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[Chris Griffith]

I feel like the next step in my control room is diffusion.  Bass is now really tight and punchy and from sweeping thru tones everything seems really even.  There are no major dips or peaks.  I haven't measured but I think it sounds like its within +-5db at worst.  There's a tiny dip at 150 and a little bump at 78, but its very gradual.. like an eq with a low q.  No tight weird dips or peaks.  

Needless to say the room is VERY dry since about 25% of the cubic volume of the room is filled with deep broadband absorption and limp mass membranes covering sealed cavities.  I made an educated guess that really worked with the membrane traps.. Tightened everything below 100 up a good bit.  

I've been doing a lot of mixes in the room and low end is translating great.  Its big and full with no mud, comparable to most major releases.  The only problem I'm having is mixes are sounding harsh in the high mids.  In my old room bass was always the problem.  Now I'm mixing with too much attack and presence, which has to be a result of a dead room.  

Will diffusion help bring a little more attack and top end clarity back in the room so I'm not mixing as aggressively?  I can't imagine that a group of 10 2x2 omnifussors on the back wall will make that big of a difference in the mix position.  Should I also add some in the front to add a little ambience to the room?  Its incredibly DRY in there.  

[Thomas Jouanjean]

A casual friday answer:

Diffusion will stabilize the mid range response / RT in the room. It will indeed bring air, depth and width depending on where you place them of course and how the room is designed.

It will make what you hear more realistic. Rooms whithout diffusion feel too 2d- ish.

Go for it!

[Chris Griffith]

The entire front half of my room is covered in absorption.  Should I add some diffusion there so I have some reflections in the front as well?  I could be wrong but if I only add them in the back like most designs wont I just get one set of reflections from the back that will get absorbed by the front of the room?  

[Ethan Winer]

Chris Griffith wrote on Fri, 03 July 2009 10:18

if I only add them in the back like most designs wont I just get one set of reflections from the back that will get absorbed by the front of the room?

Rear-wall reflections are louder and more damaging than reflections from the front wall. They're also "early" in smaller rooms which makes them even more damaging. But diffusion elsewhere still helps too.

I recently did extensive testing and listening in the small "lab" room at my company's factory, and I can confirm what Thomas said about diffusion evening out the decay times versus frequency. Diffusion also makes the room sound larger than it really is. If nobody minds some mild spam from me, I just finished a video that shows this on graphs, and also lets you hear music played in the room both from the listening position and 2/3 of the way back:

Hearing is Believing

This video may also be of interest:

All About Diffusion

--Ethan

[AndreasN]

Wow! The new video is most excellent! Thank you, Ethan! =)

(going to post this on various boards )


Cheers,

Andreas Nordenstam

[brett]

but why didn't you use an omni and a sky to make the test complete?