Not sure where to place your speakers to get the best sound?
This video will give you 3 steps to finding the perfect mix position for any room.
You’ll learn how to set up your speakers to work with your room to provide you the most accurate sound possible for your listening space.
If you’re a music producer, or you work with sound in any way, you’ll benefit from this process for dialling in a revealing and accurate mix position setup.
For more tips on setting up your Home Studio Download your FREE Home Studio Speaker Placement Set-up Guide.
1. Determine where to place the speakers in YOUR ROOM.
In this step, you’ll determine the best sounding location with your ears, one speaker, and your empty room.
The room in this demonstration is:
12’6” in Length,
9’9” wide,
with a height of 7’9”
Determine the distance you plan to sit from your speakers, for this room that’s likely around 1m or 3′.
Tie a string around one of your speakers, ~3′ in length.
Then have a friend hold the speaker as you slowly walk in a circle around the room.
You’re listening for where the music really sounds the fullest. Where the room connects with the bass and the whole mix sounds closer, at the same distance.
In this room, the speakers are placed away from the wall, 3′ from the sides, with our ideal setup, 3′ from the rear wall as well.
Placing speakers too close to the wall or corner often means a build up of reflections reaching your ears slightly after the direct sound which can greatly decrease the clarity of the sound and therefore your ability to mix accurately. For best performance keep 1′ or 30cm between your speakers and any walls. Later on you can further decrease these reflections with some acoustic Rockwool panels. Up next…..
2. Find the right height, angle, and toe in for your speakers.
First, Don’t aim speakers at your armpits Aim at your ears! Make sure your speakers sit at ear level.
That’s easy to adjust with the AKER model speaker stands from Ion Forge. It’s super easy to dial in the right angle for your mix position with adjustable tilt and height. And the Height level indicator gives you confidence your speaker position is matched.
Tilt position can easily be adjusted with the AKER speaker stands, to correct the bias between the woofer and tweeter.
If your tweeters sound too aggressive, you can tilt your speakers back to emphasis the woofer.
If your speakers sound too muffled, do the opposite and tilt your speakers forward.
Next, you’ll wanna set the toe in of your speakers. Angle your 2 speakers to form an equilateral triangle with your head as the third point of the triangle, so each speaker points directly into the corresponding ear when sitting in the mix position. However, The angle you end up using may change after step 3.
3. Find the right distance between your speakers.
That’s right, once your found the best location for your speakers, it’s worth it to determine to how far apart they need to be to present a strong and consistent image no matter where a sound is panned in the stereo field. If your speakers are too far apart, you lose your ability to balance. That is because the distance between the speakers affects many things in the mix.
In the book: Mixing with your Mind This effect is explained as a ribbon. When the speakers are too close, the ribbon bulges and energy in the centre of the image is built up and sound panned to the centre will appear louder than they actually are. The inverse happens when the speakers are too far apart. Everything Panned to the sides sounds wide and present, while sounds panned to the centre lack the same solidarity. This can lead you to over compensate and push the centre channel instruments further than needed. So before you think about a new set of speakers, try this..
1. Clear off your desk, start with speakers in the current equilateral position
2. Pick a song you know well because you’ll need to Listen for the balance of centre elements and what would be on the sides. You want something full frequency, with sustained textures and bounce it as a MONO track.
3. Send your mono mix thru your speakers and slowly adjust the spacing of the speakers.
Too close and your centre will be too hot.
Too far apart and your centre image will fall apart leaving you to boost excessively to compensate.
And If there’s Room left on your desk for headphones. Check out the HONE headphone stand from Ion Forge.
Made with the same powder coated aluminum and cable management pins on the back to wrap any excess cable.
The AKER stands also have a removable cable loop is fantastic for cable management.
Very useful for cutting down on the number of wires to trip over in your studio.
Once you’ve chose your mix position you’re ready to plan out some acoustic treatment for your new room!
Up next, check out this DIY Acoustic Panel Project for some tips on mounting and placement of acoustic Rockwool panels.
For more tips on setting up your Home Studio Download your FREE Home Studio Speaker Placement Set-up Guide.
