Audio recording is not just about gear and plugins, the room you use to record also plays a vital role in deciding how the sound is perceived. The most important tools that help you improve the sound are monitor isolation pads. These devices are useful because vibrations traveling through the surface or floor can affect the sound produced by monitors (and the sound captured by microphones).
They work by isolating the monitors from the rest of the room to create an acoustic arrangement that improves the sound.
In this article, I review the most popular product in this category, the Auralex Mopads. They are cost-effective, simple monitor isolation pads meant to be placed under the monitors to isolate them from the surface. Let us take a closer look at this product and try to understand how they help.
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Auralex Mopad Review
Auralex Mopads are monitor isolation pads constructed using foam and work by isolating and decoupling the monitors from the surface when placed under them. They work much better than normal foam because they are specifically made to handle this task and made out of thicker, denser foam.
The Auralex Mopads come as a pack of 4 foam pieces, each measuring 10cm width and 30cm height. You can use them by coupling two together and placing them in such a way as to fit the monitors or to suit the position preferences.
They fit the front of the speakers and keep them from slipping off. You also get four foam sheets included in the package. They are somewhat thinner and allow the Mopads to get some height adjustment as well as front/back tilt. By placing these foam wedges under the speakers resting on a desk, you can effectively raise them and isolate from the surface.
When you use Auralex Mopads, the sound stops passing onto the surface which means you no longer feel the bass through your hands. The isolation prevents bass notes from getting transmitted through the desktop and into the floor. This implies that you can play cleaner and louder. The Mopads not only lower the bass but also tighten up the transients.
Auralex Mopads are affordable and very good value for money. No other piece of gear offers such improvement for so little money, to be honest. While other music gear provides subjective results, Mopads actually make a difference. You can get better sound quality out of your monitors.
Monitor Isolation Pads – What You Need To Know
Monitor isolation pads are designed to rest between the monitors and the surface on which they are kept. This is important to achieve good vibrations as well as decoupling. When a speaker vibrates, it not just vibrates the air around but also the surface that it comes in contact with.
If the studio monitors are placed on a huge table, shelf, desk or stand, the sound gets affected. You can feel the effect in terms of bass frequencies. As the surface starts resonating with the speakers, low frequencies get less defined.
Isolation pads isolate the monitors from the other stuff as much as possible to be able to eliminate sound transmission and get clear, defined low-end frequencies.
Monitor isolation pads also help by decoupling. They float the monitors thereby decoupling them acoustically from the rest of the studio. This results in a considerable improvement in the bass response of the studio monitors. You start getting tighter bass and deeper sound out of your monitors.
Auralex Mopad Yamaha HS8
You can find Auralex Mopad isolation pads great for Yamaha HS8 studio monitors. This monitor isolation pad is a great choice for home studios as it offers huge returns in terms of audio quality and is affordably priced.
It provides superb absorption that you don’t require any decoupling by any other means. Mopads can support up to 100 pounds of monitor weights. This device separates your loudspeakers from the object or surface they are placed on.
Such isolation delivers an improved accuracy of monitors by making the acoustic environment aligned in a way that the monitors intend. You can notice improvements in the mid-range frequencies and bass.
Decoupling achieved with the help of Auralex Mopad helps make the low end sound tighter. This is not so easy to achieve with acoustic treatment. It is quite interesting that it can be done so affordably with this device.
Auralex Mopad Vs Isoacoustics
Both Auralex Mopad and Isoacoustics are monitor isolation pads that decouple the monitors and desks to isolate them. Mopads are foam pads that offer you foam wedges to let you get a flat surface or a 4-8 degrees tilt.
You can turn these wedges over or around to achieve the tilt to direct them towards you from the height. They are a one-size-fits-all solution for monitor isolation. Isoacoustics stands, on the other hand, work by improving the accuracy of the monitor and provide a tighter bass response.
The stand features absorption pads at the bottom to isolate the stand from the monitor and from the desk.
While Auralex Mopads require adjusting height, Isoacoustics solve this problem by offering an ability to tilt by 6.5 degrees with inserts.
You can switch between long and short poles to achieve two main heights and 14 variations of tilt and height. It allows increasing the height of the monitors to about 9 inches from the surface.
Foam pads tend to lean heavily in the direction of absorption while isolation stands offer a nice stabilization. Isolation stands feature poles that are filled with specific material to absorb vibrations.
Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
