1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,320 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and I love all things tech, and 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: we're going to take another look at a classic tech 6 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:26,120 Speaker 1: Stuff episode of another one that published back in. This 7 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: one is called how Soundproofing Works, and Noel Brown joined 8 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,839 Speaker 1: me for that episode to talk about the science and 9 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: tech behind sound proofing, which is a very important component 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 1: of our podcasting business. Here, I am currently baffled, or 11 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: at least I'm surrounded by baffling, so that we can 12 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 1: control the way that the sound bounces around inside the 13 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: studio so you guys don't get terrible vocal effects. But 14 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: Noel has a lot more to say about it, so 15 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: let's sit back and enjoy this classic episode. So one 16 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: of the things I like to do on the show 17 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: is at the end of every episode, I invite you 18 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 1: guys to send me requests ideas topics for future episodes, 19 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: and today's episode is due to that. So I'm going 20 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 1: to read a little bit of listener me. You know, 21 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: we used to have a whole claxon all right here 22 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,040 Speaker 1: he goes, hey, you tech stuff. First off, I want 23 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: to thank you for putting out your content as I'm 24 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,280 Speaker 1: a huge fan of this casual learning movement. Might need 25 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:32,680 Speaker 1: a better term for that. I was wondering if you'd 26 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: be able to do an episode on acoustics and sound 27 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: dampening for studios, like how they're measured, tuned, made, et cetera. 28 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: It would be awesome and spectacular as I would be 29 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: able to harness the power to put together a kick 30 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: ass set up. Thanks again for what you do. Dub 31 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:52,080 Speaker 1: nosis well dubed. We're going to do that for you. 32 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: And that's really the reason why I asked Noel to 33 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: come in here, because Noel, as a producer and sound 34 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: engineer type person, has had real world experience with this, 35 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: and so we're going to rely heavily upon his um 36 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 1: perspective some of the stories he has to tell about 37 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,559 Speaker 1: the process of trying to make a room more soundproof 38 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: or tuning a room so that you're getting the sound 39 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 1: you want while you're recording, because, as it turns out, 40 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,239 Speaker 1: sound is a pretty tricky thing. When you boil it down. 41 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: Sound is vibration, right, It's just particles banging together a 42 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,120 Speaker 1: sentile thing you gotta wrangle. It is a thing you 43 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: gotta wrangle. We often consider sound to just be this 44 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: thing we perceived with our ears, But what's really happening 45 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: is a little more granular than that. Sound is particles 46 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: that are moving vibrating. Uh. Typically we're hearing things that 47 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: are coming through over the air, like actual air around us. 48 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 1: So you listening to this right now, you can hear 49 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 1: my voice. Well, what's actually happening is that some speakers 50 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,440 Speaker 1: are vibrating some air molecules, and that is compressing and 51 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,800 Speaker 1: decompressing those molecules. It's it's changing the pressure, increasing and 52 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:12,079 Speaker 1: then decreasing the pressure at frequencies and amplitudes that your 53 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,079 Speaker 1: ears pick up and then you perceive a sound. So 54 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: this is happening through all sorts of media, not just air. 55 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: It can pass through solid matter, it can pass through 56 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:24,120 Speaker 1: liquid and depending on how the particles are packed and 57 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: the space between them, sound may move better through one 58 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: medium than through another. Now, knowing that sound can travel 59 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: through different media, you also need to know that it 60 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: can transfer from one medium to another medium. So for example, 61 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: if I'm shouting really really loudly in a little room, 62 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: some of that sound when it makes contact with the 63 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: wall actually causes the wall to move. Now it's not 64 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: causing the wall to move a lot, but it is 65 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: making the wall vibrate a little bit. Those vibrations get 66 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: transferred through the wall to the other side. And that's 67 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: why if you're in a place that has, you know, 68 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: flimsy walls, you can hear someone in another room. The 69 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: sound is actually transferring through, not to mention in the 70 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,760 Speaker 1: room itself, that sound is actually reflecting back at you. 71 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: And the quality of the sound can depend, you can 72 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: vary greatly depending on the material that the room is 73 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: built out of or treated with. Right right, So some 74 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 1: of the sounds getting transferred through the materials, some of 75 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: the sound is being bounced back from the material toward you, um. 76 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: And a lot of that depends upon the the hardness 77 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: of the material, Like a really hard material is going 78 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: to bounce a lot more sound back at you, which 79 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: is why if you are in a large room with 80 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:40,159 Speaker 1: a lot of hard surfaces you get that echoe sound. Um. 81 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 1: Or if you're out someplace like at a canyon and 82 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: you do a shout and you get that echo back, 83 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: it's because the sound is going out hitting the walls 84 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: of the canyon bouncing back to you, and that's when 85 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: you get to experience that effect. Well. Obviously, this means 86 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: that if you want to create a place where the 87 00:05:02,279 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 1: sound can't escape or leak into and a lot of 88 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: recording studios, you want both of those things right. You 89 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: don't want the sound from the studio to leak outward, 90 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: but you also definitely don't want outside sound to leak 91 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: into the important Then you have to figure out, well, 92 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: how do we limit how do we work within the 93 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:24,840 Speaker 1: physical uh uh constraints of the way sound works, so 94 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: that we can limit that as much as possible and 95 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:33,119 Speaker 1: try to have the purest experience as we can. Um So, 96 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,840 Speaker 1: one thing you can remember is that sound, because it's 97 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: a physical activity and because it relies on on energy, 98 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:43,559 Speaker 1: the way it works is that you've got a source 99 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:48,720 Speaker 1: of the sound. Sound waves travel outward concentrically outward from 100 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,960 Speaker 1: that source, and they get weaker as they travel out 101 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,760 Speaker 1: that that energy starts to dissipate. You can think of 102 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: it kind of like um uh. You know, each each 103 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:00,360 Speaker 1: time a particle has to bang up against the another 104 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: one to move it, some of that energy ends up 105 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: getting lost. So the further way you are from a 106 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 1: source of sound, the quieter it is. That's why that happens. 107 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: So one way you can limit the way sound comes 108 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,160 Speaker 1: out of a room is you make an enormous room, 109 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: like you have a little room in a really big room. Um, 110 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: But that's not necessarily the most practical approach. Actually, there's 111 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: a studio I used to intern at in Athens, Georgia 112 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,520 Speaker 1: called Chase Park Transduction, and they essentially built their studio 113 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: inside of a larger warehouse space. So they're renting a 114 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: space in the strip of big, giant, very high ceiling 115 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,279 Speaker 1: warehouse spaces. But when you go into the studio, you're 116 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,920 Speaker 1: in the warehouse. But then there's a smaller basically building 117 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: inside that warehouse that is the one that receives all 118 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:49,280 Speaker 1: the acoustic treatments. But it's like you said, I mean 119 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: that is one way of dealing with it is air. Yeah, 120 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: the room within a room approach is often how it's 121 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: referred to, and sometimes it is not as obvious as that, 122 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 1: Like it may be that uh, it looks like the 123 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: the room you're walking into might be like it's it's 124 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: in a little uh alcove or hallway, but that hallway 125 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: is actually showing where the the walls are, where there's 126 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:14,480 Speaker 1: an air gap between the two walls to to mitigate 127 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: any sound coming into the space. Here. Even this glass 128 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: window that we have in the booth that we're recording 129 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: in right now, it's a double paned window. So in 130 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: between these two relatively thick pieces of glass is a 131 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: little layer of air, which in and of itself acts 132 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:32,880 Speaker 1: as a bit of a sound dampening insulation device, right exactly. So, uh, 133 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,400 Speaker 1: some other little elements of sound that we need to remember. 134 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 1: There are two main components to a sound wave that 135 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: are important to keep in mind. One is amplitude or volume. 136 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: So if you are looking at the way we typically 137 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: show a sound wave which is on like an X 138 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: versus Y graph um, you know those those sine wave 139 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:57,120 Speaker 1: style graphs, the height and depth of the troughs that 140 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: represents the amplitude how loud the sound is. Then you 141 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: have the frequency of sound, the number of times sound 142 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: cycles within a second that determines the pitch of a sound. 143 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: So a low frequency obviously would be a perceived as 144 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,560 Speaker 1: a lower deeper note or tone, and a high frequency 145 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: with those peaks and troughs moving gradually more closer together 146 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,920 Speaker 1: is going to be perceived as a higher pitch. A 147 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:25,720 Speaker 1: good way to think about this too, is if anyone's 148 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:28,760 Speaker 1: familiar with the instrument the theoremin. There are two controls 149 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: on a theoreman. One is the antenna that goes upward, 150 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 1: and there's an antenna on the side. Uh. The antenna 151 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: on the side you use your hand by moving it 152 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: closer to or farther away, you are changing the amplitude, 153 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: and that's perceived as a change in volume. The antenna 154 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:44,440 Speaker 1: going up as you move your hand closer to it 155 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: or farther away, you are changing the frequency. So with 156 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: those two controls you can basically shape the way the 157 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: sound is perceived. Right, And it's important to remember these 158 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: things because uh, As it turns out different approaches to 159 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: sound proofing are effective for different frequencies. Definitely, right. So 160 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: there might be one that you're like, oh, this is 161 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:08,840 Speaker 1: this is perfect, I can't hear my neighbors anymore. But 162 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: then it turns out that when your neighbors put on 163 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:13,439 Speaker 1: a an album that has a lot of base in it, 164 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:16,079 Speaker 1: it comes right through or start yelling at each other 165 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: for whatever. Yeah, the amplitude is loud enough, it maybe 166 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,839 Speaker 1: that you're soundproofing isn't going to be uh. When people yell, 167 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:25,079 Speaker 1: sometimes they tend to raise the pitch right right right, 168 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: the pitch goes up enough, but I got you. Yeah. 169 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,760 Speaker 1: So these are things that you have taken to consideration 170 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 1: if you're trying to sound proof, and obviously what you 171 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: are trying to accomplish, like the reason why you're soundproofing, 172 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: that will play into it as well, because if all 173 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: you're trying to do is just make it quieter so 174 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:43,080 Speaker 1: that you know, you don't have like you're designing a building, 175 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 1: maybe it's a hotel, and you want to make sure 176 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: that the the people talking in one room doesn't bleed 177 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: over into other rooms. That's one type of soundproofing. If 178 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 1: you're trying to make a professional recording studio, that's another type. 179 00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: From a construction standpoint, like the base level soundproofing is dryewall, 180 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,439 Speaker 1: So you have drywall, and that is where if you're 181 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: in a hotel that only uses drywall, people are gonna 182 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: be able to hear every single thing that's going on 183 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: next door. It's when you start basically stuffing that dry 184 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: wall with other denser materials or you know highly rated 185 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: soundproofing materials. That's when you can really cut down on 186 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,200 Speaker 1: that transfer between the rooms, right, And also there are 187 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: other some other techniques you could use as well that 188 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: I'll get into that. And it's all about how do 189 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 1: you make it harder for the sound to travel from 190 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 1: one place to another because sound is going to travel 191 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 1: no matter what. It's not like we have created a 192 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: material that just sucks up sound totally. We've got a 193 00:10:39,559 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: lot of materials that resist vibration and that means that 194 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: they don't transfer sound very well. But in fact the 195 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: studio has some of that around us. But you know, 196 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,920 Speaker 1: there's other stuff you have to take into consideration as well. Now, 197 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,719 Speaker 1: there are four general elements to soundproofing and we've we've 198 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:59,520 Speaker 1: kind of touched on a few of them, but one 199 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,959 Speaker 1: of the big ones is called decoupling. Now, decoupling is 200 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 1: a construction term. When you're talking about decoupling, you're talking 201 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: about the way the walls of the soundproofed area are 202 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: actually constructed. So you were just talking about dry wall. 203 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 1: The typical way a wall is constructed is you've got 204 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:22,000 Speaker 1: studs and attached to the studs are the anchor points 205 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:26,800 Speaker 1: for the dry wall. And in a typical wall, the 206 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:30,960 Speaker 1: studs are connected on either side by drywall for one 207 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:32,280 Speaker 1: side of the wall and dry wall for the other 208 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: side the wall, So the h if you can think 209 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: of it like the interior wall versus the exterior wall 210 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,959 Speaker 1: of a room. The problem with that is that when 211 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: sound hits the drywall, then sound can travel through the 212 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: dry wall through the studs, which transmit sound. They're pretty 213 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:50,559 Speaker 1: good conductor for sound to the other side of the 214 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:53,320 Speaker 1: dry wall, and then you get sound bleeding out or 215 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:57,160 Speaker 1: you have sound bleeding in from the outside. So decoupling 216 00:11:57,559 --> 00:12:00,240 Speaker 1: is a process where you would build a wall so 217 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 1: that the studs don't touch both sides of the wall. 218 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: You would have a series of studs that one side 219 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,240 Speaker 1: the interior wall are attached to, and a different series 220 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: of studs that the exterior wall are attached to. They 221 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:18,679 Speaker 1: both extend well into the gap between the two walls, 222 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:21,480 Speaker 1: but they don't touch the other side. So one side 223 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: could be receiving sound waves and potentially transfer those, but 224 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:28,560 Speaker 1: since they're not touching, it's much more difficult for that 225 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: to happen. Right, because air is not as good a 226 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:33,920 Speaker 1: conductor of sound as a solid object is, which is weird. 227 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:35,840 Speaker 1: You wouldn't think that, because I mean, here we are 228 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,199 Speaker 1: in a room talking to each other, and the air 229 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:41,840 Speaker 1: is basically what's connecting us. But the interesting thing, though, 230 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: is that the way you can tell this, it's very 231 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: easy way to tell. It's the old kid game of 232 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: a telephone where you get two cans in a string, right, 233 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,319 Speaker 1: you you punch holes in the bottom of the cans, 234 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,400 Speaker 1: You run the string through the holes, you stretch it taut, 235 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:58,079 Speaker 1: and then you can whisper into one can and here 236 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:00,120 Speaker 1: it on the other side. But if you whisper that 237 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 1: same volume across the room, you can't hear it. So again, 238 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: that shows that the the physical media is actually more 239 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,440 Speaker 1: or medium i should say, is actually more efficient at 240 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:15,559 Speaker 1: transferring the sound than than air is. So air pockets 241 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:19,480 Speaker 1: are actually really important when you're soundproofing, you know, designing 242 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:24,120 Speaker 1: a soundproof room. Um, typically you would pair decoupling with 243 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 1: some of the other elements, and I'll go ahead and 244 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:28,720 Speaker 1: mention what those elements are, and then we'll talk more 245 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,760 Speaker 1: about how you would put it all together. So you've 246 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 1: got absorption another important element. This is obviously using a 247 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:41,559 Speaker 1: material that slows down sound. Uh, it absorbs some of 248 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: the sounds, so that sound essentially loses some of its 249 00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:48,439 Speaker 1: energy and it thus is quieter. It doesn't it doesn't 250 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 1: leak out as much because the amplitude gets reduced as 251 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:55,800 Speaker 1: a result. UH. So absorption you achieve usually through using 252 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: some sort of insulation material like UM. I mean, fiberglass 253 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,200 Speaker 1: is a simple example where you would put that in 254 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: the wall, in the in the gap between the two 255 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:07,240 Speaker 1: sides of the wall, the two pieces of drywall. I 256 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: saw one even saying denim. You can use different like 257 00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: fabric type, interialt or something like. The important thing is 258 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,679 Speaker 1: that whatever you use, you cannot pack two densely exactly, 259 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:19,360 Speaker 1: because if it's too dense, that's going to transfer sound 260 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 1: and you're back to the same problem you were it before. 261 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,160 Speaker 1: And you also want to have still have some air 262 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: gap there too. You don't want the material to make 263 00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 1: contact completely through the gap. You would pack kind of 264 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 1: like half of the gap, a little more than half 265 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,080 Speaker 1: of the gap. Typically with insulating material, you leave an 266 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:43,400 Speaker 1: air gap, and that really creates a great cushion for sound. UM. 267 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:45,360 Speaker 1: We'll talk a little bit more about how that can 268 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: go wrong though. Uh decoupling in particular can make certain 269 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:54,040 Speaker 1: things UM a little more difficult. There's also damping. Sound dampening. Uh, 270 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: this is where you use some sort of material that 271 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: resists vibration. So like the foam we have here, there's 272 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: some we've got some dampening foam in here. But the 273 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:04,880 Speaker 1: typically you look at a lot of things like adhesives 274 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: that are used to dampen sound. Um. One of the 275 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:10,880 Speaker 1: ones I keep hearing about over and over as green glue. 276 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:16,200 Speaker 1: Green glue is yeah, so so it's very popular, particularly 277 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:20,920 Speaker 1: apparently in Canada, but it's popular along amongst sound proving technicians. 278 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 1: It is considered to be one of the most effective 279 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:28,840 Speaker 1: for the least amount of money solutions for sound dampening material. 280 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:32,480 Speaker 1: But typically this would be a layer that would also 281 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:36,720 Speaker 1: be part of your wall that resists the vibration of 282 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 1: sound and so it won't transfer sound as well. Um. 283 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:45,000 Speaker 1: It's again, uh, something that you would apply between two 284 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: constrained layers. So it's not like it's not like you 285 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: would cope this on the interior wall. That would be 286 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,360 Speaker 1: a bad idea. It would be on the the the 287 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: back side of the interior wall. It might even be 288 00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:59,600 Speaker 1: something you could use as an adhesive for other sound 289 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,840 Speaker 1: damping materials like acoustic foam or tile. And then the 290 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:07,920 Speaker 1: last element is really the simplest, is mass. It's just 291 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,520 Speaker 1: that heavier things are harder to move than lighter things, right, 292 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: It's just the basic idea like if if you had 293 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:18,440 Speaker 1: a cart filled with concrete blocks, it would be a 294 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: little heavy to push, But if you had that same 295 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:22,760 Speaker 1: cart and it was filled with feathers, it's easy to push. 296 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: So I've got something for you. He uses all of 297 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: those elements in a pretty perfect example, one of the 298 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,360 Speaker 1: more perfect examples of soundproofing that we can see in 299 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: the real world. I'm not sure I think Microsoft has 300 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:36,480 Speaker 1: maybe outdone them at this point. But there is a 301 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: place in Minneapolis, Minnesota called or Field Laboratories and it 302 00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 1: contains um what was I believe again until recently, the 303 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 1: world's most silent room. This world record for the most 304 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: silent room. It is nine point nine nine sound absorbent. 305 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: In order to accomplish this, it uses a combination of very, 306 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:03,120 Speaker 1: very very thick, heavy materials. It's got concrete walls, steel reinforcement, 307 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: and then on the inside of the room. I'm looking 308 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: at a picture right now, it has these alternating sort 309 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:12,639 Speaker 1: of thin looking things, so You've got like three and 310 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,679 Speaker 1: then going from left to right, and then three right 311 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,960 Speaker 1: next to it, going vertically, and they alternate throughout every 312 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: panel in this room, um, and then even on the floor. 313 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,399 Speaker 1: And the what you stand on is a metal grate 314 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:28,720 Speaker 1: that goes on top of another series of these alternating, 315 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 1: um little little units. And apparently, um, the longest anyone 316 00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: has been able to stand being in this room alone 317 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:38,960 Speaker 1: with the lights out is forty five minutes, because people 318 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,200 Speaker 1: start to hallucinate this level of silence. I've I've heard 319 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: such things. It's the sort of thing every time I 320 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,639 Speaker 1: hear it, I have the reaction that I think people have, 321 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: which is bet I could go longer, And of course 322 00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:54,199 Speaker 1: I'd probably be in there for like three minutes and 323 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:56,960 Speaker 1: be convinced I've been in there for three hours. Because 324 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: once you get to a point where something that you 325 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:04,280 Speaker 1: have taken for granted, you know, just the ambient sounds 326 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:07,840 Speaker 1: that you can hear once that's gone, that really does 327 00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:12,199 Speaker 1: make a big difference. And uh, it is a psychologically 328 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,120 Speaker 1: powerful experience, but I still kind of want to do it. Yeah, 329 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,120 Speaker 1: that's a great way of of kind of summing up 330 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 1: all of these elements. Now, if you want to really 331 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,159 Speaker 1: sound proof a room, the best thing to do is 332 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,920 Speaker 1: to incorporate as many of those as you possibly can, 333 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 1: because they're different. Ones are good for different parts of 334 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,160 Speaker 1: that frequency range we're talking about, So some of them 335 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:36,879 Speaker 1: are really good for those mid too high range frequencies, 336 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: some of them are a little better at the low frequencies. 337 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: So obviously you want to have a good combination. Otherwise 338 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: you're gonna have certain sounds come through even if you've 339 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: perfectly blocked the room for other ones, and that can 340 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,560 Speaker 1: be really frustrated. Literally a cut off or a threshold 341 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,920 Speaker 1: where if you looked on a graph that can show 342 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: you what frequencies are happening, you could literally track Okay, 343 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:04,399 Speaker 1: this frequency, now I can hear it. Yeah, it's that specific. Nolan. 344 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,119 Speaker 1: I will be back to talk a little bit more 345 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 1: about sound proving, but first let's take this quick break. 346 00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: So kind of going back to to decoupling a little bit, 347 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,919 Speaker 1: The size of the air cavity between the two sides 348 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 1: of the decoupled wall determines something called the resonant frequency 349 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: of that. So here's the here's one of the problems 350 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:36,879 Speaker 1: with decoupling. That air cavity ends up acting kind of 351 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: like a spring, right, So springs actually have a resonant frequency, 352 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: and if you end up vibrating something at the resonant frequency, 353 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: it causes that thing to vibrate very very easily. The 354 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,879 Speaker 1: big example of this that everyone is familiar with is 355 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,920 Speaker 1: the crystal glass. The opera singer hitting that note, that's 356 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,080 Speaker 1: the resonant frequency for it, and you can actually see 357 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 1: the glass to form and ultimately break. Now or even 358 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:03,040 Speaker 1: someone that can play those glasses where they fill it 359 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,280 Speaker 1: up with water and run their finger around the rim. 360 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:07,919 Speaker 1: In order for it to start making that tone, it 361 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,520 Speaker 1: has to reach that resonant frequency exactly to basically self 362 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:15,520 Speaker 1: oscillate exactly. So so here's the problem with the decoupled 363 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,080 Speaker 1: walls is that that air gap, because it's acting like 364 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:22,120 Speaker 1: a spring, uh, and because it can resonate if it's 365 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,600 Speaker 1: not at the proper thickness for the air gap, that 366 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,440 Speaker 1: resonant frequency maybe within the range of sounds that you're 367 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,000 Speaker 1: going to generate either inside or outside the room, within 368 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,240 Speaker 1: the range of human hearing, which means they're going to 369 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: impact that sound proving. And if something actually is played 370 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,159 Speaker 1: at that frequency, it will go not only will it 371 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: go through the wall. It'll go through the wall more 372 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:47,040 Speaker 1: easily than it would have if you hadn't decoupled the 373 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:51,399 Speaker 1: wall because that resonance. Uh So that is one of 374 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:53,399 Speaker 1: the things you actually have to take into account. And 375 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 1: one of the solutions to that is don't make it 376 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:02,000 Speaker 1: too thin of an air gap. Um. So another way 377 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: of experimenting this with this yourself, if you want to 378 00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: just have some fun, and by fun, I mean, like 379 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: you know, Mr Wizard style fun. You get a bottle 380 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,680 Speaker 1: and you know, if you blow across the the opening 381 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,040 Speaker 1: of the bottle, it produces a tone. Well, it doesn't 382 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,640 Speaker 1: matter how hard you blow, it's always going to play 383 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,919 Speaker 1: that one tone. But if you add water to the bottle, 384 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,959 Speaker 1: you have decreased the volume of air the bottle can 385 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,400 Speaker 1: hold and that changes the tone. Again. Back to the glasses, 386 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 1: they could have, you know, the same size glasses, but 387 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 1: they generate different tones from each one by putting a 388 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: different amount of water in each right, Right, it's not 389 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: just the size of the glass, but how much liquid 390 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:43,359 Speaker 1: is in the glass. So what you would love like 391 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 1: to do is make sure that your soundproofing UM technique 392 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: was going to take care of those maybe mid two 393 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:55,639 Speaker 1: high range uh frequencies and then make sure that the 394 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: air gap would push would resonate at one of those 395 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,400 Speaker 1: frequencies so that the other elements of your sound proofing 396 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:04,360 Speaker 1: take care of it and it doesn't pass through. If 397 00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,800 Speaker 1: your resident frequency is too low and you didn't really 398 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: protect against that, it's going to pass right on in. Uh. 399 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,840 Speaker 1: So there's also something called the triple leaf effect. And 400 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,879 Speaker 1: I had to look this up in a couple of 401 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:19,119 Speaker 1: different locations to find out what the triple leaf effect 402 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: is because I don't know if you know this, Knuel, 403 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:26,200 Speaker 1: I haven't built any houses recently. So the triple leaf 404 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:30,040 Speaker 1: effect is all about a construction of a wall, like 405 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,320 Speaker 1: a drywall, and they refer to each sheet of drywall 406 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,960 Speaker 1: as a leaf. So you've got the interior wall that 407 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: is one leaf, You've got the exterior wall. There's a 408 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,639 Speaker 1: second leaf. In a triple leaf approach, you actually have 409 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:46,160 Speaker 1: a third sheet of drywall that's in between the two. 410 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 1: It's inside the wall. It's further compartmentalizing it essentially, right 411 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: and uh And you might do this and think, oh, well, 412 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: that's going to end up protecting against sound even better. 413 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,880 Speaker 1: Not necessarily, um, it actually can cause a problem because 414 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:06,200 Speaker 1: it can create If the air cavity between the middle 415 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 1: leaf and one side is too small, it can create 416 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,199 Speaker 1: those resonance problems. So people actually refer to as the 417 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,120 Speaker 1: triple leaf problem. So this is not necessarily a technique 418 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 1: you want to go for. This is describing a problem. Yeah. Yeah, 419 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: So there are some proof technicians who say, if you 420 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,600 Speaker 1: have a triple leaf wall and you're having these resonant issues, 421 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: the the solution is actually to tear open the wall, 422 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:32,880 Speaker 1: remove that triple leaf. That third sheet of dry wall, 423 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,400 Speaker 1: the one that's in between the other two, take that out, 424 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,479 Speaker 1: and then it will create a thicker air gap between 425 00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:41,879 Speaker 1: the two sides, and that will end up changing the 426 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: resonance problem. I Gauesse, I could see that. I mean, 427 00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,680 Speaker 1: it does introduce more of a variable into the equation, 428 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: and as opposed to just having to having a third 429 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: one there, there is more ways the sound could potentially 430 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:56,520 Speaker 1: bounce around or catch that resident frequency. Right And you know, um, 431 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about echo and about how 432 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,560 Speaker 1: sound can bounce off of hard services. We talk about 433 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: the BUNNEYMN. No we didn't talk about the Bunny Man. 434 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: You know they're playing in Atlanta soon, Are they really wow, 435 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: that I would much prefer to see them than insane clown. Posse, 436 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: you're already missed insane clown. I know they played earlier 437 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: this week, yesterday, day before yesterday. Yeah, I actually wanted 438 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,320 Speaker 1: to invite them over so we could explain how magnets work. 439 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,199 Speaker 1: But that's that's neither here nor there. No no in 440 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: their heart, I hope so well. You know, they made 441 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:24,919 Speaker 1: a whole video about it. But the echoes can be 442 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,800 Speaker 1: an issue obviously in recording studios, things like that. You 443 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,639 Speaker 1: don't want there to be if there's gonna be any echo, 444 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:32,879 Speaker 1: you wanted to be there on purpose, not because of 445 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: just that's the way the room was built. Same here 446 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,040 Speaker 1: for our studio. We don't want too much echo here. 447 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,760 Speaker 1: And we are in a building that's made out of concrete. 448 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,439 Speaker 1: Now that in some ways that's good because it helps 449 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: dampen sound from other areas. Unless something is making direct 450 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,920 Speaker 1: contact with the concrete, then we can all hear it everywhere. 451 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,600 Speaker 1: Like whenever there's construction going on, you can hear it 452 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:59,640 Speaker 1: move through the concrete columns and floors and ceiling. It 453 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: is disturbing. Their very strange. We play the game what 454 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: construction equipment do you think that is? Sometimes you just 455 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: don't know because the sound can mutate based on what 456 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: it's vibrating to. You know, right, it might be a 457 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,280 Speaker 1: little drill that's vibrating a giant piece of metal, and 458 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 1: then that's vibrating something else, and by the time we 459 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,600 Speaker 1: gets to us, it sounds like there's a giant playing 460 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: hop scotch up there. Yeah, it could be a little distracting. Fortunately, 461 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: most of the spaces in in the building where in 462 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,000 Speaker 1: now have been built out because when we moved into 463 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:35,120 Speaker 1: this building, we were one of the first offices here. Yeah, 464 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,679 Speaker 1: and that just meant that we had construction noises pretty 465 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:42,640 Speaker 1: much consistently throughout the whole experience. So that is been 466 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: reduced dramatically over time. But one of the other things 467 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:48,679 Speaker 1: is that, you know, we when since we have all 468 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,119 Speaker 1: this concrete, we have to figure out how to eliminate 469 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,360 Speaker 1: that echo. And the way you do that is typically 470 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,600 Speaker 1: by putting softer material on top of the harder material 471 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: and that that again dampens the echo. So you know, 472 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,199 Speaker 1: if you if you have a castle, you probably are 473 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: hanging tapestries for a couple of reasons. One, it acts 474 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 1: like an insulator, so you don't lose as much heat 475 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,560 Speaker 1: in those cold winters and do when you're screaming at 476 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,560 Speaker 1: your servants because your food isn't on the table. When 477 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 1: the bad guys are attacking your castle. Yeah, you want 478 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,439 Speaker 1: you don't want that to echo throughout the castle, unless 479 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,880 Speaker 1: you're a villain, in which when I'm decorating my castle, 480 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,040 Speaker 1: I tend to go with tapestry. I do. I do too. 481 00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: I'm I'm tapestry heavy when I do that. Um, but 482 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,000 Speaker 1: it's it's so sort of stuff you can do inside 483 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: like a home studio too. You can hang uh fabric, 484 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,719 Speaker 1: heavy fabric to help kind of like a theater style 485 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: curtain is excellent not only because of its of what 486 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:47,199 Speaker 1: it's the denseness of it. It bunches up like so 487 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,720 Speaker 1: you can kind of squeeze it together where it creates 488 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,720 Speaker 1: these natural kind of ripples which not only absorbed the sound, 489 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 1: they sort of diffuse it a little bit in the 490 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: same way what I was describing with that World's Quietest Room. 491 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: These alternating patterns of material that have little spaces in 492 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,640 Speaker 1: between them, they act as a diffuser for the sounds. Right. 493 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:06,960 Speaker 1: And there's there's one other thing that we can talk 494 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: about or I'll briefly mention which is sound cancelation. That's 495 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,360 Speaker 1: a little different from soundproofing. Actually, in a way, it's 496 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: the opposite because you actually have to create sound with 497 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,119 Speaker 1: sound cancelation. The way sound cancelation works is if you 498 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,560 Speaker 1: were to look at that that graphic representation of a 499 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,040 Speaker 1: sound wave, Let's say it's a steady tone, because that's 500 00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: the easiest way to imagine it. So it's a stay 501 00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 1: tone it I don't know, three hurts, and you're looking 502 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,960 Speaker 1: at a three hundred hurts sign wave, and you see 503 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:35,879 Speaker 1: where the peaks and troughs are. If you were to 504 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: create a a complementary side wave where it is out 505 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,919 Speaker 1: of phase, so the peaks and troughs match up with 506 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,160 Speaker 1: the troughs and peaks, then they cancel each other out. 507 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,200 Speaker 1: That's the crazy thing about sound because you typically think 508 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,840 Speaker 1: if you add more sound to sound, it just gets louder. 509 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: Like if you've ever been in a restaurant that has 510 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: lots of hard surfaces, it becomes really difficult to have 511 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,719 Speaker 1: a versation if it's a busy night because everyone everyone 512 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: starts to talk over everyone else and it just kind 513 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,879 Speaker 1: of echoes. Well, it turns out that if you do 514 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: add sound to sound, but you make sure it's out 515 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,120 Speaker 1: of phase, it cancels it and then it's as if 516 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,639 Speaker 1: there's no sound at all. That's what noise canceling headphones do. 517 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,520 Speaker 1: They create a sound, they detect the incoming sound waves, 518 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,320 Speaker 1: they create complementary sound waves that phase that out, and 519 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,800 Speaker 1: then you get silence as a result. So an example 520 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:30,439 Speaker 1: of that phenomenon that you don't want that actually has 521 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:32,800 Speaker 1: to be corrected. If you're in a recording studio. Let's 522 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,119 Speaker 1: say you're recording an acoustic guitar and you want to 523 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: mike it in two places. So you might put a 524 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,600 Speaker 1: mic on the soundhole of the acoustic guitar. Then you 525 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,239 Speaker 1: might want to put a mike a little further up 526 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,600 Speaker 1: on the next somewhere. If those mike, since they're recording 527 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:50,160 Speaker 1: the same signal essentially, but they're spaced apart, there is 528 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: the potential for phase issues between those two mics. So 529 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: while it's not going to get straight up cancel out 530 00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:00,560 Speaker 1: the sound, it's going to change the quality of the 531 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:02,320 Speaker 1: sound in a way that you might not like. It 532 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: might make it tinier, or it might give it almost 533 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: like one of those phaser kind of a jet engine 534 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: psychedelic guitar type sound. You know, you know where it's 535 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: filtered through that sound. Um, So what you have to 536 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 1: do is you can you can correct this after the fact. 537 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: But there are devices that you actually can test the 538 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,440 Speaker 1: phase at the point you're recording and then space the 539 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: mics apart accordingly, and there's even ways to adjust the 540 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,880 Speaker 1: phase using these devices. So it's interesting how you're describing 541 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: as sort of a practical use of this phenomenon. And 542 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 1: then there are also versions of that happened in a 543 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: recording situation that you actually have to be careful, right, 544 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,720 Speaker 1: you have to correct for Yeah. So for for soundproofing, 545 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: there are a couple of different UH measuring systems to 546 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,400 Speaker 1: determine how soundproofed a room is, and they may or 547 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:54,840 Speaker 1: may not be useful to you if you are trying 548 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,240 Speaker 1: to do something like create a recording studio. So, for example, 549 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 1: in the United States, the we typically use something called 550 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:06,560 Speaker 1: the sound transmission class to explain how soundproofed a room is, 551 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,880 Speaker 1: and that's really a measurement of how well sound within 552 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 1: the ranges of human voices travels through walls, so sounds 553 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: outside of those frequencies it sound transmission class isn't concerned 554 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: with them, because it's really more about building walls so 555 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: that sound doesn't pass or walls and floors and ceilings, 556 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,400 Speaker 1: not just walls, but all the all the surfaces so 557 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: that sound does not pass easily through one uh and 558 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: into another. This would be like what hotels would be 559 00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,880 Speaker 1: really concerned with, or people who are building homes. UM. 560 00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: That range, by the way, is about hurts to four 561 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,280 Speaker 1: thousand hurts or four killer hurts. That's the that's the 562 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: typical range of frequencies of the human voice. So that's 563 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:51,560 Speaker 1: really what sound transmission class is concerned with. And it's 564 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 1: designated by a number, and in general, the higher the number, 565 00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: the better the quality of soundproofing is. So if you 566 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,640 Speaker 1: were in a room that has it's like a really 567 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: kind of lousy dry wall partition, it doesn't have a 568 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: whole lot of you know, like it doesn't have that 569 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: that absorption insulation or anything like that. Uh, the number 570 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: might be somewhere around twenty. But let's say you're in 571 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,720 Speaker 1: a high end hotel that has taken great pains to 572 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: create decoupled walls with good absorption insulation, some maybe some 573 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: dampening material in there too. That might be closer to sixty, 574 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,440 Speaker 1: and so the higher number designates that it's more sound 575 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,680 Speaker 1: proofed than the other one. But again for that given 576 00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,560 Speaker 1: range of frequencies. The stuff outside of that maybe not 577 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,320 Speaker 1: so much. Outside the United States, people tend to use 578 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:43,000 Speaker 1: was called the sound reduction index. Uh it's it's the 579 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,120 Speaker 1: s r I. So that rating tells you how many 580 00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: decibels in reduction the material will provide. So if a 581 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,240 Speaker 1: sound is a certain amplitude, a certain amount of decibels, 582 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,360 Speaker 1: which by the way, is not a not a it's 583 00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: a logarithmic scale, so it's pretty complicated, but it'll tell 584 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: you how many decibels it will reduce a sound that 585 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:07,920 Speaker 1: is generated from one space and into an adjoining space. UM. 586 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,800 Speaker 1: It's depending also upon frequencies, because some are designed to 587 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,200 Speaker 1: it's it's something that's specifically designed to cut out those 588 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 1: mid to high range frequencies. But it won't necessarily uh 589 00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,240 Speaker 1: like that material won't necessarily cut out low frequencies. So 590 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: if you get this s r I number, you have 591 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,000 Speaker 1: to also ask, well, what what range of frequencies is 592 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,640 Speaker 1: that for, Because it's not a blanket statement. It's not 593 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: saying that any sound at any decibel will be reduced 594 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:36,040 Speaker 1: this amount, then you finally have noise reduction coefficient. Uh. 595 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,520 Speaker 1: So this tells you how much sound of material can 596 00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:43,320 Speaker 1: absorb versus reflect Um. It's it's expressed as a percentage. 597 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 1: So really the percentage that you're looking at is the 598 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: percentage of sound absorbed by that material. A carpet with 599 00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:53,600 Speaker 1: a rubber underlay might have a point for rating. For example, 600 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 1: that means it would absorb of the sound that hits 601 00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:01,320 Speaker 1: it reflecting back. Um. Like a hard concrete wall might 602 00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: be a point oh five, meaning it absorbs only five 603 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 1: of the sound that hits it and gets reflected back. So, uh, 604 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,720 Speaker 1: those are those are how you would you know, that's 605 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:14,400 Speaker 1: like the metrics you would use. You would use actual 606 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:19,440 Speaker 1: instrumentation to detect how the sound is reverberating in the room, 607 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 1: and you would, you know, obviously use things like microphones 608 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,000 Speaker 1: and stuff outside of a room to detect if there's 609 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: any sound leaking out. There are also some things you 610 00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,960 Speaker 1: gotta take into account, um, some natural weak spots. If 611 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,000 Speaker 1: the room has a vent in it, which you kind 612 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,520 Speaker 1: of hope it will because otherwise things get real stuffy, 613 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:42,880 Speaker 1: real fast. Uh. The vent also may need to be treated. Ideally, 614 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: the vent will be treated with some of this material 615 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,120 Speaker 1: to dampen some of the sound. Otherwise it's just a 616 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,920 Speaker 1: conduit for sound to travel through. Yes, So the room 617 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,400 Speaker 1: we're recording in right now, it was built out for 618 00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,000 Speaker 1: us with some of these specs in mind. Um. We 619 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,479 Speaker 1: we chose the material based on the rating and we 620 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,040 Speaker 1: went with oviously a higher number UM. And then this 621 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: glass window that I was telling about earlier that's specifically 622 00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,080 Speaker 1: designed for a studiotype environment. And what we have on 623 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,640 Speaker 1: the walls in here are similar to the layout of 624 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: that World's Quiet room most talking about, except these are 625 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,319 Speaker 1: acoustic tiles that are made up of their squares and 626 00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,640 Speaker 1: they're made up of strips in a single direction, but 627 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,680 Speaker 1: the panels are alternating. So we have one where they're 628 00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:25,080 Speaker 1: facing up and down, the one next to it they're 629 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,360 Speaker 1: going left to right, etcetera. And they altered it and 630 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:30,040 Speaker 1: that helps break up the sound and um, you know, 631 00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,080 Speaker 1: make it a more uh dampened sound within the room 632 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,840 Speaker 1: and keep the sound from escaping as well. But we 633 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:38,960 Speaker 1: actually do have event in this room and it's not 634 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,839 Speaker 1: particularly well treated. So what I actually end up having 635 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,840 Speaker 1: to do is use a very nifty bundle of software 636 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 1: to take a print of the room tone, so you 637 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,160 Speaker 1: can there's a base level where if Jonathan and I 638 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: were quiet right now, you probably and we sent this 639 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: out without running this process, you would hear that base 640 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:01,560 Speaker 1: level room tone, air conditioning ound, whatever. So what I 641 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,440 Speaker 1: can do with the software is analyze thirty seconds a minute, 642 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,319 Speaker 1: the longer the better of that baseline sound than the 643 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,879 Speaker 1: computer analyzes that, and then I apply it to the 644 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,440 Speaker 1: whole audio file and it gets rid of it and 645 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:17,760 Speaker 1: no artifacting at all. When I want to say artifacting, 646 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,480 Speaker 1: I mean there's no digital debris leftover where you can hear. 647 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 1: Oh there, here's the sound of the effect working. It's 648 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,880 Speaker 1: completely transparent. And this sweet software is about two thousand dollars, 649 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:29,800 Speaker 1: so right, they're a really good job. There are a 650 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,759 Speaker 1: lot of suftware packages out there that that attempt to 651 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: do something similar to that, like a Audacity has the 652 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: noise removal tool, which is a very similar thing. It's 653 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: looking at specific frequencies and then it looks through the 654 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:45,440 Speaker 1: entire track for those frequencies to remove those. Problem is, 655 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:47,440 Speaker 1: of course that if you have other stuff laid on 656 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,800 Speaker 1: top of it. Audacity doesn't necessarily it's not necessarily able 657 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,600 Speaker 1: to go in and remove just the stuff that you 658 00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:58,279 Speaker 1: want removed and leave everything else untouched. So, uh well, 659 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,080 Speaker 1: my experience with things like this has has always been, 660 00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:03,319 Speaker 1: Now it doesn't work, you can always tell. You can 661 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,200 Speaker 1: always hear it kicking in or whatever. But just in 662 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: case anyone's interested in, this software i'm talking about is 663 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,399 Speaker 1: by a company called Isotope, and it's a package called 664 00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,280 Speaker 1: r X Advance, and it's a suite that has multiple 665 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,399 Speaker 1: um little modules that can do different things like let's 666 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,719 Speaker 1: say you're picking up a hum or some kind of 667 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:21,239 Speaker 1: radio interference. It can isolate things like that. But the 668 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:22,719 Speaker 1: one I always used to give it to that air 669 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:26,400 Speaker 1: conditioning noise is it's called de nois Er and it's 670 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 1: it's fantastic cool. And the other thing that you have 671 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 1: to worry about besides the vents are obviously doors. You 672 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:33,720 Speaker 1: want to have. Make sure that your doors have proper 673 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,800 Speaker 1: ceiling all around it. Ceiling s S E A L 674 00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:39,360 Speaker 1: that kind of seal. Yeah, Like in a recording studio 675 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,920 Speaker 1: control room, you might see a door that has a 676 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: heavy rubber um strip on the bottom of it that 677 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,120 Speaker 1: when you close it, it literally makes a seal between 678 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:51,520 Speaker 1: the door jam and the bottom of the door, so 679 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: it's air tight. Yeah, because otherwise sound will just travel 680 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,279 Speaker 1: underneath right underneath it the gap. You've done all this 681 00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,200 Speaker 1: other work and then you have a gap in the 682 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: bottom of your door. Yeah, you might as well have 683 00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:03,759 Speaker 1: done nothing right. It's it's not gonna it's not gonna 684 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: give you the results you want. So no, you know, 685 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:09,840 Speaker 1: we were talking before we start recording that, you know, 686 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: the concept of making sure the sound within a room 687 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,160 Speaker 1: sounds right, and this goes beyond soundproofing, but it was 688 00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:21,719 Speaker 1: also part of of the question sent into us. Noel 689 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:23,480 Speaker 1: and I have a bit more to say, but before 690 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,200 Speaker 1: we get to that, we're going to take another quick 691 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:36,359 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsor. So walk us through kind 692 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,319 Speaker 1: of the process. If you were setting up, say a 693 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: recording studio for music, that would be obviously you would 694 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:45,759 Speaker 1: want to make sure that everything is just right to 695 00:37:45,920 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: capture the music as the artist intended. You know, you 696 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,560 Speaker 1: might do some alteration on it on the back end, 697 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,759 Speaker 1: but you want it captured as pure as possible at 698 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,880 Speaker 1: the recording session. Yeah. This this goes into kind of 699 00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:03,440 Speaker 1: philosophy in some ways. Some people might want more of 700 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,960 Speaker 1: a live room that has some character, some nice acoustics 701 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,359 Speaker 1: or something like that. And for certain things, like say 702 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,160 Speaker 1: recording a vocal, you might want a room with as 703 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,920 Speaker 1: little character as possible. So you're just getting the quality 704 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,959 Speaker 1: of that voice through that really nice microphone and microphone preamplifier, 705 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:21,640 Speaker 1: which is what you plug a microphone in that kind 706 00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:25,239 Speaker 1: of boost that signal and makes it audible and makes 707 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:26,920 Speaker 1: it at a level that can then be recorded into 708 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,960 Speaker 1: the computer or tape machine or what have you. UM. 709 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:31,880 Speaker 1: So that's one way of looking at it. Like for 710 00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:38,160 Speaker 1: a quiet room, like a completely dead sound booth, let's say, UM, 711 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,359 Speaker 1: then you might have different little tricks you can do. 712 00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,600 Speaker 1: Like so at a drum room, for example, there are 713 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,960 Speaker 1: ways you can use panels of wood on the floor. 714 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,000 Speaker 1: You might take a strip of wood and place it 715 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 1: right underneath the kick drum the bass drum, and have 716 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,319 Speaker 1: a microphone kind of at the end of that, so 717 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,080 Speaker 1: you're the sound of the drums are sort of reflecting 718 00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,520 Speaker 1: off of that wood and creating kind of a cool 719 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,919 Speaker 1: diffew room sounds. So you when you mike drums, you're 720 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,640 Speaker 1: making them up close. You're putting a microphone right up 721 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,319 Speaker 1: on the tom tom or the snare of the kick, 722 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:10,319 Speaker 1: and then a lot of times people will mix in 723 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,759 Speaker 1: the sound of the room, which is the whole kit, 724 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,040 Speaker 1: and then kind of blend those signals together so you 725 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,399 Speaker 1: get that direct sound, which you also get this nice 726 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:21,000 Speaker 1: roomy tone. So in that situation, you might want a 727 00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:22,960 Speaker 1: little character in your room, and you might use things 728 00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:24,880 Speaker 1: like I'm talking about these strips or what have you 729 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,319 Speaker 1: to achieve some sort of character. Now, let's say we're 730 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:30,640 Speaker 1: talking about a control room, which is where you're going 731 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,520 Speaker 1: to be mixing your your music. So you have really 732 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: high end, very nice, high fidelities studio monitors which gives 733 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,680 Speaker 1: you your playback. And you know, the best studio monitors 734 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,040 Speaker 1: are considered to be very um flat. That's that's the 735 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:50,440 Speaker 1: word that's used, where the frequency response isn't particularly um 736 00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,560 Speaker 1: it's not it's not messed with on the speaker side. 737 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: So everything that's coming out of there, you know, is 738 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:58,279 Speaker 1: going to be accurate based on what you're doing, what 739 00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,520 Speaker 1: you're putting into it, the frequencies you're adjusting on your 740 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:05,040 Speaker 1: mixing console or in your computer. The monitors themselves aren't 741 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,200 Speaker 1: imparting any tone or quality beyond what you're doing to 742 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,840 Speaker 1: it right there. They're just they're just neutral and only 743 00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: presenting the stuff that you've told it to mean a 744 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,720 Speaker 1: lot of times they're referred to as reference monitors because 745 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:20,920 Speaker 1: you the idea is, and it's not always the case, 746 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,839 Speaker 1: um that the way it sounds on those monitors, it's 747 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,320 Speaker 1: going to sound like that anywhere you play it. Obviously, 748 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: there are things that happen after you finish a record 749 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:33,160 Speaker 1: called mastering, where you you kind of adjust to account 750 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,239 Speaker 1: for different types of systems that might be played on 751 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,160 Speaker 1: to make sure it sounds as good as possible on 752 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:41,840 Speaker 1: any system. But in a control room when you're playing 753 00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:46,439 Speaker 1: back your music, you don't want bad reflections. You don't 754 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,480 Speaker 1: want that sound coming out of the speakers to bounce 755 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,800 Speaker 1: back at you in a way that changes the quality 756 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:54,760 Speaker 1: of that sound. You want it to be as flat 757 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,560 Speaker 1: and clean as possible. So there are little extra touches 758 00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: you could put in a control room that absorb certain frequencies. 759 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,080 Speaker 1: Like you said, certain materials will absorb certain frequencies better. 760 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,200 Speaker 1: There are things you might put in the back corners 761 00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,480 Speaker 1: of the room that fill up a corner where two 762 00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,439 Speaker 1: walls meet, called base traps, and they are these kind 763 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,080 Speaker 1: of tall. They can be round or squared off UM 764 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: and they're made of kind of dense fibroglass material covered 765 00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 1: in a particular type of fabric, and those absorb some 766 00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,799 Speaker 1: of those base frequencies so that it's not bouncing back 767 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,399 Speaker 1: at you and muddying up your mix. Then you might 768 00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:29,040 Speaker 1: have a lot of times you'll see in a recording 769 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,319 Speaker 1: studio in the control room where you have your big 770 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,839 Speaker 1: mixing console, and then directly behind it against the wall, 771 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:36,360 Speaker 1: a lot of times there's a couch, and then above 772 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,120 Speaker 1: that couch there might be a weird looking wooden panel 773 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:44,200 Speaker 1: that has smaller arrays of these alternating little UM tiles 774 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:45,919 Speaker 1: sort of like what I described we have in our 775 00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,120 Speaker 1: room here, but smaller and and a little more dense, 776 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,799 Speaker 1: and those are designed to do different things to other 777 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:54,920 Speaker 1: frequencies like the mid range or the high um. Another 778 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:58,320 Speaker 1: thing that's really important in UH these control room settings 779 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,000 Speaker 1: is where the monitors speakers are placed. So what you 780 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:05,120 Speaker 1: might do is have an engineer UM that specializes in 781 00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:09,879 Speaker 1: you know, do building out recording studios and tuning room 782 00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,040 Speaker 1: that's what they call it. Go in there and use 783 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:16,680 Speaker 1: a device that that measures the way frequencies bounce around 784 00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:18,520 Speaker 1: the room and you would generate what's called a test 785 00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:22,200 Speaker 1: tone or some white noise even um which is just 786 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:24,600 Speaker 1: like you know, static kind of sound. And then you 787 00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:27,040 Speaker 1: can use this device, this handheld device, it might be 788 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,279 Speaker 1: cooked up to a computer. There's lots of different ones 789 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,839 Speaker 1: UM that will then take a print and analyze, Okay, 790 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:35,080 Speaker 1: this is what the sound's doing. This is where this 791 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 1: room needs some work, where we need to move the 792 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,120 Speaker 1: monitors a little further away or a little closer to 793 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,160 Speaker 1: the wall, et cetera. So that's just a few of 794 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:46,040 Speaker 1: the ways that you can um affect how the sound 795 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,200 Speaker 1: is actually heard within a room for different situations, whether 796 00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:53,279 Speaker 1: you're recording, whether you're mixing and listening, it's all about that. 797 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:57,120 Speaker 1: There are different scenarios that require different treatments. Sure, and 798 00:42:57,120 --> 00:43:02,000 Speaker 1: and anyone who's listened to you know, live albums versus 799 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,799 Speaker 1: studio albums, or for me, even just with classical music, 800 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,040 Speaker 1: Like if you ever listened to classical piece that was 801 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:11,880 Speaker 1: recorded in a big sound studio where you know they 802 00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,640 Speaker 1: got the whole orchestra in there, it can sound really amazing. 803 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: But then if you hear the same sort of thing 804 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:19,200 Speaker 1: but it's played in a concert hall, even without an audience, 805 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:24,040 Speaker 1: the effect is measurably different. You get that character you 806 00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:27,279 Speaker 1: were talking about of the space, and different spaces have 807 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: very different characters. Just as musicians may have a favorite 808 00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:35,600 Speaker 1: type of amplifier that they like to use because of 809 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,520 Speaker 1: the tone that it helps, uh, the tones that accentuates 810 00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:43,040 Speaker 1: versus the ones that it doesn't accentuate as much. Uh. 811 00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,080 Speaker 1: You have the same sort of stuff with these these rooms. Now, no, 812 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,160 Speaker 1: let me ask you this. Let's say that some of 813 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,120 Speaker 1: our listeners out there are wanting to set up like 814 00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:56,200 Speaker 1: a little home recording area. Maybe they want to do podcasting, 815 00:43:56,320 --> 00:44:00,400 Speaker 1: maybe they want to record some acoustic music, nothing to complicated. 816 00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,160 Speaker 1: What would be some general guidelines you would give somebody 817 00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:07,800 Speaker 1: who wants to set up a space in their house 818 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:10,600 Speaker 1: meant for recording, Like, what were what would just be 819 00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:14,160 Speaker 1: some general tips, not like the super like you're gonna 820 00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,840 Speaker 1: go and remodel your home kind of approach, but but 821 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,799 Speaker 1: more simple ways that you can at least limit problems 822 00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:27,520 Speaker 1: with sound from exterior sources or uh interference with the 823 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 1: sound that you're creating in the room. What are some 824 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,080 Speaker 1: of your tips you would give. I mean, there's a 825 00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,880 Speaker 1: lot of different ways that you can um make spaces 826 00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,080 Speaker 1: in your home work, and all depends on what kind 827 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:41,280 Speaker 1: of music you're trying to record. UM, So the choice 828 00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:43,440 Speaker 1: of microphone would make a big difference. For example, so 829 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,800 Speaker 1: the microphones that we use in the podcast studio or 830 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:48,080 Speaker 1: what are called dynamic microphones, and we've talked about this 831 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:50,880 Speaker 1: in the past episode. I believe um they tend to 832 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:53,360 Speaker 1: record best things that are very close to them and 833 00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:56,839 Speaker 1: don't necessarily pick up as much ambient room sound as 834 00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:00,000 Speaker 1: what's called a condenser microphone would. Now, some might say 835 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,960 Speaker 1: the condenser microphone gives a richer, bigger sound, but it 836 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,520 Speaker 1: also depends on how you use it. UM, So I 837 00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:10,640 Speaker 1: might recommend for recording vocals trying to go with like 838 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,480 Speaker 1: get a really nice dynamic microphone, like one of these 839 00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,279 Speaker 1: a sure SM seven B microphones will use and there 840 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:18,000 Speaker 1: you know, they're about three hundred bucks. They're not cheap, 841 00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:24,080 Speaker 1: but um they allow you to record uh much closer proximity. 842 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,800 Speaker 1: So if you're recording a guitar, for example, through an amplifier, 843 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,239 Speaker 1: you put it right up next to that amplifier and 844 00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:32,480 Speaker 1: crank it so that it's not recording. The signal to 845 00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:36,400 Speaker 1: noise ratio is what's called is in favor of the signal, 846 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:41,680 Speaker 1: So the sound of the amplifier is uh the main concern. 847 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,880 Speaker 1: There's really no worry about recording any room tone. And 848 00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:46,520 Speaker 1: you don't even have to crank the amp up that 849 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,200 Speaker 1: high because the mic is so close. But in terms 850 00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:51,440 Speaker 1: of little things you can do for dampening, I mean, 851 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,160 Speaker 1: get get a pack of egg crate or like some 852 00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:56,719 Speaker 1: acoustic tiles from or lex, you know, and it's not 853 00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,480 Speaker 1: cheap either. But then just make some little clusters, you know, 854 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:01,839 Speaker 1: make a few little squares on your wall if you can, 855 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,839 Speaker 1: like if you have a closet door, maybe put three 856 00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:08,520 Speaker 1: or four panels and then record facing that, you know. Um, 857 00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:11,680 Speaker 1: there are also these shields you can get you can 858 00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:13,799 Speaker 1: attach to your mic stand and basically is like a 859 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:18,360 Speaker 1: um almost like a half moon shaped shield that goes 860 00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:21,480 Speaker 1: behind the microphone so you're facing it and that cuts 861 00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:24,760 Speaker 1: down on reflections. Um. There are lots of little tricks 862 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:26,319 Speaker 1: like that that you can do. But at the end 863 00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:29,520 Speaker 1: of the day, UM, it's just about how you use 864 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:33,600 Speaker 1: the stuff that you have for podcasting. Definitely go with 865 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:37,640 Speaker 1: a dynamic microphone, talk very close to it so that 866 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:40,200 Speaker 1: it's only getting your voice and it's not recording your 867 00:46:40,239 --> 00:46:43,800 Speaker 1: cats or the sound of your conditioning things like that. Um, 868 00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:46,279 Speaker 1: the lower you can turn up the mic and still 869 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,200 Speaker 1: get a really good signal, the better off you are, 870 00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:49,919 Speaker 1: because if you have to crank it up really high, 871 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:52,440 Speaker 1: you're really far away from the mic, you're gonna be 872 00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:55,160 Speaker 1: picking up a whole lot of that room sound. Yeah, 873 00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,800 Speaker 1: I I can tell you from experience. I record a 874 00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,520 Speaker 1: couple of shows from home just for fun that that 875 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,000 Speaker 1: aren't work related, and I used to use a condenser 876 00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:08,880 Speaker 1: mike because they were they were easy. I had a 877 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:11,640 Speaker 1: USB condenser mic um and and there's nothing wrong with 878 00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,320 Speaker 1: the MIC's. I'll even tell you I had a blue 879 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:16,759 Speaker 1: Snowball for a while, and we have one here we 880 00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:20,359 Speaker 1: we've used it occasionally, mostly to connect through Skype or whatever. 881 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,520 Speaker 1: We don't record through it, but we use it to 882 00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:24,359 Speaker 1: to pick up our voices so people on the other 883 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:26,480 Speaker 1: end can hear us. UM. And I also had a 884 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,439 Speaker 1: blue Yetie microphone. Both of them are great. I love them, 885 00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:32,880 Speaker 1: but for podcasting, like you were saying, they pick up 886 00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:34,920 Speaker 1: pretty much everything. And in fact, if you were to 887 00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 1: go back and listen to some of those podcasts I did, 888 00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:39,880 Speaker 1: you would hear, like, what's that weird clicking noise and 889 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:41,960 Speaker 1: hearing in the background, And that clicking noise would have 890 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:45,640 Speaker 1: been my dog's toe nails clicking against the hardwood floor 891 00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,880 Speaker 1: as as he just ran across the floor and he 892 00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:51,560 Speaker 1: wasn't making any other noise. It's just click click click clicklick. 893 00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:53,920 Speaker 1: But that condenser mike picked up everything. And it all 894 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:56,040 Speaker 1: comes back to what we talked about sound being sort 895 00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,440 Speaker 1: of this organic thing that moves. I mean, you're never 896 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,040 Speaker 1: going to completely get rid of every bit of room 897 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,319 Speaker 1: noise unless you are going above and beyond. You're going 898 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,759 Speaker 1: to that crazy world's most silent room approach. But you 899 00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:11,200 Speaker 1: can mitigate how much of the sounds you don't want 900 00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:15,000 Speaker 1: are recorded based on where you set up the mic. 901 00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:17,200 Speaker 1: You want to be as far away from any noisy 902 00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,279 Speaker 1: sources as possible. You certainly wouldn't want to record a 903 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:23,520 Speaker 1: podcast right next to your fridge. If you have an option, uh, 904 00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:26,480 Speaker 1: if you have an internal room where it doesn't share 905 00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: an external wall, that would be a good choice. Um 906 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,640 Speaker 1: like like the place where my microphone is set up. 907 00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:35,200 Speaker 1: I don't have a room that's into All of my 908 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:38,360 Speaker 1: rooms face outward one way or the other. So I 909 00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:40,680 Speaker 1: don't have a room that I can that is that 910 00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:44,120 Speaker 1: is isolated where I could record from. UH. So my 911 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,080 Speaker 1: mine is not ideal because I also live across the 912 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:52,520 Speaker 1: street from UM railroad tracks and Marta tracks UH and 913 00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:56,960 Speaker 1: a busy road. So I'm just fortunate that when my 914 00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:00,920 Speaker 1: house was being built, they built it with that in mind. 915 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:04,640 Speaker 1: They were building the external walls so that they would 916 00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:08,480 Speaker 1: dampen that sound as much as possible, because the home 917 00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:11,680 Speaker 1: builders new while we're right next to some train tracks, 918 00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:13,439 Speaker 1: so we have to take that into account when we're 919 00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:18,239 Speaker 1: designing this. Unfortunately, it doesn't often impact my recording. Once 920 00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,279 Speaker 1: in a blue moon, if there's a freight train going 921 00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:23,200 Speaker 1: by blasting its horn, you're gonna hear it. But otherwise 922 00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:25,360 Speaker 1: it doesn't come through. So just to wrap up on 923 00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,200 Speaker 1: this whole you know home podcast set up, I can 924 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,560 Speaker 1: give you a really good practical example of our show 925 00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:33,680 Speaker 1: stuff you miss in History class Um. The host live 926 00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,960 Speaker 1: in different cities. Holly Fry lives here in Atlanta and 927 00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:40,000 Speaker 1: records in our studios, and Tracy Wilson lives in Boston 928 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,759 Speaker 1: and records from her home. And so when she was 929 00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:44,360 Speaker 1: getting ready to move, we had to figure out how 930 00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:46,120 Speaker 1: we were going to set this up. So I kind 931 00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,520 Speaker 1: of looked into it and did some research and recommended 932 00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:50,239 Speaker 1: what to get, and what we ultimately went with is 933 00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:53,439 Speaker 1: she has this It's called the sound shield, I guess 934 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:55,560 Speaker 1: it is the best way of referring to it. A 935 00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,600 Speaker 1: company is called sc Electronics. The product is a reflection 936 00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,560 Speaker 1: fill to ex portable vocal booth and the idea is 937 00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:05,480 Speaker 1: that the way it's pitched on on Sweetwater, which is 938 00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:09,080 Speaker 1: the music equipment site that I'm looking at. Um, it 939 00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:13,200 Speaker 1: is a portable acoustic treatment to reduce room ambience in 940 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:17,080 Speaker 1: untreated recording spaces. So it works pretty well as advertised. 941 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,319 Speaker 1: So it's this thing that kind of wraps around the 942 00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,480 Speaker 1: back of the microphone connects to the mic stand. Um. 943 00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:25,480 Speaker 1: So she has one of those behind her against the wall. 944 00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,960 Speaker 1: She has a heavy curtain like we talked about earlier 945 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:31,520 Speaker 1: as well, and so that helps dampen the sound that way. Uh, 946 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:35,120 Speaker 1: And she's using this sm seven b um dynamic sure 947 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:37,680 Speaker 1: vocal mic or microphones on doesn't have to be a 948 00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:39,840 Speaker 1: vocal mic. But she is next to a window. So 949 00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:42,040 Speaker 1: whenever the trash pick up comes or if there's a 950 00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:44,520 Speaker 1: motorcyclist something like that you know, we've got to stop, 951 00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:47,439 Speaker 1: so you deal with what you have. And I think 952 00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:50,919 Speaker 1: she's a pretty good example of a successful home set 953 00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:53,359 Speaker 1: up as well as as as is yours. Jonathan. Yeah, 954 00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:55,680 Speaker 1: if you if you listen back to um some of 955 00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,000 Speaker 1: the episodes that we recorded before we move to pot 956 00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:02,040 Speaker 1: City Market, there was a brief period where we were 957 00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:06,880 Speaker 1: set up in an office, uh like an actual It 958 00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:09,799 Speaker 1: wasn't designed to be an audio recording studio, but was 959 00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:14,840 Speaker 1: an office at the old office space and Buckhead that 960 00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:20,280 Speaker 1: shared a a window facing Peach Tree or near Peach Tree. 961 00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:25,040 Speaker 1: And if you listen carefully to some of those old podcasts, 962 00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:27,279 Speaker 1: not just Tech Stuff, but all the other ones we 963 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,200 Speaker 1: record at How Stuff Works, you might occasionally hear a 964 00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:33,840 Speaker 1: little high pitched noise and wonder what that was, And 965 00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:37,600 Speaker 1: that was Baton Bob. There was also sirens. Those were 966 00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:40,279 Speaker 1: the bane of our existence. YEA, sirens we would stop for, 967 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:44,680 Speaker 1: like we if we heard the siren the whistle. Baton Bob. Yeah, 968 00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:47,359 Speaker 1: Beaton Bob is a a kind of a fixture here 969 00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,919 Speaker 1: in Atlanta. He is quite the character and often can 970 00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:54,279 Speaker 1: be seen marching up and down the various streets of 971 00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:57,760 Speaker 1: Atlanta in a tutu and twirling a baton and blowing 972 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,680 Speaker 1: a whistle and he's a smile all ambassador. I love 973 00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:06,759 Speaker 1: baton Bob, Absolutely love him. Great guy. Uh, not fantastic 974 00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,080 Speaker 1: to have to record a podcast. Was you're hearing is 975 00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:11,520 Speaker 1: in whistling up and down the street and talk about 976 00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,120 Speaker 1: d I y setup. We had those windows covered over 977 00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,200 Speaker 1: with I made these panels out of that pink panther 978 00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:22,160 Speaker 1: foam installation for construction, and I nailed them and stapled 979 00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:26,600 Speaker 1: them to pieces of luan and then had them attached 980 00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:28,640 Speaker 1: to the window to cover them over. And then on 981 00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:32,279 Speaker 1: top of that we had this bright red um acoustic 982 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,400 Speaker 1: foam in sheets that would be you know, staple on 983 00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:40,240 Speaker 1: top of that, and it still didn't block out and encies. 984 00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:44,880 Speaker 1: We couldn't do anything permanent because that that wasn't something 985 00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:47,160 Speaker 1: we were allowed to do in that space. It wasn't 986 00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,840 Speaker 1: meant to be a recording studio. So we were just 987 00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:53,200 Speaker 1: doing the best with what we had um. But yeah, 988 00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:56,480 Speaker 1: it was, it was. It was difficult, so it can 989 00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,319 Speaker 1: be a challenge, but the stuff is out there. It's 990 00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:01,839 Speaker 1: not like like Noel is saying, it's not necessarily cheap. 991 00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:06,200 Speaker 1: You can do some relatively inexpensive things to limit U 992 00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:09,279 Speaker 1: sound issues. But obviously you get what you pay for 993 00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:11,719 Speaker 1: the more that you are able to spend on that. 994 00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:14,279 Speaker 1: But do your research. But the more you're able to 995 00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:17,359 Speaker 1: spend on that, the better result you are going to get. 996 00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,960 Speaker 1: In general, just make sure that whatever outlet you're going 997 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:24,120 Speaker 1: with is highly rated. You know, don't just hire a 998 00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:27,320 Speaker 1: general contractor and and go with that, because that's probably 999 00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:30,560 Speaker 1: not gonna give you the results you want. But obviously, 1000 00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:35,240 Speaker 1: you know, these are things that people in all sorts 1001 00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:40,560 Speaker 1: of of jobs and and positions, uh, worry about. Whether 1002 00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:45,080 Speaker 1: it's professional recording artists, whether it's podcasters like us home 1003 00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:49,080 Speaker 1: podcasters you just want to record a demo. I mean, 1004 00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:50,840 Speaker 1: these are the sort of things you got to think about. 1005 00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:55,160 Speaker 1: So thank you very much for writing in and requesting 1006 00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:57,879 Speaker 1: this episode, and Noel, thank you for joining me today. 1007 00:53:57,960 --> 00:53:59,680 Speaker 1: Usually you're on the other side of that window we 1008 00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:01,680 Speaker 1: were talking talking about. It's true, it's nice, too nice 1009 00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:03,719 Speaker 1: to pass through. Yeah, it's it's great to be on 1010 00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:06,080 Speaker 1: this side once in a while and not stay so 1011 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,040 Speaker 1: long that the room gets super stuffy. Uh. This that's 1012 00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:11,719 Speaker 1: one of the things that this room in particular, it 1013 00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,279 Speaker 1: does get a little warm. Now we we fixed the 1014 00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,880 Speaker 1: stuff you should know podcast room because it used to 1015 00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:22,040 Speaker 1: get blistering lee hot, and now it gets very cool there, 1016 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:24,960 Speaker 1: and now the opposite seems to happen here. But I'm 1017 00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:27,239 Speaker 1: afraid to ask for anything because I don't want to 1018 00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:30,960 Speaker 1: end up getting Gail Force winds into the podcast studio. 1019 00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:34,399 Speaker 1: That wraps up another classic episode of tech Stuff. Hope 1020 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,799 Speaker 1: you guys enjoyed it. If you have any questions, comments, requests, 1021 00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:40,120 Speaker 1: you can send me an email the addresses tech stuff 1022 00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:42,920 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com, or pop on over 1023 00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,920 Speaker 1: to Facebook or Twitter. They use the handle tech stuff 1024 00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:49,160 Speaker 1: HSW that message will get to me. Don't forget. You 1025 00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:51,719 Speaker 1: can visit our website that's tech stuff podcast dot com 1026 00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:54,640 Speaker 1: that has a link to every single episode we've ever published, 1027 00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:56,520 Speaker 1: and it also has a link to our online store 1028 00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:58,399 Speaker 1: where every purchase he make goes to help the show 1029 00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,120 Speaker 1: and we greatly appreciate it. I'll talk to you again 1030 00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:08,200 Speaker 1: really soon. Text Stuff is a production of I Heart 1031 00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:11,680 Speaker 1: Radio's House Stuff Works. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 1032 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:15,200 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 1033 00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:16,800 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.