Question #14

What's the best flooring to use in my studio?

This might be a little counterintuitive, but hard flooring is the best for most studio applications. Why are hard floors better? Here are a few reasons:

• The sound of hard floors is more ''natural.'' In recording rooms, this results in a better performance from musicians because they are more comfortable. In control rooms, the hard floors provide a reflective surface that can balance nicely with the absorptive and diffusive treatments on the walls and ceiling.

• Carpet acts as a low-pass filter. This can cause the room to sound ''boomy'' before treatments. Because the low frequency artifacts are more obvious, low frequency treatments, such as LENRDs or Venus, may not appear to work as well.

• Floor reflections are ''rejected'' by the ear-brain mechanism. Therefore, they are not going to affect critical listening like wall and ceiling reflections do. There are many, many professional studios, built by folks with ''golden ears.'' They all swear by hard floors in the control room.

• Rooms with hard floors do not require any additional treatments versus carpeted rooms. I.e., this is not an attempt by us to make your room more reflective in order to sell you more treatments. Whether you go with hard flooring or carpet, you will need the same amount of LENRDs, Studiofoam, T'Fusors, etc. The rooms with hard floors will simply respond better with the added treatments.

What kind of hard flooring works? Hardwoods, parquet, tile (vinyl or ceramic), laminate, bare concrete and even linoleum are all acceptable. It is usually best to choose the flooring that fits your budget and your ''vibe.''