My working setup: adding acoustic treatment

One of the things I have always done is to progressively improve my setup. In the last few months I have improved the quality with which I record videos: both image and sound. And don't think that you need a lot of money for this: my equipment for recording videos is very cheap and I'm happy with the result.

In one of the videos I noticed a few days later that the audio was echoing. If I think about it, it's partly normal because it's a relatively small and almost empty room, so furnishing sure helps.

I started to study the subject of sound "insulation" and learned that, first of all, insulation and acoustic treatment are different things. In my case I'm interested in acoustic treatment, which is about preventing sound waves from bouncing off the walls so that the microphone only picks up your voice once, without echoing.

I am not a sound expert or technician, but I have certainly learned a lot about this subject these days. Here is a link to a video by Jaime Altozano that helped me to understand these concepts Also some threads on Reddit helped me to understand where I had the problem.

The next thing I did was to take a couple of blankets and put them in an area of the room where, as there was a 90º angle, the waves were possibly bouncing back to the microphone.

I came up with this idea because I like to watch videos about how military aircraft are designed to avoid being detected by radar. And the principle is to avoid 90º angles so that the waves don't return to the origin.

In any case, putting on the winter blankets did the trick and reduced the echo from the microphone quite a lot. Here a friend recommended me to buy some acoustic panels, and I bought 24 panels of 4cm thickness for 40€. There are cheaper offers, and of course much more professional panels with a much higher price. You can also make them yourself, but I wanted to try something simple and I had to fulfil a couple of requirements.

After having installed half of the panels you can already notice the difference, and having installed the rest the difference is brutal. I have also improved the microphone placement along with the recording filters, and the difference in sound quality is incredible. When I add some furniture I'm sure it will continue to improve.

In any case, it's fun to improve your workspace over time with small details and see how it evolves. Plus these acoustic panels give it a more professional studio feel, and I've also learned about a new subject I didn't know about, acoustic treatment.