Monitor placement for my room?

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devilsgirth

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Im recording and mixing in my spare bedroom which is about 9 feet by 13.5 - 14 feet. I attached a rough drawing of the rooms shape, basically my desk is an L-shape in the right corner of the room, in front of a window on the top wall (forgot to label that). The room is a bit oddly shaped so Im not sure where to place my monitors, I've heard that ideally they should be symmetrical in the room. I'm hoping I can place them somewhere on my desk, maybe in the middle of the L so they face diagonally across the room. Any suggestions would be much appreciated
 

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Do you have any acoustic treatment? Desk in the corner with monitors in the corners is NOT good.
In a room that small, you're not going to get good sound easily. Put a regular (rectangle) desk along the wall with the nook (where the desk is now). Bass traps in corners and behind the desk( front wall).
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Hey thanks for the reply, I don't have any acoustic treatment as of yet, I wanted to know exactly where to put my monitors then I assume that would determine where the reflections are. Once I get my monitors positioned I plan on treating my room with sound absorption and bass traps. Yeah I will still probably keep my L shape desk but I can move that to the position you drew, I just have to move the bed back to make room. What is it about small rooms that makes a good sound hard to achieve? Hopefully it's not impossible for me to get a decent sound.
 
I was wondering if you would advise me putting my desk on the opposite short wall, facing the door and closet? That way I can open the closet and get more space between the walls and my monitors from the dips in the walls otherwise I have to move my desk further into the middle of the room to give the monitors space if its facing the window side. Would this be ok?
 
Small rooms = early reflections = not good for mixing.

Yes you could put the desk out from the wall with the door and closet (how are you going to move around it?), but treating the corners (door and closet) will be more challenging - having to move the traps into position every time you mix, for example. And you will need to completely treat the wall behind you (the one with the nook) as it will then be only about 9 ft behind the monitors.
 
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Great thanks for the help man. The basement here is my only other option really, but I would have no clue about how to do the basement because there's so much storage, the walls aren't finished, it's just plastic covering insulation everywhere…etc, and the stairs are in the middle of it, it's about a 30 foot room by 35 feet. The ceiling is just wood, with wood beams and exposed ventilation systems and pipes.
 
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Much better space to use. Can you get rid of or move the pool table?

The red blocks below are bass traps, the one on the long wall would be placed at point of first reflection from your listening spot in front of the desk. With then opening to the other side, you might need to put a bass trap on the stair wall, angled.

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Ok, very cool Mjb, thank you again for your input its really helping me out. So the first picture here is looking back down the space that would be behind the monitor setup you described, and the second picture is showing that nook where I'd set up my desk. By the way all that junk lying around can be mostly cleaned up and either thrown out or stored somewhere else in the basement, behind the stairs or something. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to move the pool table. The distance from the back short wall to the pool table is about 8 feet, 8 inches, not sure if thats an issue? Could I cover it with thick blankets instead or something? Also my basement is a bit noisy to record in, with the furnace and all, so I would still just be recording in my spare bedroom, is there any problem you guys can think of having the recording space in a totally different spot from the mixing space? I still have headphones I can use to record upstairs, and worst case scenario I can move my monitors upstairs to record, right?

So you only recommend base traps huh, what about the ceiling? Should I put some sound absorption right above me?
 
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Yes, a ceiling 'cloud' of absorbent insulation, for sure. I think your dimension maybe off, from the pictures the length of that room is not 30 ft, probably closer to 24 feet and it looks like the 'sofa and tv' in your drawing are not used (judging by all the clutter) - why not move the pool table down to that end, and move the sofa and table to the middle of the room, general area where the pool table is now?
As for noise when recording, when you know you are going to be recording, crank the heat up in the house a few degrees ahead of time, then shut it off while recording. The hassle of recording in another remote room is moving computer, headphones, canbles, monitors, etc etc.
Hang some inexpensive cloth over all the plastic-covered insulated walls (could be the same stuff you use to cover your bass traps).

First step is to get rid of all the crap in the basement! I thought my basement was bad!
 
The only other problem with recording in the basement is that Im currently with my folks going to school, and you can hear footsteps very easily above down there. Even the cats nails on the linoleum can be heard if its really quiet, so its not ideal for recording in unless I wanted to try and sound proof the roof, which just gets to be more expensive and complicated for me. I don't really mind going back and forth between the two rooms, I have two interfaces so I can have one in each room. Can I just keep my monitors in the basement and use headphones for recording upstairs? I have grados sr 125 headphones and sennheiser hd 280 pro closed back.
 
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Yes, but that upstairs room with its bizarre shape will give recording issues too unless you put a lot of bass traps in it.
You'll never 'soundproof' the basement, but you can isolate it somewhat by putting a ceiling cloud (2" acoustic insulation woudl be good) over as much of the ceiling as you can, then clip the cat's nails and record when no one else is in the house (or tell them to stay put!) That's what I have to do as my recording rooms are in the first floor of the house.
 
Ok sounds good. Should I be sure to cover up the metal vent ducts on the ceiling? Those seem like they would reflect a lot. As For recording vocals and acoustic guitar, where would be the best spot in my basement then? I've heard its good to record at 1/3 of the room, so would that be ok? Just facing back down to where the TV is at 1/3? Also thinking about getting panels on stands that sit around whoever is being recorded although not sure if thats necessary.
 
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A large ceiling cloud should take care of any ceiling reflections, including those vents - or you can wrap them all in fiberglass (the pink stuff) - this will help block a little of the sound transmission from them (upstairs to the basement, not vice-versa).
If you make your corner bass traps 2'x4' and leave them stacked or hung, you can move them around as gobos to experiment with when recording. If you trap and treat the room well enough, you won't have to worry about it as much.
 
Sorry to revive this thread there's just one question that has been bugging me. Won't the lack of symmetry in my basement be a problem if I go that route? I keep hearing how important symmetry is.
 
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