Occupation, song affect sound engineers' listening environment preferences
- Date:
- June 4, 2014
- Source:
- Aalto University
- Summary:
- New research tells which kind of studio control rooms mixing and mastering engineers like. A study of preferred listening environments among sound engineers illustrates the universal principle that "one size does not fit everyone."
- Share:
New results from Aalto University, Finland, tell which kind of studio control rooms mixing and mastering engineers like. A study of preferred listening environments among sound engineers illustrates the universal principle that "one size does not fit everyone."
By using the measured impulse responses of nine studio control rooms that were then encoded using the Spatial Decomposition Method, each space was reproduced in an anechoic chamber with a 30-channel spatial sound system.
Preferences depended on the occupation of the sound engineer and on the nature of the song. While mixing engineers preferred acoustically dry environments with high clarity, mastering engineers preferred more reverberant environments. Although, reverberation and clarity appear to be the dominant dimensions for preference, a well-defined stereo image was also found important for preference. This knowledge could be of use when building control rooms, indicates research.
Control rooms are increasingly been built also in home environments. These results can be useful when planning the design of new listening environments such as control rooms, says Sakari Tervo from Aalto University.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Aalto University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Tervo, Sakari; Laukkanen, Perttu; Pätynen, Jukka; Lokki, Tapio. Preferences of Critical Listening Environments Among Sound Engineers. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, June 2014
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