Anyone ever try something like this?

"A simple and robust way to test your room performance is through a simple reverberation test. Take a measurement microphone and put it in your normal listening position with the front face in the same orientation as your ear would be. Hook it up to your preamp/mixing desk with no applied EQ and minimum preamp gain. Blow up a balloon, set your DAW to record the mic signal, grab a pin and walk up to where your speaker sits. Now hold the balloon above the speaker with you to the side and a clear path between the balloon and the mic and pop it while remaining as still and as quiet as you can. After 10 seconds you can then move and stop your DAW from recording. Now you should have a clean recording of the impulsive reverberation decay of your room. In your DAW find the point where the level decays to 60dB bellow the initial peak. The time between that point and the peak is the reverberation time. Depending on the size of the room it should be between 200ms to 500ms."

Yes. I used a pair of drumsticks, but the balloon would work. Probably a wider freq range coming out of the balloon.

Not sure on the RT times, as far as what is good. I would have to look that up at this point....

It sounds like a very good test.

Now comes the question: What do you do with this information?

Well, I'm guessing if you have less than 200ms of reverberation, then your room is too dead... and you need to liven it up a bit... maybe get rid of some of the carpeting on the floor or something.

If the reverb is over 500 ms then put up some more acoustic treatment.

That's my guess.

T

I have had equal results eating a large amout of beans the night before. Instead of the balloon, I just let one go. The mic works just as well in figureing out the refartberation.

Potty-mouth!

Jeremy Hesford - Where Science And Vulgarity Collide™

Yeah like you've never had a session that just ended up with fart jokes...

Nope, can't say I have....

Would it be okay if I asked Charlton Heston with some of his rifles over to generate the impulse?

Considering Heston's current bout with Alzheimer's, I'd be very careful where I had him point that rifle...

I think that's why Phil Spector used to carry a gun in the control room- to see if anything in the room, I mean to see if the room was too live....

Update:

I tried two baloons, a rifle shot and my girlfriend's farting.

All came in at approximately 350 milliseconds.

I'd suggest that if anyone else tries the above three methods that you follow the farting with the rile/gun shot. The essence of ignited gun powder will help mask the aforementioned farting's malodor.

I strongly disagree. The ignition of the gunpower will ignite the farted methane residue, causing great damage to the aforementioned recording enviroment.

Gunshot first, fart second.

You're right.

So, pop the baloons first or third?

Probably first and clear outta the room a.s.a.p.

I have to disagreee. Though the idea of a shot gun did not appear in my mind, now that I think about it, the fart, and resulting gunshot, imeadatly following, would result in the catastrofic distruction of the studio, completly nullifiing the results of the refartberation.

From this would come very crappy mixes, due to an imbalance in the fact your studio was destroyed.

"refartberation" pg 342, section A

"A book by JH on the disstructive effects of refartberation and shot guns (in recording studios) tm".