Acoustics for a Mastering Room

Hi folks! I'm in the process of building a new studio with 2 different control rooms. One of them will be mostly used for mastering. What is the main difference between acoustics for a mixing room and those for a mastering room? Thanks! Jordi.

No difference. You want the room's response as flat as possible. Bass trapping all around.

What is the main difference between acoustics for a mixing room and those for a mastering room?

A mixing room has a huge acousitcally ugly reflective surface called a desk, or mixer in the worst possible position. Beyond that, a mixing room can have requirements for accomodating many people at once, louder levels to satisfy custoemrs who want to hear it LOUD. A mastering room is usually designed for one worker and posibly one customer (typically engineer and producer), and is designed for super accurate monitoring at a specified level (usually 85 dBa). Hope this helps you. Andre.

Good point actually... people do like hanging out in "the control room" and hearing what they're creating.

SonicClang wrote:

Good point actually... people do like hanging out in "the control room" and hearing what they're creating.

and hearing it loud - there's nothing more annoying for a muso than the be in a studio playing with loud amps and drums and to walk into the control room and have some guy play it back to you at 85db :shock:

I heard somewhere that mastering rooms were intended to be more "natural" sounding, as opossed to "neutral" / "zero-influence" control rooms. I assumed they were actually talking about reverberation, but maybe I'm wrong.... jordi.

Aloha, Grammy Award winning Bob Katz writes:

The real key to good mastering lies in the control room acoustics and monitors--the ability to be able to hear extremely subtle changes and react to them. http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id ... age_id=41/

Aloha 8)

Good reverb is tough to actually acheive from what I understand. But you do want bass traps so your ear isn't being tricked to mix in more or less bass depending on how your room is affecting the sound. That I do know. The only exception is if you know your room so well that you know it'll sound great everywhere else. But if you can afford bass traps, why not install them and have the room's response as flat as possible?

spacecadet25 wrote:

I heard somewhere that mastering rooms were intended to be more "natural" sounding, as opossed to "neutral" / "zero-influence" control rooms.

??? :? The only thing I have ever heard (or read) even remotely like that is in regards to Phillip Newell's and Tom Hidley's "non-environment" rooms. If you are not familiar with those room design concepts, don't worry, you can't afford them. I'm serious, you can't afford them. Don't call me Shirley: Andre

Well, those 2 guys work in Spain all the time. I think Newell probably works in Spain more than in any other country. I rely on an expert for the acoustics of my new studio. He'll decide. And since I don't have a car, I can spend some more bucks on Acoustic Design. 8) J.

spacecadet25 wrote:

I don't have a car, I can spend some more bucks on Acoustic Design. 8)

Haha. :) For some reason I got a kick out of this. I live in an area where you can't just walk out your front door and hail a cab. If I did I might not need a car either.

SonicClang wrote:

Good point actually... people do like hanging out in "the control room" and hearing what they're creating.

ANOTHER room! "Control rooms" add large glass specular reflectors in non-optimum locations. Er, windows add more problems to acousitc design. Andre

I was just doing a search about mastering studios before i post new questions. turtlerock mastering looks pretty square and jack the bear has a real living room-ness to it. i would have thought a real would be better.