Sound treatment and isolation at home

My walls are poking me.

When I was new to audio production, and started to assemble the humble beginnings of my home studio, I always wondered “why do my recordings sound like shit?”

I started that journey many years ago, in 2011, when I purchased my first audio interface and microphone. I had been playing music since middle school, but never really took the time to learn how to record it myself until that moment. I was fresh out of college with a new job and a small disposable income, so I bought an M-Audio Mobile Pre interface and an SM57 …and thought I was going to take over the world recording indie rock songs no one cared about in my bedroom. I set up my newly purchased gear, recorded my acoustic guitar and some vocals and quickly realized that there’s a lot more to the art of recording audio than buying some budget-friendly equipment.

One thing became abundantly clear: gear is of secondary concern in this scenario. The primary concern is the space in which you record. If your walls aren’t treated acoustically, you’re going to have a hell of a time recording a good vocal track. No one wants to hear you sing your songs if it sounds like you’re singing them in your bathroom. The problem is, your voice bounces off all of these hard, reflective surfaces in your room. You have to put a stop to that. So, how do we do that?

The answer isn’t too complicated, for our purposes at least. We must absorb and deflect that sound as much as we can to prevent sound from bouncing off of these surfaces and back into your microphone, creating that echo/reverb effect you might be hearing. In order to do this, we need material that can absorb these sound waves and deflect them. Acoustic foam is just such a product. You can buy acoustic foam from various retailers at varying levels of thickness. Or, you can make your own sound absorption panels if you’re crafty. Some of us go out and purchase moving blankets and PVC pipe, and build a little blanket fort in the room to act as a vocal booth. I did exactly this and used this set up for months to make some serious money in voice over. However, now that I have a more professional setup, I opted for acoustic foam instead of the blankets.

So you might read this and think, “OK great, but what do I buy?”

Well, if you’re looking for a specific recommendation, I will give you a few based on different budgets. Let’s check them out. Also, before we go any further, please remember that I’m talking about sound treatment, NOT soundproofing. That’s an entirely different topic worthy of its own blog post, which will be coming out soon. On to the recommendations:

Bare Minimum: Record in your closet ($0)

While it’s not the ideal recording space, recording in a closet full of clothes does have some benefits. The clothes that are hanging in there can absorb some of the reflections you might have in your recordings. You get some bonus points if you grab a bunch of pillows and blankets from around the house to further dampen the sound in there. The clothes aren’t going to stop all of the errant sound waves from causing problems, but should offer a slight reprieve as compared to a completely untreated space. In essence, this is a good stop-gap measure until you can save a few bucks and buy something a bit more effective.

Acceptable: Build a moving blanket fort ($200-$300)

If you’re at all familiar with the trials and tribulations of voice acting at home, you’ve probably heard of this ingenious method. Here’s what you do: you buy a bunch of moving blankets, as well as some PVC pipe and fittings. Then, you construct a frame using the PVC pipe and fittings. This frame will be your new booth, and the blankets will be the walls. This is actually a surprisingly effective way to reduce or eliminate room reflections that affect your recordings. It’s not a perfect solution, and it likely won’t win you any brownie points with everyone else in your household, but it’s certainly a step above the closet method.

Professional: Acoustic Panels/Foam

If you set foot in a professional studio, you’ll likely see acoustic panels and acoustic foam used as sound treatment. There are many brands that make this foam, but brands like Auralex tend to dominate the market. It is apparent in the price tag for their foam as well. While some studio spaces drop hundreds or thousands to be outfitted with acoustic treatment like this, you don’t have to break the bank to do it yourself.

For my setup, I bought 4” acoustic pyramid foam and some bass traps from foambymail.com. This foam now lines the entirety of my Whisper Room. It’s actually what you see in the picture at the beginning of this blog post. The end result for me was very clear; the sound treatment in my booth has resulted in a very flat, dead space that works well for voice overs.

One thing to pay attention to when buying acoustic foam is the thickness of the foam. Generally speaking, the thicker the foam, the more effective the tiles are at absorbing those sound waves. I know this from experience. When I first bought acoustic foam for my home studio, I opted to buy a pack of 24 foam tiles from amazon which were each 1” thick. After sticking them on the walls, it basically did nothing to my space. My recordings sounded exactly the same, except they were laced with the frustration that I had just spent an hour affixing them all to my walls for no reason. No bueno. More recently, I purchased that foam you see above, which is four times the thickness. This was MUCH more effective at eliminating the reflections in my booth, and I’ve been very pleased with the sound so far.

Closing thoughts

No matter where you are in your recording journey, the importance of proper sound treatment remains the same. If you haven’t treated your recording space yet, I highly recommend you do so. The benefits of a well-treated space far outweigh the benefits you might get from upgrading other things, like your microphone or audio interface. The room is equally, if not more important than all of those things.

For more tips and tricks on recording at home and starting a voice over career, check out the other posts on my blog and find me on social media at the links below. Cheers!