Diffusers — What They Actually Do (and Why They Matter)

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?

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Get started.

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Welcome.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hi.

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Hello, everyone.

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To the Pro Audio Suite.

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These guys are professional.

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They're motivated.

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With Tech the VO stars.

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George Whitten, founder of Source Elements.

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Robert Marshall, international audio engineer.

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Darren Robbo Robertson, and Global Voice.

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Andrew Peters, thanks to Triboo.

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Austrian Audio, making passion heard.

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Source Elements, George the Tech Whitten, and Robbo

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and AP's international demos.

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To find out more about us, check theproaudiosuite

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.com.

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Line up, man!

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Here we go.

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Welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.

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Thanks to Tribooth.

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Don't forget the code.

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T-R-I-P-A-P to 100.

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That will get you $200 off your Tribooth.

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And Austrian Audio, making passion heard.

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Oid?

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Oid.

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Oid.

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Making passion oid.

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Oid.

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Looking forward to their new CC8 coming soon,

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I think.

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The super cardioid version.

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Oh, I'm going to get to play with

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one very soon.

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You will be, because are you going to

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AES, or?

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Yeah.

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Ah, nice.

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I forgot completely, or I was just off

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the radar of the fact that they were

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doing it in Long Beach this year.

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Yeah.

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Which is an hour drive.

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So you'll be there.

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No problem.

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Yeah, yeah.

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No problem.

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And I've already been in contact with them,

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and we might get a little goodie bag,

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so fingers crossed.

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Oh, I do love a goodie bag.

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Nice.

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Fingers crossed.

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Now, you're in a friend of yours' studio

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as we speak, and obviously no one can

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see this because this is audio, but I

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can see behind you with this really cool

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room with a beautiful diffuser in the background.

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So how does that work in that room?

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I mean, obviously diffusers are reliant on the

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size of the space if they're going to

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work properly.

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Yeah, I don't remember if I got to

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hear the room much before the diffuser went

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up.

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So Rick, we're in a shed.

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It's a garden shed, a very highly well

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-insulated garden shed.

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And it's a decent size.

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I'd say it's two and a half, three

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by three and a half, four meters.

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Might be not that big, but decent size.

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And so Rick had an idea of what

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he wanted his studio to sound like from

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recording a fair amount of music and doing

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animation at commercial studios.

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So he didn't want it to be just

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another dead booth.

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So when it was all in, the acoustics

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were up, I guess he was going, yeah,

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it doesn't really have that sound I was

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going for.

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And apparently he hadn't put in the last

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element, which is the diffuser panel.

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And so behind me is a really nicely

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fabricated wood stained.

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I don't know what it is, but it's

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a nice stained wood quality looking panel.

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And it lays over top an acoustic absorber

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layer.

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So there's a diffuser over top of an

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absorber.

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So it's a hybrid.

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And it's interesting because it just livens up

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the room just a tad more than it

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would be otherwise.

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And again, I wish I had an opportunity

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to do some A-B tests, record before

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after and really listen to the room and

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hear what it does.

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But my understanding of diffusion, very non-scientific,

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is it makes a room sound a little

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larger without making it sound too lively or

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too reverberant.

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I don't know, what do you know about

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it?

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It scatters the sound.

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So a quadratic diffuser does it in one

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way.

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But in general, the idea is that sound

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hits it and doesn't bounce back in a

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predictable, like creating a node or a reflection.

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It hits it and scatters.

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And therefore you get some of the life

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of having reflective surface, but you don't get

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the downside, which is a specific frequency that's

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being amplified or being reinforced by a reflection

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that bounces repeatedly back and forth.

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It scatters sound.

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And in front of me is a big

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piece of glass.

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There's a large glass sliding patio door.

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So you're going to get some splash off

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of that glass.

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So wherever that bounces off that, it will

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just hit this diffuser and then scatter.

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And it works really nicely.

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I'm speaking into a 416 at the moment.

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There's a U87 just to my left.

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And this is a room where you can

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use nice mics and they will sound nice,

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which is awesome.

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It doesn't scatter everything though, does it?

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Just going back on what you're saying.

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Because it's going to absorb the low end

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and only diffuse the mids and highs.

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Would that be right?

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It depends on how big the diffuser is.

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Or how deep the diffuser is.

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So traditional quadratic diffusers, which I think the

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thing that's behind me maybe is akin to

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a quadratic diffuser.

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I guess not really.

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It doesn't look like it so much.

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Carl put a similar diffuser at another country.

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And those are pretty shallow slats.

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What are they, like maybe an inch or

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two thick?

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A quadratic diffuser, some of them are like

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six inches deep.

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And they work on a different principle.

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The idea of a quadratic diffuser is sound

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goes into one of them and bounces out.

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And sound goes to the other one and

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bounces out.

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But they bounce out at a different time.

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And then they hit each other on the

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bounce and scatter.

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There's so many kinds of diffusers.

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If you guys are curious, and if you're

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listening, you might be.

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Definitely look up acoustic diffusers and look at

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how they're made and the many different varieties

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and ways they're made.

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The most creative thing in a studio acoustically

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seems to be in diffusion.

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For sure.

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The simplest one is just a convex reflective

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surface.

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Right, a curve that points out toward you.

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Out.

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Yeah, exactly.

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You don't want pointing in.

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They'll be like the exact opposite.

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Concave is bad.

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Convex is good.

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So here's a question that I've always wondered

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about diffusers.

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Would you only diffuse behind you?

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Would you ever have a reason where you

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would diffuse on side walls or front wall?

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Would you only diffuse what's coming from behind

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you?

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You would diffuse wherever sound is going to

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hit that you don't want it to reflect

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back in a predictable way.

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But if you're spraying it out everywhere, aren't

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you spraying it out back into the mic?

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It loses energy when it sprays out.

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It sprays out and it has its energy

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dispersed, and it won't hit the microphone, especially

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at a specific frequency at the same point.

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Right.

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And this room has a very specific purpose,

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voiceover.

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So you wouldn't mix in this room.

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I mean, you could, but you probably wouldn't

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want to because it's not symmetrical.

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So on the right side of me, the

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entire wall is dead.

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It's one massive absorber.

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And on my left, there's two windows on

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the wall and a single panel absorber between

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them to add dampen a little bit.

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But the room isn't acoustically symmetrical.

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How deep is that absorption?

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Is it like an inch deep or two

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inches deep?

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Do you know how deep that stuff is?

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All the wall absorbers that I can see

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look like to be roughly two inches thick.

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Yeah, so they're big.

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They're sucking up the bass.

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So that diffuser behind you is also sitting

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two inches off the wall.

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Yep, it's going to have the same.

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Yeah, so the panel behind me is about

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two inches thick, and then the diffuser, which

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is made of wood, which is roughly two

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inches deep, or maybe one and three quarter,

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is proud of that.

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It's over top of the panel.

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And then it lets the sound in through

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the slats.

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The thinner the diffuser is, the less the

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lower frequency it can control.

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Correct.

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Generally.

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Yeah, it diffuses higher.

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Unless it's a Fresnel-style diffuser, which is

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a whole other crazy acoustical...

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I don't even know what a Fresnel...

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What's a Fresnel-style diffuser?

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Do you know what a Fresnel lens looks

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like?

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No.

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It's spelled Fresnel.

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Literally, it's Fresnel, but it's pronounced Fresnel.

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A Fresnel lens is the kind you can

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see on a lighthouse, where there's a bright

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light in the middle, and then you'll see

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this lens that looks like concentric circles.

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That's a Fresnel lens.

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Sometimes, you know those flexible book magnifiers you

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can get?

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It's like a bookmark?

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Those are Fresnel lenses.

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They're just thin, but they still magnify.

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They do that acoustically, as well as with

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light.

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Somebody came up with a Fresnel-style diffuser

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that can control much lower frequencies than its

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actual depth would imply.

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It's really crazy stuff.

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This reminds me of someone who was doing

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a studio, and he was saying, oh, I've

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got stucco walls, basically, so they're all diffused.

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And someone who knew about acoustics was like,

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yeah, but no.

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You are diffusing...

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You know, you think about little stucco bumps,

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and he's like, you are diffusing 20,000

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hertz.

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You are not diffusing...

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Yeah, it's only controlling very high frequencies.

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Exactly.

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It's still better than a completely mirror-finished

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flat surface, though.

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True, yeah, and the very high frequencies...

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It's still scattering.

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It's interesting with the studio.

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I can see why it's behind him, because

277
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you've probably got computer monitors in front of

278
00:09:26,540 --> 00:09:26,700
you.

279
00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:27,180
Yeah.

280
00:09:27,940 --> 00:09:30,060
So you've got quite a few reflective surfaces

281
00:09:30,060 --> 00:09:31,920
immediately in front.

282
00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,560
Just one monitor, but again, that large glass

283
00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:38,720
door is probably two meters behind the mic.

284
00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:41,200
It's also opposite his speaker, which in a

285
00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:44,240
traditional studio, especially in a stereo context, like

286
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:46,180
surround sound messes this up a bit, but

287
00:09:46,180 --> 00:09:48,040
with stereo, the diffuser was always in the

288
00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:48,680
back of the room.

289
00:09:50,020 --> 00:09:52,160
And so, you know, the speakers would hit.

290
00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:55,820
Now, I think I've heard, anecdotally, I mean,

291
00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:57,560
I would say this happened at some point,

292
00:09:57,660 --> 00:09:59,280
but God knows when it happened and how

293
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,300
long ago and who it was, but somewhere

294
00:10:01,300 --> 00:10:03,040
in the deep, dark cave of my brain,

295
00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,080
I remember working with a voice actor with

296
00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:07,720
a traditional smaller booth, maybe four by six

297
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:09,880
range, somewhere in there, maybe slightly larger.

298
00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:13,860
And he had, if not on one sidewall,

299
00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,460
maybe both sidewalls.

300
00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:17,860
Again, can't remember the details here, sorry, but

301
00:10:17,860 --> 00:10:21,140
he was using diffuser panels on each side

302
00:10:21,140 --> 00:10:22,540
or on one side.

303
00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:27,400
And then that really made the U87 sound

304
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:28,540
much sweeter.

305
00:10:28,540 --> 00:10:33,680
It really sounded nice in that case.

306
00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:37,120
But I wish I had a database of

307
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:39,540
every booth I've heard and how it's laid

308
00:10:39,540 --> 00:10:39,860
out.

309
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,440
But I do recall that that was pleasing.

310
00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:43,740
It was kind of nice.

311
00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:49,340
Scientifically, it's hard to justify.

312
00:10:49,660 --> 00:10:51,420
I can't really back this up, but essentially

313
00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:54,060
it makes a small booth sound a little

314
00:10:54,060 --> 00:10:54,680
bit bigger.

315
00:10:55,260 --> 00:10:56,660
Are you familiar with the tube traps?

316
00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:59,000
Yeah, I've not really used them much, but

317
00:10:59,000 --> 00:10:59,320
yeah.

318
00:10:59,420 --> 00:11:00,800
One side is a diffuser and the other

319
00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:01,640
side is an absorber.

320
00:11:01,780 --> 00:11:03,860
Like it's a semicircle, like a hemisphere?

321
00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:05,120
It's a full circle.

322
00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:05,580
Okay.

323
00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,240
And half of it, one semicircle is absorption

324
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:09,760
and the other semicircle is diffusion.

325
00:11:10,380 --> 00:11:11,840
So you just sort of turn them around

326
00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:12,720
to get the effect that you want?

327
00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:13,820
You turn it the way you want.

328
00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:15,780
Yeah, and I think the secret weapon in

329
00:11:15,780 --> 00:11:17,120
those things is the diffuser.

330
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:18,960
When you get the diffuser around a mic,

331
00:11:19,500 --> 00:11:24,020
it really neutralizes things, but doesn't kill it

332
00:11:24,020 --> 00:11:26,160
in that boxy, tubey way.

333
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:30,040
I've seen portable control rooms where people set

334
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,680
up a control room and it's just tube

335
00:11:32,680 --> 00:11:33,000
traps.

336
00:11:33,260 --> 00:11:36,320
They make this huge array of them around

337
00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:38,040
and it's pretty impressive.

338
00:11:38,420 --> 00:11:41,640
I've never heard one, but I've been in

339
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,160
a handful of studios that have tube traps

340
00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:45,340
or something akin.

341
00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:47,540
They may not be the real thing.

342
00:11:47,740 --> 00:11:50,160
I know I've seen fully carpeted ones that

343
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:51,940
are carpeted all the way around.

344
00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:54,980
They're carpeted all around, but inside the carpeting,

345
00:11:54,980 --> 00:11:58,280
yeah, inside the carpeting is different surfaces or

346
00:11:58,280 --> 00:11:58,880
things within.

347
00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:00,480
I might be able to get my hands

348
00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:01,280
on a few of those.

349
00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:02,400
I should probably...

350
00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:04,380
They are expensive and they are worth it.

351
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,400
Yeah, because one of the agencies in L

352
00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:10,940
.A. closed up their doors and they had

353
00:12:10,940 --> 00:12:11,340
those.

354
00:12:11,780 --> 00:12:12,380
Yeah, man, grab them.

355
00:12:12,460 --> 00:12:13,320
I'll give you my address.

356
00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,300
If they're not in a dumpster or in

357
00:12:17,300 --> 00:12:19,720
somebody else's house by now, I'll see if

358
00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:20,800
I can get my hands on them.

359
00:12:20,900 --> 00:12:22,880
Those things are actually quite expensive, and the

360
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:25,360
thing about them is that you've got to

361
00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:27,140
have a booth with space because they sit

362
00:12:27,140 --> 00:12:28,780
on a stand and they just take up

363
00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:29,780
a lot of space.

364
00:12:30,220 --> 00:12:31,700
But if you have the space for them,

365
00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:35,780
they can really make a nice neutral sound.

366
00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:38,340
They just have an interesting thing about them.

367
00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:40,620
That's just the irony of studio booths.

368
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,800
The smaller the volume of the room around

369
00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,980
you, the more effort you really have to

370
00:12:46,980 --> 00:12:49,580
put in to control the resonances or the

371
00:12:49,580 --> 00:12:53,200
room modes, the frequencies at ping-pong, left,

372
00:12:53,300 --> 00:12:54,720
right, up, down, front, back.

373
00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:56,640
And so then that booth has to be

374
00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,460
even smaller because you have to shrink it.

375
00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:01,800
You have to add all this absorption, sometimes

376
00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:04,180
four or even six inches deep.

377
00:13:04,620 --> 00:13:06,500
And so it gets even smaller.

378
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:08,660
I heard a Chaotica is going to make

379
00:13:08,660 --> 00:13:09,740
the Chaotica iBooth.

380
00:13:10,740 --> 00:13:11,380
Oh, no.

381
00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:13,480
Right.

382
00:13:14,420 --> 00:13:15,420
Looking forward to that one.

383
00:13:15,660 --> 00:13:18,960
I've actually got a couple of Auralex panels

384
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,660
on stands, and one side is Auralex foam,

385
00:13:21,820 --> 00:13:23,620
and on the other side is the diffuser.

386
00:13:24,500 --> 00:13:25,000
Same idea.

387
00:13:25,180 --> 00:13:26,740
Yeah, they give you both treatments, and then

388
00:13:26,740 --> 00:13:28,140
you spin it around to what you want.

389
00:13:29,060 --> 00:13:29,460
Yeah.

390
00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:32,780
It's just one of those rainy day projects.

391
00:13:33,180 --> 00:13:34,620
I would love to have panels that are

392
00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:36,200
double-sided, and I could just flip them

393
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:38,560
around and put them up and listen to

394
00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:39,300
how they react.

395
00:13:39,460 --> 00:13:41,940
I have some random diffusion things that were

396
00:13:41,940 --> 00:13:45,760
made by Studio Bricks that they shipped as

397
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:46,660
a demo to me.

398
00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:48,840
I have...

399
00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:50,240
What else do I have?

400
00:13:50,300 --> 00:13:51,760
I feel like I have a couple different

401
00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:53,620
things, but they're all...

402
00:13:53,620 --> 00:13:54,660
I don't know what they do.

403
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:56,820
Because some of the diffusion panels that you

404
00:13:56,820 --> 00:13:59,360
see are literally nothing more than a sheet

405
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,080
of thin veneer plywood with holes in it.

406
00:14:03,860 --> 00:14:05,740
Well, those are a little bit more like

407
00:14:05,740 --> 00:14:08,620
what you have behind you, where G-Acoustics

408
00:14:08,620 --> 00:14:10,460
does that, an absorber with some holes.

409
00:14:10,460 --> 00:14:11,140
G-Acoustics, right.

410
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:12,040
Yeah, absorber.

411
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,120
And that's just more like a tunable, not

412
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:15,200
completely dead thing.

413
00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:16,460
I've got...

414
00:14:16,460 --> 00:14:16,720
Yeah.

415
00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:19,260
I've got RPGs in the back of my

416
00:14:19,260 --> 00:14:21,500
studio, which I lucked into when a studio

417
00:14:21,500 --> 00:14:22,400
got torn down.

418
00:14:22,940 --> 00:14:25,400
Are they the ones that look like blocks

419
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,060
of wood, or that's maybe a skyline?

420
00:14:27,140 --> 00:14:28,020
That's something different, right?

421
00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:29,500
No, the skyline's different from that.

422
00:14:29,780 --> 00:14:31,960
So you have the big squares, which are

423
00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,440
in the back of our studio downtown, which

424
00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:35,940
those are really popular and they look good.

425
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,380
They're just like equal squares of different depths.

426
00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:40,940
And that's kind of like a pseudo-quadratic

427
00:14:40,940 --> 00:14:41,300
one.

428
00:14:41,980 --> 00:14:42,980
And then you have...

429
00:14:42,980 --> 00:14:44,400
It might be quadratic, actually.

430
00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:45,340
I shouldn't say pseudo.

431
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,580
And then your classic RPG from the 80s,

432
00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:50,980
which are the big, long slats, that some

433
00:14:50,980 --> 00:14:52,380
of them are like 8 inches deep and

434
00:14:52,380 --> 00:14:55,920
others are 3 inches deep, and they're usually

435
00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:56,080
about...

436
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:56,940
Are they long, vertical?

437
00:14:56,940 --> 00:14:57,780
They're long and vertical.

438
00:14:57,880 --> 00:14:59,040
They can either go up and down or

439
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:00,560
sideways, depending on how you want to put

440
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:00,740
them.

441
00:15:00,780 --> 00:15:01,000
Yeah, yeah.

442
00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:02,300
So I lucked into those.

443
00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:05,160
And then the skylines just look like just

444
00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:09,580
a bunch of like 3-inch sort of

445
00:15:09,580 --> 00:15:12,580
square pieces of wood, and they're just all

446
00:15:12,580 --> 00:15:13,280
different heights.

447
00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:15,080
And it's supposedly not random.

448
00:15:15,260 --> 00:15:16,120
There's a formula to it.

449
00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:16,720
I guess so.

450
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:18,420
Yeah, the skyline, the one that I have,

451
00:15:18,460 --> 00:15:19,840
is just plastic.

452
00:15:21,380 --> 00:15:21,480
Yeah.

453
00:15:21,580 --> 00:15:23,580
But I think Blackbird Studios is probably the

454
00:15:23,580 --> 00:15:25,780
biggest implementation of skyline type.

455
00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:26,460
Oh, yeah.

456
00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:28,700
Look up a picture of Blackbird Studios.

457
00:15:29,420 --> 00:15:30,640
Isn't it like all black, too?

458
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:32,320
No, I think it's wood, but it looks

459
00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:34,960
like an Iron Maiden kind of like...

460
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:35,160
Yeah.

461
00:15:35,780 --> 00:15:37,020
It's crazy looking.

462
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:38,520
What, Chinese and leather?

463
00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:39,720
Yeah, no, just like...

464
00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:41,720
It's like if an Iron Maiden was a

465
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,000
diffuser and it was going to close in

466
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,320
on you and impale you, it's just like

467
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,460
you walk into this room, you're like, what

468
00:15:46,460 --> 00:15:47,360
happens to me?

469
00:15:48,220 --> 00:15:48,640
Mm-hmm.

470
00:15:48,940 --> 00:15:50,620
Those diffusers you were talking about with the

471
00:15:50,620 --> 00:15:52,480
plywood with the holes drilled in it, George,

472
00:15:54,660 --> 00:15:59,000
over foam, they've moved now, but Foxtel, when

473
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:00,360
I used to go and freelance there, they

474
00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:02,280
had that, but that was...

475
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:03,880
It was hanging from the ceiling.

476
00:16:03,980 --> 00:16:05,100
They had used it as cloud.

477
00:16:05,500 --> 00:16:07,780
And I always wondered why, why you would

478
00:16:07,780 --> 00:16:10,340
diffuse up there.

479
00:16:10,340 --> 00:16:13,480
It wasn't particularly a high ceiling or anything

480
00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:13,960
like that.

481
00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,100
So I always wondered what it was about

482
00:16:16,100 --> 00:16:18,440
the room that they thought a diffuser as

483
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,760
opposed to sort of just a regular cloud.

484
00:16:22,260 --> 00:16:23,260
That's a good question.

485
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:23,920
I don't know.

486
00:16:24,740 --> 00:16:26,360
I know the very first studio I did

487
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,260
for SAG Foundation, the Donald Fontaine Lab version

488
00:16:30,260 --> 00:16:32,760
one, it was sort of a grid of

489
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,820
two-by-two absorbers and two-by-two

490
00:16:35,820 --> 00:16:36,500
diffusers.

491
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:37,680
It was an RLX thing.

492
00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:42,160
They made these plastic molded, injection molded diffusers.

493
00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,220
But yeah, I didn't know why, right?

494
00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:48,020
Because at that time, I didn't know that

495
00:16:48,020 --> 00:16:49,240
much about acoustic design.

496
00:16:49,460 --> 00:16:50,720
And so I was just going with what

497
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:51,140
they did.

498
00:16:51,460 --> 00:16:52,880
It turned out that the room was much

499
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:54,840
too lively and resonant for voiceover.

500
00:16:55,100 --> 00:16:56,840
It might've been okay for music, but it

501
00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:58,120
was not dead enough.

502
00:16:58,300 --> 00:16:59,280
So we had to do a lot of

503
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:00,820
additional treatment.

504
00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,660
But yeah, I don't know what the ceiling...

505
00:17:04,660 --> 00:17:05,420
It's funny.

506
00:17:05,420 --> 00:17:09,760
Do you guys have Chipotle restaurants in Australia?

507
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,819
They have excellent acoustic treatment.

508
00:17:12,819 --> 00:17:14,540
They have some crazy stuff in Chipotle.

509
00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:15,000
Yeah.

510
00:17:15,260 --> 00:17:16,579
A lot of them you'll walk in.

511
00:17:16,660 --> 00:17:19,520
Chipotle is a chain of fast burritos.

512
00:17:19,859 --> 00:17:20,079
Okay.

513
00:17:20,180 --> 00:17:22,099
I'll take this burrito with these toppings.

514
00:17:22,099 --> 00:17:23,020
I wish we did have it here.

515
00:17:23,099 --> 00:17:23,760
That sounds good.

516
00:17:23,780 --> 00:17:24,480
Really fast.

517
00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:24,859
It's good.

518
00:17:25,020 --> 00:17:27,900
Fast and it's good, decent quality and not

519
00:17:27,900 --> 00:17:28,420
expensive.

520
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:30,800
And so you walk in and you'll be

521
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,980
waiting in line on one side of the

522
00:17:32,980 --> 00:17:33,300
restaurant.

523
00:17:33,300 --> 00:17:35,080
And the entire wall on your left is

524
00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,820
a giant plywood panel or panels, all drilled

525
00:17:38,820 --> 00:17:42,620
with different size holes from really small to

526
00:17:42,620 --> 00:17:46,400
maybe, I don't know, several centimeters.

527
00:17:47,580 --> 00:17:49,460
And it's just this huge grid work of

528
00:17:49,460 --> 00:17:49,700
holes.

529
00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:51,380
And I remember the first time I saw

530
00:17:51,380 --> 00:17:53,400
it, I was like, holy cow, in a

531
00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:54,380
fast food restaurant.

532
00:17:54,980 --> 00:17:56,580
And I did a little research and it

533
00:17:56,580 --> 00:17:57,980
turned out, yeah, when they first started these

534
00:17:57,980 --> 00:18:00,700
restaurants, they partnered with this architectural firm and

535
00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:04,560
somebody was an acoustics enthusiast, something.

536
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:06,980
I wish I don't have the detail on

537
00:18:06,980 --> 00:18:07,160
that.

538
00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,160
That's another Google thing, but that's what they

539
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:10,320
did.

540
00:18:10,460 --> 00:18:12,040
And not only that, they did this weird

541
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,460
thing where they put Klipsch three-way speakers

542
00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:19,460
in a soffit above the, essentially where you

543
00:18:19,460 --> 00:18:21,500
order, like on the wall above that.

544
00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,280
There was two Klipsch speakers, Klipsch horn with

545
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:26,920
the high horn and the mid horn and

546
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:27,360
the bass.

547
00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,160
And they're soffit mounted.

548
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,440
So they're just like holes in the plywood.

549
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:33,000
You just see the openings.

550
00:18:33,620 --> 00:18:35,400
And if you're an audio nerd, you know

551
00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:35,980
what that is.

552
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:37,280
They're like, those are Klipsch speakers.

553
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:39,260
It's the funniest thing.

554
00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:40,440
And they put them in, I don't think

555
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:42,340
they're in every restaurant now, but the first

556
00:18:42,340 --> 00:18:44,580
so many restaurants they built, all of them

557
00:18:44,580 --> 00:18:45,400
have those speakers.

558
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:47,620
And they have a lot of curved surfaces

559
00:18:47,620 --> 00:18:48,420
in there too.

560
00:18:48,700 --> 00:18:50,800
There's a lot of curvy walls and things

561
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:51,300
that they do.

562
00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:52,900
I don't know what you find in Melbourne,

563
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,840
AP, with the cafe culture down there, but

564
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:58,140
I'm finding more and more here, cafes, especially

565
00:18:58,140 --> 00:19:00,100
sort of, let's call them the high-end

566
00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:04,020
ones, are more and more investing in acoustic

567
00:19:04,020 --> 00:19:04,420
treatment.

568
00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:06,500
And I'm kind of, I'm no expert, but

569
00:19:06,500 --> 00:19:09,600
I'm kind of wondering, is that to encourage

570
00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,340
people to sit longer and stay longer, where

571
00:19:11,340 --> 00:19:13,060
you can actually sit and have a conversation

572
00:19:13,060 --> 00:19:16,220
and not have other conversations drowning you out?

573
00:19:16,260 --> 00:19:18,140
I think it's nice that some of these

574
00:19:18,140 --> 00:19:20,540
places are taking that into consideration.

575
00:19:20,940 --> 00:19:24,180
Yeah, well, I mean, my mate Simon, I

576
00:19:24,180 --> 00:19:26,100
don't think we ever had him on the

577
00:19:26,100 --> 00:19:30,180
show, but he's been a hospitality casino designer,

578
00:19:30,540 --> 00:19:31,220
that kind of stuff.

579
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:33,520
So he does a lot of restaurants, casinos,

580
00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:34,720
and bits and bobs.

581
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:36,720
He's actually living in Saudi Arabia as we

582
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:38,460
speak on this massive project.

583
00:19:38,700 --> 00:19:41,020
But that's one of his things.

584
00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,480
It was always about acoustic treatment, because there's

585
00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:46,820
nothing worse than sitting in somewhere, like an

586
00:19:46,820 --> 00:19:49,000
echo chamber, trying to have a meal and

587
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,040
have a discussion with someone.

588
00:19:50,220 --> 00:19:52,360
You can't, like, basically you can't hear what

589
00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:52,740
they're saying.

590
00:19:52,780 --> 00:19:53,340
Sorry, what's that?

591
00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:54,080
It makes me crazy.

592
00:19:54,180 --> 00:19:54,580
What was that?

593
00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:54,840
Sorry.

594
00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:58,040
It's like a trend in LA.

595
00:19:58,240 --> 00:19:59,600
Like, let's see who can make the loudest

596
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:00,040
restaurant.

597
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,720
I'm like, what the hell's going on here?

598
00:20:02,780 --> 00:20:04,340
But I know it's just a turnover.

599
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:06,340
I know they just want to turn people

600
00:20:06,340 --> 00:20:06,580
over.

601
00:20:06,660 --> 00:20:07,880
They don't want them comfortable.

602
00:20:08,220 --> 00:20:10,020
They literally want you to be uncomfortable.

603
00:20:12,820 --> 00:20:14,800
Okay, I get it for a quick turnover

604
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:16,660
place, but some of these places in LA

605
00:20:16,660 --> 00:20:17,560
are so expensive.

606
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:21,040
And it's not cheap food by any means,

607
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:22,940
like a $7 croissant, you know?

608
00:20:22,940 --> 00:20:25,120
And you're like, I can't even talk to

609
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:25,540
the waiter.

610
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:26,880
It's so loud in here.

611
00:20:27,100 --> 00:20:32,660
I think restaurants overlook acoustics all the time.

612
00:20:32,780 --> 00:20:34,200
And it's the most annoying thing.

613
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:35,040
Because they can.

614
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:35,900
They get away with it.

615
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:36,940
I mean, I wish I knew what was

616
00:20:36,940 --> 00:20:38,280
in on these meetings, but I'm sure the

617
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:40,700
architect's like, well, we can make this sound

618
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:42,160
nice, and it'll be an extra X.

619
00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:43,260
And they're like, oh, no.

620
00:20:43,540 --> 00:20:44,340
Like, sound, who cares?

621
00:20:44,620 --> 00:20:45,760
It's just like a film.

622
00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:47,640
The last thing they think about is sound.

623
00:20:48,300 --> 00:20:49,960
Everything, the last thing they think about is

624
00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:50,280
sound.

625
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:56,400
Yeah, it is one of my pet peeves.

626
00:20:56,540 --> 00:20:58,660
And it's one of those – I would

627
00:20:58,660 --> 00:21:00,700
love to start a small firm of just

628
00:21:00,700 --> 00:21:02,200
treating small restaurants.

629
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:04,560
Because the big ones with the budgets will

630
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:06,180
do what they do, and they've got firms

631
00:21:06,180 --> 00:21:06,520
involved.

632
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,260
But the small to medium-op-op, smaller

633
00:21:09,260 --> 00:21:10,780
businesses, or the ones that are run by

634
00:21:10,780 --> 00:21:13,200
restaurant groups and stuff, if they only knew

635
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:14,660
better, and if they knew it didn't have

636
00:21:14,660 --> 00:21:16,660
to be 100 grand or 500 grand.

637
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:18,640
Well, George, it's like that Thai restaurant that

638
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:19,300
you took me to.

639
00:21:19,300 --> 00:21:20,160
And I was like, I looked up at

640
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:21,100
the ceiling, and there was a bunch of

641
00:21:21,100 --> 00:21:21,660
floating clouds.

642
00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:22,600
I was like, holy cow.

643
00:21:24,580 --> 00:21:25,780
Somebody probably was in there.

644
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:27,660
It was probably a musician, as my guess,

645
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:29,120
eating in this restaurant.

646
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:30,300
And they were like, dude, you've got to

647
00:21:30,300 --> 00:21:30,920
do something.

648
00:21:31,780 --> 00:21:34,160
Because it had a low, flat ceiling, and

649
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:35,660
it was probably atrocious.

650
00:21:35,780 --> 00:21:37,560
And they had the tables packed in there.

651
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:39,560
Like, people were so close to each other.

652
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:40,700
Yeah, it was so loud.

653
00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:41,500
So loud.

654
00:21:41,580 --> 00:21:42,940
Even with the panels, it was loud.

655
00:21:44,100 --> 00:21:47,140
But yeah, it's – oh, my gosh.

656
00:21:47,140 --> 00:21:49,180
If people realized it didn't have to cost

657
00:21:49,180 --> 00:21:51,980
a fortune, you know, they would probably do

658
00:21:51,980 --> 00:21:52,380
it more.

659
00:21:52,660 --> 00:21:54,220
And it's just something – I just walked

660
00:21:54,220 --> 00:21:57,700
down two blocks in Santa Monica on Wilshire

661
00:21:57,700 --> 00:21:59,720
Boulevard and just popped in and out of

662
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:00,200
restaurants.

663
00:22:00,260 --> 00:22:02,260
And I was just appalled, you know, at

664
00:22:02,260 --> 00:22:04,060
all these new businesses, just how there was

665
00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:05,000
no attention at all.

666
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,760
Especially these days where more and more it's

667
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,780
about cement floors, and they put in even

668
00:22:09,780 --> 00:22:11,920
more hard surfaces everywhere.

669
00:22:12,460 --> 00:22:12,740
Yeah.

670
00:22:13,340 --> 00:22:16,000
I was in a lapin quatidien.

671
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:16,940
Is that how they say it?

672
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:17,300
I don't know.

673
00:22:17,420 --> 00:22:20,240
It's a French chain of bakeries.

674
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:21,600
And again, fancy.

675
00:22:21,900 --> 00:22:22,880
You know, that's the brand.

676
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,100
It's kind of upper-crusty.

677
00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:26,000
It's not Starbucks.

678
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,320
And, you know, as soon as they run

679
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,880
the espresso machine or run the frothing of

680
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,840
the milk, the other corner of the place,

681
00:22:35,940 --> 00:22:37,700
and you're just like, wait, what did you

682
00:22:37,700 --> 00:22:37,940
say?

683
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:40,380
It was, like, insane.

684
00:22:40,660 --> 00:22:42,320
I literally left a review on Yelp.

685
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:45,900
And I was like, that might be the

686
00:22:45,900 --> 00:22:48,060
only way you can get these restaurants to

687
00:22:48,060 --> 00:22:49,800
do anything, is just leave a lot of

688
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,520
negative reviews saying, I can't come in here

689
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,080
and have a conversation with my partner over

690
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:57,140
anything in this place.

691
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:58,060
I just want to leave.

692
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:00,460
It's interesting, because a lot of the European

693
00:23:00,460 --> 00:23:03,600
restaurants are so busy, as in, I'm talking

694
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:05,160
about people coming in and out, but I'm

695
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,560
talking about the actual furniture and things on

696
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:12,340
walls and bars and bottles and all sorts

697
00:23:12,340 --> 00:23:12,740
of stuff.

698
00:23:13,380 --> 00:23:15,180
But it actually does work, once again, the

699
00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:17,600
diffuser concept, that you can sit there quietly

700
00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:20,480
in a really busy restaurant and have a

701
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:20,920
conversation.

702
00:23:21,220 --> 00:23:22,360
We had one down the road from here,

703
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,600
actually, some French dude's restaurant.

704
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:27,960
And you walk in there, it actually does

705
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:29,960
feel like you're in a back street in

706
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:30,780
Paris or something.

707
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:33,560
But there's so much stuff around that it's

708
00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:35,600
perfect for sitting there and having a meal.

709
00:23:35,660 --> 00:23:37,520
I always tell people, the more cluttered your

710
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:38,160
room, the better.

711
00:23:38,340 --> 00:23:39,020
Clutter is your friend.

712
00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:39,700
Yeah, clutter.

713
00:23:39,700 --> 00:23:42,600
The clutter diffuser.

714
00:23:43,220 --> 00:23:46,180
I patent the clutter diffuser.

715
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:48,000
Yeah, exactly.

716
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:50,320
I wish there was more of that care

717
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,360
in restaurant design, for sure.

718
00:23:52,500 --> 00:23:54,800
It's just, I know restaurant business is extremely

719
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:55,300
difficult.

720
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,860
And I'm sure everywhere it is, but especially

721
00:23:57,860 --> 00:23:58,220
here.

722
00:23:58,420 --> 00:24:00,280
So I know that's a part of it,

723
00:24:00,340 --> 00:24:02,120
but I wish it was cared for more.

724
00:24:02,460 --> 00:24:03,800
There actually is an app, though.

725
00:24:04,060 --> 00:24:05,880
There actually, believe it or not, is an

726
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,720
app you can install called, and I will

727
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,120
find it, Soundprint, I believe it is.

728
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:13,700
Let me see if it's in my audio

729
00:24:13,700 --> 00:24:14,260
folder.

730
00:24:15,580 --> 00:24:19,040
And it is literally all about reviewing restaurant

731
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:20,240
volume levels.

732
00:24:21,100 --> 00:24:21,520
Oh, wow.

733
00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:23,620
God, is that popular?

734
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:24,200
That's pretty niche.

735
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:26,280
Yeah, no, it's called Soundprint.

736
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:26,980
Here it is.

737
00:24:27,380 --> 00:24:28,300
See if it still works.

738
00:24:28,420 --> 00:24:30,160
You know, these businesses just vaporize.

739
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,220
You go into a restaurant, you open the

740
00:24:33,220 --> 00:24:35,760
app on your phone, and you just hit

741
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,300
start, and it will monitor the room for

742
00:24:39,300 --> 00:24:40,220
15 seconds.

743
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,460
And then you can immediately report the restaurant

744
00:24:43,460 --> 00:24:47,560
as a noise violator, or just leave a

745
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:49,720
review, and just say, you know, this was

746
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,840
moderate, this was okay, or this was like

747
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:53,980
severe noise levels.

748
00:24:54,060 --> 00:24:55,840
And then there's a huge database in here

749
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:57,880
of restaurants, and some of them are like

750
00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:58,640
repeat offenders.

751
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:02,640
You know, they're just very loud category, you

752
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:02,920
know.

753
00:25:03,380 --> 00:25:05,020
And, you know, it just depends on the

754
00:25:05,020 --> 00:25:05,880
stature of the restaurant.

755
00:25:05,980 --> 00:25:07,700
There's a place called Porto's, which is a

756
00:25:07,700 --> 00:25:11,240
super popular Cuban restaurant bakery, and it is

757
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:12,680
just louder than sin in there.

758
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,500
But there's also a line like 40 people

759
00:25:15,500 --> 00:25:17,860
long trying to get their stuff, because it's

760
00:25:17,860 --> 00:25:18,700
just so popular.

761
00:25:19,300 --> 00:25:21,800
And they just want you to leave, clearly.

762
00:25:22,540 --> 00:25:24,300
Please take your phone and get out of

763
00:25:24,300 --> 00:25:24,420
here.

764
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:25,720
Yeah, we want the table turned over.

765
00:25:26,180 --> 00:25:26,660
Yeah, exactly.

766
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:28,900
They should just put everything on a rotating

767
00:25:28,900 --> 00:25:31,880
thing, and then like an LED room, like

768
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:32,720
live end, dead end.

769
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,320
And if you stay there too long, then

770
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:36,540
you end up in the live end where

771
00:25:36,540 --> 00:25:37,840
you can't have a conversation.

772
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:40,160
Yeah, that's true.

773
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:41,660
It's like, no, that's horrible.

774
00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:44,920
But another idea of a diffuser, if you

775
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,320
think about it, an angled wall in a

776
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:49,640
strange sense is a diffuser.

777
00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:52,220
Right, because it's no longer allowing a sound

778
00:25:52,220 --> 00:25:55,640
wave to propagate back and forth in an

779
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,660
axial way or longitudinal way, just like it

780
00:25:58,660 --> 00:25:58,780
meets.

781
00:25:58,780 --> 00:26:01,360
It has many frequencies that it bounces, and

782
00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:02,760
each one at a different point.

783
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:04,440
And yeah, it's kind of a diffuser.

784
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,500
This is why a lot of people, when

785
00:26:06,500 --> 00:26:08,580
they're talking about building a booth, you'll hear

786
00:26:08,580 --> 00:26:12,100
there's always somebody in the forum, always somebody

787
00:26:12,100 --> 00:26:13,680
who's like, make sure there's no parallel walls.

788
00:26:14,740 --> 00:26:17,620
And that's not wrong, but the reason why

789
00:26:17,620 --> 00:26:20,260
I don't design rooms that way, generally, is

790
00:26:20,260 --> 00:26:22,460
mathematically, they're extremely unpredictable.

791
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,880
So then it ends up just a lot

792
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:28,900
of experimenting, trying to get it to sound

793
00:26:28,900 --> 00:26:31,300
good and just get rid of weird frequencies.

794
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:33,740
Whereas if it's just a square, not a

795
00:26:33,740 --> 00:26:35,780
square, squares aren't really good, actually.

796
00:26:35,980 --> 00:26:38,980
Rectangles, though, like a shoebox size, is a

797
00:26:38,980 --> 00:26:39,780
lot easier to deal with.

798
00:26:39,820 --> 00:26:42,180
It's very predictable, and we understand how to

799
00:26:42,180 --> 00:26:42,660
treat them.

800
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:44,680
It's very easy to work with.

801
00:26:44,900 --> 00:26:46,940
So the more times you add more angles,

802
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:48,100
the weirder it gets.

803
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,040
If you add another wall and make it

804
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,460
a pentagon, far more difficult and hard to

805
00:26:52,460 --> 00:26:52,960
model.

806
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:57,120
That's funny, because I was always taught some

807
00:26:57,120 --> 00:26:59,900
angles, if they're too small, then they're insignificant.

808
00:27:00,220 --> 00:27:01,680
But I think it was at least an

809
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:02,580
11-degree angle.

810
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,600
In my studio, I don't know how scientific

811
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,320
it was, but I even angled the vaulted

812
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:10,680
ceiling.

813
00:27:12,500 --> 00:27:15,520
So I just flayed the walls out by

814
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,360
10 degrees or 11 degrees, whatever that minimum

815
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,320
was, and then the ceiling was angled.

816
00:27:20,740 --> 00:27:24,200
I got one single parallel surface between the

817
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:26,660
door and a smaller area opposite it, because

818
00:27:26,660 --> 00:27:27,580
I couldn't avoid that.

819
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,060
And I just piled on absorption on that

820
00:27:30,060 --> 00:27:30,800
opposite wall.

821
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:32,460
How did it work?

822
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:33,700
It worked out great.

823
00:27:34,220 --> 00:27:37,800
It works really well for drums, and it's

824
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:41,700
bright and live, but not boinky and bouncy.

825
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:43,980
It doesn't go...

826
00:27:44,700 --> 00:27:46,080
Is that a technical word?

827
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:46,440
Boinky?

828
00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:47,400
Yes.

829
00:27:47,860 --> 00:27:49,620
You know how you go to a stairwell

830
00:27:49,620 --> 00:27:51,520
and you clap your hands and you hear...

831
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:54,220
So it doesn't do that.

832
00:27:55,500 --> 00:27:58,140
I don't know that it's...

833
00:27:58,140 --> 00:28:01,160
Sometimes it's just like, just mess it up

834
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:01,760
to be interesting.

835
00:28:01,980 --> 00:28:04,060
Just mess it up to make it not

836
00:28:04,060 --> 00:28:04,780
predictable.

837
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:05,780
Well, that's the thing.

838
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,320
That's why some studios in the world are

839
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:09,060
so renowned.

840
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:11,640
It doesn't mean that they had some guy

841
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:15,160
plug in everything into formulas and exhaustively compute

842
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:15,780
out the room.

843
00:28:16,820 --> 00:28:18,220
Sometimes it's just luck.

844
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,560
It's just the way the room was designed,

845
00:28:20,700 --> 00:28:21,920
the dimensions of the room.

846
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:23,860
What is it?

847
00:28:23,940 --> 00:28:26,100
Sun Records in Memphis?

848
00:28:26,180 --> 00:28:28,260
Right, where they have the X where Elvis

849
00:28:28,260 --> 00:28:30,620
would stand and they have the spots where

850
00:28:30,620 --> 00:28:31,380
they would all stand.

851
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:31,880
Oh, yeah.

852
00:28:32,180 --> 00:28:35,560
And it's just like, what mattered was it

853
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,900
sounded really good when he stood here and

854
00:28:37,900 --> 00:28:39,480
the mic was here and that's all they

855
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:39,620
know.

856
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:40,360
Right, exactly.

857
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:41,640
Nobody's measuring it out.

858
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:43,420
They're just like, they got lucky.

859
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:45,640
Or they stumbled on it or they experimented,

860
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,340
but that's how a lot of rooms were

861
00:28:48,340 --> 00:28:48,880
back then.

862
00:28:49,180 --> 00:28:50,520
Now, I mean, now there's a lot more

863
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,860
acoustician science that goes into these rooms than

864
00:28:53,860 --> 00:28:54,180
then.

865
00:28:54,820 --> 00:28:57,500
Yeah, there's a lot of fun luck that

866
00:28:57,500 --> 00:28:58,120
goes into it.

867
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,220
If you have the time and the budget

868
00:29:00,220 --> 00:29:03,420
to experiment and the flexibility, it's really, really

869
00:29:03,420 --> 00:29:03,620
cool.

870
00:29:03,620 --> 00:29:05,920
Or just go for the clutter diffuser, which

871
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:06,680
we've just patented.

872
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:09,360
I'm down with that.

873
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:11,160
Well, that was fun.

874
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:11,620
Is it over?

875
00:29:24,980 --> 00:29:27,460
And tech support from George the Tech Whittam.