Latest Posts
Acoustic Panels – What and Where
Acoustical treatments involve only two types of acoustic panels: absorbers and diffusers. Absorbers serve to soak up some of the excess reflected sound in a room. Diffusers, on the other hand, help to spread out the reflections in a room. Combining absorption and diffusion results in clearer, crisper, more satisfying acoustic experiences because it maintains […]
How Sound Works in Rooms
Introduction Most rooms have highly-reflective, flat walls, ceilings, and floors, and they can be a lot like echo chambers if left acoustically untreated. If you’ve ever been in an empty apartment or house, you’ll be familiar with the way sound reverberates in empty spaces. We know that too much reverberation or echo makes for unsatisfactory […]
Your Brain on Sound – Understanding the Fundamentals About Sound & Hearing
Understanding a few fundamentals about what sound is and how we hear it will help you better understand how acoustics work. Our sense of hearing is a finely-tuned evolutionary adaptation to our environment, one of the critical tools in our survival kit. Understanding how sound and hearing are related better enables us to control, shape, […]
4 Restaurants with Great Acoustic Design
As perceptions of what constitutes luxurious environments and trends in food service have evolved, restaurant design has more and more favored large, open spaces and hard surfaces. And this is having a serious effect on restaurant noise levels. In the race to create sumptuous and modern aesthetics, many of the decorative features which used to […]
What You Need to Know About Acoustics
Do you ever find yourself at your office, at a busy downtown intersection, in an industrial plant, a restaurant or a studio, or simply in your home, and you’re unhappy because unwanted noise is interfering in your life? If so, you’re far from being alone. Noise pollution comes in many different forms and under many […]
How to Build a Podcast Studio: Podcast Buckets vs. Acoustical Treatments
Whether you’re thinking about creating one, or you’re already producing a podcast, you likely hope to cultivate and foster a loyal fan base. To do so, of course, your primary goal is to provide your audience with compelling content, but you also need to very seriously consider the quality of the sound you’re recording. Listeners […]
The ‘Long View’ of Sound
There’s a moment early in the movie “Men In Black” – after a big green alien has raised “all his hands and flippers” (and was then blasted into goo) – where a tired-out Agent D says to Agent K “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” K replies “What?” And D says “The stars. We never just – […]
The Value of Sound and Acoustically Treating a Room
In the American economy, we see “value” mentioned frequently, and while the word “cheap” isn’t used, it’s often implied. No one wants to own cheap products, but no one wants to spend more than they should to get the performance they want. In the categories of sound and acoustical products, there’s a wide range of […]
What is Sound Diffusion (and Absorption)?
Here’s an easy definition: diffusion is the method of spreading out sound energy with a diffusor (diffuser) for better sound in a space. However, in the wide, wide world of acoustics, the sound diffusion process and tools are widely misunderstood, even by some acoustics professionals. This seems a bit odd, because it’s one of only […]
Is Food That Loud?
It’s practically official: “too much noise” is now customers’ single most-hated restaurant problem, ahead of bad service, bad food, and high prices. While open kitchens, cranked-up music-playback systems, and raucous diners certainly have played a part in amplifying this business-killing monster, many complaints were aimed squarely – and rightly – at the restaurant’s acoustics. Hard […]
