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One of the most important (and popular) topics is how to setup the control room. There seems to be a stereotypic image planted in everyone’s mind about how this room should look. Obviously, there are some world class studios that have created some spaces for this purpose, and their shapes are very similar. But such spaces don’t necessarily have to fit the generic image that the industry has pushed forth. Imagination can play a powerful role in coming up with your own unique layout and look.
On the other hand, there are some concepts that need to be included in control room design that are not required stipulations for other rooms. The control room is, after all, the one room whereby we must judge all audio quality, and it usually contains our most expensive gear. And what good are these intricate tools if our environment does not allow us to hear what they're doing?
Who Created the Science of the Control Room?
If we are to understand the control room design, the following information is quite critical.
The early Roman empire was among the first civilization that took entertainment seriously. They built concert halls many times over, learning how to use reflection and room shape to project the sound out to the audience. Over the centuries, the science has become quite complex. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal is still simple – provide the audience with the best sound possible. The halls created that do this the best are arguably those supporting the symphonic music between the 18th century and today. The world has many concert halls that are considered quite excellent for audience listening, and rest assured, the construction of these buildings have been painstakingly designed. Many studies have been made over the years, testing the qualities of these rooms, in attempts to get to the bottom of what characteristics, exactly, objective and subjective, have made these halls so respected?
Perhaps the most famous concert hall in all the world, hailed by the most respected ears, is Concertgebouw, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This hall has been agreed to have perhaps the closest to the perfect listening environment of all. Here is the most important information for control room designers: Most modern professional control rooms, whether they realize it or not, have their design based on this concert hall of the Netherlands! All the ideas about initial time delay gaps, reflection free zones, absorption, diffusion, airspace….. the entire science stems from the study of these concert halls (the above-mentioned just happens to be the most famous) – and all we are doing in the process of designing these rooms are mimicking such concert halls, using “tricks of the trade” and modern acoustic technology to conform our space to sound like them, to the best of our efforts.
Note that this is not necessarily true of all control rooms. For example, those rooms for mixing sound for picture are often short and wide. Most are often set up predominantly for a mixture of speech and sound effects, and although can be used to mix music tracks, these rooms are not ideal for music mixing. They are however, often perfectly qualified for mixing music levels for the picture. Most musical content should be mixed in rooms with greater depth, which will soon be discussed. And this thread will lean toward tracking rooms designed for (strictly) music.
Note: There are control rooms that are both wide and deep that are perfectly adequate for both music and sound for picture mixing.
The following concepts to be covered in this thread are:
On the other hand, there are some concepts that need to be included in control room design that are not required stipulations for other rooms. The control room is, after all, the one room whereby we must judge all audio quality, and it usually contains our most expensive gear. And what good are these intricate tools if our environment does not allow us to hear what they're doing?
Who Created the Science of the Control Room?
If we are to understand the control room design, the following information is quite critical.
The early Roman empire was among the first civilization that took entertainment seriously. They built concert halls many times over, learning how to use reflection and room shape to project the sound out to the audience. Over the centuries, the science has become quite complex. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal is still simple – provide the audience with the best sound possible. The halls created that do this the best are arguably those supporting the symphonic music between the 18th century and today. The world has many concert halls that are considered quite excellent for audience listening, and rest assured, the construction of these buildings have been painstakingly designed. Many studies have been made over the years, testing the qualities of these rooms, in attempts to get to the bottom of what characteristics, exactly, objective and subjective, have made these halls so respected?
Perhaps the most famous concert hall in all the world, hailed by the most respected ears, is Concertgebouw, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This hall has been agreed to have perhaps the closest to the perfect listening environment of all. Here is the most important information for control room designers: Most modern professional control rooms, whether they realize it or not, have their design based on this concert hall of the Netherlands! All the ideas about initial time delay gaps, reflection free zones, absorption, diffusion, airspace….. the entire science stems from the study of these concert halls (the above-mentioned just happens to be the most famous) – and all we are doing in the process of designing these rooms are mimicking such concert halls, using “tricks of the trade” and modern acoustic technology to conform our space to sound like them, to the best of our efforts.
Note that this is not necessarily true of all control rooms. For example, those rooms for mixing sound for picture are often short and wide. Most are often set up predominantly for a mixture of speech and sound effects, and although can be used to mix music tracks, these rooms are not ideal for music mixing. They are however, often perfectly qualified for mixing music levels for the picture. Most musical content should be mixed in rooms with greater depth, which will soon be discussed. And this thread will lean toward tracking rooms designed for (strictly) music.
Note: There are control rooms that are both wide and deep that are perfectly adequate for both music and sound for picture mixing.
The following concepts to be covered in this thread are:
- Symmetry
- Initial Time Delay Gap
- Reflection Free Zone
- Room Volume