Recording Spaces

Chapter 5

Stone rooms

Live rooms have been constructed from wood, metal, glass, ceramics, brick, concrete and many other reflective materials. Undoubtedly, the materials of construction affect the timbre of the resulting sound and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make one material sound like another. I frequently use wood in live areas, but largely due to the success of certain early rooms, I seem to be asked to build stone rooms more frequently than others. Stone is unique amongst the other materials in that its surface, in a readily available state, is far less regular and hence more diffusive than the other materials. Hard stones sound different to soft stones, just as hardwoods sound different to softwoods. No one live room can ...