John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

No - like this

cheers
john

I've nearly done the drawings, John. I'll post them today.

Ta!

Doesn't mounting the monitors so close to the corner this way cause problems with early reflections from the side walls?

Yes but you splay the walls with more angle, i.e. at 22.5 degrees as opposed to 12. I find it helps where you have a small room and the 60 degrees doesn't give you much width between the speakers relative to your sitting position.

Music Farm studios http://johnlsayers.com/Pages/Music_Farm2.htm was built as a 90 degrees system. I worked there for years with and loved it. It was one of the best sounding rooms I've ever worked in and other engineer/producers recorded top selling albums out of this room.



cheers
john

John,
I have a couple of questions about the speaker section drawing on page 1:
1) What are "acoustical hangers"?
2) Why is the area below the speaker not boxed in with 5/8" plywood and timber finish like the area above the speaker? Is this area performing as a bass trap?

Thanks!
Scott

John,
I have a couple of questions about the speaker section drawing on page 1:
1) What are "acoustical hangers"?
2) Why is the area below the speaker not boxed in with 5/8" plywood and timber finish like the area above the speaker? Is this area performing as a bass trap?

Thanks!
Scott

The front is finished in an absorbing surface. I do this because it stops reflecions from the back of the console etc. coming back at you. The acoustic hangers are sheets of soft fibreboard, wrapped in insulation and hung - yes - they act as a bass absorber.

cheers
JOhn

What thickness is the fibreboard?

Its 1/2" (12mm) Oliver.

cheers
john

and what thickness of insulation? Would the rigid fibreglass be best?

Cheers

oliver

so if I understand you correctly would you say that I could benefit from soffit mounting my Alesis monitor ones as I have always felt that they lacked bass (yes I know that I will only get so much from a small speaker)

so if I understand you correctly would you say that I could benefit from soffit mounting my Alesis monitor ones as I have always felt that they lacked bass (yes I know that I will only get so much from a small speaker)

Firstly - sorry Oliver - I missed your question before - just use standard fibreglass insulation or Dacron.

jc71 - yes I'd soffit mount those speakers, I like a bit more bass myself :)

cheers
john

From a studio design perspective the advantages of soffit mounting are many and frankly obvious, but let me just also chime in from a loudspeaker design perspective. Mounting loudspeaker drivers in an effectively infinite baffle (soffit) eliminates a host of design difficulties and compromises. And with those compromises out of the way the designer can more easily achieve even higher performance.

The reason I believe some recording engineers don't like soffit mounting is because it's often done improperly. The most critical aspect of soffit mounting is making sure the monitors are properly designed to work in such an application. Most nearfields and a good deal of midfields are not.

Personally I feel there's a reasonably good sized market that isn't being serviced - those looking for medium sized, medium power monitors to soffit mount in smaller to medium sized control rooms - i.e. "Mini Mains™". Maybe it's time to crank my speaker business into high gear again.

Thomas

I think it is Thomas

cheers
john