Acoustical Engineering & Consulting in Austin
Sotto engineers the acoustics of halls, studios, offices, and venues — measured precisely, modeled honestly, and tuned until the room does what it promised.
Silence Is Designed. So Is Applause.
Every room is an instrument — most were just never tuned. We measure what a space actually does to sound, model what it could do, and specify the geometry and materials that close the gap. The result is a hall that flatters music, an office that lets people think, and a venue the neighbors don't hear.
- ✓Measurement first — opinion never leads
- ✓Models accurate to a decibel of the built result
- ✓Materials specified for acoustics and architecture
- ✓Tuning verified in the finished room
Every Problem Sound Can Cause
From a hall that must be perfect to a compressor that must be quiet — measured, modeled, solved.
Rooms That Sound Like They Look
Six hundred twenty rooms tuned across Texas — halls, studios, offices, and stages.
Why Our Rooms Work
Measure Before Believing
Every project starts with instruments, not impressions. The data decides what the room needs.
Acoustics Serve the Architecture
Treatment that fights the design gets removed in year two. Ours disappears into it — and stays.
Verify in the Built Room
The model isn't done until the finished room measures within a decibel of it. Then it's tuned.
Keep the Music. Keep the Neighbors.
Austin's venues live or die on the noise question. We measure honestly, design the walls, lids, and speaker aim that hold the line, and put numbers on the table both sides can sign. Forty venues are still pouring drinks because the acoustics were engineered instead of argued.
- ✓Baseline measurements before the complaint
- ✓Mitigation designed to the property line
- ✓Entitlement and hearing support with real data
- ✓Monitoring plans that keep everyone honest
Listen. Model. Specify. Tune.
Listen & Measure
Calibrated measurements of the room or site — reverberation, isolation, background, all of it.
Model
The space rebuilt digitally, accurate enough to audition design options before they're built.
Specify
Geometry, materials, and details documented for your architect and contractor to build exactly.
Tune & Verify
The finished room measured against the model and adjusted until it performs as promised.
Every Engagement Gets
Calibrated Measurement
Type-1 instrumentation and documented method — data that survives scrutiny.
Honest Modeling
Predictions we're accountable to — our rooms measure within a decibel of the model.
Hearing-Ready Reports
Findings written for councils, boards, and neighbors — clear enough to end arguments.
Buildable Specifications
Details your contractor can price and build — acoustics that survive value engineering.
What the Rooms Say
Our new hall opened to a review that praised the 'astonishing clarity from every seat.' That sentence is Sotto's work. The acoustics were designed, tested, and tuned — nothing about it was luck.
The neighbors filed noise complaints before we even opened. Sotto measured, redesigned our stage wall and patio speakers, and brokered limits everyone signed. Two years open, zero complaints.
Our office was beautiful and unusable — you heard every call from thirty feet. Sotto's retrofit was surgical: baffles, soft corners, one wall. Now it hums instead of clattering. Worth every panel.
Asked Before the First Measurement
Our restaurant is too loud. Is that fixable?
Almost always, and usually without closing. Measured treatment — ceilings, corners, soft surfaces in the right places — typically cuts the roar dramatically while keeping the buzz guests like.
When should acoustics join a new building project?
Schematic design, before room shapes freeze. Geometry is free to fix on paper and brutal to fix in drywall — early acoustics is the cheapest good sound ever gets.
What does an acoustical consultation cost?
Single-room assessments start modestly; full building design scales with scope. Every proposal is fixed-fee and itemized — measurement, modeling, and specification priced separately.
Can you help with a noise complaint we've received?
Yes — quickly. We measure the actual levels, compare them to the applicable limits, and design mitigation if it's needed. Real data resolves most disputes faster than lawyers do.
Do you design recording studios?
Lovingly — isolation, room modes, and monitoring environments engineered to translate. Austin makes records; we make the rooms they're made in.
Our condo hears the bar downstairs. Whose problem is it?
Measurably answerable. We test the existing isolation, identify the paths, and design the fix — and the measurement report establishes exactly what's crossing the assembly, which tends to focus everyone.
Rooms Don't Tune Themselves.
Send the space and the goal — an acoustician replies within a business day with the path to a room that works.