Acoustics For Youtube Studios
Apr 15, 2024I talk a lot about home recording studios, but what about the acoustics of a home youtube creation studio. In this article I will go over some methods and designs for making your youtube studio sound as good as it looks.
1) Start with the corners
The biggest single difference you can make in your youtube studio will be adding what are called bass traps in all four of your corners. A bass trap is really just an acoustic panel that straddles the two walls in the corner of your room.
These acoustic panels help to absorb frequencies lower than panels that simply hang on the wall, hence how they got the name bass trap.
I would always start with bass traps in your corners because this will make the largest noticeable difference in your room for the money.
You can build bass traps from scratch by watching this youtube video I made - https://youtu.be/bWqoRYnYlqE
Or if you want to buy something already built I would recommend GIK Acoustics or Music City Acoustics.
Here are links to GIK Bass Traps - https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/bass-traps/
Here is a link to Music City Acoustics - https://www.musiccityacoustics.com/shop/p/bass-trap-acoustic-panels
2) Where to place your workstation desk
Now you may not be mixing audio, but most likely you will have a desk and want to hear what your youtube videos sound like. For this reason you still want an accurate picture of what you are hearing out of your speakers.
First, you need to decide where in your room you will sit when listening back to your speakers. I recommend sitting centered facing the shorter wall of your room. This means the longer walls are on your left and right.
Once you have established your listening position the next step will be to set up your reflection free zone. Before we jump into that I will say if your room works better with you facing the longer walls then do it. Just try and sit in the middle of that wall if possible. However, with a youtube studio your camera space for shooting is probably more important than your listening back environment, so do what works best for you. I would recommend not putting your speakers in the corners of the room because this will lead to a bass build up in one speaker and not the other.
3) Creating Your Reflection Free Zone
The next step to getting great acoustics is to create the reflection free zone. This is the area to the left, right and above your listening position. This diagram below shows the reflection free zone.
The goal is to hang acoustic panels to the right and left of your listening spot. These can be bass trap panels or if you want to save some money and space you can also use thinner acoustic panels. Again, you can make these panels yourself or buy them at the links below:
GIK Acoustics - https://www.gikacoustics.com/product/gik-acoustics-242-acoustic-panel/
Music City Acoustics - https://www.musiccityacoustics.com/shop/p/high-mid-acoustic-panels
The next step is to hang at least two 2x4' panels over top of your listening spot. This will reduce reflections overhead and will give you crystal clear recordings when sitting at your desk and clear playback of your speakers. Both Music City Acoustics and GIK Acoustics offer ways to hang your panels from the ceiling using specialty clips.
4) Hang Acoustic Panels On Your Back Wall
Behind you on the back wall you should hang some acoustic panels to cover reflections from your speakers and to reduce reflections off the back wall while filming your videos. Usually 2-3 2x4' panels is enough and again these can be bass trap panels or thinner panels. In general bass trap panels are better for smaller bedroom sized rooms because they can help control the problem frequencies in smaller rooms.
5) The 50% Rule
Now if your room still has large areas of wall or ceiling that do not have a panel it would be a good idea to add panels as necessary to reduce flutter echo also known as slap back echo. This is the flutter you hear when you clap in a room with bare walls. This echo can muddy recorded sound in a room including your voice. For professional crystal clear vocals and instruments you want to reduce flutter echo as best as you can.
6) Diffusion and other "cool looking" panels
In smaller rooms diffusion panels are not always a good idea, but they do look cool. Since video is the key part of this room I would recommend having a little fun with adding some panels with cool designs on them that will also help to "brighten" the sound of the room. They can also make the room sound bigger if it is feeling to dead with all the acoustic panels you added. Below are some panels you can check out on GIK acoustics and Music City Acoustics websites'.
GIK Acoustics: https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/alpha-series/
Music City Acoustics: https://www.musiccityacoustics.com/shop/p/scatter-face-diffusers
Conclusion:
Acoustically treating your Youtube studio will lead to better sounding and potentially cooler looking videos. If you hear too much of the room in your videos then doing what I teach in this video will lead to cleaner more professional audio. It will also give you pro studio quality monitoring so you know what you are hearing from your speakers is coming from the speakers and not the reflections in the room.
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