Welcome to No Limit Sound Productions

Company Founded
2005
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Our services include Sound Engineering, Audio Post-Production, System Upgrades and Equipment Consulting.
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Our mission is to provide excellent quality and service to our customers. We do customized service.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

How many sound waves can you fit into your studio?

 Do you think your studio is big enough to fit all of your sound in? You might be surprised to learn just how BIG sound can be...

By David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

Obviously this is a trick question of some sort. But what is the trick? It's in the answer - although you might be able to fit thousands of sound waves into your studio space simultaneously, there are situations where it might not even be possible to fit one!

The explanation is in the range of wavelengths of audible sounds. Any sound consists of a series of high-pressure and low-pressure regions traveling through the air. The wavelength is the distance between two adjacent highs or lows, or any two corresponding points on the wave.

At the extreme, the shortest audible wavelength, corresponding to a frequency of 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), is around 17 mm. At the low frequency end we could consider 100 Hz, the corresponding wavelength being around 3.4 meters (that is just over 11 feet, but come on - this is science in the 21st century!).

So can you fit something 3.4 long in a straight line into your studio? Perhaps, just - even if diagonally!

OK, let's think about 50 Hz, and this isn't even deep bass - not even close to the left hand end of the piano. Now we are looking at a wave some 6.8 meters long. This is getting serious.

If we go all the way to the generally accepted limit of audibility, which is 20 Hz, then the wavelength is a massive 17 meters! Few people have rooms that can accommodate wavelengths so long.

However, all is not lost, because sound waves are quite capable of bouncing around the room, in effect 'folding' themselves over. But the subjective effect isn't all that impressive. Bass in a small room sounds 'constricted', which it is. On the other hand, bass in an auditorium is allowed to 'breathe' and sounds much more pleasant and natural.

Small rooms are very difficult to treat acoustically, and the major problems are in the bass end.

The advice - move into bigger premises and let your bass breathe!
Publication date: Tuesday November 30, 1999
Author: David Mellor, Course Director of Audio Masterclass

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