Acoustics / Studio Design

A dead live room, a live control room and faulty monitors... sounds like a job for the Studio SOS team!

SOS's crack studio squad tame unwanted reflections, track down strange noises coming from a Mac, and make some good-sounding drums sound even better!

Reader Stu Evans has a smart studio but a lacklustre drum sound. Can the team breathe life into it?

This month we tackle problems that were causing a bass-heavy mix and use coat-hangers to produce better vocal recordings!

Calderdale College in West Yorkshire gets the Studio SOS treatment, as we turn a concrete room into a working studio.

To accompany this month's Acoustics article, open this page and download this MP3 of a Bass Staircase test sequence, then audition it on your own monitors.

This month we play the role of studio design consultants... and leave the heavy work to the studio owners!

In this episode, the SOS crew sort out monitoring problems and offer some practical mastering tips to another reader.

This month we journey to the Outer Hebrides, where a college teaching Gaelic music has more than a few wires crossed...

The SOS crew go hob-nobbing at a stately home this month, and get to grips with the acoustics of a large and lively room.

The SOS crew visit reader Chris Walker's home studio and help solve amplification problems for his tea-chest bass.

The team take a trip up north to a multi-student household in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

This month, the SOS team visit a student's home studio to help him overcome a few teething troubles with layout and acoustics...

The SOS crew help drummer Darren Williams sort out a better space in which to record drums and operate as a remote session drummer.

We have a rehearsal room in a large garage that is 22 x 8 x 16 ft (WxHxD). The problem is that we need to build a room...

I record in three untreated rooms and I'm aware that some sort of acoustic treatment would be handy. I recently bought an...

Would you let two strange men drill holes in your house? USA-based SOS reader David Crane took the risk enough to let Paul and Hugh at his walls with a drill to solve his cabling issues...

I'm trying to get a bass guitar to sit well with a kick drum. I know the idea of shaping the EQ of both so they'll...

Sorting digital gremlins and rogue reflections is all in a day's work for the Studio SOS team...

Sweetening the mixing environment and sorting out the bass end is this month's task — but there's much more to do than adding a bit of rockwool!

The subject of studio acoustics can seem like black magic — but don't let it scare you off. You can make easy changes, that could vastly improve your recording and mixing environment, with the help of free or cheap PC software utilities, as we discover this month.