If you already have a good microphone system installed, don’t forget to adapt your recording set, using soundproofing and anti-reverberation material, to help capture it without background noise.
Getting a good sound recording quality is vital, because audio represents 50% of our videos.
We have all seen a video recorded in a large room where the presenter was hard to hear and on top of that you have to put up with the background noise, the echo and the voices of the public. All this must be avoided.
Sound waves tend to bounce off bare wall, ceiling and floor surfaces. Then, it will interfere with the recording as the microphone will pick up these bounced waves and your voice will be less clear.
To avoid this effect, we can totally or partially cover smooth surfaces with carpet, curtains or acoustic foam.
Contents
1- Cover the floor of the recording set
The simplest thing is to cover the floor to avoid reverberations, only if it is made of a smooth material, such as a tile. A porous wood or cork floor will not need to be covered.
If you have a carpet that is a bit large, take the chance to place it on your recording set floor. If not, here are some useful and cheap carpets.
2- Cover the walls of the recording set
The way to avoid echo in a room is to cover it with furniture, and much better if it is cluttered with books or clothes.
It is possible that in your work room this is very functional, and even stresses those who love order and minimalism.
For these cases, there is a more common and practical method; to install acoustic foam sheets.
Attention: the acoustic foam is used to avoid reverberation, it does NOT soundproof the room, therefore, you will still hear the neighbors and they will hear you.
Types of acoustic foam
Acoustic foams are made of a soft, porous material that resists the passage of air, trapping sound waves inside.
You will see that there are sheets of different shapes. It is not an aesthetic issue, each morphology has a different use that we are now going to discover.
They have a shape similar to an egg cup.
It is used for the absorption of acoustics in medium and high frequencies, typical of the human voice.
It has a zig-zag surface.
It absorbs standing waves and eliminates intermittent echo.
Cover of square-based pyramids.
Eliminates floating echo sound, reflections and standing waves.
It controls mid and high frequencies with presentation.
The most aesthetic and concealed, especially in white.
Recommended to use them in small rooms in combination with bass traps.
The panel design allows to establish a multitude of unique and precise visual compositions, achieving a pleasant aesthetic.
Sound absorption for medium and high frequencies.
Designed to reduce reverberation time and control reflections.
Applications in spaces such as home cinemas, recording studios, dubbing booths, gaming, podcasting, youtubers.
They are designed to be placed in the corners of the room.
It is responsible for absorbing low frequencies and obtaining high definition acoustics.
How to place the acoustic panels in the recording set?
Acoustic panels are easily installed with adhesive strips or spray.
Before placing each acoustic foam panel, you need to know the right place to install it.
The panels should be placed at a height similar to that of the sound emission source.
If you are going to record your voice and you are sitting down, the panels will go from 1 to 1.6 meters from the ground.
If you think you are going to record yourself standing up, include some more panels, up to 2 meters.
Place the panels in front of the emitting source, on the side walls and on the one in front.
Alternatives to the installation of acoustic foams
Another option that makes it possible to isolate acoustically the set and also separate environments with hardly any work, is the use of an acoustic curtain, the kind used in pubs or cinemas.
Maybe you can’t or don’t want to set soundproofing foams and sheets on the walls for aesthetic or functional reasons.
In that case you can use small foams that are mounted on the microphone stand, or place foams on a partition or screen that you can put on and take off when you need it.
