Ask any of the top studio people what the best way to improve the overall sound of your recordings might be, and what would you guess they’d say? Buy some high end mics? Get a new 24-bit recorder? Invest in some premium outboard gear? While all those things can certainly make a difference in sound quality, they are not going to assure you of a great finished product. Why? Because you are most likely recording and mixing in a room that will fool you into making serious errors in judgement regarding such things as the relative volume of each track and worse, misuse of EQ.

See, in the beginning, there was perfect sound everywhere. Then man invented rooms and forever made it difficult to achieve accurate sound. Fortunately, sound waves emanate out from their sources and strike room boundaries in predictable ways. Since tons of studies have shown that reflected sound is inherently inaccurate sound, controlling reflected sound is the key to making our spaces sound “good.” While it’s true that we all may have our own ideas as to what‘s a “bad” mixer, “bad” loudspeaker or a “bad” microphone, we can all agree on what constitutes a bad-sounding room. Two common examples are huge gymnasiums and tiled bathrooms. The good news is that by implementing the proper acoustical treatments, you can make even the worst-sounding room good enough to yield world-class sound. Controlling reflections yields truer sound and allows the “real” sound of an instrument, voice or loudspeaker to come through.

The two methods of controlling sound are absorption and diffusion and thanks to products from companies like Auralex, you can make your studio — however modest or majestic — sound better and more accurate, thus assuring you of a better finished product without spending a huge amount of money. In point of fact, even a modest investment in acoustic control products will yield startling results — much better than spending two or three times the amount of money in upgrading your hardware.

So you might still be asking, “Why is this?” Well, hard room surfaces are responsible for the most detrimental reflections like standing waves, flutter echoes and low frequency room modes. Ever clapped your hands in a room and heard a ringing, repeating, hollow sound? Say hello to your arch enemy, Flutter Echo. Ever been in a conversation with someone or played music in a room where the low frequencies were overpowering the rest of the sound, making for poor intelligibility? Meet the evil Room Mode and his nasty sidekick, Low End Buildup. The three types of sound wave reflection are called axial, tangential and oblique modes, which essentially relate to which direction in a room sound is being reflected from, off one hard surface to another. The worst of these types is the dreaded axial mode, which means sound is being reflected from wall to opposing wall or from the floor to the ceiling.

Corners cause us a lot of problems, too, boosting the apparent amount of bass in our rooms by about 9dB, making us think we have three times as much bass as we actually do. Corner bass trapping is vital to smoothing out virtually any room’s sound. (Your Sales Engineer can advise you how to best achieve bass absorption if you don’t have any 90° corners present.)

Some people mistakenly think that making a room’s surfaces totally absorbent is the only way to make a room sound “good,” but this is often not the case. While it’s true that many rooms’ acoustics can be adequately controlled with 60% wall coverage with 2” Studiofoam, the really great sounding rooms tend to be ones with a proper blend and placement of good absorption and diffusion products. These rooms exhibit a pleasing small degree of natural ambience, but no flutter echoes or false bass buildup.

No products on the market are better suited to giving you top-notch sound than absorbers and diffusors from Auralex. The BBC did an interesting study and found that you reap up to 4 times the absorption if you spread your absorbent material evenly around a room instead of putting it all on just one wall or ceiling. Just how you spread the material around is based largely on what appearance you desire, so come up with a treatment scheme you enjoy the looks and sound of. Another added plus to spreading your acoustical foam around is that you get some extra (beneficial) diffusion off the exposed panel edges.

There are some folks who prefer a more live, yet controlled, environment. The best way to achieve this sort of acoustic character is to use corner bass trapping, thinner absorbent materials on the walls and ceiling and extra amounts of 3D diffusion. This treatment package imparts a controlled spaciousness to sound. Diffusion is virtually universally recommended for live studios and control room rear walls. Also perfect in these types of rooms are Sunburst Broadband Absorbers, which look great, absorb really well and allow you to gain significant sonic control without excessive deadness.

There are places where a very dry, controlled environment is definitely called for. Examples are voiceover booths and radio studios. Drying these rooms out ensures that when a talent is speaking into an open mic, all you hear is an up-close, direct, present sound — you don’t hear a bunch of detrimental room ambience. Listen to network-quality voice work — odds are you never hear “room.” As listeners, we’ve become so accustomed to this type of sound quality that when we hear a person speak on television and radio, we expect their voice not to sound like they’re in a cave. On those occassions when it sounds overly reverberant, the ambience really sticks out like a sore thumb and sounds, well, cheesey to us. Point being, if you desire liveness, it must be well controlled in order to sound pleasing and professional.

Auralex Acoustics was actually founded because the acoustical products available way back in the “old days” were far too expensive and had a number of disadvantages. In fact, they were so expensive that even the big-budget broadcast and recording facilities said they couldn’t afford them! So Auralex was born, and now, some twenty years later, the company has obtained a level of success that stands as proof that the Auralex concept was right on target, then and now. Famous users and hobbyists alike appreciate the company’s industry-leading performance, reasonable prices and innovative products.

The Auralex people have a good feel for what’s needed, what really works and what’s “fluff.” Over the years, they’ve fine tuned their line and now have in place solid products to solve virtually every acoustical problem, regardless of room size, shape or function. Not being ones to rest on their laurels, they’re continuously involved in R&D to keep Auralex at the leading edge of acoustical control. The company doesn’t make “me too” products; if an item earns a spot in their line, it’s the best it can be at solving a particular problem. Take comfort in knowing you can trust Auralex for solutions that absolutely work— in many cases better than competing products that can often cost significantly more.

Here’s just one example: The MAX-Wall (shown in photo above) is the perfect solution if you don't want to — or can't — mount anything to your walls. Or if your place needs to serve a variety of acoustical purposes. Or if you're on a budget and have acoustical problems that can't wait. Or if you're the sort who likes to mix things up on the fly. The MAX-Wall's proprietary design offers excellent broadband control of sound waves throughout your room and in the nearfield, so now you can play, record or mix great music or vocals anywhere at any time!

The interlocking MAX-Wall system is made to grow as your needs change. It can just go on and on and on, but only if you need it to. Don't buy more than your place requires — and don't bankrupt your pocketbook — when a simple MAX-Wall system might be all you need! You want modular? MAX-Wall’s your answer! Add Auralex Sunburst-360s or some of the company’s new stand-mounted LENRD Bass Traps and you've got an incredible amount of acoustical control in an attractive, portable package. And it can go anywhere with you at a moment's notice! Or stay put, if that’s what you want!

The MAX-Wall panels are thick enough to yield a pretty high degree of sound containment, so a couple boxes of them can be used to set up — in a flash! — a temporary pseudo-iso booth. Will it yield total sound isolation? Heck no. But it'll give you enough containment so that you can lay down an amazingly clean new track in a hurry! Best of all, you can unbox and set up your MAX-Wall in a matter of minutes, with no tools, no messy adhesive, no fuss. And the MAX-Wall is incredibly affordable with prices starting at just $349 (list, of course, your Sweetwater price will be lower). An 18-inch by 12-inch window kit is also available at just $99 list.

To find out more about all the ways Auralex can help you improve the sound of your studio, and specific information and pricing on the full line of Auralex products, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer today! Every studio is different, but we’ll help you make yours sound great!