By John Voket
I have explored every sort of feature, fixture and specialty room one could want in a practical home. But it appears the latest rage for amatuer and professional musicians is to establish their own home recording studio space – but how does one begin the task?
The latest update of Jeff Towne’s primer on setting up a small recording studio (transom.org) notes that one doesn’t need a perfectly-tuned space in order to make decent sound mixes.
Towne says place monitor speakers so that the two monitors and the spot where you’ll sit make an equal-sided triangle, and position them at about ear-level when you’re in your working position.
Keep a clear path between your ears and the speakers (it’s tricky to keep computer screens out of the way, but it’s crucial that you do) and try to soften or break up any hard, flat surfaces between you and the speaker (like your desktop), which could create interference from sonic reflections.
Don’t get the speakers too close to a wall, or too far into a corner; the bass response will be affected.
If you’re having problems with echo, or a resonance problem that sounds like a ringing or unnatural build-up of certain sounds when you’re listening, you may need to do some treatment of your room.
Towne says skip the cardboard egg-cartons on the wall, they don’t really do much of anything, but some strategically placed acoustical foam might. Even without investing in a full-on studio treatment, just getting some soft materials on your walls, like drapes or other heavy fabrics, will help a lot.
If you can break up plain flat surfaces, especially behind your mix position, you’ll reduce many problems. Professional studios use specially built diffusers for that, but if you can place a bookshelf or some other irregular surface that will scatter audio reflections, it will help.
Check out the full article for lots more info on setting up your home recording studio at http://transom.org/?p=23904.
Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2013. All rights reserved.
