Inside the Studio – The Room Is the Instrument

Creating a Better Studio with Smart Acoustic Treatments

Your Room Is Lying to You

I remember when I was first starting out, trying to mix drums in a small room, and I thought my monitors were broken. Every kick note sounded different—boomy here, hollow there and mysteriously polite when I leaned back in my chair. I’d spend hours EQ’ing the bass, bounce the mix and listen in the car… where it was all wrong again.

If that sounds familiar, congratulations—you’ve discovered one of audio’s great truths: your room is lying to you. It’s not malicious (rooms don’t do that), but the physics of small, parallel-walled spaces wreak havoc on sound. No amount of fancy plugins can fix that in the mix.

Aside from designing a room from the ground up, what’s the solution? Acoustic treatment—the unsexy but absolutely essential gear that helps your speakers, mics, instruments, room and hopefully your mix sound the way they should.

If you browse any online retailer, you’ll find a buffet of acoustic solutions. I often get asked, “If you had to pick some off-the-shelf products to treat a room, what would they be?” Here are a few that I’ve had personal experience with that hit the sweet spot for home recordists: the Primacoustic London 12 Room Kit, the Primacoustic
London Bass Trap Kit and the beautifully crafted
pArtScience SpaceCoupler and SpaceArray.

Will they magically fix all your problems? No. But hopefully, the following ideas will help your room perform better while you’re saving up to design your next space. Let’s dig in.