When you imagine building your dream studio you probably fantasize about buying a recording console, some killer compressors and maybe even a tape machine. But truth be told, the first thing any aspiring studio owner should spend their money on is acoustic treatment.

Proper acoustic treatment is what separates a "home-studio" from a professional facility. Unfortunately, most rooms are not designed with ideal acoustics in mind, so those of us trying to convert existing spaces into studios struggle with outside noise interference, excessive bass frequencies and room nodes.

Vicoustic is a company that specializes in innovative acoustic solutions. They offer products and services to help you create the most efficient studio space for the most affordable price, everything from building and construction to custom designs.

Over the last 10 years, Vicoustic has developed an entire department aimed at offering professional support to any acoustical project. Their team of acoustic isolation and treatment specialists offer solutions for everything from small home studios to massive theaters.

We recently sat down with Simon Cote of Audio Plus Services to talk about what studio owners can to do to improve the acoustics in their creative spaces. Read on to learn about Vicoustic's unique (and inexpensive) design process and how Vintage King can help implement the treatment it into your studio. 

Talk about what makes Vicoustic so special in the arena of acoustics.
Our headquarters in Portugal is home to an extensive lab where we can measure and test products. Our team of acousticians, interior designers and audio engineers have years of experience helping people design rooms with proper treatment.

Vicoustic offers a service where they will use the measurements of a client's studio to create an acoustic plan, which Vintage King then use as a roadmap map for supplying treatment. How does that process work?
The process starts by filling out a project request form on our website. There are different forms for acoustic treatment projects or building and construction projects. Vicoustic doesn’t just do treatment projects, they also do soundproofing when building the walls, floors and ceilings of a room.

The form will ask you everything the type of project to the size of the room or the material it’s made out of. Some people are in a concrete basement with no windows, others are in drywall offices with lots of reflective surfaces. There’s a section to let us know if you’re interested in using any particular Vicoustic products. You can also select whether you prefer a photorealistic 3D rendering of the design, or a simpler 3D rendering which has a faster turnaround time.

While Vicoustic doesn’t actually visit the project space, we're still able to accurately estimate the acoustic nature of the room. We provide detailed information like reverb time and the specific frequencies creating nodes in your space.

For a small fee of $50, our design team will create a full 3D rendering of your room with detailed measurements to help you isolate your biggest problems. We even provide charts for what the room should sound like after the installation.

We’ll include a shopping list of the suggested products and their recommended placement, then clients can make adjustments to fine-tune their design. We re-render the design every time, which is tremendously helpful because you can actually see what the room will look and sound like after installation.

Vicoustic's acoustic treatment has a definitive look. What was the inspiration behind the look?
Vicoustic is different from most acoustic treatment specialists in that they make beautiful products created with the help of interior designers. Clients are very involved in choosing the look and style of their treatment. some companies only offer a few color variants for their products, but Vicoustic actually changes the design based on what you need.

Our products are very customizable, we offer roughly 1,500 products, some of which have as many as 160 variations. We work around any design restrictions you may have to create effective, budget-friendly acoustic treatment that looks great on your wall.

What are some of the most popular Vicoustic products being used by recording studio clients?
Some of Vicoustic's most popular products include the Cinema Round Premium absorber, the Wavewood Diffuser Premium absorber/diffuser hybrid, the Multifuser DC2 bi-dimensional diffusion panel, and the Super Bass Extreme Premium bass traps.

The Cinema Round Premium panels combine modern design with maximum acoustic efficiency to provide a flexible and elegant solution for sound control. The fabric-covered Cinema Round Premium panel is commonly used to control sound reflections and excess reverberation, helping you maximize the performance of your listening space.

The Wavewood Diffuser panels are made of high-density polystyrene and wood finish to provide a more competitive diffuser with low weight and easier application.  It is particularly effective in treating medium and high frequencies.

The Multifuser DC 2 is a bi-dimensional diffusion panel that is frequently applied to walls or ceilings, providing multi-reflection on both vertical and horizontal planes in sound critical spaces. Made from high-quality EPS (Expanded Polystyrene), Multifuser DC 2 is notable not only for its effective performance in solving problems like lack of speech intelligibility or music definition, but also for its attractive design that fits perfectly in any kind of room.

The Super Bass Extreme panels are optimized for corner mounting, and designed to provide effective low-frequency absorption between 60–125 Hz. The wooden front panel, covered by fabric in this new version, has two functions, providing sufficient mid-high frequency absorption to control corner reflections without deadening the sound, while simultaneously acting as a diffuser.

Vicoustic and Vintage King want to help you take the next step in the acoustic evolution of your studio space! Our Audio Consultants can help walk you through Vicoustic's design process and then build a treatment package based on their recommendations for your studio.

Click here to contact our team and learn more about Vicoustic and Vintage King can do for you!