12 X 16 project studio

Any ideas how to work with JBL 4312's on a 12 X 16 room? I have 9 sheets of rigid and acoustic cloth material left over from a friend to use for wall treatment. The only live recording will be vocals (AKG C3000B). The sweet spot now with just furniture in the room is about 11-12 feet from spkrs - too far. Maybe I have to look at smaller monitors. But I really like the low end punch from the JBL's. Studio is built in garage, floated floor, std. drywall, industrial carpet, pine wainscotting lower half. BTW:My first post. Forum looks awesome. Some really knowledgeable and dedicated people here. thanks

welcome to the site.. check out this small studio - it had 4311s and sounded great:) http://johnlsayers.com/Pages/Hello_Testing.htm cheers john

Thanks so much John, I am glad I found the forum and happy to have joined. I appreciate the link. That's got me pointed on the right track and I'll do some homework to try find out more about the technical part of mounting soffets and bass trapping. Looks like a fair bit of work to do. I'm incouraged that there's a way to use the 4312's. In an A-B test I conducted here, my friend's Tannoy 600A's didn't seem to produce as full a mid-range, although the lows were pretty good. I could definately here the difference. As well, I'm really familiar with the sound characteristics of my speakers 'cause I've had them for 20 years. I was kind of worried that they were too old school. Again thanks and glad to be on board. Hope to contribute anything I can. I welcome any ideas anyone might have. Cheers, Al

actually - I don't remember the 4312s - after the 4311s I though they released the 4315 - what's the difference from the 4311?? cheers john

The 4412's are an updated version of the 4311's. They went with updated drivers in the same configuration. The 4410's IMO were the best sounding, but could not be used on their side. The 4312 had too high of a bass roll off, and was quite flabby sounding. Many video post houses used them and the large 4425's and 4435's. They were not well accepted in the US market for music mixing.

Hi John et al, Here's a picture of the 4312's that I have. Apparently, this is the exact same speaker as the 4311 except mine are a walnut finish and the 4311's were a matte gray for studio use. I bought these at a stereo shop where the guy didn't know what 'Control Monitor' meant. I don't know what the high bass rolloff means though, they seem to be consistant throughout the complete range of frequencies compared to anything else I've used or heard. If they do have that particular flaw, I'd like to know more about it and what to look for...so feel free to chime in anyone. You can see by their size and placement that I'm having quite a low freq problem at the front and back of my 12 X 16 studio. Thus I need some help with this. Thanks for the posts. al

ah - so they are a domestic version - well the 4311s sounded great soffit mounted. cheers john

Thanks John, Glad to hear the 4312's should sound good too. Shame to hide all of that walnut finish behind a soffit, though. I've been able to get some great ideas and valuable links from the forum on what to do with my studio space. Soon I will have a design in mind that I'd like to run by you and the forum. Good learning experience. I'm excited to eventually have a more professional room and a comfortable creative invironment. cheers, Al :D

I thought you said 4412. Oops my bad. You know, JBL re-issued the 4311's one year. Same woofer cone, but all magnets were NDym. Sounded like puke. They didn't last long.

I don't know the other JBL models at all. But I think these 4312's are original issue from early-mid 80's. They sound really smooth and solid. Had them as part of my surround system in the den for a long time...incredible low end rattled everything with Star Wars DVD's. No need for subs. I'm thinkin' they're gonna really rock when I get them into soffits. I've just dloaded the Smartdraw program to get my plans onto the forum asap so I can start building traps and such gleened from your collective expertise. cheers, Al