Recent content by Ethan Winer

^^^ I agree with this. It's almost always best to have the speakers fire the longer way down the room. --Ethan

I agree with this advice. A large venue doesn't suffer from the severe peaks and nulls you get in a home-sized room. Nulls are especially damaging in most rooms. To the OP, start here, then follow up with any questions: Acoustic Basics --Ethan

Yes, though I read too much "and he may have invented..." speculation for my taste. The article was interesting for sure, and not doubt JM was a pioneer, but the article had way too much ass-kissing to take it very seriously. :D --Ethan

Anything higher than standard CD quality is pretty much a waste of storage space and bandwidth. There are some valid arguments for recording at 24 bits, mostly to allow for unexpected volume levels in a live concert setting. There's certainly no need for a sample rate higher than 44.1 or 48 KHz...

The front wall behind your speakers is the last place to worry about, though the side-wall reflection points are important to treat: Early Reflections Front Wall Absorption In all honesty, having shelves like that with cut-outs on your desk is not very good for audio. Can you remove that or...

I'm still reading this article, so I might have more to say tomorrow. So far it's very interesting, though I can't see how dynamic range could increase much more due to the laws of physics. We already have more than 1,000 dB of range with 32-bit audio, which is common. That can't ever be...

These two short articles explain what you need most: How To Set Up A Room Acoustic Basics --Ethan

I agree, ideally he'd get a mixer that has Direct outputs for each input channel. Though he could use one of the two Send outputs to feed his sound card, then follow the rest of the setup instructions in this article: Using a Mixer With a DAW --Ethan

Early reflections are a mid/high frequency issue, so two inches thick is sufficient. But thicker is always useful when the cost and space aren't an issue. Thicker panels add that much more bass trapping to the room. --Ethan

Exactly, and this is an important distinction! The great thing about bass traps is they reduce peaks while raising nulls - exactly what you want. For the OP, this explains the basic in plain English: Acoustic Basics --Ethan

Maybe your sound card's buffer is simply too small? As we explained in your other thread, there's no benefit to recording at simple rates higher than 48 KHz. --Ethan

Exactly. And few speakers play back ultrasonics either. Good point, though as you said this is a very special case and certainly doesn't apply to "normal" recording. Even if you have a million dollar studio. I'll further argue that capturing ultrasonic content we can't hear is not only not...

There's no reason to use any sample rate other than 44.1 KHz for music, or 48 KHz for video projects where 48 is the standard. Anything higher than these sample rates just wastes hard disk space and lowers your track count, with zero audible benefit. --Ethan

No.

The only way to do this correctly is to measure your room's low frequency response as you adjust the levels. Trying to adjust subwoofer levels and placement by ear is doomed to fail because whatever music you play will interact in a unique way with the peaks and nulls in your room. A song in the...