Diploma in Sound Engineering

Real vs digital
acoustics
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Contents
3 Lesson outcomes

3 Introduction

3 Acoustics

5 Reverberation

6 Delay

7 Conclusion

8 References
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Lesson outcomes
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Distinguish between early and late reflections

Know the difference between reverb and delay
Understand using reverb and delay
Add delay for musical and non-musical effect

Practical lesson outcome:

After this lesson you should be able to add delay and reverb to a vocal recording for artistic effect, blend it in the mix
and increase the width of the stereo field.

Introduction
In the previous four lessons we have become very comfortable with the fact that sound is only a pressure wave. We also
know that when an object makes a sound that the sound wave does not only go in one direction, but that it goes in many
directions. In today's lesson we are going to look at how sound bounces around the world around us and how that affects
the way we hear sound and music.

This lesson is also your first step towards understanding how to build your own studio and will give you very valuable skills
and knowledge that you can apply today to improve the sound quality of your listening environment.

Acoustics
Acoustics is the study of how sound waves interact with the world around us. Basically, how sound bounces from different
surfaces, objects and angles. It is the echo we get when we shout from a mountaintop, or the reverberation in the bathroom
and kitchen. Sometimes we spend quite a lot of money, time and effort into designing the acoustics of a structure. In
everywhere from airports and train stations to concert halls, mosques and churches.

Acoustics play an important role in our understanding of our surroundings. Just based on what you can hear you can
understand the scope of your environment .The reflections in a room indicate the size of our environment, the direction of
the sound source and also creates colouration between different instruments.

Propagation and reflection

When we talk about sound propagation, the first thing that comes to mind is the direction a sound wave is travelling in. In
ideal circumstances, if you have a vibrating sphere hanging in the open air, the sound will propagate omni-directionally – in
all directions, equally.

The further the sound moves from the sphere, the more the sound waves’ energy gets spread out. Because the energy
spreads out as the wave travels over distance. This results in the wave losing energy over distance. Imagine hanging in the
air, away from any objects, no places where sound can reflect from. You ’ll only hear your voice in your own ears. This is the
closest you will get to an absolute free field with no reflections and reverberation.

In practice, we have created rooms with similar results as a free field. These are called anechoic chambers and look totally
awesome. Some of these anechoic chambers absorb all sound and you can hear the blood coursing through the veins in
your ears! In these rooms we test the true audio specifications of a variety of sources, including fighter jets and passenger
planes!
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When sound travels through the air, the air molecules push and pull one another. Remember this little clip from lesson 2 on
types of waves? The same way that the spring pushes forward and pulls back to its original position, air molecules push and
pull one another. When an air molecule is pushed against another molecule, it creates compression, when it moves back it
creates rarefaction.

When the air molecules hit a hard surface, such as a wall, the floor or a window, the energy is deflected. This is referred to as
reflection. Some surfaces like tiles reflect sound very well, other surfaces are better at absorbing sound, like carpets and
pillows.

Consider reflective surfaces and think of the difference between the cinema and an under-cover parking garage. The cinema
sounds quiet, but in the parking garage sound bounces from everywhere. This is because of the reflective surfaces. You can
use reflection to your advantage to improve the acoustic quality of your listening room.

Standing waves
Especially in indoor environments, the phenomenon of standing waves is common. This happens when the distance
between two surfaces is equal to or a multiple of the wavelength of a frequency.

Follow the link below and read the discussion:

Standing waves (Treci, 2020)

Let’s say that the blue wave is the original wave and that the green wave is the reflection. Notice that when the blue wave
and the green reflection coincide, the result is the red wave with a much higher amplitude. This red wave is what we refer to
as a standing wave.

Now let us assume the distance between two walls in your house is
3 meters – the same as the wavelength of a 116 Hz soundwave. If you
play a 116 Hz tone between those two walls, the 116Hz tone will
perfectly reflect between the two surfaces. When this happens, the
peaks of the sound wave are always on the same place between the
two walls. This results that the waves have positive phase and
amplify the sound wave every time it bounces from wall to wall.

In our studios this is especially important to be aware of, because if

our room has standing waves at different frequencies, those
frequencies will seem louder than they actually are, and we will
make changes in our mixes that do more harm than good. We will
cut or boost frequencies incorrect levels and bandwidths.

Standing waves can also be used for other applications. Such as

levitation.
(Ultrasonic levitation, 2020)

Diffusion
One way to avoid or get rid of standing waves, is through diffusion. A standing wave occurs when two surfaces face each
other in a way that allows a sound wave of a certain frequency to repeatedly bounce between the two. This creates high-
and low-pressure nodes in a room that does not move and can be detrimental to our listening and monitoring in studio.

Through diffusion we can disrupt this repetitive pattern and break the standing wave. Every room has at least 6 surfaces:
four walls, a floor and a ceiling. This means that every room has hundreds of dimensions that could create standing waves.
One way to address this issue is through diffusion.

Diffusion is when we reflect sound in such a way that it does not bounce back in the direction it came from. Instead we reflect
the sound in many directions. This causes the reflected wave to lose power and be spread more evenly across the room,
rather than having constant pressure nodes. We do this to avoid hearing as many reflections as possible. When working in
studio you preferably only want to be working with the direct sound. This is why we avoid reflections in our studios as much
as possible.
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In our studios we use what are called diffuser panels. You might have seen them before and know that is has something to
do with sound, but not exactly sure why they are used. It looks like a series of random blocks standing out with no specific
design behind it, but the actual fact of the matter is that every block’s width and height is mathematically determined based
on the dimensions of the room it is being designed for.

The diffuser panel for every room will look different and is placed on the wall directly behind the sound engineers listening
position. This is done so you will only hear the sound coming from the front from your speakers and not the reflected sound
coming from the wall behind you.

Remember, sound travels at 344 m.s-1 , so in a single second the sound reflects back and forth so much that the direct and
reflected sound will be mixed and our ears will hear the sound coming from the front and the back as the one sound. This is
problematic because we will make mixing changes based on what we hear, but when we take the recording out of our
studios, we notice that the mix has too much or too little of a certain frequency band.

Nowadays there is software to perform the calculations for us as they can be tedious to do. If you are serious about getting
the reflections of your room under control, diffusion is one of the options that you have available to address reflection and
standing wave problems.

Absorption
Another method we use to improve the sound quality
of a room is through absorption. We use diffuser panels
to break repetitions of sound waves and avoid having
constant pressure nodes in our rooms. But what if the
reflections still have a significant amount of power?
Won’t we still hear the reflections from the other
surfaces in our room? And you are right, we will!

We still want to reduce their power and limit the

amount of reflections that we hear during monitoring,
and this is where we can employ absorption. A cars
airbag protects passengers from impact by acting as a
cushion and absorbing the impact of the passenger’s
momentum. Sound absorption works on the same
principle.

When sound hits an absorption panel, some sound is

(Acoustic Geometry, 2020)
absorbed, but not all of it. Some of the sound is
reflected, but just with a bit less power. The same as
when a car crashes, the passenger’s momentum is absorbed by the airbag, but the passenger still feels some force that
pushes them forward. The same with absorption panels. When sound hits the panel, some sound is absorbed, but some of
it also reflects – fortunately with less power.

Reverberation
When we listen to any sound, there is always a type of reflection of sound happening around us. There are two types of
reflections and we distinguish between the two as early and late reflections.

Early reflections are any sound that take less than 0.1 seconds to reflect. These are called reverberation. These early
reflections influence the timbre of the sound we hear and are often used to enhance certain musical elements. We refer to
as reverb for short.

RT60
Every room has its own set of acoustic properties. To establish the reverberation time or RT60 of a room, we measure the
time it takes a signal to drop with 60 dB from the peak of the wave.
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Depending on the material of the surfaces, dimensions of the environment and the balance of direct and reflected sound,
we have a few different reverbs. Think of your bedroom compared to your bathroom. The bathroom made of mostly ceramic
reflects sound very well and absorbs almost no sound. Go to your bathroom at clap your hands once. Listen to the sound
slowly decay and pay attention to the brightness of the reflections. Then go to your bedroom or lounge, where there are
more curtains, carpets, pillows and bedding and clap your hands once again. Listen to the decay of the reverberation in that
room. Notice the difference in reverberation time?

In our DAWs we have digital models of an enormous variety of acoustic spaces. This is what we refer to as reverbs in our
DAWs and often use it to blend certain elements of a song into a mix or give an instrument a certain musical character. With
most reverb plug-ins, there are standard parameters that are adjustable. These will usually include settings such as decay,
feedback, wet/dry mix, HP/LP filters.

Decay:

When sound is reflected between two surfaces, it takes only a few milliseconds for a single reflection. But reflected sound
does not stop after only one reflection. It bounces around the room many times, and this is only a single sound wave. When
we produce sound, we produce hundreds to thousands of waves every second, and this amount of quick and snappy
reflections can continue for quite long. The decay of your reverb is exactly this.

In your DAW you can set for how long the sound will “bounce” around the room until it has lost all power. In terms of audible
differences, a short decay means the reverb will decay quickly, and a long decay means the reverb will decay over a longer
period.

Reverb types and effects

In our DAWs we can choose from a variety of reverberation types. Every reverb plug-in has its own set of reverb names, pre-
sets and models, and we can use and adapt them to suite our needs. Just as you saw the decay setting being able to shorten
or extend the reverb time, we can adjust how much or little of the direct signal we hear.

The same as when you sit in a room the direct sound will reach your ears first and then the reflections will follow. The balance
between the amount of direct signal compared to how much reverb you hear is referred to as the wet/dry mix. Wet refers to
the reverb dominating the direct sound, where a dry mix refers to reverb that is less audible than the direct signal.

To aid us in setting the wet/dry mix and balance the amount of reverberation we have compared to the dry signal, we can
also set the relative loudness of the reverb. We do this with the feedback setting.

By turning feedback up, you are turning up the intensity of the reflections. The decay will still dictate when it dies down, the
wet/dry mix the ratio between the original and reverberation signal and feedback the loudness of the reflections.

Delay
Remember we discussed that there are two types of reflections? Early and late reflections? Well we have become quite
familiar with early reflections in the previous section, so for this section we will discuss late reflections and how to use it in
music and sound production.

What is delay?
When sound takes longer than 100 ms to reflect once, we regard the reflection as a late reflection. In layman terms we call
it an echo, but in sound engineering we refer to it as delay.

Early reflections generally give us an impression of space. So, if you have an instrument or voice recording and add some
extra early reflections with a reverb plugin, you can create new sound spaces. Through a reverb plugin you can imitate big
concert halls, small rooms and anything and everything in between.

Late reflections however create an entirely different feel. Once we move above a 100 ms time delay, you begin to notice an
echo rather than a reverberation. This echo is what we can control through the delay settings in our DAWs. We can use them
for a variety of applications, can shape our mix add width and spatial elements. It is a helpful tool to smoothen out a vocal,
guitar solo or melody.
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What is important to take note of is that in our DAWs delay is a copy of our original signal being played at time intervals that
we set. In terms of time it is regarded as a late reflection, but in software it is not a reflection at all, it’s a duplicate of the
original signal being slightly delayed and decreases in amplitude over time.

The musical value that it contributes is very different to that of reverberation. Where reverberation makes a sound seem
closer or further away or as if it is in a bigger or smaller space, delay adds some very interesting elements to a mix.

Time delay
In our DAWs we measure time in two ways. Firstly, seconds
and milliseconds, and secondly in bars and beats. We can
change the delay to match the tempo of our song or stand
out and create interesting effects. In your DAW you can either
set the delay based on milliseconds and seconds or based on
tempo and beats.

Besides the simple time difference that delay effects offer,

we can often adjust additional parameters to add more
realism or creative effect to the delayed signal. One such
example is to add a high or low pass filter to the delayed
signal. You can also add a ping pong effect which will bounce
the delays between left and right, giving a ping pong feel to
the delays.

For cinematic effects or to make an instrument or vocal stand (LinkedIn Learning, 2020)
out in the mix, you can add a delay that is not related to the
tempo of the song. This is where you can change the time of
the delay repetitions based on milliseconds.

Conclusion
Acoustics is a vital part of sound engineering and
understanding how it all fits together will help you a
great deal to make great recordings, mixes, improve
your studio spaces and especially help with live
recording.

The early reflections we get from the rooms we are in

when we are recording, give us a sense of space. By
adding to these early reflections, we can enhance or
increase the perceived space based on what the
production needs. If you have a podcast, you’ll most
likely use no reverb, or extremely little if you want to
enhance the room tone. Music on the other hand,
especially popular music, uses reverb in creative ways
to increase the stereo width or the size of an element
in the stereo field– if needed.

Figure 1(Waves Audio, 2020)

Late reflections give us a sense of fullness in sound and can aid us in making a melody or element stand out or blend in with
the mix, smoothen out melodies and vocals and create thrilling ambiences and one-shot sounds.

The combination of reverberation and delay in our music productions play an extremely significant role in our mixes and
the quality of our productions. Always use reverb and delay with caution, use small amounts, make small changes and
always listen with your ears, not your eyes!
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References
• Treci, M., 2020. Standing Wave Animation. [online] YouTube. Available at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8qZO6g_X5Q&ab_channel=AnimationsforPhysicsandAstro
nomy> [Accessed 25 November 2020].
• Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations. 2020. Ultrasonic Levitation. [online] Available
at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpNbyfxxkWE&ab_channel=HarvardNaturalSciencesLectur
eDemonstrations> [Accessed 30 November 2020].
• Learning, L., 2020. Understanding Audio Delay. [online] YouTube.com. Available at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akHt84z7Yc&t=13s&ab_channel=LinkedInLearning>
[Accessed 30 November 2020].
• Audio, W., 2020. Reverb And Delay Explained - Sound Basics With Stella Ep 4. [online]
YouTube.com. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
jPPJEHMepA&ab_channel=WavesAudio> [Accessed 30 November 2020].
• Geometry, A., 2020. How Sound Works (In Rooms) Captioned. [online] YouTube.com. Available at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6sGdadElcg&ab_channel=AcousticGeometry> [Accessed
30 November 2020].