Hiding In Plain Sight?

As an acoustical designer, there is a question I hear frequently –

“Can’t I just glue some acoustical things to the walls to get a good sound?”

The answer is a firm no. With treatments randomly slapped on the walls, you may hear a change in the room’s acoustic signature, but that doesn’t mean it’s better, just different. And for demanding work like quality control or post production sound for motion picture and television, it’s very important that your listening environment is accurate. Because you need to be confident that what you’re hearing is what’s on the tracks.

The reality is that wall treatments are just the visible portion of a room that has exceptional acoustical performance. It’s like a birthday cake – you can see the icing on the surface, but underneath there’s a whole lot more going on.

When done right, these wall treatments put the finishing touches on the room’s sound. When done haphazardly or without a well-informed design, these are little more than eye candy. Looking good does not equate to sounding good. You don’t listen with your eyes.

Below the surface lives the foundation that gives the room its real performance. Things that may not be readily apparent. Like the shape of the room and the relationship of the dimensions, which have a greater influence on a room’s sound than what you put on the walls. So much so, that I like to say that if you get the dimensions and shape right, you almost have to work to make it sound bad.

Even something as mundane as how many screws are used to install the drywall panels can have a powerful influence on the sonic quality of a room. It may sound absurd, but it’s true.

So there’s a lot more going on below the surface. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it’s hidden in plain sight.