John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Greetings. I'm trying to find more info about the rule that says your optimal mix position should be a 1/3 in/or of your room. Is that referring to mix position or monitor position?


Thx
Jjo

It's not really a rule, just a guideline, and the number is 38%, (just a bit more than 1/3). That's the position where your EARS should be, as measured between the front and rear walls (hard room boundary, not considering acoustic treatment). So if your room is 10 m long, then your ears should be 3.8m from the front wall, ideally.

This is related to room modes, not speakers. 38% is supposedly the point in the room where room mode peaks and nulls are at their least terrible, so in theory it's a good place to have your head.

HOWEVER! That's just a THEORETICAL best location, a starting point for playing around with positioning: you might need to move from there for many different reasons, such as speaker location and angle, doors, windows, beams, room shape, etc. And many engineers like to be a bit closer to the front wall than that anyway.

So don't go crazy trying to get your ears at exactly 38% of the room depth! Anywhere in that region is fine. Just stay away from 25% and 50%: those are the bad places.


- Stuart -

Just re-reading this and realized...I never said “Thank you”

Sorry about that. “Thank you” I’ve been getting great results!

Jason

- Stuart -