ACOUSTIC TREATMENT - WHAT IS IT, AND WHY DO WE NEED IT?

The amount of money we spend on our audio equipment can run into thousands, and by and large the response of this equipment is acceptably flat over the most important areas of the sound spectrum.  But - all this is wasted if you are recording in a bad-sounding room!  Those expensive valve microphones, top of the range pre-amps, speakers that cost more than your car still will not sound right!!

Just walk around your studio during playback and observe the variations in sound - you will probably find an uneven bass response, poorly defined mid range and an aggressive-sounding top end.

Acoustic interference in your room can create peaks and dips of as much as 30db at the lower end of the audio spectrum.  Sound waves generated in the room radiate out to the room boundaries. Sound bounces off the surface at an angle that is equal to and opposite the original angle.

If the sound that goes into your microphone is poor, common sense tells you this weakness will remain throughout the recording chain.  As they say, "garbage in, garbage out". This is where SilentPeaks can help.  They manufacture portable acoustic products for the home or project studio offering dramatic improvements, so you don't have to just accept these anomalies.

Operating from their base in South Wales, UK, the SilentPeaks team research and manufacture all their range of acoustic products 'in house' to ensure they completely meet the needs of engineers, producers, musicians and audiophiles alike.  The products are both functional and aesthetically pleasing, and represent excellent value.

In their own Test Cube testing room they emulate the Audio working environment, and constantly test all products to ensure they provide the best possible performance in their price range.

There are five products currently in the range:
PEAKULISER PRO    PEAKULISER MINI   PANELTRAP 610     T-BASS   SPK-ISOLATOR



1.  PEAKULISER PRO vocal microphone shield

Most of us who own or run a home or project studio have been faced with the same problem of square rooms, and hard surfaces with poor acoustics, making vocal and acoustic instrument recordings a real problem.  Many people will draw the curtains, hang up duvets or construct a make-shift recording booth to try and achieve a clean dry vocal sound.

Few will have the luxury of a dedicated recording studio with expensive acoustic treatment; again most people do not want duvets draped around their bedroom or living room. What is needed is a quick and efficient cost effective solution.  Something that can be erected and dismantled within minutes, then packed away when not needed.  Silent Peaks 'PeaKulizer Pro' is Just That.

A portable microphone isolator, for recording vocals, speech or any live sound sources with vastly reduced room ambience.  It is made from lightweight Aluminium covered in thin strips of 240Kg/m³ open cell elastomeric foam, sandwiched between egg-box profile foam and flexible open cell polyurethane foam.  It is treated with a flame retardant particulate filler and a polymeric bonding agent which offers class ‘O’ Non Flammable fire performance.

The skillful combination of these components give the PeaKulizer Pro excellent sound absorbing qualities and improved Low Frequency absorbency per unit thickness.  Add to this a fully adjustable clamping system enabling very quick set up.

The system is designed to clamp behind a microphone, using your existing mic stand, straight or boom.  Unlike SErtain other makes, the centre of gravity is kept over the stand, preventing it becoming unstable - no sandbag needed!  The clamp offers 4 modes of adjustment - for height, distance, rotation, and angle from the microphone.

Two side wings are attached in such a way as to enable full adjustment from a Straight Panel to a Semi Circular Booth.  This gives a far drier vocal or instrument sound, great for Home Project Studios or Control Rooms.  A further adjustment of microphone placement in relation to the distance from the Peakulizer controls the Sound Colouration.  

The system covers pretty much every possibility, giving you greater creative control ‘out of the box’ and, with the whole thing ready to use in less than one minute, the PeaKulizer Pro is the lightest and quickest to set up on the market!  A class leader in its price range.  By placing the Peakulizer Pro behind your microphone when recording, you will immediately experience a dryer, more defined end result by absorbing and preventing reflected sounds.
Weight: 2.5 Kilos Width: 550 Height: 380 Depth: 240 mm

Top

 




 2. PEAKULISER MINI mini microphone shield

This is a scaled down version of its bigger brother 'The PeaKulizer Pro' utilising a fixed shield rather than hinged, and it uses the same dual layer foams with a simplified clamping system.

Designed to be clamped onto existing boom stands, this makes it ideal for overhead drum mic and other close microphone situations where the PeaKulizer Pro may be too big.  It has an elongated central slot to accommodate a pencil mic.

                      

 
Top

 
3. PANELTRAP 610 absorber

An aluminium framed mid to high frequency absorber, grey powder coated, and loaded with genuine Rockwool RW3 slab, covered with CARA* acoustic fabric in dark grey 'Merrick'. Fitted with 4 hanging points for easy fixing to walls and across corners (needs corner fitting bracket). Also connects to our stand system to make up gobos etc.  Now available is a fixing bracket which will attach to a standard mic stand.

These panels will help to considerably reduce reverberation, flutter echos, low end build up, tangential axial oblique modes, and unwanted standing waves.

Dimensions: 600x1000x75mm  Weight: 3.8kg

*Cara fabric conforming to flammability BS 476 part 7 class 1, BS.EN.1021-1 1994 (cigarette)

Top

4.  Spk Isolator Loudspeaker Isolator Pads

If you place your speakers on your (mixing or computer) desk, you will certainly have noticed the bass frequencies vibrating through the desk and causing it to resonate.  Not only does this colour the sound, but some of the bass energy is absorbed by the desk, thus reducing the speakers' bass response.

Most people will use the foam pads that are commercially available, but frankly, those are not really good enough.

This is were we at silent peaks differ from any other manufacturer. We use a 6mm thick slice of rubber as our main isolator (rubber is one of the most efficient acoustic isolators), and we bond this to a high density slab of foam (83 kg/cubic metre), sandwiched by a thin steel plate to keep it together.

These three components, when added together, give the speaker superb stability and isolation, resulting in a far more precise stereo image and an unsmeared, clean, accurate, and trustworthy bass end.  This superior standard of performance enabled the company to achieve a 10 star rating for Spk Isolator in a recent Music Tech magazine award.

Put your hands on the desk and feel the difference.

Close your eyes and hear the difference!

Dimensions:  240 wide x 300mm deep x 55mm thick.
Unit Weight: 1.8kg

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN:
**********
Excellence Award - 10/10 The Best
in its class. This product produces
superb results, is well implemented
and sensibly priced.  You probably
ought to just buy it!

Top

 5. T-BASS pyramid corner bass traps

Standard acoustic tiles and panel absorbers are very effective at mid to high frequencies. Low end frequencies have very long wavelengths and something thicker is needed to absorb these frequencies.

Bass traps are an absolute necessity in any room used for recording, and especially mixing and mastering.

Most of these frequencies build up in the corners of a room, and especially where three surfaces meet, i.e. walls and floor, walls and ceiling. Thus we have corner bass traps.  Silent Peaks have developed a small but highly efficient corner pyramid bass trap, with a cut-away at the back so that an air gap is left, increasing efficiency. Just drop these into the corners of your floor and ceiling and they will soak up that unwanted low end and give you a more defined and tighter bass.

Silent Peaks T-Bass is ideally partnered with Panel Trap 610's.

Specifications

Made from black powder coated aluminium, with genuine Rockwool
RW 5 150mm thick, and faced with dark grey CARA* acoustic fabric.
Dimensions: 760(w) x 760(h) x 760(d)mm
Tight fitting with 150mm air gap at corner (see picture right)
Unit Weight: Approx. 2.8 Kg
*CARA fabric conforming to flammability BS 476 part 7 class 1 BS.EN.1021-1 1994 (cigarette)

HOT NEWS: COMING SOON - THE "REFLECTAZORB"
A UNIQUE AND REVOLUTIONARY DESIGN OF BASS TRAP FROM THE SILENT PEAKS DESIGN TEAM!

Top