Placing my monitors...

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thajeremy

thajeremy

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I am expecting my new Wharfedale Diamond Pro 8.2's to be here any day now and I'm starting to situate my mixing area to hold them. What im thinking about doing (depending on the response to this thread) is just going to radio shack or something and geting some speaker mounting brackets and mounting them to the sides of my desk....

yes?? no?? why??
 
That might be ok. Doesn't sound terribly sturdy though. Whatever you do, it's best to can to keep them as far away from the front and side walls as possible.

Thomas
 
Ok...that was gonna be my next question...(placement in refference to the walls. I have my choice of a 12' x 13' room or a 10' x 11' room that I will do my mixing in. Both have one window, dont know if that would matter. should i place my desk toward the center of the room? or halfway from the wall to the center? also...accoustic foam... does it go behind them as well as the sides and in front of them? I know these should probably go into seperate threads...but its too late now..its here...lol...
 
C'mon guys....no more advice????

I actually just got my monitors in and ready to put together a room to do all my mixing....i remixed one of the songs im currently working on as soon as the monitors got here and I cant believe the differance. This was definatley money well spent...(THANKS DEEPWATER!!!)
 
You gotta get over to Ethan Winer website & forums and start readin...John Sayer has some good stuff too and there's a forum here about acoustics or studio building as well.

Basically you just have to figure out how to determine where your speakers will perform best in your room at your optimal listening levels. How much early reflection, ambience, and bass trapping you want to add.

The monitors themselves will provide most of the 'coloration' for the mids, the room [of the sizes you're talking] will 'mostly' be responsible for the bass and the ambience/reflections.

There's a way to walk around your room, play tones or a familiar test CD or reference, and determine where the best balance for the speakers and listening position is. I didn't do that - I just went out and got ETF software to give me the data I needed to do that...even though the software is pretty good once you figure it out, oddly enough it has a DOS kind of feel to it. In this age of GUIs and stuff I expected an updated version - maybe one will come out.

So then - maybe the point is to get some reference CD's and play them on your new set up. Change your speaker position and listening position to where things sound the best, then do that again (moving everything) 5 or 6 times and you'll probably get it correct.

I think there's a clap test you can do for reflections, like I said I use ETF so I put foam up untill my RT60 dropped below 400ms - it didn't sound good under that but at the same time Ethan has some goon info about early reflections on his site somewhaere - I'd read that.

This is my 4th acoustic set up and although it's pretty good I still have some 'earlies' I gotta nail. My speakers are right up against the wall to get the smoothest bass response (Event ASP8s) and that kind of surprised me. If I had my way I'd probably be in a room with 30 foot ceilings and about 40x22, hehe next lifetime.

I'm in an attic room that has been remodeld, the house has a steep pitch on the roof so I think that some of the bass passed directly out the drywall into the attic instead of cloggin up the room with so many standing waves down in the bass region. If was downstairs or in the basement where there are more effective barriers and boundaries beyond the drywall then I might have more problems than my rigged up bass trapping could handle (couch & fibreglass).
 
Thanks for the info. Ill try to put that to use. I also ordered a copy of Bob Katz book...um..i think the name is "Audio Mastering: The Art and Science". It should be here by tuesday or so...to hold me over till then..i picked up a copy of "Make Music Now". It seems to focus on Putting your studio together and basic recording techniques. Im sure there will be some useful info there. Im also open to any other suggestions anyone else has...
 
There are different approaches to monitor placement.


No rights, yet with a few no nos.


You want a true and accurate sound, so don't keep them close to the walls to avoid reverberation.

I try to imitate a mix between a live concert and the natural human hearing tendancy. In other words, keep them angled maybe anywhere from 45-70 degrees from your ears to get good panning reference.
 
ive heard a few times that the monitors should be placed in an equilateral triangle. Which means the tweater should be as far apart from each other as they are from you. This creates a better phase response and allows the sound to be more accurate. It also give a better stereo image (pan) in my opinion. But sometimes this cant be achieved but its probably best to keep it close. Also, the speakers should be angled toward you (like the triangle) with the tweaters facing your ears (i like to have mine a little wider). Expirement where you like it. This gives you an acurate center instead of a phantom center, although the mix wont seem as wide.

Danny
 
Also, just wanted to add that the tweaters should face you also because they are so direct, anywhere off will confuse your high frequency hearing. If you are in short range, make sure your ears are parellel with the tweaters (highth wise). Some people like it right in the middle of the tweeters and the bass driver, just see what works best. If you have to put your speakers up high, try and angle it down so the tweaters are facing you. I do this with Aurelex Mopads.

Thats about all i can think of right now.

Danny
 
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