A consideration on physical tuning for acoustical coloration in recording studio

Abstract

Coloration due to particular architectural shapes and dimension or less surface absorption has been mentioned as an acoustical defect in recording studio. Generally interference among early reflected sounds arriving within 10 ms in delay after the direct sound produces coloration by comb filter effect over mid- and high-frequency sounds. In addition, less absorbed room resonance modes also have been well known as a major component for coloration in low-frequency sounds. Small size in dimension with recording studio, however, creates difficulty in characterization associated with wave acoustics behavior, that make acoustical optimization more difficult than that of concert hall acoustics. There still remains difficulty in evaluating amount of coloration as well as predicting its acoustical characteristics in acoustical modeling and in other words acoustical tuning technique during construction is regarded as important to optimize acoustics appropriately to the function of recording studio. This paper presents a example of coloration by comb filtering effect and less damped room modes in typical post-processing recording studio. And acoustical design and measurement technique will be presented for adjusting timbre due to coloration based on psycho-acoustical performance with binaural hearing and room resonance control with line array resonator adjusted to the particular room modes considered.