If you are creating a home studio, then one of the areas you must focus on is the sound quality of the room. The quality of the sound is impacted by both the size and shape of the room as well as the materials used in the construction of the room. One of the most common ways of improving the sound quality of the room is to use acoustic panelling products to line the walls and ceiling of your home studio. Here is what you should look for when choosing acoustic panelling products.
What characteristics of acoustic panelling products matter?
Acoustic panelling comes in various shapes and sizes. Before ordering your acoustic panelling products, you will have to work out exactly what you need. The three characteristics that matter with acoustic panelling are:
- Dimensions
- Thickness
- NRC rating
Dimensions
Acoustic panels normally come in sizes of 30.48 cm², 60.96 cm² or 60.96 cm × 121.92 cm. The individual dimensions of the panels don't matter too much, the real concern is how much of the wall you are planning to cover and how many panels it will take to achieve the result you need. While the amount of coverage you need will obviously depend on the size of your home studio, a fair starting point for the majority of home studios is about 14.6 m². You can achieve this amount of coverage with a variety of acoustic panelling products, and while you may consider it easier to use fewer but larger panels, it is also worth remembering that smaller acoustic panels are lighter and will cause less wall damage when removed.
Thickness
Acoustic panelling products are normally sold with a thickness of either 5.08 cm or 10.16 cm. Thicker 10.16 cm panels will absorb lower frequencies than 5.08 cm panels but you must consider whether you really need that level of absorption. In many cases, you will already have bass traps in place to handle those low-frequency sounds so panels of 5.08 cm thickness are considered the industry standard.
NRC Rating
When you look at acoustic panelling products you will notice that they are all given a noise reduction coefficient (NRC) rating, which shows how effective they are at absorbing sound. The number will always be between zero and one, and the higher the number, the better the material is at sound absorption.
Once you know the type of acoustic panelling products you need to create the right sound for your home studio, you are ready to visit your local panelling company and pick up all the acoustic panelling you need. If you still have questions, then the experienced staff should be able to address your concerns and help you choose the perfect panelling for your studio.
Share