Acoustic foam Good or Bad???

Just moved and I now have two wonderful rooms to record in but way too much echo. I do a lot of violin and viola recording. The mids of the viola are out of control. The rooms have hard wood floors. Aside from carpet with a big pad on the floor where do you think I should spend my money??? Acoustic foam, some kind of panel, or should I just hang carpet on the wall. Has anyone checked out the solserene ceiling thing? As always any help is greatly appreciated.

Ethan's last name is "Winter". He's a resident acoustic expert, though he favors the "top shelf" products and techniques. The information on his web site is pretty much mandatory if you're setting a room up though, the guy knows his stuff.

Ethan's site

With a hardwood floor I'd say go for the "live" feel. You'll still have do some treatment: corner traps and some strategically hung foam/absorbers. This can be done for quite cheap if you're willing to wage a compromising battle (I am, so do a lot of folks). An alternative is to hang some sound blankets and make a smaller "tent within a room" enclosure. For something like violin it might be too much, but I've had great success with it for voiceover work and certain instruments.

Keep us updated, I love the threads that let us into a process from ground zero.

I had to put Auralex monitor pads under my actives, they were making a muddy boom from under my studio desk. Made all the difference after I put them in.

a lot of 'knowledge' out there about audio is skewed. For instance, most microphones are optimized for male vocal reproduction. it is anidea that goes back to radio broadcast, but has stuck as a benchmark. Ditto for acoustics. Most acoustic products are evaluated in terms of their efficacy in increasing intelligibility of the spoken word. Only recently have more music oriented products come out. And of course most recorded music these days is either electronic or rock in focus. So you need to ake that inot account. That all said I am pretty old fashinioned about acoustic treatment. I just try to elminate ringing in a room but keep it relatively live. The "name brand" stuff is really over rated. I have a bunch of panels I made with perfboard and various thicknesses of Markertek studio foam. I usually mount them about 3-6 inches off a wall. MAybe 32-64 swuare feet of treatment for a medium sized room. In my home studio I just have foam directly behind the monitor position to eliminate flutter echo and cloth on the grazing surfaces that cause too much bounce from the monitors.

ORIGINAL: Sid Viscous
You left out the words "self proclaimed".

If you were referring to Ethan, I guess that the plethora of forums where his name, company & products have been lauded just passed you by, eh Sid ?