Studio desk/monitor placement

[CDK]

Hi all,

Firstly, would someone mind having a look at the attached photos and advising me on speaker/desk placement? Should I be considering moving the desk to another part of the room to get the speakers away from the window?

Secondly, I’m looking into some acoustic foam & speaker isolation pads. Looking at my room, where would you suggest I would acoustic foam in this room?

Thanks
 

[PhonoBrainer]

How much is your foam budget?

I don't think the window is a deal breaker. Are those Venetian blinds? Any window covering to help diffuse any snapback from that window will do fine.

Does the sun set in that window. Is it westward facing? Mine is and I have to wear a hat to cut the afternoon glare as I look at the monitors in front of my windows.

You might get away with some small foam patches at the mirror points. The ceiling has a wider mirror point I that you might think!

 

Bass traps in the corners are also good.

 

Hope your neighbors are cool! I think the more live recording of guitar amps and vocals you plan on doing, the more foam yet gonna need to deaden the reflections.

 

Good luck and maybe share an after picture?

Cheers,

-Tom

Edited April 14, 2020 by emeraldsoul

[PhonoBrainer]

 

[scook]

Where's the lava lamp?

 

[craigb]

[craigb]

 

[CDK]

1 hour ago, emeraldsoul said:

How much is your foam budget?

I don't think the window is a deal breaker. Are those Venetian blinds? Any window covering to help diffuse any snapback from that window will do fine.

Does the sun set in that window. Is it westward facing? Mine is and I have to wear a hat to cut the afternoon glare as I look at the monitors in front of my windows.

You might get away with some small foam patches at the mirror points. The ceiling has a wider mirror point I that you might think!

 

Bass traps in the corners are also good.

 

Hope your neighbors are cool! I think the more live recording of guitar amps and vocals you plan on doing, the more foam yet gonna need to deaden the reflections.

 

Good luck and maybe share an after picture?

Cheers,

-Tom

Hey Tom,

Thanks for your reply. I haven't considered budget yet, just getting ideas on how to maximize the potential of the room.

Pretty sure this window faces east, as I get the sun in the morning. The shade (that's currently down in the photo) stops any glare though.

There's just one large pull-down blind in front of the shade cloth, no venetians.

I don't do any live recording currently, just producing music with VST's etc.

[PhonoBrainer]

I notice your desk is right flush on the wall, you might look into pulling it off th wall a bit, even a foot or two helps

[Starise]

I would move away from the window to the other wall if it were me. A lot probably depends on the weather  and how the room is oriented toward towards the sun.

I personally would not like it there but that's me. Not sure how tall you are. The monitors should be at ear level. Most people don't do that and only recently did I move mine to that height. For ergonomics the monitor should be at face level too. If the monitors are lower you miss a lot of the information from them. You want to be in the "sweet spot".  Some monitors fire the bass from the rear of the cabinet, some from the front and some cope with it internally. Mine have bass ports in the back so I have them over three feet from the wall behind them. In typical residential room such as yours bass is usually more of an issue.

"IF" it was me I would

-Move over to a side wall

-add some sound treatment if possible. In either case I would

-Use ARC 2 or similar for monitor correction

"IF" it was me I would also

- lean on headphones partially, also corrected with something like Sonarworks. I find headphones are best to get the bass right and monitors for everything else. In a pinch cans make a great way to mix without bothering others i.e late at night. Then sample mix on both.

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Starise

[CDK]

Hey @Starise, thanks for your reply.

It's been suggested I place a heavy curtain in front of the window, do you think that would help a bit?

The desk is about 6 inches away from the wall and the speakers are indeed rear bass ported. I've actually been considering downsizing to 5 inch monitors, my current 8 inches just seem a little big for my room and the tweeter sits just a tiny bit above my ear level.

I've considered moving over to the side wall but that would mean the desk would facing across the room rather than down it, if that makes sense.  Not sure if that would present further issues?

 

[Starise]

11 hours ago, CDK said:

Hey @Starise, thanks for your reply.

It's been suggested I place a heavy curtain in front of the window, do you think that would help a bit?

The desk is about 6 inches away from the wall and the speakers are indeed rear bass ported. I've actually been considering downsizing to 5 inch monitors, my current 8 inches just seem a little big for my room and the tweeter sits just a tiny bit above my ear level.

I've considered moving over to the side wall but that would mean the desk would facing across the room rather than down it, if that makes sense.  Not sure if that would present further issues?

 

Heavier curtains probably would not help much if they are typical heavy curtains. Portable recording setups sometimes use a much heavier fabric more like a blanket or quilt

and these have a similar effect to sound treatment when placed strategically. They are specifically made for that purpose but you could probably get something similar.

Even in a best case example those types of treatments control the highs and mids better than the bass. Too much treatment and you effectively kill the sound, so there's a happy medium and it really has a lot to do with something called room modes. These are resonances that occur at specific frequency wave lengths that have the effect of  re enforcing a frequency. Bass tends to be treated better by using corner bass traps. I once had a well known company give me an estimate on what I needed for my room.

It was basically wall panels to the sides and rear of my monitors, panels to catch sound toward the rear of the room, bass traps in corners and ceiling panels. One thing that many don't consider is the floor and ceiling even though they are probably the two largest surfaces. Hard floor, hard ceiling is often asking for trouble.  Carpets or rugs on the floor help. Most ceilings should probably have treatment. That can be several sheets of heavy semi solid insulation covered with fabric hanging from wires to make them look nice.  Odd dimension surfaces work in favor of offsetting room modes. There are specialty products for that, but simply having things in the room can do similar. I have an open closet with a curtain over it in my room. This acts as a bass diffusion cavity. I have lots of small furniture and gear in the room so the sound is redirected and dispersed better than a plain square room would be....the room still needs help so I use ARC2. I highly recommend the book Mixing Secrets by Mike Senior. Chapter one covers lots of issues regarding the studio room itself. The monitors should be somehow disconnected from the desk to avoid transfer of energy. There are isolating stands and pads you can get. I have my monitors on a thin sheet of foam. Better than nothing. Not as good as buying the pads made for it. I know my bass still isn't right, so I check it on the cans. Lots of things can throw off the bass. rear firing ports too close to the wall can skew the bass image since the ports are there to make sure the woofer stays in phase. Too close and that energy goes right back against the speaker. Using stereo for bass can really muck things up if one side is out of phase it will kill your bass. EQ adjustments throw off the polarity of the bass. This isn't always something you notice but it can be.

Two things you can do inexpensively that should help are to monitor at low volume. Lowering the intensity of the energy will give you a more accurate image and avoid mode build ups. I only mix a higher volume when I'm mixing the master and that's only when I'm mixing it for maximum volume.  Many monitor speakers have a bass reduction switch on the back that let you cut the bass by a few db. This is especially helpful when using larger monitors in a smaller space.

Here's a pic of my ARC 2 adjustment showing a before, after and the adjusted target. The first thing most will notice after setting monitors up properly is that there doesn't seem to be as much bass. This is because the bass you were hearing was artificiality being re enforced by room modes.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Starise