Recording - March 2018 - 28

MAX OUT
YOUR
a consumer design adapted for studio monitoring use, with tweeters so harsh that people used to cover them with tissue paper,
and sorely lacking in bass. While I found I
could never mix well on them, many people
I know and respected swore by them.
On a side note, most studio monitors
these days are active, with built-in
amplification, and this takes one more
consideration off the table. Rather than
having to match the power handling and
efficiency of a pair of monitors with the
appropriate amplifier wattage and
impedance, all that need be done in
regard to power is to make sure that the
speakers can play loudly enough in their
intended installation without overtaxing the
built-in amplifiers.... which brings us to the
next important consideration when it comes
to the monitor speakers-their placement.

Speaker placement

Obviously, the sound coming from
any studio monitors will interact with the
room, and so the placement of the speakers
is a very important consideration. I'll dip
into the acoustic phenomena of rooms
toward the end of this article, but for the
moment I'll focus on how to arrange your
speakers for the best results.
In bigger studios, you'll often see large
soffit-mounted speakers installed within the
front walls. These are great for cranking
up the music, but nowadays, many engineers and mixers prefer to use somewhat

MONITORING

smaller monitors mounted on or just behind the console or control surface. While
those large soffit-mounted monitors are
designed for that kind of placement, typical standalone monitors should generally
be kept away from the walls-and other
room boundaries, especially corners.
As I'll explain later, when a speaker is
placed near a wall, the bass is emphasized.
This can be tempting, especially with
speakers that are somewhat lacking in
bass-hey, it's free bass, right?
Unfortunately, it's not good bass-the
bass boost from a speaker's proximity to a
room boundary is uneven, with boosts and
dips at different frequencies, depending
on the room's dimensions and the speaker's
distance from the wall/boundary.
The most even bass response will be
had by keeping the monitors a few (two
or three) feet away from the nearest walls.
This is called free-standing, or full-space,
placement, and most monitors are designed to provide their flattest response
with this positioning. The speakers may
sound a bit thinner compared with a wall
placement, but again, big fat bass is not
the goal for studio monitoring-a neutral,
even response is. If you need more bass,
buy a bigger speaker, and then still place
it in a free-standing position.
That said, some monitors do offer
bass EQ/filtering for wall or even corner
placement (half-space or quarter-space,
respectively), if it's unavoidable... as

FIGURE 2. A typical monitor (here, the Mackie XR824) with a diagram
explaining acoustic tweaks for speaker placement.
28

RECORDING March 2018

it might be in very small rooms. (See
Figure 2.) But this is still usually only
a simple rolloff to compensate for any
overly boosted response, and it won't
necessarily counter any unevenness
that results from proximity to a wall, so
it's still better to go with a free-standing
placement whenever possible.
It's also a good idea to shoot for
symmetrical placement of the monitors,
vis-à-vis the side wallsthat is, the speakers
should both be equidistant from the side
walls. That way, reflections (particularly
mid-and high-frequency reflections) will
be consistent on both sides of the stereo
sound field. Asymmetrical placement can
result in stronger reflections on one side
of the stereo image at the listening
position, potentially skewing the left/right
balance of mixes done in that space.

Playing the angles,
playing the field

Most studio people agree that the optimal angle for stereo speakers is 60°,
30° between each speaker and the sweet
spot, the primary listening position exactly
between the two speakers. This recommendation is based on the position and
orientation of human ears, and regardless of the distance from the listener to the
speakers, this angle should be maintained
for the best stereo imaging. Too wide an
angle may result in a mixer panning most
tracks in a mix too close to the center,
bunching everything up in the middle, for
a less-spacious stereo soundfield; too narrow
an angle, and the mixer may end up panning
tracks too widely, bunching everything
up at the left and right speakers, for a
"hole-in-the-middle" effect.
When it comes to distance between the
listener and the monitors, there are a couple of options. With larger free-standing
speakers, a midfield placement may be
best-just behind the console or work surface, around six feet or so from the sweet
spot. With smaller "console-top" monitors,
the preferred distance is around three feet.
This is referred to as nearfield monitoring-the speakers are close enough to the
listener to minimize the inevitable effects of
room reflections at mid and high frequencies (again, more on that below).
Those reflections can smear the tonal character and imaging of the sound coming
from the monitors, resulting in a loss of detail,

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2018