1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:12,399 Speaker 1: Give technology with tech stuff from stuff dot com. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: and welcome to tex Stuff. I am your host Jonathan 3 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: Strickland joining me today special guest producer, extraordinaire, musician and 4 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: all around groovy dude Noel. Welcome to the show. John Fitts, 5 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 1: an honor and a privileged to be who repeated in 6 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,520 Speaker 1: it was lovely. We actually recorded together yesterday for Stuff 7 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: They Don't Want You to Know, which you are a 8 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:38,840 Speaker 1: host of that show co host, a co host along 9 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: with the co hosts with Matt Frederick and Ben Bolan 10 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: and you guys were very generous to have me on, 11 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: and so I'm not as generous, so I only took 12 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: one of you. That's fair. We had a good time though. 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 1: We did a nice little Facebook live thing. We talked 14 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: about targeted ads and got all riled up and then 15 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: recorded a nice little podcast. It was fun. Yeah. So 16 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: if you guys have been enjoying my series on on 17 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: the problem with advertising online, you can think of the 18 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: Stuff They Don't Want You To Know as sort of 19 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: a sister podcast on that same topic. Some of the 20 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 1: stuff we cover is similar, but we take a because 21 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,680 Speaker 1: we have three other folks in there, and it's four 22 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:16,400 Speaker 1: people total. It ends up having a lot of different 23 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 1: viewpoints and a lot of discussions, and we tend to 24 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: go a little dark at times. Yeah it does. It 25 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: gets a little dark, um, but also fun also light. 26 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: You know, it's not all the dark, suff I mean, 27 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,479 Speaker 1: it's it's it's life, right. So one of the things 28 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: I like to do on this show is at the 29 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: end of every episode, I invite you guys to send 30 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 1: me requests ideas topics for future episodes. And today's episode 31 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: is due to that. So I'm going to read a 32 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail. You know, we used to 33 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: have a whole claxon all right, here he goes, Hey 34 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: you tech stuff. First off, I want to thank you 35 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: for putting out your content as I'm a huge fan 36 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: of this casual learning movement. Might need a better term 37 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: for that. I was wondering if you'd be able to 38 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: do an episode on acoustics and sound dampening for studios, 39 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 1: like how they're measured, tuned, made, etcetera. It would be 40 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: awesome and spectacular as I would be able to harness 41 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 1: the power to put together a kick ass set up. 42 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: Thanks again for what you do. Dub Nosis well dubbed 43 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: we're going to do that for you. And that's really 44 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:22,959 Speaker 1: the reason why I asked Noel to come in here, 45 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,359 Speaker 1: because Noel, as a producer and sound engineer type person, 46 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: has had real world experience with this, and so we're 47 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: going to rely heavily upon his um perspective some of 48 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: the stories he has to tell about the process of 49 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: trying to make a room more soundproof or tuning a 50 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: room so that you're getting the sound you want while 51 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: you're recording, because, as it turns out, sound is a 52 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: pretty tricky thing when you boil it down. Sound is vibration, right, 53 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: It's just particles banging together. It's a whole thing you 54 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: gotta wrangle. It is a thing you gotta wrangle. We 55 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: often consider sound to just be this thing we perceive 56 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: with our ears, but what's really happening is a little 57 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:13,960 Speaker 1: more granular than that. Sound is particles that are moving, vibrating. Uh. 58 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,960 Speaker 1: Typically we're hearing things that are coming through over the air, 59 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: like actual air around us. So you listening to this 60 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: right now, you can hear my voice. Well, what's actually 61 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: happening is that some speakers are vibrating some air molecules, 62 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:34,079 Speaker 1: and that is compressing and decompressing those molecules. It's it's 63 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: changing the pressure, increasing and then decreasing the pressure at 64 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: frequencies and amplitudes that your ears pick up and then 65 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: you perceive a sound. So this is happening through all 66 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: sorts of media, not just air. It can pass through 67 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: solid matter, it can pass through liquid and depending on 68 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: how the particles are packed and the space between them, 69 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: sound may move better through one medium than through another. Now, 70 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: knowing that sound can travel through different media, you also 71 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: need to know that it can transfer from one medium 72 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: to another medium. So for example, if I'm shouting really, 73 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: really loudly in a little room, some of that sound 74 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:16,440 Speaker 1: when it makes contact with the wall, actually causes the 75 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: wall to move. Now it's not causing the wall to 76 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 1: move a lot, but it is making the wall vibrate 77 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: a little bit. Those vibrations get transferred through the wall 78 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:28,800 Speaker 1: to the other side. And that's why if you're in 79 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:31,840 Speaker 1: a place that has, you know, flimsy walls, you can 80 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:35,280 Speaker 1: hear someone in another room. The sound is actually transferring through. 81 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: Not to mention in the room itself, that sound is 82 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: actually reflecting back at you, and the quality of the 83 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: sound can depend. You can very greatly depending on the 84 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: material that the room is built out of or treated 85 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 1: with right, right, So some of the sounds getting transferred 86 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: through the materials, some of the sound is being bounced 87 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:55,160 Speaker 1: back from the material toward you, um. And a lot 88 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: of that depends upon the the hardness of the material, 89 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:00,920 Speaker 1: Like a really hard materials and bounce a lot more 90 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,280 Speaker 1: sound back at you, which is why if you are 91 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,320 Speaker 1: in a large room with a lot of hard surfaces 92 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,599 Speaker 1: you get that echoe sound. Um. Or if you're out 93 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,760 Speaker 1: someplace like at a canyon and you do a shout 94 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: and you get that echo back, it's because the sound 95 00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 1: is going out hitting the walls of the canyon, bouncing 96 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: back to you, and that's when you get to experience 97 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: that effect. Well. Obviously, this means that if you want 98 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:32,479 Speaker 1: to create a place where the sound can't escape or 99 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: leak into and a lot of recording studios, you want 100 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:37,919 Speaker 1: both of those things right. You don't want the sound 101 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: from the studio to leak outward, but you also definitely 102 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 1: don't want outside sound to leak into the important Then 103 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 1: you have to figure out, well, how do we limit 104 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: how do we work within the physical uh uh constraints 105 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: of the way sound works, so that we can limit 106 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: that as much as possible and try to have the 107 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: purest experience as we can. Uh So, one thing you 108 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:06,919 Speaker 1: can remember is that sound, because it's a physical activity 109 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: and because it relies on on energy, the way it 110 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: works is that you've got a source of the sound. 111 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: Sound waves travel outward concentrically outward from that source, and 112 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: they get weaker as they travel out that that energy 113 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: starts to dissipate. You can think of it kind of 114 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: like um uh, you know, each each time a particle 115 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: has to bang up against another one to move it, 116 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 1: some of that energy ends up getting lost. So the 117 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:33,919 Speaker 1: further way you are from a source of sound, the 118 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:37,000 Speaker 1: quieter it is. That's why that happens. So one way 119 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: you can limit the way sound comes out of a 120 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: room is you make an enormous room like you have 121 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: a little room in a really big room. Um. But 122 00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:50,279 Speaker 1: that's not necessarily the most practical approach. Actually, there's a 123 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 1: studio I used to intern at in Athens, Georgia called 124 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: Chase Park Transduction, and they essentially built their studio inside 125 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: of a larger warehouse space. So they're renting a space 126 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 1: in the strip of big giant, very high ceiling warehouse spaces. 127 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,599 Speaker 1: But when you go into the studio, you're in the warehouse. 128 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: But then there's a smaller basically building inside that warehouse 129 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: that is the one that receives all the acoustic treatments. 130 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: But it's like you said, I mean that is one 131 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: way of dealing with it is air. Yeah, the room 132 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:24,280 Speaker 1: within a room approach is often how it's referred to, 133 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: and sometimes it is not as obvious as that. Like 134 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: it may be that it looks like the the room 135 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: you're walking into might be like it's it's in a 136 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:37,320 Speaker 1: little uh alcover hallway, but that hallway is actually showing 137 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: where the the walls are, where there's an air gap 138 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: between the two walls to to mitigate any sound coming 139 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: into the space. Even this glass window that we have 140 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: in the booth that we're recording in right now, it's 141 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: a double paned window, So in between these two relatively 142 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:54,960 Speaker 1: thick pieces of glass is a little layer of air, 143 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: which in and of itself acts as a bit of 144 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: a sound dampening insulation device, right exactly, So, uh, some 145 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,720 Speaker 1: other little elements of sound that we need to remember. 146 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 1: There are two main components to a sound wave. That 147 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: are important to keep in mind. One is amplitude or volume. 148 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,800 Speaker 1: So if you are looking at the way we typically 149 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: show a sound wave which is on like an X 150 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: versus Y graph um you know those those sine wave 151 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: style graphs, the height and depth of the troughs that 152 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: represents the amplitude how loud the sound is. Then you 153 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: have the frequency of sound, the number of times sound 154 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: cycles within a second. That determines the pitch of a sound. 155 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: So a low frequency obviously would be a perceived as 156 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: a lower deeper note or tone, and a high frequency, 157 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:48,559 Speaker 1: with those peaks and troughs moving gradually more closer together, 158 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: is going to be perceived as a higher pitch. A 159 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:53,959 Speaker 1: good way to think about this too, is if anyone's 160 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:57,000 Speaker 1: familiar with the instrument the theoremin. There are two controls 161 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: on a theoreman. One is the antenna that goes upward, 162 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: and there's an end and on the side uh the 163 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: antenna on the side you use your hand by moving 164 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: it closer to or farther away, you are changing the 165 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,959 Speaker 1: amplitude and that's perceived as a change in volume. The 166 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: antenna going up as you move your hand closer to 167 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: it or farther away, you are changing the frequency. So 168 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: with those two controls you can basically shape the way 169 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,080 Speaker 1: the sound is perceived. Right, And it's important to remember 170 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:26,439 Speaker 1: these things because uh, as it turns out, different approaches 171 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: to sound proofing are effective for different frequencies. Definitely, right. 172 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: So there might be one that you're like, oh, this 173 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,559 Speaker 1: is this is perfect. I can't hear my neighbors anymore. 174 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,360 Speaker 1: But then it turns out that when your neighbors put 175 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: on a an album that has a lot of base 176 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:43,960 Speaker 1: in it, it comes right through or start yelling at 177 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: each other for whatever. Yeah, the amplitude is loud enough, 178 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,160 Speaker 1: it maybe that you're soundproofing isn't going to be. Uh. 179 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:52,559 Speaker 1: When people yell, sometimes they tend to raise the picture 180 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:54,680 Speaker 1: right right right, the pitch goes up enough that I 181 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,040 Speaker 1: got you. Yeah, So these are things that you have 182 00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 1: taken to consideration if you're trying to sound proof, and 183 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: obviously what you are trying to accomplish, like the reason 184 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,760 Speaker 1: why you're soundproofing, that will play into it as well, 185 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:07,520 Speaker 1: because if all you're trying to do is just make 186 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,200 Speaker 1: it quieter so that you know, you don't have like 187 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: you're designing a building, maybe it's a hotel and you 188 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,960 Speaker 1: want to make sure that the the people talking in 189 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: one room doesn't bleed over into other rooms. That's one 190 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:22,239 Speaker 1: type of soundproofing. If you're trying to make a professional 191 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 1: recording studio, that's another type. From a construction standpoint, Like 192 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: the base level soundproofing is drywall, so you have drywall, 193 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: and that is where if you're in a hotel that 194 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:34,360 Speaker 1: only uses drywall, people are gonna be able to hear 195 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,839 Speaker 1: every single thing that's going on next door. It's when 196 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:40,040 Speaker 1: you start basically stuffing that dry wall with other denser 197 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: materials or you know, highly rated soundproofing materials, that's when 198 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:47,440 Speaker 1: you can really cut down on that transfer between the rooms. Right. 199 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 1: And also there are other some other techniques you can 200 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:54,280 Speaker 1: use as well that I'll get into that, And it's 201 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,680 Speaker 1: all about how do you make it harder for the 202 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: sound to travel from one place to another because sound 203 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 1: is going to travel no matter or what. It's not 204 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: like we have created a material that just sucks up 205 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,240 Speaker 1: sound totally. We've got a lot of materials that resist 206 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,520 Speaker 1: vibration and that means that they don't transfer sound very well. 207 00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:16,680 Speaker 1: But in fact, the studio has some of that around us. 208 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:18,920 Speaker 1: But you know, there's other stuff you have to take 209 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 1: into consideration as well. Now, there are four general elements 210 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: to soundproofing, and we've we've kind of touched on a 211 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,120 Speaker 1: few of them, but one of the big ones is 212 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:34,439 Speaker 1: called decoupling. Now, decoupling is a construction term. When you're 213 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:38,440 Speaker 1: talking about decoupling, you're talking about the way the walls 214 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,839 Speaker 1: of the soundproofed area are actually constructed. So you were 215 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,960 Speaker 1: just talking about dry wall. The typical way a wall 216 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 1: is constructed if you've got studs and attached to the 217 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: studs are the anchor points for the drywall. And in 218 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:57,560 Speaker 1: a typical wall, the studs are connected on either side 219 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: by drywall for one side of the wall and dry 220 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:01,599 Speaker 1: wall for the other side of the the wall. So the 221 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: uh and if you can think of it like the 222 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: interior wall versus the exterior wall of a room. The 223 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: problem with that is that when sound hits the drywall, 224 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,319 Speaker 1: then sound can travel through the dry wall through the studs, 225 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 1: which transmit sound. They're a pretty good conductor for sound 226 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: to the other side of the dry wall, and then 227 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,600 Speaker 1: you get sound bleeding out or you have sound bleeding 228 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:27,080 Speaker 1: in from the outside. So decoupling is a process where 229 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:30,760 Speaker 1: you would build a wall so that the studs don't 230 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:34,480 Speaker 1: touch both sides of the wall. You would have a 231 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: series of studs that one side the interior wall are 232 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: attached to, and a different series of studs that the 233 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:44,600 Speaker 1: exterior wall are attached to. They both extend well into 234 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,960 Speaker 1: the gap between the two walls, but they don't touch 235 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: the other side. So one side could be receiving sound 236 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:55,079 Speaker 1: waves and potentially transfer those, but since they're not touching, 237 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:57,679 Speaker 1: it's much more difficult for that to happen, right, because 238 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:00,200 Speaker 1: air is not as good a conductor of sound as 239 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,319 Speaker 1: a solid object is, which you wouldn't think that, because 240 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,000 Speaker 1: I mean, here we are in a room talking to 241 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: each other, and the air is basically what's connecting us. 242 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:10,840 Speaker 1: But the interesting thing, though, is that the way you 243 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 1: can tell this, it's very easy way to tell. It's 244 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: the old kid game of a telephone where you get 245 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: two cans in a string. Right, You you punch holes 246 00:13:19,679 --> 00:13:21,439 Speaker 1: in the bottom of the cans, You run the string 247 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:24,440 Speaker 1: through the holes, you stretch it taut, and then you 248 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 1: can whisper into one can and hear it on the 249 00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: other side. But if you whisper that same volume across 250 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: the room you can't hear it. So again that shows 251 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 1: that the the physical media is actually more or medium 252 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:40,240 Speaker 1: I should say, is actually more efficient at transferring the 253 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:44,320 Speaker 1: sound than than air is. So air pockets are actually 254 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:49,679 Speaker 1: really important when you're soundproofing, you know, designing a soundproof room. UM. 255 00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: Typically you would pair decoupling with some of the other elements, 256 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:56,080 Speaker 1: and I'll go ahead and mention what those elements are, 257 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: and then we'll talk more about how you would put 258 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:03,400 Speaker 1: it all together. So you've got absorption another important element. 259 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:08,199 Speaker 1: This is obviously using a material that slows down sound. 260 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: Uh It absorbs some of the sounds, so that sound 261 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 1: essentially loses some of its energy and it thus is quieter. 262 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,000 Speaker 1: It doesn't it doesn't leak out as much because the 263 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:22,440 Speaker 1: amplitude gets reduced as a result. Uh. So absorption you 264 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,920 Speaker 1: achieve usually through using some sort of insulation material like UM. 265 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 1: I mean fiberglass is a simple example where you would 266 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: put that in the wall in the in the gap 267 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: between the two sides of the wall, the two pieces 268 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: of drywall. I saw one even saying denim. You can 269 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:40,200 Speaker 1: use different like fabric type, interial, cotton or something like. 270 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: The important thing is that whatever you use, you cannot 271 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: pack two densely exactly because if it's too dense, that's 272 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:48,720 Speaker 1: going to transfer sound and you're back to the same 273 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:50,720 Speaker 1: problem you were it before. And you also want to 274 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: have still have some air gap there too. You don't 275 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: want the material to make contact completely through the gap. 276 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 1: You would pack kind of half of the gap, a 277 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,680 Speaker 1: little more than half of the gap. Typically with insulating material, 278 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: you leave an air gap, and that really creates a 279 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 1: great cushion for sound. UM. We'll talk a little bit 280 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: more about how that can go wrong though. Uh. Decoupling 281 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: in particular can make certain things, um a little more difficult. 282 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: There's also damping sound dampening UH, this is where you 283 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:26,920 Speaker 1: use some sort of material that resists vibration. So like 284 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: the foam we have here, there's some we've got some 285 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,440 Speaker 1: dampening foam in here. But the typically you look at 286 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: a lot of things like adhesives that are used to 287 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: dampen sound. UM. One of the ones I keep hearing 288 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:41,360 Speaker 1: about over and over is green glue. Green glue is yeah, 289 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:46,040 Speaker 1: so so it's very popular, particularly apparently in Canada, but 290 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: it's popular along amongst sound proving technicians. It is considered 291 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: to be one of the most effective for the least 292 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 1: amount of money solutions for sound dampening material But typically 293 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,080 Speaker 1: this would be a layer that would also be part 294 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:05,520 Speaker 1: of your wall that resists the vibration of sound and 295 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: so it won't transfer sound as well. Um, it's again, uh, 296 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:14,640 Speaker 1: something that you would apply between two constrained layers. So 297 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:16,680 Speaker 1: it's not like it's not like you would cope this 298 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 1: on the interior wall. That would be a bad idea. 299 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,560 Speaker 1: It would be on the the the back side of 300 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:25,360 Speaker 1: the interior wall. It might even be something you could 301 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 1: use as an adhesive for other sound dampening materials like 302 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 1: acoustic phone or tile. And then the last element is 303 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: really the simplest is mass. It's just that heavier things 304 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,320 Speaker 1: are harder to move than lighter things, right, It's just 305 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:42,920 Speaker 1: the basic idea like if if you had a cart 306 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: filled with concrete blocks, it would be a little heavy 307 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: to push, But if you had that same cart and 308 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: it was filled with feathers, it's easy to push. So 309 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:53,560 Speaker 1: I've got something for you. He uses all of those 310 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: elements in a pretty perfect example, one of the more 311 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: perfect examples of soundproofing that we can see in the 312 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: real world. Um, I'm not sure. I think Microsoft has 313 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 1: maybe outdone them at this point. But there is a 314 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:08,840 Speaker 1: place in Minneapolis, Minnesota called or Field Laboratories and it 315 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,439 Speaker 1: contains um, what was I believe again until recently, the 316 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:16,520 Speaker 1: world's most silent room. This world record for the most 317 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:21,199 Speaker 1: silent room. It is ninety nine point nine nine sound absorbent. 318 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,959 Speaker 1: In order to accomplish this, it uses a combination of 319 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,360 Speaker 1: very very very thick, heavy materials. It's got concrete walls, 320 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:33,320 Speaker 1: steel reinforcement, and then on the inside of the room, 321 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: I'm looking at a picture right now, it has these 322 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:39,840 Speaker 1: alternating sort of thin looking things. So you've got like 323 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,440 Speaker 1: three and then going from left to right, and then 324 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: three right next to it, going vertically, and they alternate 325 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: throughout every UM panel in this room, UM, and then 326 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,400 Speaker 1: even on the floor. And the what you stand on 327 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,280 Speaker 1: is a metal grate that goes on top of another 328 00:17:55,440 --> 00:18:01,199 Speaker 1: series of these alternating UM little little units. And apparently, UM, 329 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:03,959 Speaker 1: the longest anyone has been able to stand being in 330 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:06,360 Speaker 1: this room alone with the lights out of forty five 331 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: minutes because people start to hallucinate right this level of silence. 332 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:12,800 Speaker 1: I've I've heard such things and it's the sort of thing. 333 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,199 Speaker 1: Every time I hear it, I have the reaction that 334 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: I think people have, which is bet I could go longer, 335 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: and of course I'd probably be in there for like 336 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: three minutes and be convinced I've been in there for 337 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:26,879 Speaker 1: three hours. Because once you get to a point where 338 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,439 Speaker 1: something that you have taken for granted, you know just 339 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,639 Speaker 1: the ambient sounds that you can hear once that's gone, 340 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,159 Speaker 1: that really does make a big difference. And uh, it 341 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,840 Speaker 1: is a psychologically powerful experience, but I still kind of 342 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: want to do it. Yeah, that's a great way of 343 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: of kind of summing up all of these elements. Now, 344 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,320 Speaker 1: if you want to really sound proof a room, the 345 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: best thing to do is to incorporate as many of 346 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,920 Speaker 1: those as you possibly can, because they're different. Ones are 347 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,840 Speaker 1: good for different parts of that frequency we're talking about, 348 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 1: So some of them are really good for those mid 349 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:05,920 Speaker 1: too high range frequencies. Some of them are a little 350 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: better at the low frequencies. So obviously you want to 351 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 1: have a good combination. Otherwise you're gonna have certain sounds 352 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,399 Speaker 1: come through even if you've perfectly blocked the room for 353 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,520 Speaker 1: other ones, and that can be really frustrated. Literally, a 354 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: cut off or a threshold where if you looked on 355 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,240 Speaker 1: a graph that can show you what frequencies are happening, 356 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: you could literally track Okay, at this frequency, now I 357 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 1: can hear it. It's that specific usually, so kind of 358 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:37,719 Speaker 1: going back to to decoupling a little bit, the size 359 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,199 Speaker 1: of the air cavity between the two sides of the 360 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: the coupled wall determines something called the resonant frequency of that. 361 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: So here's the here's one of the problems with decoupling. 362 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: That air cavity ends up acting kind of like a spring, right, 363 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:57,000 Speaker 1: So springs actually have a resonant frequency, and if you 364 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,640 Speaker 1: end up vibrating something at the resonant frequency, it causes 365 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,960 Speaker 1: that thing to vibrate very, very easily. The big example 366 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: of this that everyone is familiar with is the crystal 367 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: glass the opera singer hitting that note, that's the resonant 368 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:13,600 Speaker 1: frequency for it. You can actually see the glass to 369 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: form and ultimately break. Now, or even someone that can 370 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: play those glasses where they fill it up with water 371 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,399 Speaker 1: and run their finger around the rim. In order for 372 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: it to start making that tone, it has to reach 373 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:29,359 Speaker 1: that resonant frequency exactly. Basically self oscillate exactly. So, So 374 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,399 Speaker 1: here's the problem with the decoupled walls is that that 375 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:35,639 Speaker 1: air gap, because it's acting like a spring, uh and 376 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,440 Speaker 1: because it can resonate if it's not at the proper 377 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,439 Speaker 1: thickness for the air gap, that resonant frequency maybe within 378 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,400 Speaker 1: the range of sounds that you're going to generate either 379 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: inside or outside the room, within the range of human hearing, 380 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,240 Speaker 1: which means they're going to impact that sound proving it 381 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:56,439 Speaker 1: if something actually is played at that frequency, it'll go 382 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:58,520 Speaker 1: not only will it go through the wall, it'll go 383 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: through the wall more easily than it would have if 384 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:06,359 Speaker 1: you hadn't decoupled the wall because that resonance. Uh So, 385 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,280 Speaker 1: that is one of the things you actually have to 386 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: take into account. And one of the solutions to that 387 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,879 Speaker 1: is don't make it too thin of an air gap. 388 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:20,480 Speaker 1: Um So, another way of experimenting this with this yourself, 389 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:23,840 Speaker 1: if you want to just have some fun, and by fun, 390 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,280 Speaker 1: I mean, like you know, Mr Wizard style fun. You 391 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:29,680 Speaker 1: get a bottle and you know if you blow across 392 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,640 Speaker 1: the the opening of the bottle, it produces a tone. Well, 393 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: it doesn't matter how hard you blow, it's always going 394 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,280 Speaker 1: to play that one tone. But if you add water 395 00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: to the bottle, you have decreased the volume of air 396 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 1: the bottle can hold, and that changes the tone. Again. 397 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,240 Speaker 1: Back to the glasses, they could have, you know, the 398 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,760 Speaker 1: same size glasses, but they generate different tones from each 399 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,920 Speaker 1: one by putting a different amount of water in each. Right, 400 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,879 Speaker 1: it's not just the size of the glass, but how 401 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,800 Speaker 1: much liquid is in the glass. So what you would 402 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:02,840 Speaker 1: love like to do is make sure that your soundproofing 403 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,200 Speaker 1: UM technique was going to take care of those maybe 404 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:11,440 Speaker 1: mid too high range uh frequencies and then make sure 405 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: that the air gap would push, would resonate at one 406 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: of those frequencies, so that the other elements of your 407 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,920 Speaker 1: soundproofing take care of it and it doesn't pass through. 408 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: If your resonant frequency is too low and you didn't 409 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:25,760 Speaker 1: really protect against that, it's going to pass right on 410 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:30,160 Speaker 1: in UH. So. There's also something called the triple leaf effect. 411 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,840 Speaker 1: And I had to look this up in a couple 412 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:34,760 Speaker 1: of different locations to find out what the triple leaf 413 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: effect is because I don't know if you know this, Knuel. 414 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:42,200 Speaker 1: I haven't built any houses recently. So the triple leaf 415 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: effect is all about a construction of a wall like 416 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: a drywall, and they refer to each sheet of drywall 417 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: as a leaf. So you've got the interior wall that 418 00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,760 Speaker 1: is one leaf. You've got the exterior wall. There's a 419 00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:58,639 Speaker 1: second leaf. In a triple leaf approach, you actually have 420 00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,160 Speaker 1: a third sheet of dry wall that's in between the two. 421 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 1: It's inside the wall. It's further compartmentalizing it essentially, right 422 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: and uh. And you might do this and think, oh, well, 423 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: that's going to end up protecting against sound even better. 424 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: Not necessarily, um, it actually can cause a problem because 425 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:22,200 Speaker 1: it can create if the air cavity between the middle 426 00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,399 Speaker 1: leaf and one side is too small, it can create 427 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,159 Speaker 1: those resonance problems. So people actually referred to as the 428 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: triple leaf problem. So this is not necessarily a technique 429 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,280 Speaker 1: you want to go for. This is describing a problem. Yeah. Yeah, 430 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,800 Speaker 1: So there are some proof technicians who say, if you 431 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,560 Speaker 1: have a triple leaf wall and you're having these resonant issues, 432 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:44,080 Speaker 1: the the solution is actually to tear open the wall. 433 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:48,960 Speaker 1: Remove that triple leaf, that third sheet of drywall, the 434 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: one that's in between the other two. Take that out, 435 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:54,479 Speaker 1: and then it will create a thicker air gap between 436 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,879 Speaker 1: the two sides, and that will end up changing the 437 00:23:57,920 --> 00:23:59,840 Speaker 1: resonance problem. I because I could see that, I mean, 438 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:03,840 Speaker 1: does introduce more of a variable into the equation and 439 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,160 Speaker 1: as opposed to just having to having a third one, 440 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: there there is more ways the sound could potentially bounce 441 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: around or catch that resident frequency right And you know, um, 442 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,199 Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about echo and about how 443 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,280 Speaker 1: sound can bounce off of hard services that we talk 444 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: about the bunny Men. No, we didn't talk about the 445 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,399 Speaker 1: bunny Man. You know they're playing in Atlanta soon? Are 446 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,000 Speaker 1: they really? Wow that? I would much prefer to see 447 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,120 Speaker 1: them than insane clown posse you're already missed insane clown 448 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,440 Speaker 1: Know they played earlier this week, yesterday before day before yesterday. Yeah, 449 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,240 Speaker 1: I actually wanted to invite them over so we could 450 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,520 Speaker 1: explain how magnets work. But that's that's neither here nor there. 451 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:36,879 Speaker 1: No no in their heart, I hope so well, you 452 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,520 Speaker 1: know they made a whole video about it. But the 453 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,440 Speaker 1: echoes can be an issue obviously in recording studios, things 454 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: like that. You don't want there to be if there's 455 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: gonna be any echo, you wanted to be there on purpose, 456 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:50,399 Speaker 1: not because of just that's the way the room was 457 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,239 Speaker 1: built same here for our studio. We don't want too 458 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:55,640 Speaker 1: much echo here, and we are in a building that's 459 00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: made out of concrete. Now that in some ways that's 460 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: good because it helps dampen sound from other areas. Unless 461 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:07,040 Speaker 1: something is making direct contact with the concrete, then we 462 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,919 Speaker 1: can all hear it everywhere. Like whenever there's construction going on, 463 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,439 Speaker 1: you can hear it move through the concrete columns and 464 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: floors and ceiling. It is disturbing their we play the 465 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: game what construction equipment? Do you think that is? Sometimes 466 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,280 Speaker 1: you just don't know because the sound can mutate based 467 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,480 Speaker 1: on what it's vibrating to, you know, right, it might 468 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: be a little drill that's vibrating a giant piece of metal, 469 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,200 Speaker 1: and then that's vibrating something else, and by the time 470 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,080 Speaker 1: it gets to us, it sounds like there's a giant 471 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,679 Speaker 1: playing hop scotch ups there. Yeah, it could be a 472 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: little distracting. Fortunately, most of the spaces in in the 473 00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:46,320 Speaker 1: building where in now have been built out because when 474 00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,840 Speaker 1: we moved into this building, we were one of the 475 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 1: first offices here. Yeah, and that just meant that we 476 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:56,280 Speaker 1: had construction noises pretty much consistently throughout the whole experience, 477 00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:02,320 Speaker 1: so that is been reduced dramatically over time. But one 478 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: of the other things is that you know, we when 479 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: since we have all this concrete, we have to figure 480 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,439 Speaker 1: out how to eliminate that echo. And the way you 481 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,480 Speaker 1: do that is typically by putting softer material on top 482 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,920 Speaker 1: of the harder material and that that again dampens the echo. 483 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,959 Speaker 1: So uh, you know, if you if you have a castle, 484 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:21,600 Speaker 1: you probably are hanging tapestries for a couple of reasons. One, 485 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: it acts like an insulator so you don't lose as 486 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,920 Speaker 1: much heat in those cold winters. And do when you're 487 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: screaming at your servants because your food isn't on the 488 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,800 Speaker 1: table when the bad guys are attacking your castle. Yeah, 489 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: you want you don't want that to echo throughout the 490 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,160 Speaker 1: castle unless you're a villain. And when when I'm decorating 491 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,440 Speaker 1: my castle, I tend to go with tapestry. I do. 492 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: I do too. I'm I'm tapestry heavy when I do that. Um, 493 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,400 Speaker 1: but it's it's so sore of stuff You can do 494 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: inside like a home studio too. You can hang uh fabric, 495 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,719 Speaker 1: heavy fabric to help kind of like a theater style 496 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,520 Speaker 1: curtain is excellent. Not only because of its of what it's, 497 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 1: the denseness of it. It bunches up like so you 498 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,920 Speaker 1: can kind of squeeze it together where it creates these 499 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,720 Speaker 1: natural kind of ripples which not only absorbed the sound, 500 00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: they sort of diffuse it a little bit in the 501 00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: same way what I was describing with that World's Quietest Room. 502 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 1: These alternating patterns of material that have little spaces in 503 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,640 Speaker 1: between them, they act as a diffuser for the sounds. Right. 504 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,240 Speaker 1: And there's there's one other thing that we can talk about, 505 00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,920 Speaker 1: or i'll briefly mention, which is sound cancelation. That's a 506 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,680 Speaker 1: little different from soundproofing. Actually in a way, it's the 507 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,119 Speaker 1: opposite because you actually have to create sound with sound cancelation. 508 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,480 Speaker 1: The way sound cancelation works is if you were to 509 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:40,160 Speaker 1: look at that that graphic representation of a sound wave, 510 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:42,520 Speaker 1: Let's say it's a steady tone, because that's the easiest 511 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:44,680 Speaker 1: way to imagine it. So it's a stay tone it 512 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,440 Speaker 1: I don't know, three hurts, and you're looking at a 513 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 1: three hundred hurts sign wave, and you see where the 514 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: peaks and troughs are. If you were to create a 515 00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:58,920 Speaker 1: a complementary sign wave where it is out of phase, 516 00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: so the peaks and troughs match up with the troughs 517 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,119 Speaker 1: and peaks, then they cancel each other out. That's the 518 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,480 Speaker 1: crazy thing about sound, because you typically think if you 519 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,040 Speaker 1: add more sound to sound, it just gets louder. Like 520 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,040 Speaker 1: if you've ever been in a restaurant that has lots 521 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: of hard surfaces, it becomes really difficult to have a 522 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: conversation if it's a busy night because everyone everyone starts 523 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:22,280 Speaker 1: to talk over everyone else and it just kind of echoes. Well, 524 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:24,920 Speaker 1: it turns out that if you do add sound to sound, 525 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,520 Speaker 1: but you make sure it's out of phase, it cancels 526 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,239 Speaker 1: it and then it's as if there's no sound at all. 527 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,399 Speaker 1: That's what noise canceling headphones do. They create a sound, 528 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: they detect the incoming sound waves, they create complimentary sound 529 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,120 Speaker 1: waves that phase that out, and then you get silence 530 00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,960 Speaker 1: as a result. So an example of that phenomenon that 531 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 1: you don't want that actually has to be corrected. If 532 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,800 Speaker 1: you're in a recording studio. Let's say you're recording an 533 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 1: acoustic guitar and you want to mike it in two places, 534 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,640 Speaker 1: so you might put a mic on the soundhole of 535 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,200 Speaker 1: the acoustic guitar that you might want to put a 536 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: mike a little further up on the next somewhere. If 537 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,960 Speaker 1: those mike, since they're recording the same signal essentially, but 538 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: they're spaced apart, there is the potential for phase issues 539 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,160 Speaker 1: between those two mics. So while it's not going to 540 00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,239 Speaker 1: get straight up cancel out the sound, it's going to 541 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 1: change the quality of the sound in a way that 542 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: you might not like. It might make it tinier, or 543 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,920 Speaker 1: it might give it almost like one of those phaser 544 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,800 Speaker 1: kind of a jet engine psychedelic guitar type sound. You know, 545 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:30,720 Speaker 1: you know where it's filtered through that sound. Um, So 546 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: what you have to do is you can you can 547 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,440 Speaker 1: correct this after the fact, but there are devices that 548 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: you actually can test the phase at the point you're 549 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,920 Speaker 1: recording and then space the mics apart accordingly, And there's 550 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,960 Speaker 1: even ways to adjust the phase using these devices. So 551 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,880 Speaker 1: it's interesting how you're describing as sort of a practical 552 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,720 Speaker 1: use of this phenomenon. And then there are also versions 553 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: of that happened in a recording situation that you actually 554 00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:58,440 Speaker 1: have to be careful you have to correct for. Yeah, 555 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: So for for soundproofing, there are a couple of different 556 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:07,239 Speaker 1: UH measuring systems to determine how soundproofed a room is, 557 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:09,920 Speaker 1: and they may or may not be useful to you 558 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: if you are trying to do something like create a 559 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: recording studio. So, for example, in the United States, we 560 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 1: typically use something called the sound transmission class to explain 561 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,480 Speaker 1: how soundproofed a room is, and that's really a measurement 562 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,680 Speaker 1: of how well sound within the ranges of human voices 563 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: travels through walls. So sounds outside of those frequencies, it 564 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 1: sound transmission class isn't concerned with them, because it's really 565 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,400 Speaker 1: more about building walls so that sound doesn't pass or 566 00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: walls and floors and ceilings, not just walls, but all 567 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,520 Speaker 1: the all the surfaces so that sound does not pass 568 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,600 Speaker 1: easily through one UH and into another. This would be 569 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: like what hotels would be really concerned with, or people 570 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,720 Speaker 1: who are building homes. UM that range, by the way, 571 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: is about hurts to four thousand hurts or four killer hurts. 572 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,200 Speaker 1: That's the that's the typical range of frequencies of the 573 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: human voice. So that's really what sound transmission class is 574 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: concerned with. And it's designated by a number, and in general, 575 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: the higher the number, the better the quality of soundproofing is. 576 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,200 Speaker 1: So if you were in a room that has like 577 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: a really kind of lousy dry wall partition, it doesn't 578 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,120 Speaker 1: have a whole lot of you know, like it doesn't 579 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,880 Speaker 1: have that that absorption installation or anything like that. Uh, 580 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: the number might be somewhere around twenty. But let's say 581 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 1: you're in a high end hotel that has taken great 582 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,640 Speaker 1: pains to create decoupled walls with good absorption insulation some 583 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 1: maybe some dampening material in there too, that might be 584 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 1: closer to sixty. And so the higher number designates it's 585 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: more sound proofed than the other one. But again for 586 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,959 Speaker 1: that given range of frequencies. The stuff outside of that 587 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: maybe not so much. Outside the United States, people tend 588 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: to use was called the sound reduction index. Uh, it's 589 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,720 Speaker 1: it's the s r I. So that rating tells you 590 00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:05,200 Speaker 1: how many decibels in reduction the material will provide. So 591 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,640 Speaker 1: if a sound is a certain amplitude, a certain amount 592 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 1: of decibels, which by the way, is not a not 593 00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: a it's a logarithmic scale, so it's pretty complicated, but 594 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: it will tell you how many decibels it will reduce. 595 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:21,360 Speaker 1: A sound that is generated from one space and into 596 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:26,640 Speaker 1: an adjoining space. UM. It's depending also upon frequencies because 597 00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 1: some are designed to it's it's something that's specifically designed 598 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:31,800 Speaker 1: to cut out those mid to high range frequencies, but 599 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,320 Speaker 1: it won't necessarily uh like that material won't necessarily cut 600 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:37,280 Speaker 1: out low frequencies. So if you get this s r 601 00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,959 Speaker 1: I number, you have to also ask, well, what what 602 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,520 Speaker 1: range of frequencies is that for? Because it's not a 603 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: blanket statement. It's not saying that any sound at any 604 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,680 Speaker 1: decibel will be reduced this amount. Then you finally have 605 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,360 Speaker 1: noise reduction coefficient. Uh. So this tells you how much 606 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:58,120 Speaker 1: sound of material can absorb versus reflect UM. It's it's 607 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 1: expressed as a percentage, So really the percentage that you're 608 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,400 Speaker 1: looking at is the percentage of sound absorbed by that material. 609 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 1: A carpet with a rubber underlay might have a point 610 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:12,080 Speaker 1: for rating. For example, that means it would absorb of 611 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 1: the sound that hits it reflecting back. UM Like a 612 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: hard concrete wall might be a point oh five, meaning 613 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:22,000 Speaker 1: it absorbs only five percent of the sound that hits 614 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: it and gets reflected back. So uh those are those 615 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,200 Speaker 1: are how you would you know that's like the metrics 616 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 1: you would use. You would use actual instrumentation to detect 617 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: how the sound is reverberating in the room. And you 618 00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,240 Speaker 1: would you know, obviously use things like microphones and stuff 619 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,840 Speaker 1: outside of a room to detect if there's any sound 620 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:43,920 Speaker 1: leaking out. There are also some things you gotta take 621 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: into account, um, some natural weak spots. If the room 622 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:52,320 Speaker 1: has a vent in it, which you kind of hope 623 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 1: it will because otherwise things get real stuffy, real fast. Uh, 624 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,960 Speaker 1: the vent also may need to be treated. Ideally the 625 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: vent will be treated with some of this material to 626 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,680 Speaker 1: dampen some of the sound. Otherwise it's just a conduit 627 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,120 Speaker 1: for sound to travel through. Yeah. So the room we're 628 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,680 Speaker 1: recording in right now, it was built out for us 629 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,439 Speaker 1: with some of these specs in mind. Um. We chose 630 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:15,799 Speaker 1: the material based on the rating and we went with 631 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,840 Speaker 1: obviously a higher number UM. And then this glass window 632 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,719 Speaker 1: that I was telling about earlier that's specifically designed for 633 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,520 Speaker 1: a studiotype environment, and what we have on the walls 634 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: in here are similar to the layout of that World's 635 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:30,319 Speaker 1: Quiet room most talking about, except these are acoustic tiles 636 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,680 Speaker 1: that are made up of their squares and they're made 637 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: up of strips in a single direction, but the panels 638 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,560 Speaker 1: are alternating, so we have one where they're facing up 639 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:41,520 Speaker 1: and down, the one next to it they're going left 640 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:43,920 Speaker 1: to right, etcetera. And they altered it and that helps 641 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,400 Speaker 1: break up the sound and um, you know, make it 642 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: a more uh dampened sound within the room and keep 643 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:53,360 Speaker 1: the sound from escaping as well. But we actually do 644 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,160 Speaker 1: have event in this room and it's not particularly well treated. 645 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: So what I actually end up having to do is 646 00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 1: use a very nifty bundle of software to take a 647 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,239 Speaker 1: print of the room tone, so you can there's a 648 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: base level where Jonathan and I were quiet right now, 649 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 1: you probably and we sent this out. Without running this process, 650 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: you would hear that base level room tone, air conditioning sound, whatever. 651 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: So what I can do with the software is analyze 652 00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: thirty seconds a minute, the longer the better of that 653 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,440 Speaker 1: baseline sound than the computer analyzes that, and then I 654 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:30,439 Speaker 1: apply it to the whole audio file and it gets 655 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:32,839 Speaker 1: rid of it and no artifacting at all. Like when 656 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: I want to say artifacting, I mean there's no digital 657 00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:38,239 Speaker 1: debris leftover where you can hear, Oh, there here's the 658 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: sound of the effect working. It's completely transparent and this 659 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,879 Speaker 1: sweet software is about two thousand dollars, so right, they're 660 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:46,720 Speaker 1: a really good job. There are a lot of software 661 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:49,840 Speaker 1: packages out there that that attempt to do something similar 662 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,320 Speaker 1: to that, like a Audacity has the noise Removal tool, 663 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,680 Speaker 1: which is a very similar thing. It's looking at specific 664 00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:58,840 Speaker 1: frequencies and then it looks through the entire track or 665 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,160 Speaker 1: those frequencies to remove those. Problem is, of course, that 666 00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:04,000 Speaker 1: if you have other stuff laid on top of it, 667 00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,560 Speaker 1: Audacity doesn't necessarily it's not necessarily able to go in 668 00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,360 Speaker 1: and remove just the stuff that you want removed and 669 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:15,040 Speaker 1: leave everything else untouched. So uh well, my experience with 670 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: things like this as has always been now it doesn't work. 671 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: You can always tell, you can always hear it kicking 672 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,000 Speaker 1: in or whatever. But just in case anyone's interested in, 673 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,359 Speaker 1: the software I'm talking about is by a company called Isotope, 674 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,920 Speaker 1: and it's a package called r X Advance, and it's 675 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,399 Speaker 1: a suite that has multiple um little modules that can 676 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:33,319 Speaker 1: do different things like let's say you're picking up a 677 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:35,880 Speaker 1: hum or some kind of radio interference. It can is 678 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:38,120 Speaker 1: isolate things like that. But the one I always used 679 00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,959 Speaker 1: to give to that air conditioning noise is it's called 680 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,439 Speaker 1: de nois er and it's it's it's fantastic cool. And 681 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:46,200 Speaker 1: the other thing that you have to worry about besides 682 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:48,400 Speaker 1: the vents are obviously doors. You want to have. Make 683 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,840 Speaker 1: sure that your doors have proper ceiling all around it. 684 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,200 Speaker 1: Ceiling S, S, E A L. That kind of seal. Yeah, 685 00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:56,640 Speaker 1: Like in a recording studio control room, you might see 686 00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:01,080 Speaker 1: a door that has a heavy rubber um strip on 687 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,239 Speaker 1: the bottom of it that when you close it, it 688 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: literally makes a seal between the door jam and the 689 00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,880 Speaker 1: bottom of the door, so it's air tight, yeah, because 690 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:12,279 Speaker 1: otherwise sound will just travel underneath right underneath it. Yeah, 691 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,359 Speaker 1: the gap. You've done all this other work and then 692 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:15,920 Speaker 1: you have a gap in the bottom of your door, 693 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:18,719 Speaker 1: you might as well have done nothing right. It's it's 694 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:21,399 Speaker 1: not gonna it's not gonna give you the results you want. 695 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:23,839 Speaker 1: So no, you know, we were talking before we start 696 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:28,720 Speaker 1: recording that, you know, the the concept of making sure 697 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,640 Speaker 1: the sound within a room sounds right, and this goes 698 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,480 Speaker 1: beyond soundproofing, but it was also part of of the 699 00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,640 Speaker 1: question sent into us. So walk us through kind of 700 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:42,840 Speaker 1: the process. If you were setting up, say a recording 701 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:45,799 Speaker 1: studio for music that would be obviously you would want 702 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,400 Speaker 1: to make sure that everything is just right to capture 703 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:53,239 Speaker 1: the music as the artist intended. You know, you might 704 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:55,799 Speaker 1: do some alteration on it on the back end, but 705 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,920 Speaker 1: you want it captured as pure as possible at the 706 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:04,000 Speaker 1: recording session. Yeah. This this goes into kind of recording philosophy. 707 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: In some ways. Some people might want more of a 708 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,120 Speaker 1: live room that has some character, some nice acoustics or 709 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,880 Speaker 1: something like that. And for certain things, like say recording 710 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: a vocal, you might want a room with as little 711 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 1: character as possible. So you're just getting the quality of 712 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:23,000 Speaker 1: that voice through that really nice microphone and microphone preamplifier, 713 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:24,680 Speaker 1: which is what you plug a microphone in that kind 714 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:28,319 Speaker 1: of boost that signal and makes it audible and makes 715 00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:29,960 Speaker 1: it at a level that can then be recorded into 716 00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: the computer or tape machine or what have you. Um. 717 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:34,960 Speaker 1: So that's one way of looking at it. Like for 718 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:41,239 Speaker 1: a quiet room, like a completely dead sound booth, let's say, Um, 719 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,400 Speaker 1: then you might have different little tricks you can do. 720 00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,680 Speaker 1: Like so at a drum room, for example, there are 721 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,000 Speaker 1: ways you can use panels of wood on the floor. 722 00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: You might take a strip of wood and place it 723 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,759 Speaker 1: right underneath the kick drum the bass drum, and have 724 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:57,359 Speaker 1: a microphone kind of at the end of that, so 725 00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,920 Speaker 1: you're the sound of the drums are sort of reflect 726 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,279 Speaker 1: day off of that wood and creating kind of a 727 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:06,640 Speaker 1: cool diffuse room sound. So you when you mike drums, 728 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,480 Speaker 1: you're making them up close. You're putting a microphone right 729 00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:11,399 Speaker 1: up on the tom tom or the snare of the kick, 730 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:13,359 Speaker 1: and then a lot of times people will mix in 731 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:15,799 Speaker 1: the sound of the room, which is the whole kit, 732 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:18,160 Speaker 1: and then kind of blend those signals together so you 733 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,439 Speaker 1: get that direct sound, which you also get this nice 734 00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:24,080 Speaker 1: roomy tone. So in that situation, you might want a 735 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:25,960 Speaker 1: little character in your room, and you might use things 736 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 1: like I'm talking about these strips or what have you 737 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,399 Speaker 1: to achieve some sort of character. Now, let's say we're 738 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:33,680 Speaker 1: talking about a control room, which is where you're going 739 00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:36,560 Speaker 1: to be mixing your your music. So you have really 740 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,600 Speaker 1: high end, very nice, high fidelities studio monitors which gives 741 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:43,719 Speaker 1: you your playback. And you know, the best studio monitors 742 00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:48,120 Speaker 1: are considered to be very um flat. That's that's the 743 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:53,480 Speaker 1: word that's used where the frequency response isn't particularly um 744 00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,600 Speaker 1: it's not. It's not messed with on the speaker side. 745 00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:59,000 Speaker 1: So everything that's coming out of there, you know, is 746 00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:01,360 Speaker 1: going to be accurate based on what you're doing, what 747 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,560 Speaker 1: you're putting into it, the frequencies you're adjusting on your 748 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:08,080 Speaker 1: mixing console or in your computer. The monitors themselves aren't 749 00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:12,239 Speaker 1: imparting any tone or quality beyond what you're doing to 750 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,880 Speaker 1: it right there. They're just they're just neutral and only 751 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:19,160 Speaker 1: presenting the stuff that you've told it to a lot 752 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,880 Speaker 1: of times they're referred to as reference monitors because you 753 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 1: the idea is, and it's not always the case, um 754 00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:27,080 Speaker 1: that the way it sounds on those monitors, it's going 755 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: to sound like that anywhere you play it. Obviously, there 756 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,480 Speaker 1: are things that happen after you finish a record called mastering, 757 00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:36,800 Speaker 1: where you you kind of adjust to account for different 758 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:38,560 Speaker 1: types of systems that might be played on to make 759 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: sure it sounds as good as possible on any system. 760 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,800 Speaker 1: But in a control room when you're playing back your music, 761 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:51,120 Speaker 1: you don't want bad reflections. You don't want that sound 762 00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 1: coming out of the speakers to bounce back at you 763 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,600 Speaker 1: in a way that changes the quality of that sound. 764 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,560 Speaker 1: You want it to be as flat and clean as possible. 765 00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: So there are little extra touches you could put in 766 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:05,719 Speaker 1: a control room that absorb certain frequencies. Like you said, 767 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,719 Speaker 1: certain materials will absorb certain frequencies better. There are things 768 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:10,719 Speaker 1: you might put in the back corners of the room 769 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,399 Speaker 1: that fill up a corner where two walls meet, called 770 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 1: base traps, and they are these kind of tall they 771 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,839 Speaker 1: can be round or squared off um and they're made 772 00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:22,120 Speaker 1: of kind of dense fibroglass material covered in a particular 773 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,480 Speaker 1: type of fabric, and those absorb some of those base 774 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,160 Speaker 1: frequencies so that it's not bouncing back at you and 775 00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:30,960 Speaker 1: muddying up your mix. Then you might have a lot 776 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,360 Speaker 1: of times you'll see in a recording studio in the 777 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,480 Speaker 1: control room where you have your big mixing console, and 778 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:38,160 Speaker 1: then directly behind it can still wall. A lot of 779 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,080 Speaker 1: times there's a couch, and then above that couch there 780 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,880 Speaker 1: might be a weird looking wooden panel that has smaller 781 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,759 Speaker 1: arrays of these alternating little um tiles sort of like 782 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,040 Speaker 1: what I described we have in our room here, but 783 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:52,879 Speaker 1: smaller and and a little more dense, And those are 784 00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: designed to do different things to other frequencies, like the 785 00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: mid range or the high UM. Another thing that's really 786 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:02,279 Speaker 1: important in uh these control room settings is where the 787 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,680 Speaker 1: monitors speakers are placed. So what you might do is 788 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:09,360 Speaker 1: have an engineer UM that specializes in you know, do 789 00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,719 Speaker 1: building out recording studios and tuning room as what they 790 00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:17,080 Speaker 1: call it. Go in there and use a device that 791 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,080 Speaker 1: that measures the way frequencies bounce around the room, and 792 00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:22,359 Speaker 1: you would generate what's called a test tone or uh 793 00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,759 Speaker 1: some white noise even UM which is just like you know, 794 00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,720 Speaker 1: static kind of sound. And then you can use this device, 795 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,000 Speaker 1: this handheld device, it might be cooked up to a computer. 796 00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: There's lots of different ones UM that will then take 797 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,200 Speaker 1: a print and analyze, Okay, this is what the sound's doing. 798 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,560 Speaker 1: This is where this room needs some work, where we 799 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,520 Speaker 1: need to move the monitors a little further away or 800 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,560 Speaker 1: a little closer to the wall, et cetera. So that's 801 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,320 Speaker 1: just a few of the ways that you can UM 802 00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,960 Speaker 1: affect how the sound is actually heard within a room 803 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,680 Speaker 1: for different situations, whether you're recording, whether you're mixing and listening, 804 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,480 Speaker 1: it's all about that. There are different scenarios that require 805 00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:03,000 Speaker 1: different treatments. Sure, and and anyone who's listened to you know, 806 00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:07,839 Speaker 1: live albums versus studio albums, or for me, even just 807 00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:11,520 Speaker 1: with classical music, Like if you ever listened to classical 808 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:14,400 Speaker 1: piece that was recorded in a big sound studio where 809 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:16,600 Speaker 1: you know, they got the whole orchestra in there, it 810 00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:18,520 Speaker 1: can sound really amazing. But then if you hear the 811 00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:20,760 Speaker 1: same sort of thing but it's played in a concert 812 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:25,480 Speaker 1: hall even without an audience, the effect is measurably different. 813 00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,880 Speaker 1: You get that character you were talking about of the space, 814 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:33,200 Speaker 1: and different spaces have very different characters. Just as musicians 815 00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,480 Speaker 1: may have a favorite type of amplifier that they like 816 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,839 Speaker 1: to use because of the tone that it helps, uh, 817 00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:44,560 Speaker 1: the tones that accentuates versus the ones that it doesn't 818 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,279 Speaker 1: accentuate as much. Uh, you have the same sort of 819 00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:49,799 Speaker 1: stuff with these these rooms. Now, no, let me ask 820 00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,000 Speaker 1: you this. Let's say that some of our listeners out 821 00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:55,000 Speaker 1: there are wanting to set up like a little home 822 00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:59,719 Speaker 1: recording area. Maybe they want to do podcasting, maybe they 823 00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:04,440 Speaker 1: want to record some acoustic music, nothing too complicated. What 824 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:07,480 Speaker 1: would be some general guidelines you would give somebody who 825 00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:11,680 Speaker 1: wants to set up a space in their house meant 826 00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,759 Speaker 1: for recording, Like, what were what would just be some 827 00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:17,400 Speaker 1: general tips, not like the super like you're gonna go 828 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,600 Speaker 1: and remodel your home kind of approach, but but more 829 00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:25,080 Speaker 1: simple ways that you can at least limit problems with 830 00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:30,880 Speaker 1: sound from exterior sources or uh interference with the sound 831 00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:32,719 Speaker 1: that you're creating in the room. What are some of 832 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,239 Speaker 1: your tips you would give. I mean, there's a lot 833 00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,040 Speaker 1: of different ways that you can um make spaces in 834 00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,200 Speaker 1: your home work, and all depends on what kind of 835 00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,400 Speaker 1: music you're trying to record. Um So, the choice of 836 00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,600 Speaker 1: microphone would make a big difference. For example, so the 837 00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:48,960 Speaker 1: microphones that we use in the podcast studio or what 838 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,120 Speaker 1: are called dynamic microphones, and then we've talked about this 839 00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:53,920 Speaker 1: in the past episode. I believe um they tend to 840 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:56,440 Speaker 1: record best things that are very close to them and 841 00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:00,000 Speaker 1: don't necessarily pick up as much ambient room sound as 842 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,919 Speaker 1: what's called a condenser microphone would. Now some might say 843 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:06,880 Speaker 1: that a condenser microphone gives a richer, bigger sound, but 844 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:09,359 Speaker 1: it also depends on how you use it. Um So, 845 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:13,560 Speaker 1: I might recommend for recording vocals trying to go with 846 00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:16,319 Speaker 1: like get a really nice dynamic microphone, like one of 847 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,200 Speaker 1: these a Sure SM seven B microphones will use and 848 00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:21,040 Speaker 1: there you know, they're about three hundred bucks. They're not cheap, 849 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:27,120 Speaker 1: but um, they allow you to record uh much closer proximity. 850 00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,840 Speaker 1: So if you're recording a guitar, for example, through an amplifier, 851 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:32,279 Speaker 1: you put it right up next to that amplifier and 852 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,520 Speaker 1: crank it so that it's not recording the signal to 853 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:39,440 Speaker 1: noise ratio is what's called is in favor of the signal, 854 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:44,760 Speaker 1: So the sound of the amplifier is uh the main concern. 855 00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,920 Speaker 1: There's really no worry about recording any room tone. And 856 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:49,600 Speaker 1: you don't even have to crank the amp up that 857 00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,239 Speaker 1: high because the mic is so close. But in terms 858 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,480 Speaker 1: of little things you can do for dampening, I mean, 859 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:57,239 Speaker 1: get get a pack of egg crate or like some 860 00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,399 Speaker 1: acoustic tiles from or Alex you know, and it's not either, 861 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:02,719 Speaker 1: but then just make some little clusters, you know, make 862 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:04,880 Speaker 1: a few little squares on your wall if you can, 863 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,919 Speaker 1: like if you have a closet door, maybe put three 864 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,480 Speaker 1: or four panels and then record facing that, you know. Um, 865 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,719 Speaker 1: there are also these shields you can get you can 866 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:16,880 Speaker 1: attach to your mic stand and basically is like a 867 00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:21,400 Speaker 1: um almost like a half moon shaped shield that goes 868 00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,520 Speaker 1: behind the microphone so you're facing it and that cuts 869 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:27,840 Speaker 1: down on reflections. Um. There are lots of little tricks 870 00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:29,319 Speaker 1: like that that you can do. But at the end 871 00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:32,560 Speaker 1: of the day, UM, it's just about how you use 872 00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:36,640 Speaker 1: the stuff that you have for podcasting. Definitely go with 873 00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:40,719 Speaker 1: a dynamic microphone. Talk very close to it so that 874 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:43,239 Speaker 1: it's only getting your voice and it's not recording your 875 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,880 Speaker 1: cats or the sound of your conditioning things like that. UM. 876 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,359 Speaker 1: The lower you can turn up the mic and still 877 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:51,239 Speaker 1: get a really good signal, the better off you are, 878 00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:52,959 Speaker 1: because if you have to crank it up really high, 879 00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,480 Speaker 1: you're really far away from the mic, you're gonna be 880 00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:58,160 Speaker 1: picking up a whole lot of that room sounds. Yeah, 881 00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:00,880 Speaker 1: I I can tell you from experience. I record a 882 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,560 Speaker 1: couple of shows from home just for fun that that 883 00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:08,040 Speaker 1: aren't work related. And I used to use a condenser 884 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,920 Speaker 1: mike because they were they were easy. I had a 885 00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:14,680 Speaker 1: USB condenser mic. Um, and and there's nothing wrong with 886 00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:17,360 Speaker 1: the MIC's. I'll even tell you I had a blue 887 00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:19,799 Speaker 1: snowball for a while, and we have one here. We 888 00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:23,440 Speaker 1: we've used it occasionally, mostly to connect through Skype or whatever. 889 00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:25,560 Speaker 1: We don't record through it, but we use it to 890 00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:27,400 Speaker 1: to pick up our voices so people on the other 891 00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:29,560 Speaker 1: end can hear us um. And I also had a 892 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:32,480 Speaker 1: blue Yetti microphone. Both of them are great. I love them, 893 00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,920 Speaker 1: but for podcasting, like you were saying, they pick up 894 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,000 Speaker 1: pretty much everything. And in fact, if you were to 895 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,600 Speaker 1: go back and listen to some of those podcasts I did, 896 00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:42,920 Speaker 1: you would hear, like, what's that weird clicking noise of 897 00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,000 Speaker 1: marrying in the background, And that clicking noise would have 898 00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:48,680 Speaker 1: been my dog's toe nails clicking against the hardwood floor 899 00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:51,920 Speaker 1: as as he just ran across the floor and he 900 00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,840 Speaker 1: wasn't making any other noise. It's just clickick. But that 901 00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,399 Speaker 1: condenser mike picked up everything. And it all comes back 902 00:47:57,400 --> 00:47:59,279 Speaker 1: to what we talked about sound being sort of this 903 00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:01,719 Speaker 1: organic ing that moves. I mean, you're never going to 904 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,880 Speaker 1: completely get rid of every bit of room noise unless 905 00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,640 Speaker 1: you are going above and beyond. You're going to that 906 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:11,640 Speaker 1: crazy world's most silent room approach. But you can mitigate 907 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,759 Speaker 1: how much of the sounds you don't want are recorded 908 00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:18,520 Speaker 1: based on where you set up the mic. You want 909 00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:21,160 Speaker 1: to be as far away from any noisy sources as possible. 910 00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,160 Speaker 1: You certainly wouldn't want to record a podcast right next 911 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,879 Speaker 1: to your fridge if you have an option, uh, if 912 00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:29,680 Speaker 1: you have an internal room where it doesn't share an 913 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:33,480 Speaker 1: external wall, that would be a good choice. UM, Like 914 00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:35,800 Speaker 1: like the place where my microphone is set up. I 915 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,680 Speaker 1: don't have a room that's enter. All of my rooms 916 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:41,600 Speaker 1: face outward one way or the other, so I don't 917 00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:44,000 Speaker 1: have a room that I can that is that is 918 00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:47,880 Speaker 1: isolated where I could record from. UH. So my mine 919 00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:50,480 Speaker 1: is not ideal because I also live across the street 920 00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:55,840 Speaker 1: from um railroad tracks and Marta tracks uh and a 921 00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:00,560 Speaker 1: busy road. So I'm just fortunate that when my house 922 00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:04,000 Speaker 1: was being built, they built it with that in mind. 923 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:07,680 Speaker 1: They were building the external walls so that they would 924 00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:11,560 Speaker 1: dampen that sound as much as possible. Because the home 925 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,720 Speaker 1: builders new while we're right next to some train tracks, 926 00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,480 Speaker 1: so we have to take that into account when we're 927 00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:21,279 Speaker 1: designing this. Unfortunately, it doesn't often impact my recording. Once 928 00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:23,319 Speaker 1: in a blue moon, if there's a freight train going 929 00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,280 Speaker 1: by blasting its horn, you're gonna hear it, But otherwise 930 00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:28,400 Speaker 1: it doesn't come through. So just to wrap up on 931 00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,239 Speaker 1: this whole, you know, home podcast set up. I can 932 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,640 Speaker 1: give you a really good practical example of our show 933 00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:36,719 Speaker 1: Stuff You Miss in History class Um. The host live 934 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,960 Speaker 1: in different cities. Holly Fry lives here in Atlanta and 935 00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:43,040 Speaker 1: records in our studios, and Tracy Wilson lives in Boston 936 00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,840 Speaker 1: and records from her home. And so when she was 937 00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:47,440 Speaker 1: getting ready to move, we had to figure out how 938 00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,160 Speaker 1: we were going to set this up. So I kind 939 00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:51,560 Speaker 1: of looked into it and did some research and recommended 940 00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:53,279 Speaker 1: what to get, and what we ultimately went with is 941 00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:56,480 Speaker 1: she has this. It's called the sound shield, I guess 942 00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:58,600 Speaker 1: is the best way of referring to it. H A 943 00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:02,600 Speaker 1: company is called SCLA Tronics. The product is a reflection 944 00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:05,680 Speaker 1: filter ex portable vocal booth, and the idea is that 945 00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:08,600 Speaker 1: the way it's pitched on on Sweetwater, which is the 946 00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:12,360 Speaker 1: music equipment site that I'm looking at. UM, it is 947 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:16,840 Speaker 1: a portable acoustic treatment to reduce room ambience in untreated 948 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:20,160 Speaker 1: recording spaces. So it works pretty well as advertised. So 949 00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:22,640 Speaker 1: it's this thing that kind of wraps around the back 950 00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:25,600 Speaker 1: of the microphone connects to the mic stand. UM. So 951 00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:28,560 Speaker 1: she has one of those behind her against the wall. 952 00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:31,000 Speaker 1: She has a heavy curtain like we talked about earlier 953 00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:34,520 Speaker 1: as well, and so that helps dampen the sound that way. Uh, 954 00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:38,120 Speaker 1: And she's using this sm seven b um dynamic. Sure 955 00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:41,200 Speaker 1: vocal mic or microphones doesn't have to be a vocal mic. 956 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:43,320 Speaker 1: But she is next to a window. So whenever the 957 00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:45,840 Speaker 1: trash pick up comes, or if there's a motorcycle or 958 00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:48,160 Speaker 1: something like that, you know, we've got to stop. So 959 00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:50,879 Speaker 1: you deal with what you have. And I think she's 960 00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:54,120 Speaker 1: a pretty good example of a successful home set up 961 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,520 Speaker 1: as well as as as is yours. Jonathan. Yeah, if 962 00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:58,800 Speaker 1: you if you listen back to um some of the 963 00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:02,720 Speaker 1: episods that we recorded before we moved to Pont City Market, 964 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,960 Speaker 1: there was a brief period where we were set up 965 00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:10,680 Speaker 1: in an office, uh like an actual It wasn't designed 966 00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:13,480 Speaker 1: to be an audio recording studio, but was an office 967 00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:18,640 Speaker 1: at the old office space and Buckhead that shared a 968 00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:24,400 Speaker 1: a window facing Peach Tree or near Peach Tree. And 969 00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:28,080 Speaker 1: if you listen carefully to some of those old podcasts, 970 00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:30,239 Speaker 1: not just Tech Stuff but all the other ones we 971 00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:33,200 Speaker 1: record at How Stuff Works, you might occasionally hear a 972 00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:36,840 Speaker 1: little high pitched noise and wonder what that was, And 973 00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:40,600 Speaker 1: that was Baton Bob. There was also sirens. Those were 974 00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,120 Speaker 1: the bane of our existence. Yes, sirens we would stop 975 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:47,719 Speaker 1: for like we if we heard the siren whistle. Baton Bob. Yeah, 976 00:51:47,719 --> 00:51:50,359 Speaker 1: Beaton Bob is a a kind of a fixture here 977 00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:54,920 Speaker 1: in Atlanta. He is quite the character and often can 978 00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:57,320 Speaker 1: be seen marching up and down the various streets of 979 00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:00,760 Speaker 1: Atlanta in a tutu and twirling a baton and blowing 980 00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:05,480 Speaker 1: a whistle. And he's a smile ambassador. I love Baton Bob, 981 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:10,000 Speaker 1: Absolutely love him. Great guy. Uh not fantastic to have 982 00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:12,920 Speaker 1: to record a podcast. What you're hearing is in whistling 983 00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:14,759 Speaker 1: up and down the street and talk about d I 984 00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,560 Speaker 1: y setup. We had those windows covered over with I 985 00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:21,759 Speaker 1: made these panels out of that pink panther foam insulation 986 00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,440 Speaker 1: for construction, and I nailed them and stapled them to 987 00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:29,759 Speaker 1: pieces of luan and then had them attached to the 988 00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,080 Speaker 1: window to cover them over. And then on top of 989 00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:36,160 Speaker 1: that we had this bright red um acoustic foam in 990 00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:39,040 Speaker 1: sheets that we you know, staple on top of that 991 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:43,920 Speaker 1: and it still didn't block out. And we couldn't do 992 00:52:44,040 --> 00:52:48,760 Speaker 1: anything permanent because that that wasn't something we were allowed 993 00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:50,719 Speaker 1: to do in that space. It wasn't meant to be 994 00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:53,439 Speaker 1: a recording studio, so we were just doing the best 995 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:57,200 Speaker 1: with what we had. Um but yeah, it was it was. 996 00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,320 Speaker 1: It was difficult, so it can be a chance lenge. 997 00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,160 Speaker 1: But the stuff is out there. It's not like like 998 00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,920 Speaker 1: Noel is saying, it's not necessarily cheap. You can do 999 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:10,400 Speaker 1: some relatively inexpensive things to limit U sound issues, but 1000 00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:12,840 Speaker 1: obviously you get what you pay for the more that 1001 00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:16,360 Speaker 1: you are able to spend on that. But do your research. 1002 00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:18,040 Speaker 1: But the more you're able to spend on that, the 1003 00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:21,080 Speaker 1: better result you are going to get. In general, just 1004 00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:24,080 Speaker 1: make sure that whatever outlet you're going with is highly rated, 1005 00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:28,680 Speaker 1: you know, don't just hire a general contractor and and 1006 00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:31,200 Speaker 1: go with that, because that's probably not gonna give you 1007 00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:34,960 Speaker 1: the results you want. But obviously, you know, these are 1008 00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:40,600 Speaker 1: things that people in all sorts of of jobs and 1009 00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:45,600 Speaker 1: and positions, UH worry about. Whether it's professional recording artists, 1010 00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:49,879 Speaker 1: whether it's podcasters like us home podcasters you just want 1011 00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:52,879 Speaker 1: to record a demo. I mean, these are the sort 1012 00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:55,879 Speaker 1: of things you gotta think about. So thank you very 1013 00:53:56,040 --> 00:53:59,080 Speaker 1: much for writing in and requesting this episode, and Noel, 1014 00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:01,600 Speaker 1: thank you for joining me today. Usually you're on the 1015 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:03,879 Speaker 1: other side of that window we were talking about. It's true, 1016 00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,120 Speaker 1: it's nice, too nice to pass through. Yeah, it's it's 1017 00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:07,719 Speaker 1: great to be on this side once in a while 1018 00:54:07,880 --> 00:54:11,560 Speaker 1: and not stay so long that the room gets super stuffy. Uh. This, 1019 00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:14,040 Speaker 1: that's one of the things that this room in particular, 1020 00:54:14,680 --> 00:54:17,160 Speaker 1: it does get a little warm. Now we we fixed 1021 00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:20,520 Speaker 1: the stuff you should know podcast room because it was 1022 00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,479 Speaker 1: used to get blistering lee hot, and now it gets 1023 00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:27,279 Speaker 1: very cool there, and now the opposite seems to happen here. 1024 00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:29,919 Speaker 1: But I'm afraid to ask for anything because I don't 1025 00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,120 Speaker 1: want to end up getting Gaye force winds into the 1026 00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:36,000 Speaker 1: podcast studio. But guys, if you have any suggestions for 1027 00:54:36,080 --> 00:54:38,440 Speaker 1: future episodes, you have anything you want to comment on 1028 00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:42,560 Speaker 1: for this episode, send me a message. The email address 1029 00:54:42,719 --> 00:54:46,560 Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, or 1030 00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:49,280 Speaker 1: you can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. 1031 00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:52,520 Speaker 1: The handle at both of those is text stuff H 1032 00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:56,080 Speaker 1: s W. And I will talk to you again really 1033 00:54:56,200 --> 00:55:06,040 Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. 1034 00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:07,640 Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com