Take your studio to the next level with Devine Aco acoustic panels

If you ask (home) studio owners what their most important tools are, there’s often one element missing from their list: the studio room itself — and its acoustics in particular. That’s a shame, because acoustics can be the difference between a production that sounds professional and one that doesn’t. In this blog, we’ll tell you everything about Devine Aco absorbers and bass traps: acoustic panels that can transform any room into a space where you can make professional recordings and mixes.

What exactly do Devine Aco absorbers and bass traps do?

Devine Aco absorbers reduce reverberation in a room, which can be useful in all sorts of situations. Microphone recordings gain more definition, you can hear what you’re doing more clearly while mixing, and in meeting rooms and classrooms you can dramatically improve speech intelligibility. The bass traps (Studio Traps) also help with this, but with the focus on low frequencies.

What are Devine Aco panels made of?

Unlike many other acoustic panels, Devine Aco panels are filled with recycled PET wool rather than rockwool or fibreglass wool. PET wool absorbs just as well, but you don’t run the risk of harmful mineral-wool particles getting into the air. On top of that, you’re doing your bit for the environment, since the PET wool is made from recycled plastic.

Where is the best place to hang Devine Aco panels?

Absorber panels work best when you hang them at a ‘point of first reflection’. That calls for an example. Imagine you’re sitting in front of a speaker. Ask someone to slide a mirror flat along one of the side walls. The moment you can see the speaker in the mirror from the listening position, the mirror is at a ‘point of first reflection’.

Which Devine Aco panels should I choose for my mixing/mastering setup?

In a mixing/mastering studio, it’s especially important that you can fully trust what comes out of your studio monitors. Your speakers may be great, but if the sound is being reflected by walls and the ceiling on the way to your ears, it’ll be heavily coloured by the time it reaches you. We recommend starting with 150 mm Studio Panels and 150 mm Studio Squares on the walls to the left and right of your studio monitors. Thanks to the 150 mm thickness, they absorb both high and low frequencies. If you regularly struggle with low end in your mixes, hang a few Aco Studio Traps in the corners of your studio as well. From then on, you’ll be mixing kicks and basslines with surgical precision. And don’t forget the biggest bare surface in your studio: the ceiling. A few Studio Cloud panels above your desk reduce ‘desk reflections’ and do wonders for the stereo image of your studio monitors.

Which Devine Aco panels should I choose for my recording space?

When it comes to the acoustics of a recording space, there aren’t really any hard rules — but I think we can all agree that recordings made in a small room almost always sound pretty poor. The best thing you can do is eliminate any form of reverb entirely with 150 mm Devine Aco Studio Panels and 150 mm Squares. Dry recordings give you the option of simulating space afterwards using reverb and delay effects. If you’re the lucky owner of a nice, large recording room, you can use Devine Aco Studio panels to tailor the room acoustics to each session. One production calls for a lively acoustic, another needs more control. These panels are easy to mount and take down again, so you’ll have the ideal sound in your space in no time.

Which Devine Aco panels should I choose for my podcast studio or meeting room?

Do you struggle to understand your colleagues in meetings because the room is too reverberant? Devine Aco absorbers can create an oasis of calm in your meeting room. To improve speech intelligibility, you don’t need full-range 150 mm panels. The 70 mm Devine Aco Studio Panels and 70 mm Studio Squares are thick enough to absorb the highs and mids that matter most for understanding speech. That also makes these panels an excellent choice for podcast studios.

Installing the panels (above) and the suspended Cloud panels (below) is easy:

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