Yamaha HS7/8, placement, treatment

balfrob

New member
Hi Everyone!

I play in a rock band and ever since I started to play music I am always the one recording the demos and then mixing them for years now, so the whole mixing thing somehow grew to me and I got really into the topic.
I never had the chance to mix on proper speakers, I was always using multiple references to get it approx. done, but I was never fully satisfied. I decided to take the next step and get some entry level monitors.

Let me tell you a bit about the room where I would do the mixing. It is basically my living room, where I have a couch, two armchairs a desk with a PC and another one with my TV, but the walls are empty so I have quite some space for Acoustic Treatment.
The size is L: 18' 4'' W: 17' H: 10' 2''

I am thinking between the Yamaha HS7 and HS8. Budget wise, if I really wanted to push it I could go for the HS8, but I would rather get the HS7 and spend the difference on Acoustic Treatment. What makes me a bit uncertain is, that I have read in several threads, that the difference in the low frequencies is quite big. Some say they have no issues getting the lows right on HS7 some say they need a sub for them. Unfortunately where I live, there is nowhere I could go and listen to them, so I would really need your advice on this one.

The other topic is Acoustic Treatment. I was planning to do some DIY Bass Traps using rock wool. I was thinking of building one for all vertical corners and 3 for the upper horizontal ones (I am not able to cover all 4 up there as I have windows on that side). I do not have much experience with this, so excuse me for the possibly silly questions, but do I have to build the traps to cover the whole length of the horizontal upper corners or is it enough to place them on certain spots? Same question goes for the vertical ones.
What would you recommend to place on the walls and which spots as a DIY solution? I suppose the cheap foam pyramid panels would do much?

The third topic is the speaker placement. I tried to calculate some realistic positioning, that would not interfere with our everyday life :D but I am not sure if this is a good placement.
The speakers would be on speaker stands next to the two sides of my TV desk. The TV would serve as the screen to which I connect my PC. The speakers would be 1'4'' from the rear wall, 6'2'' from the side walls and approx. 6'6'' from each other. Could this set up work in this room? I have attached the layout and my plan as a picture, green dot is my position, red is speakers.

I really appreciate any help and advice you can give me.

Thank you!

Rob

---------- Update ----------

It did not attach my picture so please find it hereplan.png
 
Are you planning to move to that green dot to listen? Even the larger monitors are fairly directional and "near field" for real monitoring tasks, so, e.g., sitting on that couch would be too far away and at either desk completely off axis.

So, I guess my first question is whether the speakers are meant to serve "double duty" as a/v speakers for the TV's recreational use, or how you can use the TV screen as a computer monitor where it is currently located? I.e., why aren't you placing the desk and monitor speakers centrally on a wall so your workstation is between the speakers? This setup seems to be prioritizing TV watching over mixing...
 
I would treat the room for mixing and worry less about the tracking. If you treat the room for mixing, for tracking the room will be pretty dead. Which is OK, you just add room to the mix.

With that thought, I go back and suggest, after treating the room for good mixing room, DI the Yamaha, track with cans and not record everyone at once. Rehearse the song or get a scratch track, but then come back and singe track each other for the final mixing.

For those of us in the HR world, we don't get to have a great tracking room and a great mixing room. For me, treat the room for the most stringent requirement, mixing. Then work around that. I would even go further in saying, you can find anywhere to track (if you get the right sound coming in, then it is the right sound). But mixing rooms are more stringent than a tracking room. I wouldn't try and tackle both.

Then treat your room for one purpose, mixing and everything centers around that.
 
Are you planning to move to that green dot to listen? Even the larger monitors are fairly directional and "near field" for real monitoring tasks, so, e.g., sitting on that couch would be too far away and at either desk completely off axis.

So, I guess my first question is whether the speakers are meant to serve "double duty" as a/v speakers for the TV's recreational use, or how you can use the TV screen as a computer monitor where it is currently located? I.e., why aren't you placing the desk and monitor speakers centrally on a wall so your workstation is between the speakers? This setup seems to be prioritizing TV watching over mixing...

I am with Keith here, seems to be a "Jack of all trades, master of none" decision? I you want something really accurate for "proper" monitoring Rob I think you need to look rather further up the speaker foodchain than the Yamahas IMHO. I would say the HS7s are in the same league as lots of other "decent but no no cigar speakers". For accurate mixing you need to be looking at PMC, Adam, Genelec, Neumann all of which are of course more money!

The GOOD news is that your room is probably pretty well "damped" already and you might just need to look at "reflection points" to sharpen up the stereo image. As ever I shall say look at Sound on Sound website and their "Studio SoS articles.

Dave.
 
Thanks for all the quick replies!

I would be using this room for mixing only no tracking, as well as the speakers would be only for mixing, no recreational purpose, for that I have another set. The green dot indicates where I would sit when working on the mix and the TV would serve as a screen with a long HDMI cable and I have a small movable desk, which can be easily put in position, when mixing, for mouse, keyboard, etc... The red squares indicate where I would like to place the speakers. Is this positioning bad from the room acoustic perspective?

The tracking room would be down in the basement, but that is a different project for now.

I have read a lot of good things on the Yamaha HS and I know they are no high end prop equipment I thought they could still get the job done. I did a lot of online research and this is how I ended up at them. Is there anything else you would suggest?

Thanks!

Rob
 
Bass traps are your first priority since this is the most intrusive for the room. Second is then treat for reflection. Where your highs are going to hit from the speaker, and exaggerate those. High end sound treatment is easier to treat than low end. Get your bass traps set and then, depending where you are going to mix, start looking at your first reflection points.

If your speakers are at the red dots, your ears at the green, first point would behind the couch. You could try a tapestry to start knocking down the high ends. Many of us like Rockwool. Flame resistant, does really good at sound absorption and is relatively inexpensive for DYI. BUT, since this is your living room, you may have to cover your rockwool with more pleasing material.

But that would get you started and then as you begin to tune your room, you would be adding to improving the sound without having to throw anything or redoing anything. That is my suggestion at the approach. As you get deeper into it, there are lots of guys here who can really get to the fine tuning. What I stated is just a foundation to start, not the final end results.
 
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