Do I Need to Cover the Entire Wall With Acoustic Panels?
No, you don't need to cover the entire wall. Most home studios need panels on 25 to 35 percent of the wall area, placed where reflections reach your ears and where bass builds up. Wall-to-wall thin panels make a room sound dead: GIK says a room that absorbs too much treble but ignores bass "sounds unnatural and fatiguing."
Where panels actually go
Treat a few specific spots, in this order, and leave the rest bare. Auralex's home studio guide says step one in any small room is bass traps in all the corners.
- Corners. Thick bass traps, where bass piles up.
- First reflection points. Side wall spots where sound bounces from your monitors to your ears.
- Ceiling. A cloud above your seat.
- Behind the speakers. Neumann puts one absorber behind each monitor and adds one or two more between them only if the room still isn't dry enough.
Primacoustic's Broadway panel manual targets 25 percent of the wall area for a tracking or practice room and 35 percent for a mixing room. In a 12 x 10 x 8 ft room, that's 11 or 16 two by four foot panels. The math is in how many acoustic panels do I need. Exact spots are in where to place acoustic panels.
Why over-treating sounds dead
Thin panels absorb highs well and bass poorly, so the more wall you cover with them, the more lopsided the room gets: dull up top, bass untouched. GIK's room acoustics basics suggests diffusion where "too much absorption may make a room sound dead."
The rest of the plan is in the home studio acoustic treatment guide.
Related questions
Can you have too many acoustic panels?
Yes, if they're thin. Wall-to-wall thin panels soak up treble but leave the bass, which GIK says sounds unnatural and fatiguing.
Where should the first acoustic panels go?
Bass traps in the corners first, then panels at the side wall first reflection points, then a ceiling cloud above your seat, then the wall behind the speakers.
Should acoustic panels be spaced apart?
Cover the reflection zone, not one exact point. GIK says one or two panels must sit accurately on the reflection point, but as you add more, covering a broader area is more effective and more forgiving.
More answers: Home recording FAQ