, but the stuff is out there. It's

1034
00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:05,960
Speaker 1: not like Noel is saying, it's not necessarily cheap. You

1035
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:11,240
Speaker 1: can do some relatively inexpensive things to limit sound issues,

1036
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 1: but obviously you get what you pay for the more

1037
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:16,680
Speaker 1: that you are able to spend on that. But do

1038
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:18,799
Speaker 1: your research. But the more you're able to spend on that,

1039
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:21,880
Speaker 1: the better result you are going to get. In general,

1040
00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:24,239
Speaker 1: just make sure that whatever outlet you're going with is

1041
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:29,120
Speaker 1: highly rated, you know. Don't just hire a general contractor

1042
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,680
Speaker 1: and go with that, because that's probably not going to

1043
00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 1: give you the results you want. But obviously, you know,

1044
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:41,360
Speaker 1: these are things that people in all sorts of jobs

1045
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:47,080
Speaker 1: and positions worry about, whether it's professional recording artists, whether

1046
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:50,880
Speaker 1: it's podcasters like us home podcasters you just want to

1047
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:53,800
Speaker 1: record a demo. I mean, these are the sort of

1048
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:56,839
Speaker 1: things you got to think about. So thank you very

1049
00:53:56,920 --> 00:53:59,959
Speaker 1: much for writing in and requesting this episode, and Noel,

1050
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. Usually you're on the

1051
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: other side of that window we were talking about.

1052
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 3: It's true, it's nice to pass through.

1053
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great to be on this side once in

1054
00:54:08,320 --> 00:54:10,759
Speaker 1: a while and not stay so long that the room

1055
00:54:10,800 --> 00:54:13,920
Speaker 1: gets super stuffy. That's one of the things that this

1056
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:16,839
Speaker 1: room in particular, it does get a little warm. Now

1057
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:21,200
Speaker 1: we fixed the stuff you should know podcast room because

1058
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:24,399
Speaker 1: it used to get blisteringly hot, and now it gets

1059
00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 1: very cool there, and now the opposite seems to happen here.

1060
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:30,839
Speaker 1: But I'm afraid to ask for anything because I don't

1061
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 1: want to end up getting gale force winds into the

1062
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:38,400
Speaker 1: podcast studio. Hope you enjoyed that classic episode of tech Stuff.

1063
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Noel for joining the show way back

1064
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:42,360
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. I need to get him back on

1065
00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:44,640
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff. It has been a long time since he's

1066
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:47,560
Speaker 1: been on. I should ask him what topic he would

1067
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:51,320
Speaker 1: love to cover, because that dude has got a deep

1068
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:56,000
Speaker 1: and wide breadth of knowledge, Like it's impressive. If I

1069
00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:58,719
Speaker 1: had him on to talk about music, I could just

1070
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,399
Speaker 1: sit back and mute my mic. He could give you

1071
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:06,879
Speaker 1: a masterclass in music. It's incredible what he knows. So yeah,

1072
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:08,960
Speaker 1: I'll have to reach out to him and see if

1073
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:10,840
Speaker 1: there's like a topic he would love to cover in

1074
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:12,200
Speaker 1: a future episode of Text Stuff.

1075
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 3: Y'all.

1076
00:55:13,040 --> 00:55:15,759
Speaker 1: If you have suggestions of things I should cover and

1077
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:17,560
Speaker 1: tech stuff in the future, reach out to me and

1078
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: let me know. The best way to do that is

1079
00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:23,040
Speaker 1: to go over to Twitter, assuming that's still a thing,

1080
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:26,759
Speaker 1: and you send me a message with the handle text

1081
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,960
Speaker 1: stuff HSW just at tech stuff HSW let me know

1082
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,160
Speaker 1: what you would like me to cover, or you can

1083
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:36,160
Speaker 1: download the iHeartRadio app. It's free to download and free

1084
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:38,839
Speaker 1: to use. Navigate over to text Stuff by putting it

1085
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:42,000
Speaker 1: into the search bar, it'll take you to the podcast page.

1086
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:44,879
Speaker 1: If you click on the little microphone icon, you can

1087
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 1: record a message up to thirty seconds in length. Voice message,

1088
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:50,480
Speaker 1: that is, and let me know what you would like

1089
00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:53,759
Speaker 1: me to cover, and I'll talk to you again really soon.

1090
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 1: Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

1091
00:56:04,840 --> 00:56:08,560
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

1092
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:09,640
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.