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 Forum index » How-tos » Production - engineering/mixing
monitor speaker setup
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Afro88



Joined: Jun 20, 2004
Posts: 701
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Audio files: 12
G2 patch files: 79

PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:05 am    Post subject: monitor speaker setup Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Recently my bedroom/studio got repainted and consequently I had to take everything out of the room and re setup. I decided for once that I would do it properly, and follow the method outlined in Michael Stavrou in his book "Mixing with your Mind".

Well! I feel like I have a new set of speakers! I used to have them on the wall to the left of me and now in this new position I can't believe my ears. Everything is so much clearer! The bass is clean, solid and flat. Stereo image is perfect. I can actually hear reverb in mixes... It really is amazing. Shocked

For those interested, the method is as follows:

Firstly, empty the room of all furniture and acoustic treatment. Next, setup a cd player with some complex well produced music into one of your speakers. Next, get a friend of yours to pick up the speaker, while you grab hold of a piece of rope (or even the power/audio cable) to keep yourselves at equal distance. Then, get your friend to walk around the room, keeping the speaker facing you and also keeping the rear of the speaker clear of their body. As you both walk around the room, mark out positions where the music sounds clear, where the bass sounds solid and in phase with the music and where you can hear the least colouration. I found a couple of spots where I thought the music sounded best. The next step is to quickly alternate between spots and try to hear which is best. I was incredibly surprised at the difference a few inches can make!

After selecting a spot, move your desk/speaker stands in and set both speakers down right next to each other right on top of that spot. The next stage is stereo imaging. Face both speakers exactly to the front and get 2 friends to slowly move them apart at equal distance. For example, if friend 1 moves the speaker 1 inch, friend 2 should do the same. The idea here is that if the speakers are too close you get too much colouration between channels (due to phase etc.) and if they are too far apart your centre image becomes too weak. What you want is a uniform band of sound from left to right. There are some illustrations in the book which make this alot clearer.

The next stage isn't in the book, but I played around with distance from the wall which changes the sound also.

I can't believe the difference this has made to the sound of my room and my Alesis M1 Mk2's. I'm listening to tracks I've heard every week for the past few years and they're so much clearer than I've ever heard them before. The bottom end is really great, there's no muddyness whatsoever. I feel like an idiot for even attempting to mix where my speakers used to be! I was actually thinking about upgrading my monitors, but I think I can hold out for quite a while with this new setup... wow! Shocked

Once again, this isn't my method, but came from a book (Mixing with your Mind) so I urge you to buy the book if you use this method. It's well worth it, the whole book is filled with great info like this.

If anyone can be bothered trying this out, let me know how it goes, I'd be interested to hear if other people had experiences similar to mine.
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mosc
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Joined: Jan 31, 2003
Posts: 18197
Location: Durham, NC
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Great story. I've found that the height above the floor is important too.
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Afro88



Joined: Jun 20, 2004
Posts: 701
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Audio files: 12
G2 patch files: 79

PostPosted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Ahh, yes. Unfortunately I don't have speaker stands, so they're sitting on my desk at the moment...

I came accross another cool tip in the book, which is to use ball bearings under your speakers, one for each corner. This apparently gives the speakers the least surface contact, but if the bearings are resting on a strong base the support is still there. It allows the transients to be more accurately produced by the speaker, and solidifies the bass.

I tried it out this morning, and it does what it says - it's certainly better with them than without and the speakers just resting on the desk. Just be sure to put washers under the ball bearings so they don't roll away! Laughing
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diatonis



Joined: May 01, 2005
Posts: 56
Location: los angeles, ca

PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

You'll need to have a few friends come over for 5.1 Smile interesting and seems to be true - very non-technical but accurate none the less

you can also apply this technique with microphones (recording while noting where you are)

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