How to Improve Your Home Recordings Using Acoustic Treatment

You often see them in sound booths, movie stages, and high end studios and they look like strange structures coming out of the wall...but what are these things?

Usually made of spongy or wooden material, they act as more than just a neat wall decor!

Acoustic treatment is a common practice in sound engineering which prevents unwanted frequencies from bouncing around your studio like a kid on a sugar rush. Sometimes in a standard room, the audio frequencies need a place to go so they travel and bounce off reflective surfaces, like your walls or floor. This can lead to muddy mixes, poor audio quality, and a poor understanding of what you’re actually hearing.

How does it work?

Acoustic treatment has multiple different forms to tackle its different opponents. Basic absorption is generally used to remove higher frequencies. These tend to look like pyramid or triangle formations sticking out of the wall and they do a great job at absorbing unwanted sound energy from the high end. 

But what do you do about that nasty low end?

It’s often annoying when your neighbours are having a party, and all you can hear is the roaring bass pumping through the walls.

In a process called “bass trapping”, engineers will equip bare corners of a room with bass traps  to create what’s called a “standing wave”. These are corner foam pieces that are designed to trap lower frequencies and keep the sound tidy.

And for everything in between, there are diffusers. These are oddly shaped treatment devices that rely on sound dispersion as opposed to absorption. To put it simply, these guys spread out the sound energy in various directions to avoid direct sound travel. It’s why standing in a gym tends to sound more loud and noisy compared to standing in a movie theatre.

For more information on how acoustic treatment works, here is an article from IntechOpen on acoustic materials.

But how can you apply acoustic treatment for your home studio?

Can You Build an Acoustic Diffuser…

There are many ways to equip your studio with an acoustic diffuser, but they don’t come cheap.

Amazon is currently selling home studio diffusers for $35 per square foot. But there must be an easier way to do this!

SoundAssured has an article covering the building process of an acoustic diffuser for under $20! You can find the article here.

For the most part, home studios mostly need absorption of mid-range frequencies. These are the frequencies that tend to mud up our mixes and sound. The easiest approach to constructing a midrange acoustic diffuser is to build what’s called a “skyline diffuser”.

This is best described as a single piece of wood with various lengths of foam rectangles protruding out. 

Conclusion

Acoustic diffusers are a common tool in the industry when it comes to basic studio sound design. Though when the truth is told, it is best to seek professional assistance when working in or building your home studio projects. If you have any questions or concerns around sound engineering and other services provided by Jony Studios, feel free to ask us in the comments!

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If you need further help creating your own music, we offer audio production services that will help you elevate your sound and bring your song to life!

We look forward to being a part of your success.

Contact us here to get started.

Everything You Need to Know About Tracking

Today the music world has no rules.

Artists have the freedom to create and mix any form of music they can imagine. Music has reached the point where artists have the independence to create new categories of music by mixing rhythms and genres.

However, creating music still comes with its stages, dos and dont’s. In order to make good music that people will enjoy listening to, you still need to follow stages of music production that have been perfected over the years by professionals.

Like a chef in the kitchen, just because you have unlimited ingredients and tools to play with does not mean you should. There are some things when you mix and match that just don’t taste good.

On that note, check out Jony Studios’ mixing and mastering services that will help you elevate your sound and bring your song to life!

After arranging comes tracking:

WHAT IS TRACKING?

Tracking is referred to here as the instrument recording process. Since this process has many names, we’ll stick to calling it “tracking”.

A song is basically an idea flowing around until it is made tangible. And making a song tangible means recording it. You could play your song live but it wouldn’t be tangible since the song would disappear after it ends. The recording process is what captures the song in a format that lives on forever. This is what makes the song tangible and gives the listeners the ability to listen continuously without the song disappearing.

In simple terms, it is the process of recording various instruments used within a song. Multi-track recording, on the other hand, is the process where when you record a new track, you hear all the other tracks recorded as well. This multi-track recording process is used when the tracks are recorded one at a time.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM SONGWRITING?

Songwriting requires a different kind of focus. With writing, you want to experiment which is only possible when your mind is free of all new associations and connections. 

However, when it comes to performing a song, your focus needs to be on playing with the right feeling and in time. 

But remember: while recording you don’t have to get it perfect. There are many editing options that can fix mistakes and improve a song but there is a limit to what you can edit. Editing too much can make your song sound unnatural.

Need help with recording your music or editing your songs? Contact Jony Studios.

Combining the writing and performing/tracking stages of music production will greatly impact your song quality. In order to ensure the best possible outcome, focus on each individual step separately.

Conclusion

Tracking is an essential step in the music creation process. It allows you to record each instrument used in a full complete song. Without it you wouldn’t be able to record.

Still unsure of this step? 

Jony Studios’ offers music production services that will help you elevate your sound and bring your song to life!

Contact us here to get started.

- By Neha Agarwala

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Curious about the other stages of music production?

Check out these blogs to learn more:

Songwriting

Arranging

Editing

Mixing and Mastering

5 Simple Steps to Start Recording High Quality Music at Home

We are living in weird times. Everyone is working from home and self-isolating due to the coronavirus. Luckily, there is always a silver lining! More time at home, means more time to be creative and record those songs you’ve really wanted to release. I started my recording studio business at my parent’s house in my room, when I was 15 years old.

Now, I have been blessed to work with amazing musicians and companies, become a certified mentor for an LA based University, the Recording Connection, and win various awards.

I want to show you how I was able to get started, so you can have the opportunities I have had, plus more!

Here are the 5 simple steps to start recording high quality music from home:

1. Decide the type of music you will be recording

The first step in your recording journey is to know what type of music you will be making. The gear you will have to invest in will depend on that. For example, if your goal is to make instrumental, hip-hop beats and sell them to artists, you won’t even need a microphone, compared to if you want to record your entire rock band, you will need a lot of different types of mics! In my case, when I started I just wanted to record myself and others in a variety of genres using programmed drums and live drum samples for the beats. This is because I didn’t have drumming skills or the room to have a full drum kit! I was able to crack the code and get really good results. You can check out a sample of a rock song I did called Moving On here that I used programmed drums for. You will be surprised by the amazing sounds you can get when you start learning about plug-ins.

2. Get the gear required to record your music

In order to start recording high quality music you will need certain gear. I know it can get overwhelming with the amount of choices, and looking at videos of huge professional studios you see a lot of outboard gear that can make you confused. Don’t be! All the outboard gear can now be reproduced using plug-ins, all from inside your computer. This method is a lot less expensive and the results are amazing! 

Here is the list of what you will need, and it’s not as long as you would think:

• Computer

  • Mac/PC, i5 or i7, Ram 8gb or higher, 500gb storage + (Preferably SSD) the higher the better. A great tip to have better performance is to use an external SSD to work on your projects from, so you don’t fill up your computer, making it run smoother.

• Audio Interface

  • I recommend any Audient iD series or UAD Apollo interface. For a more affordable option i’d go with the Focusrite SCARLETT.

• Midi Keyboard

  • Akai LPK25 is my go-to, super simple, portable and works great.

• HQ Headphones

  • I would go with the Audio Technica ATH-M50x. They are the industry standard for a reason. Amazing for mixing your tracks and hearing every detail.

• Studio Monitors

  • On the lower price range the PreSonus Eris E3.5-3.5 are awesome. I own the JBL 308P MkII and love them! Keep in mind the JBL only comes with one speaker, so you need to buy two, making it the more expensive option.

• Microphones

  • Audio Technica AT2020 if on a budget, Sure SM7B if you can afford it! Both are great vocal mics, and the AT2020 can record acoustic instruments too. If your looking to specifically record acoustic guitar the AKG Pro Audio Perception 170 is really good for the price, on the high end go with the Sure SM81.

• Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)

  • I use Logic Pro X and love it, if you are into hip-hop production, Fruity loops is great, and of course you can’t go wrong with Protools the industry standard

• Any instruments you play (Guitar, banjo, etc.…)

I will be creating a more in-depth blog going into more detail about the various products, so be on the lookout for that! (If I don’t split this into two blogs you will be here reading forever haha) 

3. Setup your space for maximum productivity

When recording music, the way you layout your recording space is very important. You want to reduce the clutter and have a clean designated spot. Take the time to make it your own. Add color lighting, I use Philips Hue smart lights, but any LEDs can give you a really cool effect and enhance your creativity. Try to organize the wires and set it all up in a way that makes it easy for you to just open up your DAW and press record. The easier it is for you to record, the more likely you will be to keep creating more music, always remember that!

4. Create a recording time schedule 

Try to make a recording schedule. Waiting for inspiration to strike is a losing strategy. The more you record and create, the better you will become. The best way to stay accountable is to treat your recording time as if you were going to a professional studio and paying a lot of money by the hour. This will train your brain to stay focused and produce. I recommend setting chunks of time on your smartphone calendar app and set it to remind you 15 minutes before. So, when you get the notification you know it’s time to sit down and record! If you’re not use to doing this, it will change your life not only for recording, but for productivity in general. So, start implementing it now!

5. Experiment, learn as you go & practice A LOT  

The best way to learn is to experiment, have fun with sounds, twist knobs, and see how it makes it different. This is how I got into music production. The key is to fall in love with discovering new aspects of recording. You know you’re on the right track when you can start a session and a few hours will go by and you will not even notice. Then, when you get stuck on a certain aspect of it, learn how to do it through Google search, YouTube, or hire a mentor who already has the experience that can help you through it on a one hour video call. Just keep moving forward. You’ll be surprised how far it can take you.