Near field monitor speakers are used in the process of mixing and producing music to provide a clear, accurate representation of the sound. This is important so that the engineer is able to determine whether or not a change needs to be made. In essence a flat response means we can hear a true representation of a sound. A room is made flat in a number of acoustic solutions. The sound of a room will be heavily affected by the dimensions of a room and material makeup of the room itself. To treat this we use items such as diffusers, bass-traps and absorbers. When we refer to isolating speakers this means to isolate them from sound conductive materials. Your room may sound amazing but if the speakers are resonating with the desk, the sound you hear will be muddy and inaccurate. When a speaker resonates with a different object it creates a new sound source, a source that will not be present in other listening environments and therefore is an inaccurate representation of the sound, not to mention it will sound nasty.
For more in depth information on overall room treatment visit:http://www.bobhodas.com/optimizing-the-studio-listening-environment.php
When treating speakers specifically, the idea is to dissect the conduction of sound waves by placing a non conductive material between the sound source and the desk/stand. These materials can either be really expensive or dirt cheap and of course in this range, we can expect differing results of effectiveness.
Starting from a the high end of the spectrum we have products such as the Iso Acoustics GAIA puck which retail at around £80 per item. And with at least 6 of these being needed, this is definitely not a budget solution. These work by introducing a suspension based air gap set between two ceramic plates (ceramic is really good at absorbing sound), to diffuse all of the sound before it has a chance to achieve medium transference.
Getting a little cheaper we have isolating stands such as the Iso Acoustics L8R200, which retail at around £120 a pair and work by adding a conductive stand between the speaker and the desk.
Getting cheaper and more ineffective we have the old insulation foam. Foam is an okay conductor of sound. The problem here is single medium transference. With the speaker resting directly on top of the foam, it has no chance of escape and all of the heavy lifting is expected from the acoustic foam, which it just isn’t capable of. Using foam as a room diffuser is more effective because the sound is not concentrated when it meets the new medium (it has been allowed to diffuse in the air), but when speakers are resting directly on top of foam this is eradicated and the sound is much more prevalent and hard to deal with.
Getting absurdly cheap we have the old half a tennis ball trick. Whilst this is preferable to no treatment at all, it has a minimalistic effect. However this having been said, when the room sound is measured with software such as Room EQ wizard there are significant difference is the frequency response, especially in the bottom end. I believe this is because the tennis balls at least eradicates direct medium transference.
Next we have layered carpet tiles, which have a similar effect to the tennis ball. Definitely better than nothing at all. But not great!
With research I have discovered there are many DIY solutions to this problem and I would be interested to see how effective these actually are. Perhaps a project for the future.
Jordan Vaughan: Creative Sound Design 