Stacked Stone veneer in a studio?

<[email protected]> wrote:
>At a new shopping centre I noticed several of the external shop
>fitouts featured a great looking stone veneer called stacked stone,
>which has lots of small reflective surfaces but arranged in a
>seemingly random pattern (if you'll pardon the contradiction). It
>obviously repeats after some interval.

This gives you diffusion. I don't know about the veneer, but real
stacked slate walls give you fairly effective diffusion.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

> a great looking stone veneer called stacked stone, which has lots of small
> reflective surfaces but arranged in a seemingly random pattern ... Is
> this such a crazy idea? The emphasis always seems to be on selective
> absorption, but is there any harm in intentional reflections that are
> widely dispersed and unlikely to create standing waves?

Stones like this will not do what you want. Not even a little. First, small
booths used for voice-overs need to be totally dead. The smaller the booth,
the poorer the ambience quality because reflections from all the nearby
surfaces arrive early and are very strong. So the goal is to make the booth
dead, then you can add much higher quality ambience electronically if
needed.

Even if diffusion was appropriate in a voice-over booth, a stone surface has
no useful diffusing properties at the frequencies you care about. To diffuse
to a usefully low frequency the "well" depth must be at least 3 inches, and
preferably 6 inches or more. A brick facade has a depth of maybe 1/4 inch at
most, which means it does nothing below about 25 KHz. As I said, not useful
for audio.

If those aren't enough reasons not to bother :->) consider that real
diffusors are not random, but a specific pattern. Yes, random does
something, and might be better than a bare wall, but it will be nowhere near
as effective as a real QRD type diffusor.

--Ethan

"Ethan Winer" <ethanw at ethanwiner dot com>so you saynews:AqSdnZB8qe4
[email protected]:

> A brick facade has a depth of maybe 1/4 inch

Ehtan ... Please note that brick facades are not the only form
of masonry veneers.
There are many manufacturers with dozens of styles with depths in the range
that you mention. THey are made with lightwieght concrete and fastened over
expanded metal lath with mortar. Just for your information only ... i'm
not trying to debate wether it's effective enough to be worth while. BUT ..
it does look nice :)

"Steve L." <[email protected]>so you
saynews:Xns9AC3532031A6Aemailmemyemailaddy@208.49.82.60:

> Ehtan

= Ethan

> There are many manufacturers with dozens of styles with depths in the
> range that you mention.

Fair enough Steve. The OP said, "small reflective surfaces" so I took that
at face value. The main issue for me is that a small booth does not benefit
from diffusion. I don't usually speak in absolutes, but I feet safe saying
that ALL voice-over work is best done in a totally dead sounding
environment.

"Ethan Winer" <ethanw at ethanwiner dot com> wrote in message
news:AqSdnZB8qe4_I8bVnZ2dnUVZ_gadnZ2d@giganews.com...
[snip]
>
> If those aren't enough reasons not to bother :->) consider that real
> diffusors are not random, but a specific pattern. Yes, random does
> something, and might be better than a bare wall, but it will be nowhere
> near
> as effective as a real QRD type diffusor.
>
> --Ethan
>
The diffusors I've seen appear to be made out of wood slats, which I would
guess allow easy patterning and repetitive assembly. How to build link:

http://www.pmerecords.com/Diffusor.cfm

Bob Morein
(310) 237-6511