I've lurked on the gearslutz forum for years and always knew Ethan was a man that knew his stuff, but the man can also get on video and explain everything eloquently in easy to understand terms, with visual representations. One thing is for sure, room treatment is vastly over looked and underrated. When I was younger I tried everything I could to get around having to CORRECTLY treat my recording spaced etc, but once I took the time to soak up the knowledge online and put in some time building some DIY absorbers etc, my mind was made up real quick. Top notch video, even 6 years after the fact.
I don't know what i enjoyed more about this video. The huge amount of good information, the dad jokes, or the dudes disgust for poly diffusers. Well done Ethan, you made a masterpiece
It really helps to close my eyes while listening to these demos on my headphones.. I'm surprised the differences are so easily noticeable. I noticed the QRD sounded the "harshest" on both my tablet and my headphones.
One well deserved like from me. I can see you know, what you are talking about, and the way you explain the inner workings of an acoustic science is both information dense and easy to understand. Well done.
Fantastic demo!! The QRD device clearly sounds the best... I'm strictly a voice over guy so I much prefer a DEAD room as apposed to a LIVE one.... And no doubt for musicians diffusion makes a LOT of sense!
I always question people who say "how do people not know this video". This is the first time I agree . I am weirded out by the sub count. Wish you many more in the future
Glad to know Flutter Echo is the name for why a house sounds different inside when you move all your stuff out that was acting as diffusers and informal absorption surfaces
Thank you for the actual demo of the subject. Theory & fact are great but then adding actual application and demonstration is the way to teach. Subscribed !
I'm changing the acoustic of my studio and wasn't sure about what kind of diffusers to get...Had polystyrene ones, less than half-inch depth.... With your demonstrations am gonna get the QRD's straight away! Thanks a lot Ethan for sharing your knowledge with us!!!! think the best video on youtube found so far :)
Bass-Absorption + Diffusion: A way which produced interestingly nice results was to use polystyrol diffusors in front of classical bass traps. The styro diffusers are very light weighted and had been additionally covered with epoxy and clay to create a rigid surface. Anyway the whole object still mostly transmits wavelength beyond 200Hz allmost up to 100% as expect. These run into the bass trap.
Thanks very much for the informative video! It's given me a better understanding of the role diffusion plays in control rooms, and in recording situation. I particularly appreciate the simple, very useful A/B comparisons.
Brilliant video, so well explained, and on top of this, the phenomenon being described (flutter echo, comb resonance etc.) is actually shown (or more importantly heard!) Very useful information!
I received the mobile bass trap "vocal booth" from you years ago that is absolutely indispensable. I do voice overs and narration and no matter what else acoustically I add to my humble home studio, those foldable panels are still great to put up in a free standing position or making use of elsewhere for additional coverage.
Remember Ethan, things like flutter are heavily dependent on the placement of the source. Generally when the source is near a wall, flutter is greatly reduced as the reflection is not even remotely equal from the near wal to a far wall. But when the source is more centered, or worst of all, dead center in a room with self divisible or square dimensions(i.e. 10’x20’, 9’x27’, 15’x45’, etc) where the flutter can be quite unnerving. But the source placement is crucial. The worst I’ve ever heard was in a theater just about dead center and clap. The reverberant sound was like a spring, meets a slinky, meets a flanger, meets and wiffle ball bouncing within a foot wide gap really fast. Big room. Very quick flutter. In fact this example was the most textbook example of “flutter” I’ve ever heard because it truly sounded like something was “fluttering”, waving back and forth, but more like a hummingbird’s wings than a butterfly. But, for the gig, it was nonexistent, because the sou4ce wasn’t anywhere around that center area. No biggie. And as you very well know, the placement of the source of the sound of concern is crucial. Want a huge drum sound? Try placing it dead center. But depending on dimensions and volume, the whole thing could cancel itself out. If the walls and/or ceilings are irregular, you’ve struck gold! Throw your PCM91s in the trash cases the room has your canned verb in visceral form! But verb doesn’t have to be outrageous when the source is closer to the reflective surface. Of course that usually makes it farther from another maybe reflective surface. So……. Refraction is key, even for bass. If you are lucky enough to be able to absorb bass, more power to you. My solution for bass resonance is to prevent that level and eq of bass from even making enough volume in that direction as to reduce said ill resonance. Even that has side effects, cause as we all know, there are no free lunches. Or are there? No. There are not. Good ole pro tips I learned from veterans who can still school me: The smallest drivers you can get away with. If you can use a 10” instead of a 15”, do it, all day long. If you can make the bass you need with 12” instead of 18” drivers, do it man. And cross over as low as you can, whether from hi or mid, as low as the driver and phase will allow. You’ll notice that nowadays these guys are letting their line arrays go down to 60 and 50 hz before the subs pick up the rest. Wow. But there you go again. A shit load of 6” drivers will blow your mind for low end coherence and reduced phase issues because the note may be the same, but the distance between the sources of the notes can be so much less with smaller drivers giving you better control of things like the impossible to control interference between the outer edge of one 18” driver with the same edge at just the wrong distance apart, where the larger circumference simply aggravates the issue by spreading the tones across a larger surface, with less choice of placement. An SVT makes tons of low end, yes. But it’s an uncontrolled line array, and the inherent phase alignment is as problematic as it is beautiful. For each step you take away from an SVT or even off-axis, the resonant and loudest tone will change, so that low E was nice a full step away,but disappeared into feel-only zone when you step back to it, and then the F chews you up in one particular place, but is gone if you move around too much. A gradient array can help that, but even that has layered compromises and dimensionally difficult to comprehend, as height plays a big factor too. Sitting down can sound totally different that standing u in the same spot. Of course one the other pro tips they used to tell me was point source, point source, point source, where you can. Delay fills are fine, but keep the volumes lower than higher, and psychoacousticly the delay times will be less a liability by position, but a more realistic and forgiving plug in the acoustic hole. Nowadays, after 27 years of live mixing, where I thought I had a pretty solid grasp of acoustics, have discovered a whole new way to look at sound reproduction and sound reinforcement. I don’t look at two drivers trying to do the same thing the same way anymore. Never again. No matter what, there is a compromise. The purity of source versus reception(your ears) can never be as high with more than one driver, especially low frequency drivers. Notice co-axial speakers. Still though, a compromise, by construction restraints. The idea is golden. But the horn never has sounded right to me, as the LF driver seems to reverberate the “lense” of the HF “throat” gets harmonic “fluttering” (see what I did there?) that does affect the tones above crossover point. Now the 400-600 hz has to go “around” the HF lense before joining the rest of the LF content, just as a loose example, and becomes literally “behind” the 90-400hz material. This can used by tuning the shape and placement to get things back in phase that may be out by inherent wave lengths anyways, but regardless, there is going to be a compromise somewhere. This may be intuitively obvious to some. But point source is always best, smallest drivers crossed over as low as possible. So a nice 1.5” horn with a 3” diaphragm might just work with a 12” LF driver with cabinetry designed to cancel its own reflections and sum where the driver might be weakest. West Lake monitors use 15” LF drivers, two of them per cab, and if you are dead center or way off to the side there are holes down low, depending on how far away you are. But otherwise sound KILLER. But, they are willing to accept the compromise for the exceptional results. Bass traps? I try to use various diameters of soft, heavy, cylinders, either right in the corners or just out of them along the wall. What is soft, heavy, cylindrical, and dense? Punching bags. Various weights, sizes, not expansive, irregular as you want, and incredibly effective bass diffusers. I wouldn’t call them traps, but hey can break up a ton of would-be summation built up in corners or opposite walls from the subs. Traps? Good luck. It’s incredibly difficult to really “trap” bass. A sub gradient is the best way I know to truly “trap” sub-bass. With that you can tune and control direction, less in a room, but still very doable and effective, yet confoundingly difficult if you let the theory get away from you. Bass. Ahhhh. Bass. Nose twitching, eyes rippling. Nearby rolling thunder. Bass.
Hi Ethan! I stumbled upon this video (again) having not seen it for some time. Great as always and pretty spot on regarding bookshelves (with acoustic books) not being a diffusor. However, as absorption, they do actually have a small effect (as you also mention). In Denmark (where I live), the acoustic department of a test-center named Delta (now a part of Force Technologies), made measurements of bookshelves acoustic properties and found, that a somewhat standard bookshelf (with books), can have up to 0,7-0,8 absorption cofficiency in the 150-250hz area. That being said, the rest of the spectrum would be around 0,4-0,6. You probably already know this, but I just had to share this information, given to me by my former acoustic teacher. Take care and thanks for the videos!
Best explanation and demo on diffusion! I ve been searching for something like this for ages! Do have 1 question, placing them directly behind speakers on a wall, which are 45 cm from the wall (bassport in rear). Is that going to help? It's a normal livingroom, no studio. Some folks keep pushing that idea....
There used to be a gigantic bookshelf in my mixing room. In fact it covered all of my back wall except for like a foot near the ceiling.Filled with all kinds of books (small large and inbetween) The day It was taken away from my room OH BOY did it sound nasty.
There are some cases of well known sound engineers using bookshelf in their studio as part of their absorption/diffuser components and seems to work well for them.
Excelent video! now I'm decided where to put a pair of diffusors to enhance my drums recordings! thank u very much for using ur time for us with making this video! really appreciate it! :)
I'm still lost when it comes to diffusion choices as I plan to turn my garage into a studio. But this has been one of the most helpful videos I have watched on the subject. Plus, if I get desperate, I hope stacking a few books on acoustics might just do the trick :-)
It's not that difficult. For a control room, the main place diffusion is used is on the rear wall behind you. People sometimes put diffusers in other places, but the rear wall is sufficient. In a live room (or live area of a one-room studio) diffusion on a high ceiling is also useful. But for a garage studio I'd stick with just the back wall. If you record vocals or drums in the rear, absorption on the ceiling there is fine.
Bass traps go in corners. I'd need to see a photo to know what to suggest. You're welcome to post your questions in my Audio Expert forum: the-audio-expert.freeforums.net/
Hi Ethan, thank you for your helpful video. I'm looking for diffusers for my 2 channel listening room and wondering what brand of diffuser would you recommend? Also bass straps ? Thanks again
Really informative video. To me the only surfaces that sounded bad were the book shelf and absorber, although I could hear the differences between all of them. I thought the bare wall sounded ok.
To me the QRD enhanced the guitar sound the most followed by the poly with the microphone near the outside. The poly with the mic near the inside sounded harsh and muffled. Absorption sounded even more muffled and dead. The bookcase sounded the same as the plain wall.
I actually quite liked the sound of the bookshelf, had an element of absorbtion to it as well, it has to be said that scattering the books front to back will make a massive difference. Of course is sounds way less "airy" then the QRD diffusers.
Great video. For a hobbyist, I'd like to build my own deffuser , I need to figure out The dimensions. Thx for sharing with us all the differences it great .thx
You're Da Man old friend !!! .... Thanx for sharing your wealth of knowledge with everyone Ethan !! Love this ... you've been a big help in my trying to figure out my new SMALL room in FL :-) ... Hope all is well !!! Chris T.
Just WoW! your amazing! you gave alot of knowledge in a honnest, straight forward, concise, efficient, short and sweet. you rock!!! in a constructive criticisim comment i would say: put a joke like the acoustic book one at every 3min of your videos and why the poly-diffusors are not in the loop at the end? but again, amazing viedos ;-)
I'm listening on a Bluetooth box that is also my grotbox, the bookcase isn't nearly as good as the qrd, but better than the inside of the poly and way better than wall and absorber at scattering usable highs towards the mic. There was some dose of myth busting here, but I'm glad that I'm stuck with our giant Billy full of crap behind my listening position.
one can hear the phasing on the last strum with the QRD. Poly with mic on the outside sounds way better (after loudness match)...but yea, probably only in this distance and that specific spot
awk at the low frequency from the haters !!lol this my good sir is the best information clear and concise and beneficial to perfect sound not electronic and more inspirational if i met you in the shop i would of tipped you handsomely !!
i love these old skool guys, they are so honest, knowledgeable and thorough!
Absolutely! No show, no bullshit, just information and a few jokes.
i truly love how hard he's rocking those two chords
Those 2 chords sound the same as from a song that had a rather famous copyright lawsuit.
There I thought you were referring to the eyebrows, but yes chords too.
@@VEC7ORlt damn ya beat me to it
@@jcisme Those two chords are Em and A Major. They form the basis of thousands of songs.
@@VEC7ORlt definately ...!
You rarely see such a professional person visibly passionate about his subject these days. I enjoyed this video a lot.
Thanks Alex.
Ethan, you ROCK!
I've studied acoustics since 1978 and testify your videos are BAR FAR the most concise presentation of acoustic science.
he absolutely rocks!!!!!
He's the best man. He makes himself accessible to all of us because he truly loves the science!
I've lurked on the gearslutz forum for years and always knew Ethan was a man that knew his stuff, but the man can also get on video and explain everything eloquently in easy to understand terms, with visual representations. One thing is for sure, room treatment is vastly over looked and underrated. When I was younger I tried everything I could to get around having to CORRECTLY treat my recording spaced etc, but once I took the time to soak up the knowledge online and put in some time building some DIY absorbers etc, my mind was made up real quick. Top notch video, even 6 years after the fact.
Thanks!
It's sad to see that now its GEARPAGE. Fragile world.
WOW the diffuser brought the guitar to life. Much more definition and energy.
This explanation reinforced by the guitar comparison demonstrations at the end was superb!!! Really terrific!
Thanks!
Once in a while you find educative videos that are more focused on actually learning something than just entertainment....
This is a true masterpiece of a learning video. Great job
I don't know what i enjoyed more about this video. The huge amount of good information, the dad jokes, or the dudes disgust for poly diffusers. Well done Ethan, you made a masterpiece
At last - a chap who knows what he's talking about. ESPECIALLY at the end with the A/B demo... THANK THANK YOU!
Thanks, glad you liked it.
Thats exactly the style of explanation in a nutshell i was looking for all over the internet. Thank you very much!
Thanks, and you're welcome!
By far the most in depth informative video I've seen on diffusion yet.
I laughed at the Acoustic Books joke.
Same :)
he seemed slightly pleased to make the gag
i know right XD, really helpful otherwise
I was a lot more excited than I thought I should be...
acoustic book. hahaha
THEE single best video I've ever watched to explain diffusion. Thanks man, great work.
I really learned from this. I like that you put different kinds of acoustic treatment to the test like this in an A/B listening - thanks :-)
The man is straight to the point with no embellishing , dramatics like some of the other clowns . Thanks Ethan
It really helps to close my eyes while listening to these demos on my headphones.. I'm surprised the differences are so easily noticeable. I noticed the QRD sounded the "harshest" on both my tablet and my headphones.
The most concise explanation of diffusion I have seen on YT. Thanks for this.
if I can do 15 mn of Ethan's videos everyday, I can defend my PhD thesis in acoustic / math by next xmas. I am in IT.
One well deserved like from me. I can see you know, what you are talking about, and the way you explain the inner workings of an acoustic science is both information dense and easy to understand. Well done.
Thanks Juraj.
Fantastic demo!! The QRD device clearly sounds the best... I'm strictly a voice over guy so I much prefer a DEAD room as apposed to a LIVE one.... And no doubt for musicians diffusion makes a LOT of sense!
Ethan Winer is truly THE BEST!! Thank you so much for this. It helps that so many acoustics books have been written, to help treat the finest studios!
I always question people who say "how do people not know this video". This is the first time I agree . I am weirded out by the sub count. Wish you many more in the future
Thanks Guido.
I'm only about 4.5 minutes in, you haven't started a demo yet, but this video is GREAT! Lots of good info.
Glad to know Flutter Echo is the name for why a house sounds different inside when you move all your stuff out that was acting as diffusers and informal absorption surfaces
The most useful information I’ve found in 12 and a half minutes on TH-cam. Thanks a million!!
Thank you for the actual demo of the subject. Theory & fact are great but then adding actual application and demonstration is the way to teach. Subscribed !
Brilliant and thorough video, I could sense your passion for music from my home studio, thank you.
Thanks Jose.
I'm changing the acoustic of my studio and wasn't sure about what kind of diffusers to get...Had polystyrene ones, less than half-inch depth.... With your demonstrations am gonna get the QRD's straight away! Thanks a lot Ethan for sharing your knowledge with us!!!! think the best video on youtube found so far :)
Glad to, thanks.
This is the best and the most informative video I’ve ever watched on acoustic diffusers..thank you for sharing such valuable information..❤
Wow, thanks!
I loved the ventriloquist dummies in the corner watching along with the demo. Bravo, you truly are informed and unique.
Thanks for your comments, Edward. The puppets were made by my friend Robert Rogers, who does that for a living:
www.robertrogerspuppets.com/
Book cases are actually great to have at the rear of your control room, not to be underestimated! Especially in a small home studio.
best YT video i've seen in a while, i'd highly recommend this course instructor to future students. :)
Finally an YT video that clearly illustrates acoustic treatment. I finally have a better idea on what to do with my home studio.
I saw "diffusion" and thought I was getting a video about semiconductors... but the quality of the presentation held my interest.
I respect what you’re trying to do. It’s hard to get people to understand how much it matters. Which is why it’s so easy to go broke trying to do it.
Bass-Absorption + Diffusion: A way which produced interestingly nice results was to use polystyrol diffusors in front of classical bass traps. The styro diffusers are very light weighted and had been additionally covered with epoxy and clay to create a rigid surface. Anyway the whole object still mostly transmits wavelength beyond 200Hz allmost up to 100% as expect. These run into the bass trap.
Thanks very much for the informative video! It's given me a better understanding of the role diffusion plays in control rooms, and in recording situation. I particularly appreciate the simple, very useful A/B comparisons.
this is my new favorite person
I appreciate your honesty about diffusion for small rooms. Thank you
The final back-to-back-to-back demonstration was VERY helpful.
The best video on this topic. Thank you!
Brilliant video, so well explained, and on top of this, the phenomenon being described (flutter echo, comb resonance etc.) is actually shown (or more importantly heard!) Very useful information!
Glad it was helpful!
I received the mobile bass trap "vocal booth" from you years ago that is absolutely indispensable. I do voice overs and narration and no matter what else acoustically I add to my humble home studio, those foldable panels are still great to put up in a free standing position or making use of elsewhere for additional coverage.
Great, thanks for the nice note.
bookshelves ARE excellent i have to say - they worked a treat for me - especially when they have built in traps
Remember Ethan, things like flutter are heavily dependent on the placement of the source. Generally when the source is near a wall, flutter is greatly reduced as the reflection is not even remotely equal from the near wal to a far wall. But when the source is more centered, or worst of all, dead center in a room with self divisible or square dimensions(i.e. 10’x20’, 9’x27’, 15’x45’, etc) where the flutter can be quite unnerving. But the source placement is crucial. The worst I’ve ever heard was in a theater just about dead center and clap. The reverberant sound was like a spring, meets a slinky, meets a flanger, meets and wiffle ball bouncing within a foot wide gap really fast. Big room. Very quick flutter. In fact this example was the most textbook example of “flutter” I’ve ever heard because it truly sounded like something was “fluttering”, waving back and forth, but more like a hummingbird’s wings than a butterfly. But, for the gig, it was nonexistent, because the sou4ce wasn’t anywhere around that center area. No biggie. And as you very well know, the placement of the source of the sound of concern is crucial. Want a huge drum sound? Try placing it dead center. But depending on dimensions and volume, the whole thing could cancel itself out. If the walls and/or ceilings are irregular, you’ve struck gold! Throw your PCM91s in the trash cases the room has your canned verb in visceral form! But verb doesn’t have to be outrageous when the source is closer to the reflective surface. Of course that usually makes it farther from another maybe reflective surface. So……. Refraction is key, even for bass. If you are lucky enough to be able to absorb bass, more power to you. My solution for bass resonance is to prevent that level and eq of bass from even making enough volume in that direction as to reduce said ill resonance. Even that has side effects, cause as we all know, there are no free lunches. Or are there? No. There are not.
Good ole pro tips I learned from veterans who can still school me: The smallest drivers you can get away with. If you can use a 10” instead of a 15”, do it, all day long. If you can make the bass you need with 12” instead of 18” drivers, do it man. And cross over as low as you can, whether from hi or mid, as low as the driver and phase will allow. You’ll notice that nowadays these guys are letting their line arrays go down to 60 and 50 hz before the subs pick up the rest. Wow. But there you go again. A shit load of 6” drivers will blow your mind for low end coherence and reduced phase issues because the note may be the same, but the distance between the sources of the notes can be so much less with smaller drivers giving you better control of things like the impossible to control interference between the outer edge of one 18” driver with the same edge at just the wrong distance apart, where the larger circumference simply aggravates the issue by spreading the tones across a larger surface, with less choice of placement. An SVT makes tons of low end, yes. But it’s an uncontrolled line array, and the inherent phase alignment is as problematic as it is beautiful. For each step you take away from an SVT or even off-axis, the resonant and loudest tone will change, so that low E was nice a full step away,but disappeared into feel-only zone when you step back to it, and then the F chews you up in one particular place, but is gone if you move around too much. A gradient array can help that, but even that has layered compromises and dimensionally difficult to comprehend, as height plays a big factor too. Sitting down can sound totally different that standing u in the same spot. Of course one the other pro tips they used to tell me was point source, point source, point source, where you can. Delay fills are fine, but keep the volumes lower than higher, and psychoacousticly the delay times will be less a liability by position, but a more realistic and forgiving plug in the acoustic hole. Nowadays, after 27 years of live mixing, where I thought I had a pretty solid grasp of acoustics, have discovered a whole new way to look at sound reproduction and sound reinforcement. I don’t look at two drivers trying to do the same thing the same way anymore. Never again. No matter what, there is a compromise. The purity of source versus reception(your ears) can never be as high with more than one driver, especially low frequency drivers. Notice co-axial speakers. Still though, a compromise, by construction restraints. The idea is golden. But the horn never has sounded right to me, as the LF driver seems to reverberate the “lense” of the HF “throat” gets harmonic “fluttering” (see what I did there?) that does affect the tones above crossover point. Now the 400-600 hz has to go “around” the HF lense before joining the rest of the LF content, just as a loose example, and becomes literally “behind” the 90-400hz material. This can used by tuning the shape and placement to get things back in phase that may be out by inherent wave lengths anyways, but regardless, there is going to be a compromise somewhere. This may be intuitively obvious to some. But point source is always best, smallest drivers crossed over as low as possible. So a nice 1.5” horn with a 3” diaphragm might just work with a 12” LF driver with cabinetry designed to cancel its own reflections and sum where the driver might be weakest. West Lake monitors use 15” LF drivers, two of them per cab, and if you are dead center or way off to the side there are holes down low, depending on how far away you are. But otherwise sound KILLER. But, they are willing to accept the compromise for the exceptional results. Bass traps? I try to use various diameters of soft, heavy, cylinders, either right in the corners or just out of them along the wall. What is soft, heavy, cylindrical, and dense? Punching bags. Various weights, sizes, not expansive, irregular as you want, and incredibly effective bass diffusers. I wouldn’t call them traps, but hey can break up a ton of would-be summation built up in corners or opposite walls from the subs. Traps? Good luck. It’s incredibly difficult to really “trap” bass. A sub gradient is the best way I know to truly “trap” sub-bass. With that you can tune and control direction, less in a room, but still very doable and effective, yet confoundingly difficult if you let the theory get away from you. Bass. Ahhhh. Bass. Nose twitching, eyes rippling. Nearby rolling thunder. Bass.
Finally, someone who truly knows what he’s talking about.
Thanks.
Hi Ethan!
I stumbled upon this video (again) having not seen it for some time. Great as always and pretty spot on regarding bookshelves (with acoustic books) not being a diffusor. However, as absorption, they do actually have a small effect (as you also mention). In Denmark (where I live), the acoustic department of a test-center named Delta (now a part of Force Technologies), made measurements of bookshelves acoustic properties and found, that a somewhat standard bookshelf (with books), can have up to 0,7-0,8 absorption cofficiency in the 150-250hz area. That being said, the rest of the spectrum would be around 0,4-0,6.
You probably already know this, but I just had to share this information, given to me by my former acoustic teacher.
Take care and thanks for the videos!
Thanks Mads.
Wow, very educational and easy to understand. Exceptional presentation!
Thanks!
Great audible comparison, Thank you Ethan.
Glad it was helpful!
Best explanation and demo on diffusion! I ve been searching for something like this for ages!
Do have 1 question, placing them directly behind speakers on a wall, which are 45 cm from the wall (bassport in rear). Is that going to help? It's a normal livingroom, no studio. Some folks keep pushing that idea....
With normal "box" speakers that send most of the sound forward, diffusion on the front wall behind the speakers is a waste.
Why is this guy not an awesome meme yet?
people who have listened to him are busy treating their rooms
@@Dm3qXY Ohhhh shit! lmfao
cuz 12 year olds don't hang around here
@@ByGraceThroughFaith777 Yes they do, it's TH-cam.
@@QoraxAudio No, they don't watch these types of videos...
Giggled at the book joke;). Laughed out loud when the headbanging started! Very informative and entertaining. You tha man Ethan!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
There used to be a gigantic bookshelf in my mixing room. In fact it covered all of my back wall except for like a foot near the ceiling.Filled with all kinds of books (small large and inbetween) The day It was taken away from my room OH BOY did it sound nasty.
Who's stealing your books? Who hurt you?
had fantastic results with mine
There are some cases of well known sound engineers using bookshelf in their studio as part of their absorption/diffuser components and seems to work well for them.
Excellent demonstration. Thanks.
7:07 acoustics books joke was hilarious
Excelent video! now I'm decided where to put a pair of diffusors to enhance my drums recordings! thank u very much for using ur time for us with making this video! really appreciate it! :)
Ethan, thank you so much for this. Superb knowledge sharing and great practical audible examples. This is a gem of a video. Subscribed.
The diffuser shootout was gold, as was the entire presentation. Absolutely aces. Thank you!
Thanks.
This video comes like on order. Excellent video bringing together the pieces I already know with the right exprience, use in small rooms. Thanks
Thank you so much! It's really helpful for me to decide what kinds of acoustic treatment for my recording booth.
thank you for the knowledge
The bookcase was an improvement over the bare wall :-) Thanks for reminding me of the Alton Everest book, of which I had forgotten
First video, that actually shows the effect of diffusing... and super helpful
A lot of information packed in your presentation. Thankyou.
Glad it was helpful!
I'm still lost when it comes to diffusion choices as I plan to turn my garage into a studio. But this has been one of the most helpful videos I have watched on the subject. Plus, if I get desperate, I hope stacking a few books on acoustics might just do the trick :-)
It's not that difficult. For a control room, the main place diffusion is used is on the rear wall behind you. People sometimes put diffusers in other places, but the rear wall is sufficient. In a live room (or live area of a one-room studio) diffusion on a high ceiling is also useful. But for a garage studio I'd stick with just the back wall. If you record vocals or drums in the rear, absorption on the ceiling there is fine.
@@EthanWiner What if I also need to have a door in the rear/corner? Would diffusion be more difficult to apply just right?
Bass traps go in corners. I'd need to see a photo to know what to suggest. You're welcome to post your questions in my Audio Expert forum:
the-audio-expert.freeforums.net/
will do soon, thanks a lot
Hi Ethan, thank you for your helpful video. I'm looking for diffusers for my 2 channel listening room and wondering what brand of diffuser would you recommend? Also bass straps ? Thanks again
Great video!! The traps and the wall sound nice…
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
Awesome education accoustic class with lots of precise information for sound enthusiast
Really informative video. To me the only surfaces that sounded bad were the book shelf and absorber, although I could hear the differences between all of them. I thought the bare wall sounded ok.
in this small sample size the bare wall sounds alright, but walk into any fully bare walled empty room and the sound is rarely pleasant or desirable
why aren't more youtube tutorial vids this informative and organized?
wow, so much info and demos, thank you.
I came because the soundfonts, now I find a awesome channel
Thanks Mike.
Great and eye opening video . Thank you for your knowledge.
To me the QRD enhanced the guitar sound the most followed by the poly with the microphone near the outside. The poly with the mic near the inside sounded harsh and muffled. Absorption sounded even more muffled and dead. The bookcase sounded the same as the plain wall.
Ethan Winer is a Legend. Most of you youngsters may not know this.
This is a really awesome video! It inspired me and my friend to build 4 29well(25cm deep) qrd diffusers for our studio.
How did that work out?
What a wealth of information thanks. The qrd sounds the best
I actually quite liked the sound of the bookshelf, had an element of absorbtion to it as well, it has to be said that scattering the books front to back will make a massive difference. Of course is sounds way less "airy" then the QRD diffusers.
Lesson I have learned. First treat room then purchase hi fi. The room acoustic treatment is paramount.
You got it!
@@EthanWiner Thanks Ethan for sharing your most excellent insights into the sometimes murky world of audio.
The best part was seeing Microsoft Office 97 on his bookshelf. You never know when you might need to refer to that one. :-)
Don't laugh! I still use Excel and Word from that package and they still work perfectly.
Great video.
For a hobbyist,
I'd like to build my own deffuser , I need to figure out The dimensions.
Thx for sharing with us all the differences it great .thx
Poly sounds most natural. Thanks for the awesome explanation and information.
You're Da Man old friend !!! .... Thanx for sharing your wealth of knowledge with everyone Ethan !! Love this ... you've been a big help in my trying to figure out my new SMALL room in FL :-) ... Hope all is well !!! Chris T.
Thanks Chris.
WRT polys, for the exact reason you stated, you should not have designed them to butt up against each other to avoid detrimental acoustic effects.
All time favorite acoustics walkthrough!!! Thank you very much!!!
A very good and helpful demonstration. Thank you.
Just WoW! your amazing! you gave alot of knowledge in a honnest, straight forward, concise, efficient, short and sweet. you rock!!! in a constructive criticisim comment i would say: put a joke like the acoustic book one at every 3min of your videos and why the poly-diffusors are not in the loop at the end? but again, amazing viedos ;-)
Thanks very much Simon!
Thank you for imparting valuable knowledge.
Excellent video, this guy really knows his stuff. Thanks for the info!
Nice reference to George Massenberg, My sound engineer hero who worked with my favorite band, Earth, Wind & Fire on their great albums.
Excellent video. Where do I get one of these "bookcases"
I learned so much and what a great presentation! Thanks! Great playing by the way
Thanks.
10:11 holy shit, that sounded beautiful
It"s the acoustics books fam
I'm listening on a Bluetooth box that is also my grotbox, the bookcase isn't nearly as good as the qrd, but better than the inside of the poly and way better than wall and absorber at scattering usable highs towards the mic. There was some dose of myth busting here, but I'm glad that I'm stuck with our giant Billy full of crap behind my listening position.
This is an excellent informative video. Ethan is a true pro!
Fantastic guitar head movement, A+
best explanation for a diyer on home / commercial studio setup.
To the point and no bullshit. Great video! Subbed.
one can hear the phasing on the last strum with the QRD. Poly with mic on the outside sounds way better (after loudness match)...but yea, probably only in this distance and that specific spot
awk at the low frequency from the haters !!lol this my good sir is the best information clear and concise and beneficial to perfect sound not electronic and more inspirational if i met you in the shop i would of tipped you handsomely !!