1. Use your ears rather than placing too much trust in measurement tool.
2. Be minimal. Over design of an acoustic space is the cardinal sin of acoustics.
3. Think "outside the box". Listen to advice from professionals, but always remeber that the numbers are only a prediction of probable room response. They may (or may not) reflect reality.
4. Think long and hard before implementing any specific treatments. As a professional acoustician (Physics Degree) and an audio engineer for over 25 years, I start a design by first thinking of every possible approach to take with a specific room. I then begin SUBTRACTING the over-kill until I arrive at a solution that is the least working solution. I am a firm adherent to Occam's Razor.
5. I then add treatments symetricaly around the space to fitted one at a time, and LISTEN to the results at each point. I have found tools such as the Techron TEF instument invaluable, but no substitute for the human ear.
BTW, even with all of the other tools at my desposal, I have found the CARACAD program to be an excellent tool for assement of a rooms probable acoustic signature. Of course, I am helped in this by having a professionals understanding of the acoustical properties of materials, and as such, have made extensive use of the materials editor function of the CARACAD program. If you do not have the proper grounding in Physics, be very careful, and judicious in your use of this powerful tool, because an error in the data you supply will make the predictions meaningless.
For the money, however, it is the best software for this purpose I have ever used or reviewed.
Regards,
D. Terry Hazelrig(CEO/Chief Acoustic Engineer)
Timescape/Diyacoustics
152 Dexter Circle
Madison, Al. 35757-8005
Email: [email protected]
2. Be minimal. Over design of an acoustic space is the cardinal sin of acoustics.
3. Think "outside the box". Listen to advice from professionals, but always remeber that the numbers are only a prediction of probable room response. They may (or may not) reflect reality.
4. Think long and hard before implementing any specific treatments. As a professional acoustician (Physics Degree) and an audio engineer for over 25 years, I start a design by first thinking of every possible approach to take with a specific room. I then begin SUBTRACTING the over-kill until I arrive at a solution that is the least working solution. I am a firm adherent to Occam's Razor.
5. I then add treatments symetricaly around the space to fitted one at a time, and LISTEN to the results at each point. I have found tools such as the Techron TEF instument invaluable, but no substitute for the human ear.
BTW, even with all of the other tools at my desposal, I have found the CARACAD program to be an excellent tool for assement of a rooms probable acoustic signature. Of course, I am helped in this by having a professionals understanding of the acoustical properties of materials, and as such, have made extensive use of the materials editor function of the CARACAD program. If you do not have the proper grounding in Physics, be very careful, and judicious in your use of this powerful tool, because an error in the data you supply will make the predictions meaningless.
For the money, however, it is the best software for this purpose I have ever used or reviewed.
Regards,
D. Terry Hazelrig(CEO/Chief Acoustic Engineer)
Timescape/Diyacoustics
152 Dexter Circle
Madison, Al. 35757-8005
Email: [email protected]