Monitor and acoustics advice needed for a funny shaped room

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First, I need to invest in some monitors finally, as I have been doing all my work previously on headphones or computer speakers. My budget for monitors is somewhere around $400-500 for the pair. So far in browsing online the Yamaha HS50M, Mackie MR8mk2, KRK Rokit Powered 8 Generation 2, and the JBL LSR 2325P speakers have caught my attention. I plan on going to Guitar Center tomorrow to see if I can listen to some of them, but I am not sure what I should be listening for really. Also, I am wondering if for a small bedroom studio whether or not it is a good idea to get 8in monitors or if they would be too over powering for the small space.

Along with the new monitors comes the issue of placement. While I know that I should get them centered in my room and set up properly in a triangle shape with my listening position my issue is that my dorm room is a very funny shape. It is essentially a long rectangle, however, the front is made up of two angled walls that come to a point with one that is a steeper angle than the other. Essentially it is kinda like one of the corners was chopped off. For better or for worse, the only place I can conveniently position my desk and everything is on that chopped off angle wall. This may have a small advantage in that behind me is closets and corners at kinda a 45 degree angle that I assume should do a great job of diffusion, but my left monitor will be close to a corner (something like a 100 degree angle) and my right monitor will be near the point of the room (something like a 150 degree angle) How will the monitors react to those kind of funny angles and room placement? Will this be manageable, or do I really need to find a better place for the desk? Would being centered in the point be a huge advantage?

In addition to monitors I am also thinking about investing in some acoustic treatment of some sort. If possible, I would like to set them up in a somewhat modular way so I could take them off walls and use them around a mic to help with vocals. Currently I am leaning towards 2ftx2ft 4in thick Auralex foam tiles that I could move around pretty easily. I have also been looking at the 2in thick panels, but I am hoping that the thicker will reduce the need for bass traps a bit and will be more useful for the vocal recording application. When it comes to the 2in variety, I am also confused about the different shapes of the foam and how the tiles with a four ramp design compare to the tiles that have like 12 spikes. The alternative I am curious about is whether I should put together some panels myself with some ridged fiberglass Corning 703-type material. I have read that this can do more across a wider range of frequencies, but I am slightly concerned about how to mount heavier panels in a dorm room that I can't alter much and they would also be more difficult to move around. But if the benefit to the sound for mixing and for vocals would be greatly improved then I might be willing to mess around with that more. I also wonder am I crazy for trying to improve such a funny shaped dorm room? And would any of those options help vocal tracking? And how would that compare to something like a SE Reflection filter?

Thanks so much,
 
A lot of people will say acoustic treatment is more important than monitors, but you do also need a pair of monitors, right? So yeah, start off with a decent pair of active monitors, or even a passive setup, then do what acoustic treatment is necessary after that. I have KRK RP8G2, I've been thinking about upgrading, to for instance ADAM A7X, which I listened to today, but honestly, after having auditioned them, the price difference was not worth it to me, not at this time. I will do fine for a while more with what I got. I think starting off, you'd be happy with either KRK RP8G2, Yamaha HS80. I don't know anything about the JBLs there, but I know many praise JBL speakers. Another brand to check out is Dynaudio.

You might be just fine with 6" monitors, I know the A7X I auditioned, which is 7", would be fine for a small to medium-sized room.

As for treatment, I suggest you use this method: http://www.basstraps.net/DIY-BASS-TRAPS-MADE-EASY.pdf - it's not only the cheapest way to do it, but effectiveness is way better than any auralex foam product you can buy. Start off by making some 15cm thick traps for the four wall corners of your room, then make another 4 at 10cm, 2 for your rear wall, and one on each side wall. Do a bit of research where first reflection spots are, so you place them correctly.
The corner traps you could just push up against the corners in some way, wouldn't really need to be fastened in any permanent way. As for wall traps and ceiling, you'd just use some kind of hook/chain solution. If you build them the way showed in the .pdf they are lightweight.

To get optimum results you'll probably need a bit more trapping, but that is a really good start. A couple of traps, often called cloud, above your console/listening position is also common. Many place diffusers on the rear wall. And also you can trap wall-ceiling corners. Maybe for you, an ideal solution would be a mix of DIY fiberglass traps and some auralex foam.

I think I'd need to see a picture or drawing to understand the layout of your room/shape.
 
Your going to want to stay away from the auralex for actual full treatment. It targets the high end and pretty nothing else, you can use it to make something similar to Primacoustic VoxGuard Microphone Isolation Panel: Shop Accessories & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend to cut down on reflections, since you'll be recording in a less than ideal environment. The Auralex products work pretty well on cutting down on reflections but in no way compare to making or buying real paneling or bass traps.

My advice would be to make the panels as kingsmen suggested^^^ and then hang them like picture frames, use some very low density wood if possible, and that will keep them light enough to hang and move around whenever you and where ever you need them.

Monitors, try them out for yourself if possible. You want a flat response, if you go to guitar center ask them for the response/frequency graph for whatever your looking at (or look online ;)). Your just after something that can accurately reproduce the sound. I'm a big fan of Yamaha's myself saving some money to get the HS80's.

I really can't visualize the room sorry lol :p, if you could throw up a quick sketch or draw it in paint or something that would be great!. But keep this in mind and see if you can make it work somehow. You want your monitoring area to be equidistant from the side walls, and ideally with some distance between the monitors and the side walls. You also, again ideally, want your monitors to be away 2+ feet or so from the wall that your facing. Obviously with a dorm sized room this may not be possible.
 
So I just picked up some yamaha hs50m monitors from guitar center yesterday. My initial impression was that they sounded nice and flat. However, once I got home, set them up, and started working on some stuff, I found that they didn't have the bass that I expected making it very hard to hear some of my sub-basses and super low synth drum hits (if I didn't already mention I'm working on some electronic music in addition to a variety of rock) I'm afraid that all my mixes will come out very muddy because I will be turning up the bass to much when working on these speakers.

My question is, are the yamaha's lacking bass? or given that what I am used to is a set of Bose computer speakers with a sub, am I just being scared by a flatter sound? Do you think I would be better off maybe trying to get more bass-y monitors, or should I just occasionally check on the Bose to see how the low end is doing?

Thanks a lot for all your other feedback and help (putting the acoustic concerns on hold for a bit while I try to get used to the monitors)
 
You'll hear more bass, more defined, once you've treated your room. That said, I haven't heard 50m.
 
Wish you would have said that earlier. 5inch speakers aren't going to be able to recreate sounds at the low frequencies your going to find in that kind of music. It's just not going to happen.

You can either return them and get something with atleast an 8 inch speaker or spot check on the Bose speakers/other systems.

Treatment of the room will help slightly but you have a speaker diaphragm that can't generate those sub frequencies.
 
I have the yamaha hs50's. I just occasionally switch to headphones just to get an idea of the bass. Man, I feel like a broken record saying this all the time.
 
I put up some bass traps and that helped a lot, I'll probably use my bose to check the sub bass. It's not that big of a deal I can hear everything else great, probably shouldnt matter at all for rock. Thanks
 
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