• Speakers at least 2 feet off the wall and 12 feet from the back wall

• Live/Reflective in front of you, dead behind you.

• Never make a room too dead. Needs to have some reflection.

• Rug to isolate sound beneath you

• Isolation between the speakers and whatever they sit on. (console or stands that attach to the console)

• Composition of the baffles behind you that the speakers are facing.

  • Pegboard
  • Hard compressed fiberglass bats (Owens-Corning 705 • 2 X 24 X 48)
  • Soft fiberglass (R13)
  • Felt covers

• Using multiple monitors

  • Tannoy SGM 10B/W Mastering Lab Crossovers
    • Powered by Bryston 4-BST
  • ATC SCM20PSL
  • Custom Made NS-10’s
    • Powered by phase linear 400
  • Consumer speaker, I use a Beats by Dre • Beatbox

• Using a sub to extend low frequencies

  • Infinity BU-2
    • Crossover at 80hz (get to a good starting place and find where it sits right with your speakers)

One of the most important aspects of recording is having a good listening environment. Since tracking, mixing and most other aspects of music production require you to rely on your ears, it’s best to have a listening space where what you’re hearing is an accurate representation of the sounds you‘ve captured. Tracking and mixing in such a listening space will mean that your mixes will translate better onto other systems, as having problems with acoustics in your mixing environment (such as nodes, comb filtering problems etc.) can cause you to misjudge what your mix needs as far as balance, EQ and more. You may be wondering what “secrets” I’m going to dish out to you in this post but let me forewarn you: there are no “cure-alls” for acoustics in a recording or listening space. Acoustics is a complicated field, and I certainly don’t intend to discuss all the nuances of properly tuning a room (as that could go on for hours). However, I do intend to describe my listening space for you, which will give you some good rules of thumb about acoustic treatment, speaker placement and so on.

First and foremost, you want your listening space to isolate how much sound is going to reverberate around your room. Surfaces like concrete, stone etc. will enable the most reflections and will need to be treated differently than drywall or wood. My mixing space is made of a slanted room with a drywall and a stone floor. You will want to make sure that your mixing space is open in front of you and deader (having more absorption) behind you. This way, with some reflection in front of you there is some ambiance coming at you. I also advise using a rug to isolate the sound that may reflect off the floor. As well as this, you will want material to isolate your speakers from their stands, which will catch early reflections. I use Auralex Propads for my ATCs and Primacoustic’s for the Tannoys. My personal technique for room placement with speakers is to have the speakers at least 2 feet off the wall in front of you and at least 12 feet from the wall behind you. It’s important to make sure that your speakers aren’t too close to the front wall because this will cause boundary effects, meaning that as you move speakers closer to the wall behind them, the early reflections add to the source and create a boost in the lower frequencies. I have found over the years that the 12 feet behind you gives you the proper time for anything that’s going to come back at you does not. Because the room I mix in is large, I’ve isolated a space in it with a false back wall made out of three baffles. They are composed of pegboard, hard compressed fiberglass bats (Owens-Corning 705 • 2 X 24 X 48), and Soft fiberglass (R13). These materials are enclosed in a wooden box on wheels with felt covers (photos included below). Monitoring on multiple sets of speakers is important too, as this is another good indicator of how your mix will translate to different systems. In my setup, I use a pair of Tannoy SGM 10B’s powered by a Bryston 4BST as mains, ATC SCM20PSL’s powered by a Bryston 4BST as alternates, and my custom enclosure and modified crossover NS10’s are powered by a Phase Linear 400 as smalls and the custom Auratones by CK Speaker . When using unpowered speakers, choosing the right amp is an important decision. You need to make sure that not only does the amp you’ve chosen have enough power, but does it also sound good or is a “good match” for the speakers you’re using. Although amp and speaker pairings are somewhat of a preference, I personally recommend Bryston amps and Phase Linear if you can find them, as they sound good on pretty much anything. You want to make sure that each pair of speakers is placed as an equilateral triangle to your position. (so the centerpoint is at ear level where you sit at the console) I also use an Infinity BU-2 subwoofer, which gives me a more accurate depiction of the lower frequencies in the spectrum.

I hope that a look into how I set up my listening space will point you in the right direction for tuning your room and setting up your speakers. Which speakers do you use? Do you have any other tips for basic room acoustics?

*Below are the pictures of my control room as well as the pictures of the construction of my baffles. If you have any other questions about control rooms or my baffle composition, feel free to add them in the comments section.