Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.

com

The Acoustics Insider

Home Studio Treatment Framework

5 steps to systematically treat your room and get it to translate.

Thanks for downloading this guide!

Having been a professional mixing engineer for over 10 years myself now, and helping
countless people on their journey in searching for the “perfect” room, I know the goal of every
sound engineer working out of their home studio is getting it to translate properly. Without
having to second guess every decision you make, and it feeling like you are constantly fighting
your room.

But setting up and treating a new home studio can be a daunting task. So many options, so
many opinions...

Where do you even start?

Especially if you’re working on a budget.

This framework is right for you if…

● You’re a home studio sound engineer working on a budget.
● You want to take the smart approach to building your studio and get the best bang for
your buck.
● You want to make sure you focus on what actually works and skip what doesn’t matter.

In this brief guide, I’ll show you the 5 main steps you need to take to systematically treat your
studio and get the most out of your room and speakers.

Note that this isn’t a complete “how to” instruction on how to treat your studio.

Instead it’s a roadmap to help you figure out what to focus your energy on (and when),
depending on where you are in the journey of developing your home studio.

These steps are deliberately ordered to build on one another. So if you’re facing a particular
issue in your studio, and you notice that you’ve skipped a step in this framework, that’s probably
the reason why.

So make sure you go through each step deliberately and systematically, and you get the most
out of it before moving on to the next.
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

Step 1:​ Pick a room.

What does this involve in practice? What am I looking for?
● Optimizing the layout, size, shape, and construction of walls, floor and ceiling.

Why is this important?

● The quality of your empty room is like the quality of the recorded material when you mix.
The better the source material, the higher the potential for an amazing mix. Similarly only
an ideal empty room will allow you to get extraordinary results from your studio.

What are you trying to achieve on a technical level?

● Have enough space for treatment. Limit: No dimension smaller than 1.8m (6’).
● Convenient placement of doors/windows/AC to allow full, symmetrical treatment.
● An even spread of room modes/standing waves to optimize low end balance.
● Left/right symmetry by shape and construction materials.

Don’t obsess about:

● Any of this. Usually we are simply stuck with what we’ve got and we have to make the
most of it. It’s just a compromise we have to live with.
● You can improve just about any room to a point where it translates (unless it’s a
cupboard). So make a decision, fix anything you can fix, then move on.

Step 2:​ Create your ​Minimum Workable Setup

(MWS)
What does this involve in practice? What am I looking for?
● Choosing a listening position, placing your speakers, picking a desk, and setting up your
audio gear.
● This creates your ​Minimum Workable Setup​. It should allow you to work, even in a
completely untreated room.

Why is this important?

● Correct listening/speaker placement is the biggest lever we have for good sound in a
home studio.
● Extremely inconvenient to fix later on if you didn’t get it right at the start.
● The desk and gear can cause massive problems if they’re too big or in the way.
● Sets you up with a functional, working system right from the start.
● Creates a baseline to build on with treatment.

What are you trying to achieve on a technical level?

● Create a balanced low end at the listening position by deliberately choosing a spot
where standing waves even out (your room’s “low end sweet spot”).
● Get a stable, wide, focused stereo image with a strong phantom center by placing your
speakers to balance out reflections and account for speaker dispersion.
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

● Reduce the impact of the desk reflection and any audio gear.

Don’t obsess about:

● Measurements or complicated science. You can do this step faster and better using a
simple structured listening test like the ​Bass Hunter Technique​ and the ​Phantom
Speaker Test.​ Learn to rely on your ears. You’re a sound engineer after all. No
measurement, number or formula will ever be able to tell you if something sounds good.
● Ignore traditional placement guidelines like “facing the short end”, the 38% “rule”, or
keeping “x distance” from the front wall. They are highly theoretical and quickly fall apart
in practice, especially in more odd shaped rooms.

“What about setting up multiple speakers?”

● First off, know that you can only really optimize the stereo image at your listening
position for one set of speakers. Attempting to get a proper stereo image from more than
one set at the same listening position will almost always result in (potentially huge)
compromises because neither will be placed exactly right. Especially if you’re adding
another speaker set of the same type (like another set of 2-way nearfields).
● That’s why I highly recommend you decide which stereo pair will be your main speaker
set and make sure you really nail down their placement. This will be your main working
tool, and if done right, will tell you everything you need to know.
● If you still want to add other speakers for referencing, choose a drastically different type
of speaker that won’t get in the way of your main pair (like a mono “grotbox” or hifi
speakers elsewhere in the room).

“What about speaker decoupling?”

● The truth is: The benefits of speaker decoupling are usually marginal in comparison to
the other steps in this framework, especially if you are using separate speaker stands.
● It is even highly debatable whether it works at all with a standard pair of nearfield
speakers.
● The only scenario where I’ve seen useful improvements from off-the-shelf speaker
decouplers is when the speakers are placed directly on the desk.
● My verdict for the moment: Use them if you are setting your speakers up on your desk,
but feel free to skip them if you are placing your speakers on separate speaker stands.

Bonus Step: Subwoofer integration

After you’ve created your MWS, you’re technically ready to integrate a sub. Although I can’t
recommend it in an untreated room. Sub integration involves proper placement to optimize
frequency response, phase and timing, and setting an adequate crossover frequency and
volume, all to create a smooth transition between sub and speakers. Ideally a sub extends the
frequency response, and doesn’t just boost the volume. That usually means getting a sub with a
10” driver, or bigger.
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

Bonus Step: “Before” measurements

If you’re feeling adventurous you can now take a first set of measurements at your listening
position. IMPORTANT: The idea is not to identify all the problems to fix. Attempting that is a
futile experiment that will have you turning in circles and wasting money in no time. This is not a
rabbit hole worth getting into. Instead these measurements give you a benchmark to compare
your results against once you start treating your room, and to simply make sure the treatment is
actually working.

Step 3:​ “Shotgun” style treatment with modular

broadband porous absorption panels.
What does this involve in practice? What am I looking for?
● Placing deep porous absorption panels all around your room based on first principles.
Usually ⅔ of the surface area of your room is covered, or more.

Why is this important?

● Absorption is the only way to reduce decay times (reverb) in a room, and the acoustic
effects (standing waves, reflections) that cause resonances, masking and comb filters.
● Porous absorption panels are the best tool for this job because they are cheap, effective,
flexible and easy to use. We want to squeeze as much usefulness out of them as
possible. If built deep enough, they will improve the bass response alongside the mids
and highs, all in one compact panel.
● In a small room we usually don’t have the luxury of space to use anything other than
broadband porous absorption.

What are you trying to achieve on a technical level?

● Addressing ALL small room acoustic effects “shotgun style” as best as the space
permits.
● Prioritize deep absorption panels wherever we can to get as much low frequency control
as possible.

Don’t obsess about:

● Trying to first identify exact problems, to then “fix” or “correct” them. Although technically
possible, it’s simply not a worthwhile approach in a small room if you’re working on a
budget. Might as well save the time and money and make a solid attempt at treatment
based on first principles first, then see if anything pops up that still needs to be fixed.
Working with modular panels makes this a lot easier.
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

Step 4:​ Bring back liveliness with simple high

frequency diffusion.
What does this involve in practice? What am I looking for?
● Adding patterns of wood slats on top of your absorption to selectively reflect and break
up high frequencies (Binary Amplitude Diffusion).

Why is this important?

● Can give you a better sense of your space.
● Makes the room feel more open and relaxed.
● Makes your stereo image more immersive.
● Avoids the dreaded “dead” room feeling, especially in very small rooms.

What are you trying to achieve on a technical level?

● Create diffuse reflections restricted to the high-mid and high frequencies to avoid
causing proximity issues in small rooms.
● Let low-mid and low frequencies pass and still get absorbed (not possible with typical
QRD or PRD designs).

Don’t obsess about:

● Diffusion in general. A “nice to have”, not a “must have” in a home studio.
● It probably won’t help you mix any better. Although just feeling more relaxed in the room
definitely has indirect benefits.

Bonus Step: Expand sweet spot size and reduce desk reflection.
If you have the luxury of a bigger room and you have some space left between the speakers
and the front wall, you can now move them back and outwards to scale up your stereo triangle.
Remember: Your listening position does not change in this process, only the speaker positions
do! Expanding your sweet spot size can create a better tonal balance by reducing speaker
boundary interferences and any desk reflections. The best way to do this is to rely on the
Phantom Speaker Test​ once again. It’ll tell you exactly how far you can scale your stereo
triangle before the stereo image starts falling apart.

Bonus Step: Double check sub integration.

Once your room’s low end is largely under control, you may be able to further optimize the sub’s
integration with your speakers. The goal is the same as before: to create a smooth transition
between sub and speakers in terms of time, phase, frequency and volume.
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

Step 5:​ Go the extra mile with equalization (a.k.a.

“room correction”).
What does this involve in practice?
● Setting the EQ options on the back of your speakers.
● Using “room correction” software or manually applying EQ to your speakers.

Why is this important?

● In a home studio scenario, completely “flattening” the frequency response with treatment
alone is usually prohibitively expensive and difficult, to the point that it’s impossible for
most of us.
● Unless you optimize the room shape and construction in ​Step 1​, the frequency response
will still have the same overall (crooked) pattern that the room imprints on it, especially in
the low end.
● EQ is the easiest, cheapest fix at this stage. But it comes at a significant cost
(headroom/distortion), so we want to minimize its use. That’s why it’s always the last
step in the chain.
● EQ also gives us the opportunity to “tone” the system, a.k.a. creating a “house curve”, to
better match the general frequency balance to our own personal taste.

What are you trying to achieve on a technical level?

● Reduce broad humps and valleys to get a frequency response that is even/balanced
across the entire range.
● Once the response is balanced out, “toning” or creating a “house curve” involves subtly
adjusting the overall amount of low end and high end with a tilt-EQ or very gentle
shelf-EQ.

Don’t obsess about:

● Fixing individual narrow bumps or dips. Usually this doesn’t work particularly well, and
when it does, the cost is high (volume/distortion). It’s also not nearly as beneficial to
helping you mix properly as is compensating for large humps and valleys. Focus on the
big wins.
● Turning the equalization on and off while you work. Instead follow a “set and forget”
approach. Our brain needs a consistent sound in order to do its best work.
● Creating the perfect “house curve”. It’s easy to get into a vicious cycle of constantly
making changes, which defeats the purpose. For most people, simply reaching a
balanced response will have the largest benefit.

Bonus Step: “After” measurements

If you’ve taken a set of “before” measurements, you can now take a set of “after” measurements
to compare your results. Note that without “before” measurements, it’s basically impossible to
quantify exactly how well the treatment worked, since that requires you to know what your
starting point was. You’ll also want to take these measurements at the exact same position in
Home Studio Treatment Framework (V1) AcousticsInsider.com

the room and the same volume, if you want to directly compare changes in the frequency
response, waterfall etc.

Bonus Step: Subbass control with resonance absorbers

If you’ve gone through all 5 steps and have fully(!!!) exploited each one, but still feel like you
need more low end control, then now is the time to specifically target any left over low end
issues with resonance absorbers. Note that this will be neither cheap, nor easy and still require
a significant amount of space to be effective. For most of us home studio engineers working on
a budget, this makes it a deal breaker.

Who am I?​ Jesco Lohan - AcousticsInsider.com

Aerospace engineer turned sound nerd.

Long time mixer. Specialist for studio acoustics.

Through my platform “Acoustics Insider” I teach home

studio acoustic treatment techniques for audio
professionals that actually work, without all the voodoo.