Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on TechRadar.
If speakers are sonic superheroes, then their arch-enemies are the rooms we put them in: poorly positioned speakers or oddly shaped abodes can ruin stereo and spatial audio setups by delivering badly located, boomy, or otherwise unfortunate audio. But now a new website is offering to help you find the perfect place to put your speakers and any acoustic panels to compensate for any room irregularities.
The website is Roomtreatment.diy, and it uses multiple methods to predict how sound will bounce around your space. It can then identify what treatment is necessary and where it should be positioned.
How does Roomtreatment.diy analyze your audio?
Posting on Reddit’s r/acoustics, the site’s creator FerencS explains that the analysis is based on splitting low and high frequencies, and then identifying the “excitability” of each part of the room. The simulation can also identify how much audio will be reflected or absorbed by other items in the room. The models have been tested against a dozen real measured rooms to make sure that they’re as lifelike as possible.
There’s no doubt that rooms and placement change what you hear; I’ve just had to redo a bunch of mixes because I hadn’t compensated for my monitors being too close to the wall and making the bass more prominent. And while this website is a work in progress – for example, it doesn’t model soundbars just yet – it’s already very impressive.
The site has clearly been made for people who aren’t necessarily audio experts: when you first create your room, it asks what issue you’re trying to deal with, whether that’s boomy, uneven bass, an off-center stereo image, muddy or smeared details, or “it just feels off”. There’s much more detail if you want it, so for example, when you select a particular speaker setup, it’ll tell you what frequencies to listen for in terms of mid-bass “honk”, as well as tell you about potential sound stage issues and other unwanted effects.
The app’s room creation is free to use, but you’re limited to a single room; it doesn’t take panels or furniture into account, and you can’t use the audio preview feature to hear how the room would sound with the selected setup. Paid users can choose between $19 to unlock everything for one room, $29 for two, or $49 per month for unlimited rooms. That last one’s for professional use rather than home use.
About the Author
Writer, broadcaster, musician, and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites, as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in the spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.
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