CHAPTER 1
1. Four Questions
2. You’re working on a budget , after all
3. Controlling the Acoustics
4. Room Arrangement
5. Early Reflection Points
6. 50 Percent Rule
7. Bass Traps

Room arrangement

Assuming you’re not building a separate control
room, you’ll be configuring all your equipment
in your designated studio space. So your
first task is to envision where you’ll be housing
your monitoring station and board. If you’ve
got the budget and are really looking to optimize
the acoustics and sound of your home
studio, consulting a professional at the outset
is a good idea, complete with diagrams and dimensions of the space you have to work with.
Where your mixing/recording station will be is
something that needs to be envisioned specifically for the space you’re in.

One general rule you should follow is to keep your listening position somewhere near the middle third of the room - it is very difficult to hear accurately with a wall directly behind you.
In regard to monitor placement, “You want
to come as close to an isosceles triangle as
you can,” says Raison. “That’s the proportion
of the distance between the speakers to where the engineering sweet spot is. It’s a comfortable listening angle, but it’s also a time thing. Sound and time go hand in hand, so you want to make sure that they’re evenly balanced. If the speakers are 10 feet apart, you should be sitting 10 feet back.

Another thing: don’t place one monitor in the corner. In most rooms, if you’re in the center of the wall, you’re in great shape. But if you take the table and move it to the corner, then you have one monitor that will sound boomy and
the sound gets mushy and imbalanced.