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I'll be glad to give you my opinion, but it would help a lot to see a floor plan! With only the photos you posted, it's impossible to say for sure where is best. --Ethan

It's even worse than that. Just this month in Mix magazine, their technical editor wrote an article saying that room treatment is the last thing home studio owners should worry about, after they've bought replacement AC power cords and other "power" products. Not just putting acoustic treatment...

Assuming competent condenser microphones, where you place the mics will affect the sound quality far more than what model mics you use. --Ethan

This is the most common problem home studio owners face, and it's always due to a lack of bass traps. The root problem is one or more deep nulls - you hear less bass and so add too much in the mix to compensate. This will help: Acoustic Basics --Ethan

Words of wisdom for sure. --Ethan

I've been very happy with my Focusrite USB converters, and you won't go wrong with any of their models. I'm sure others will have their own success stories. These days they all sound excellent, so you'll choose based on features and price. --Ethan

Bingo. When a mix is small sounding it rarely has anything to do with the gear used. Width is achieved by panning, stereo mic'ing, use of reverb (and ambience and echo) type plug-ins, and stereo "widener" effects that use phase shift to steer sounds outside the confines of the left and right...

The basics are: * As many corner bass traps as you can manage, including wall-ceiling and wall-floor corners. * Absorbers at the side-wall and ceiling early reflection points. * Absorbers or diffusers on the rear wall behind you. Do that and your small room can be fine. More elaboration...

Are you asking if two-inch thick foam is useful? The answer is probably. :D High quality acoustic foam (not the cheap junk) is effective. But most foam is sculpted which removes half the mass. So two-inch thick foam is about equal to rigid fiberglass only one inch thick. --Ethan

This is a great point. It kills me when a magazine reviewer, trying to be skeptical but fair, says "unless you have a really great system, the difference is probably not worth it." No, there's no difference at all. Not even a little! --Ethan

One room or two rooms doesn't affect bleed between instruments recorded at the same time. I prefer one room for most home studios for many reasons, not the least is you don't have to keep running back and forth between rooms to set levels. If your main concern is mixing, I'd set up the speakers...

These short articles answer exactly the questions you asked: How to set up a room Acoustic Basics Note that absorption used for voice frequencies is not adequate for music. So you'll need to beef up the existing wall padding with real bass traps. --Ethan

I could spend three hours on this and still not hit all the points that matter. So let's back up a bit: What is the studio used for? To record yourself only? You and friends only? To hire out as a commercial space? And what do you plan to record? Pop music only? Classical music? The answers...

This is very common, and the usual cause is one or more deep nulls due to reflections coming back from the wall behind you. The solution is bass traps, though other acoustic treatments will help further: Acoustic Basics --Ethan

Yes! Acoustic instruments send different frequencies in different directions, so two microphones pick up different signals even outdoors or in an anechoic chamber. Also, large acoustic instruments such as grand pianos have such a large radiating surface that the source is inherently stereo. --Ethan

Kip has the right answer. Balanced connections are better than unbalanced, but expensive wires do not sound better than cheap wires unless something is broken. Expensive wires might be more reliable and last longer when flexed etc, but even that is not a given. In the hi-fi world of extremely...

Exactly. This too. --Ethan

Indeed! That too. --Ethan

For what purpose? As others told you, analyzers are not useful for mixing. But besides helping you to adjust your speakers and room acoustics, they're a great tool for learning about audio and also musical instruments. --Ethan

Yeah, 9 to 12 inches is good for a close-mic'd sound. My main point, which maybe I didn't make clearly enough, is that acoustic instruments send different frequency ranges off in different directions. So when a mic is very close, it tends to pick up only part of the range. The sound might be...