setting up a good sound environment

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Typo Szar
Member Since: Jul 04, 2002

So everyone over at gear gab said that i could get some ok results on the hand me down type situation i have, so i wanna ask how i should setup my environment for mixing and mastering with this stuff. I have Bose speakers and a Sansui stereo preamp. Its all old commercial non mixing stuff, but its all i got. I have pedestals for teh speakres and dampers are easy to get. My room is quite big in a rectangular shape. My computer is on the width part of teh rectangle, its a pretty empty room. I just wanna know stuff like, where i should pad around teh speakers, wat angles r good and what i should look out for. How far should i put the speakers apart and their angles facing me in the middle, where i should damp, stuff like that.

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Cone Poker
Member
Since: Apr 07, 2002


Apr 05, 2006 02:51 am

This is an area that I know nothing about, however for speaker placement you want to get the sweetspot. This is the spot best suited for listening. You want your speakers and head to create an equilateral triangle, the distance from your head to speaker A being the same distance as Speaker A to speaker B...

EDIT: Tried to do ASCII art here, but it didn't allign right...

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Apr 05, 2006 10:47 pm

crux, for speaker placement you want to form a triangle with the 2 speakers and your head.

The speakers should be at an even height with your head and the distance between them should be equal to the distance from your head. A general place to start is approximately 5' or so. You can make it less if needed.

Ultra Magnus
Member
Since: Nov 13, 2004


Apr 06, 2006 02:57 am

Knowing your system goes a long way too, imo it's better to mix on okay speakers you know that really great ones you don't. The worst mistakes i've made mixing were in rooms and with speakers i wasn't used to.


Typo Szar
Member
Since: Jul 04, 2002


Apr 06, 2006 04:11 am

True true, well i like those speakers, and since its my house, i have time to get use to them.. the ones i ahve now r like... relaly standard computer speakers which i HATE. Even alot of commercial cds sound bad on these....

Cone Poker
Member
Since: Apr 07, 2002


Apr 06, 2006 05:50 am

Yeah I monitor on two sets of speakers, tracking I play back through my 10" sony stereo speakers (just cause they're louder) and when mixing I'll listen through my M-Audio Studiophile DX4's, and then back through the Sonys. I try to get it to sound good on both sets before even attempting to master (which I suck at). Worked on only the M-Audios for a while, and while they're not the best montors out there I can hear the coloration in the Sonys now.

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