Find the right place for the monitors
Project studios in houses are usually 7 to 12 square metres in size. It is worth reiterating that acoustic conditioning is a very important issue that directly affects the response of studio monitors, regardless of their quality. In turn, the placement of the monitors will also influence the final sound and will be defined by the location of the “sweet spot” of the room. Taking a rectangular room as an example, we should orient ourselves according to the longest measurement and in the center.
Equilateral triangle
There are many theories when it comes to positioning our monitors, as well as specific software to help us with this job. That said, there is one rule that can be very useful. It is the 38% rule by Mitch Gallagher and Jeff Cooper. In a very simplified way, it involves measuring the length of the room and finding the point where 38% of the total measurement is located. So, with the data we
Once you have determined where the ideal listening position or “sweet spot” is within your room, it is time to determine the best placement of your monitors.
When a speaker is placed close to a wall or hard surface, some of its low-frequency energy travels to the back of the speaker and reflects off the wall.
Some frequencies are added in phase to the original signal, creating “peaks” that reinforce certain frequencies, while others return out of phase, producing cancellations that also make the overall sound more rarefied. For this reason, it is important to try to have these frequencies distributed randomly, to avoid these peaks and cancellations.
One way to do this is to make sure that the distance from the back of the speaker to the rear wall is different from the distance from the speaker to the side wall, and also different from the distance to the floor or ceiling. It is also advisable to place speakers above or below the midpoint between the floor and ceiling and to avoid distances that are exact multiples.
As you can see in our example, the length of the room is long enough for the speakers to be supported by monitor stands placed on either side of the table.
Uncouple monitors from their stands or from the table
Regardless of whether we can place the monitors off the table or not due to space or other issues, it is always highly recommended to decouple them from their base with a system designed for this purpose, such as the Auralex Mopad or the IsoAcoustics Iso-puck, among others.
With them, we will be able to significantly reduce the vibrations or the “comb filter” type effect, which results from the sum of the original signal with the delayed signal and prevents us from having a flat response without coloration.
Height of monitors
If due to space problems you cannot place your studio monitors at the optimal height, they could be placed slightly above or below, but only if the “tweeters”, which unlike the “woofer” are very directional, point exactly at our ears.
As for low frequencies, they behave in an omnidirectional manner, so each relief and surface of our monitors will be emitting low frequencies. To avoid having problems with these frequencies, as we have already mentioned before, proper acoustic conditioning will be necessary.
