SE Electronics Ships Ghost Acoustic Products And Reflexion Filter

sE Electronics has announced that the Ghost Acoustics line of products and the Reflexion Filter are now shipping. new acoustic treatment product range.

Ghost Acoustics

The sE Electronics International group have launched a new brand of high quality, professional room treatments, Ghost Acoustics.

sE have built a reputation over the last 4 years for very high quality microphone products, manufactured in their state of the art facility in Shanghai. The company has long had ambitions to move into other areas of manufacturing with their own product brands and GHOST is the first of these. The sE group has a strategy of defining brand identity with discrete product groups, hence sE Electronics brand has only microphone related products, and this new brand has been created for acoustic treatment.

With the same philosophy of attention to detail, original in house (and not OEM) design, and producing exceptional quality products for only mid-market prices, the new acoustic treatment range addresses project studio, rehearsal, pro and consumer markets with its innovative, simple and highly effective designs.

At launch, the GHOST range will comprise 5 products in a choice of 2 colours, Charcoal Grey, and Light Grey. The central building block for the range is a 2'x2' absorber built around a steel inner frame. The construction is layers of highly compressed glass fibre (100Kg per cubic Metre), with layers of Aluminium foil which help 'break up' lower frequency wave forms. These layers are covered with a fully fire retardant fabric and the whole structure is bound with a brushed Aluminium frame, which both allows diffusion and looks great!

The products are all fully fire retardant, unlike the many foam based solutions on the market. Another huge advantage over foam products is that the GHOST absorbers will work much more efficiently to absorb low frequency information as well as HF.

The mounting system is also novel to this type of product, but incredibly simple. Each 'absorber' ships with a metal frame which screws onto the wall. This frame has a series of mounting-heads onto which the product can be easily hung.

Each 2'x2' 'absorber' has two tubes running through it which allow the product to be mounted quickly and easily on a solid steel base with Steel Rod attachments to form 'Gobo's' for recording guitar cabs, drums or vocals. Each stand can stack up to three 2'x2' traps, and they are designed so horizontal, angled walls can be built also. So, when tracking, you can remover the panels from your studio walls to use as Gobo's or to form a full height vocal booth. The same panels can then be re-mounted in seconds for mixing in a properly treated room.

Equally, the system is so portable that it can be transferred to rehearsal rooms to help with instrument separation. the possibilities become limitless. And because the product is fully fire retardant, it can be used in public buildings (unlike most foam products) like schools, churches, music colleges etc.

In addition to the standard 2'x2' product, GHOST are releasing a 2'x2' Wedge for side wall absorption/diffusion, a 2' x 4' flat panel for wall mounting behind the main monitors, the Gobo steel base and rod set, and a corner bass trap.

In summary: Fully fire retardant

Full range absorption

Easy to mount

Portable

Multiple applications (Wall treatment/Gobo/Vocal Booth/Instrument separation etc)

Very high build quality - brushed Aluminium finish

Great Looks

The final piece of the puzzle is price. A full room kit including corner bass traps, Gobo panels, wedges, flat panels and the Gobo base will retail at under €2000, only a fraction more than simple foam products.

sE Electronics 'Reflexion Filter' now shipping

What is the Reflexion Filter?

The Reflexion Filter is basically a portable device for recording live sources with reduced room ambience. It is an advanced composite wall which is positioned behind any microphone by means of a variable position stand clamp assembly which ships with the product. The main function is to help obtain a 'dry' vocal or instrument recording. This is especially useful in studios without proper acoustic treatment, but can also be used to help record takes in control rooms, where the performer also has to operate the recorder, or in rehearsal studios to reduce ambient noise.

The Technical Bit:

The Reflexion Filter has 6 main layers. Firstly, a strong layer of punched Aluminium which allows sound waves to pass through it, diffused, to a layer of absorptive wool. The waves then hit a layer of Aluminium foil which helps dissipate energy and break up the lower frequency wave-forms, and from here they hit an air space kept open by rods passing through the various layers. The air gap acts as an acoustic barrier. The sound waves then pass to a further layer of wool and then through an outer, punched, Aluminium wall which further serve to absorb then diffuse the remaining acoustic energy.

The main absorber has formed pieces of polyester fibreboard (patented) attached to it via the extended separation rods, which further serve to absorb and then diffuse sound waves as they pass to the main filter.

The stand assembly comprises a horizontal bar onto which both the Reflexion Filter, and any standard fitting shock mount can be fixed. Both the microphone (in its shock mount) and the Reflexion Filter can then be moved both vertically and horizontally along the bar to obtain the optimum working position.

How does it work?

The various layers both absorb and diffuse the sound waves hitting them, so progressively less of the original source acoustic energy passes through each layer. This reduces the amount of energy hitting untreated walls and other surfaces so there is less of the original source reflected back as unwanted room ambience to the mic. The Reflexion Filter also helps prevent any reflected sound reaching the back and sides of the mic. Its shape and size have been carefully tested to maximize absorption while keeping 'coloration' down to only around 1dB, and leaving the microphone's polar pattern unaffected.

In summary:

All in all, it's a very clever and desirable piece of kit. It allows you to record vocals, guitars etc with a 'drier' sound without having to have an acoustically treated room. It's portable. It uses state of the art materials.

The Reflexion Filter retails at £229 inc. vat.