One of the most important elements to achieving a clean podcast recording is a well-treated acoustic space. In addition to outside noise, reverberation and flutter echoes, which happen when sound bounces between walls, can take away from the professionalism of your recording and potentially put off your listeners. So, we’ve provided a brief list of the best acoustic treatment solutions to keep your room quiet and echo free.
Absorbers & Diffusers
Two types of tools used to manage room reflections are absorbers and diffusers. Absorption will minimize any echo or reverberation within the room to improve clarity and speech intelligibility. Overall, it will give your room a more “dead” feel.
Unlike absorbers, diffusers don’t remove sound energy. Rather, sound diffusers disperse sound waves across the room and disrupt reflections to make the sound more even, natural and full-bodied. It will ensure that the soundscape doesn’t sound unrealistic or unbalanced.
Budget Options
If you’re a one-person podcast on a budget, sometimes the easiest and cheapest way to minimize echo and reverberation is by using a vocal booth or shield. A simple solution is something like the Gator Frameworks Mic Isolation Shield, which features a weighted stand for desktop use. It isolates your microphone to protect it from unwanted reflections, giving you a cleaner, more dampened vocal delivery with more presence.
If you’re looking for another easy solution but need more room to move around, check out the IsoPac T tabletop vocal booth from ClearSonic. Featuring three panels and a lid, this booth provides up to 50% sound reduction. It employs cable cut-outs in the corners for the neat placement of your microphone or laptop cables and folds for easy portability.
Yet another solution that doesn’t require any wall installation is the Auralex DeskMax, which features two separate panels that sit on your desktop. Unlike the examples above, this setup is a little more open, giving you room to include your laptop, mixer or interface.
If you want to take a more thorough approach and strategically mount absorbers to your wall, check out Studiofoam Wedgies from Auralex. This is an especially good option for those with small recording spaces, as the 12 x 12 x 2-inch panels are small enough to customize your wall arrangement. The Studiofoam Wedgies, which come in packs of 24, feature a large surface area to maximize exposure to sound waves. It’s ideal for tackling flutter-echo problems. And when you spread them all apart, you’ll achieve added sound diffusion off their exposed edges.
Mid-Range to Premium
If you’re willing to spend a little more, you can invest in fiberglass absorbers, which provide better absorption compared to acoustic foam. The S2224 Sorber Sound Absorption Baffle from ClearSonic not only functions as an absorber but also redirects sound waves to more naturally disperse the acoustic energy. These panels measure 22 x 24 x1.6-inches and come in packs of 10.
For a more serious investment, it’s a good idea to go for an all-in-one acoustic treatment kit with both absorbers and diffusers, such as the Vicoustic VicStudio Box. It takes care of first reflections (the first places the sound hits), broadens the sound image and reduces ambience, as well as any sound-field anomalies. This kit is perfect for a room floor area of up to 161 square feet. The absorbers mainly reduce midrange frequencies with some high frequency reflection to ensure that the room doesn’t sound too dry. The diffusers mostly disperse mid frequencies as well. For lower frequencies, you’ll want to get some bass traps. However, if aesthetics are a consideration, you can get come good looking thick corner panels that handle low-frequency absorption, such as the Super Bass Extreme Ultra Acoustic Treatment from Vicoustic.
To tackle both higher and lower frequencies with one kit, check out the Auralex ProPanel ProKit-2 Acoustical Room Treatment System. The kit includes 12, suede covered 2" x 2' x 4' beveled-edge ProPanel fiberglass panels designed to control excess middle and high frequency reflections, and 6 2" x 2' x 4' mitered-edge ProPanel corner treatments to provide low-frequency absorption.
Bass Traps
As mentioned above, bass traps are an important part of acoustic treatment, and especially if you’re recording in a small room, they can be essential. While wall panels generally eliminate mid to high frequencies (300 Hz to 2000 Hz), bass traps absorb low frequency energy below 300 Hz.
If you’re going with foam, you can buy the cost-effective LENRD Bass Traps from Auralex. It comes with 4 compact corner pieces to control low frequencies without giving up too much space. (You’ll need 2 packs if you want to cover both floor and ceiling level corners). But if you’re looking for something a little more aesthetically pleasing, you can opt for a design like the London Bass Trap from Primacoustic, which comes in three colors and can nicely compliment one of the studio kits from the same brand.
Sound Proofing
Sound proofing is different from absorption and diffusion; while absorbers and diffusers manage sound waves within the room, sound proofing protects the room from outside sound sources, as well as prevents sound from escaping your room.
Buying a noise insulating cover, like the Vicoustic ISO Blanket Pro or Glide Gear SXB 50 Sound Absorption Blocker Blanket is a great way to protect sound coming in through your floors and walls. Seal it over a window, lay it on your floor or drape it over an entrance area to minimize sound traveling through the cracks or any walls that lack insulation.
If you’ve got money to spend and are looking for something more permanent, you can even invest in a sound isolating door, such as the Auralex StudioDoor 37R. It employs stacked materials that provide a Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating of 37.
We hope we’ve provided you with some useful options to acoustically prepare your room for a successful podcast. Once you have properly treated your acoustic space, you’ll hopefully be outputting a more professional sounding podcast and wasting less time in post-production.
For more information about the products listed, including additional features, specs, and highlights, be sure to check out the detailed product pages. Or drop us a line below, and we’ll do our best to answer all your comments and questions.
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