How much does a talker's distance to the wall behind them matter compared to the wall behind the mic? Which wall should you treat first?
ASKED BY · Paul Walhus · AUSTIN, TEXAS · 19 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:30:03
Treat the wall behind the talker first—it's further away with more delay and louder reflections; break up parallel walls to kill standing waves; if visible in shot, prioritize the closer wall behind the mic for shorter decay.
Body provides natural absorption between talker and back wall; diffusion behind is better than absorption to avoid dispersion; treat both walls to control the entire space.
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29:39anything related to audio and video and streaming and all that sort of stuff. All right, Courtney, what do we got next? Another one from Paul Valhus in Austin, Texas. He says, How much does a talker's distance to the wall behind them matter compared to the wall behind the mic? Which side would you treat first? Go ahead, Courtney. Well, it depends on whether you're at the bottom of the pool or in a room.
30:03So if you're in a room, sound travels much faster through water than it does through air. Remember, sound travels is about 1,100 feet per second. So the furthest away wall, I would say treat first, which is the one behind you. Because for two reasons. One is it's further away and it's going to have more delay bouncing back into the microphone. And since it's facing the pattern of the microphone where you are, it's facing the same direction you are,
30:31it's going to have its echo is going to be louder than the sound reflecting off the wall behind the microphone, assuming you have a directional microphone like a cardioid, something that rejects sound from behind it. And the main thing you want to do is break up at least one of the walls. if you don't want to put sound-absorbing material on the wall behind you
30:51because it's in the shot, for example, at least cover up any parallel walls to that wall to kill the standing waves because standing waves will accentuate or elongate the delay time over a much longer period of time as the sound bounces back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. So you want to break up at least one of those walls to kill the standing waves.
31:17But I'd say if you're not worried about how it looks, put heavy dampening on the wall furthest behind you and then dampen the wall that is behind the microphone or in front of you, especially if it's much closer to you. It'll have a much shorter decay tone. And Guy? Or sorry, Guy, John. Yeah, I'm opposite of that school's thought. I think your body is typically between you and the wall behind you.
31:46so you have some natural absorption going on and killing those early reflections, I think probably has some additional benefit of just not letting it disperse around the room and maybe have some diffusion behind you so you can make sure those waves are not hitting your microphone. But I think either way, you should be treating both sides of the room and doing your best to control the space that you live in
32:08that you want to produce media shows from. Thanks. All right, let's move to the next question, Courtney. Next one comes in from Jerry Hoyle in Wesley Chapel, North Carolina. What's everyone paying for AI plans? Yes, I stole this question from Guy. Guy. Yeah, so this one didn't get answered yesterday. I was just curious because I was about to give up grokbots, but then Craig showed some cool stuff with MCP yesterday in the AI water cooler,
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