AES Europe 2025

If you are considering establishing a room for sound, i.e., recording, mixing, editing, listening, or even a room for live music, this is the crash course to attend!
Initially, we’ll walk through the essential considerations for any design of an acoustic space, (almost) no matter the purpose: Appropriate reverberation time, appropriate sound distribution, low background noise, no echoes/flutter echoes, appropriate control of early reflections, (and for stereo/surround/immersive: a degree of room symmetry).
To prevent misunderstandings, we must define the difference between room acoustics and building acoustics. This is a tutorial on room acoustics! Finding the right reverberation time for a project depends on the room's purpose. We’ll look into some relevant standards to find an appropriate target value and pay attention to the importance of the room's frequency balance, especially at low frequencies! We will take the starting point for calculation using Sabine’s equation and discuss the conditions to make it work.
The room's shape, the shape’s effect on room modes, and the distribution of the modes are mentioned (together with the term Schroeder Frequency). The acoustical properties of some conventional building materials and the consequences of choosing one in favor of another for the basic design are discussed. The membrane absorbers (plasterboard, plywood, gypsum board) and their importance in proper room design are presented here. This also involves the definition of absorption coefficients (and how to get them).
From the “raw” room and its properties, we move on to define the acoustic treatment to reach the target value. Again, the treatment often can be cheaper building materials. However, a lot of expensive specialized materials are also available. We’ll try to find a way through the jungle, keeping an eye on the spending. The tools typically are porous absorbers for the smaller rooms. Sometimes, resonance absorbers are used for larger rooms. We don’t want overkill of the high frequencies!
The placement of the sound sources in the room influences the perceived sound. A few basic rules are given. Elements to control the sound field are discussed: Absorption vs. diffusion. Some more uncomplicated principles for DYI diffusers are shown.
During the presentation, various practical solutions are presented. At the end of the tutorial, there will be some time for a minor Q&A.