Studio monitors are one of the most essential elements to producing high quality mixes. There’s a reason we spent so much time and effort creating the perfect listening room when we redesigned our Nashville mastering studio (you can read more about the specifics of our set up on the Sage Audio homepage ). Though we’ve covered getting the best monitors for you home studio budget , I wanted to delve a little further into the actual setup of those monitors once you’ve found the perfect pair for your needs.
![Home Studio Monitor Studio Equipment Monitor](https://api.sageaudio.com/storage/article/uploads/2013-02-home-studio-monitor-200x300.jpg)
We’ve talked about this a little in a previous post , as well, but the correct placement of studio monitors can help you easily (and quickly) produce great sounding mixes without having to continually go back and fine-tune mixes. This is because having a correct representation of stereo imaging will help you hear the mixes as they actually sound, and bring consistency to your mixes. Conversely, an incorrect placement can cause major headaches and a lot of wasted time.
Make the Best of What You Have
I want to put a little disclaimer at the beginning of this article. Like most aspects of home studio recording, you most likely won’t have the space or budget to follow every rule of monitor placement and acoustic treatment like a major studio would. This shouldn’t be taken to mean that you won’t be able to get great sounding mixes. All home recording (and mixing) is part of a process of creating the best with what you have and learning your room. The following are some guidelines to make that room a little better.
A second note: I’ll only be discussing near-field monitors here, which is typically all that are needed in a home studio.
The Equilateral Triangle
A good rule to follow, if possible, is to set up an equilateral triangle, with the monitors representing two points and you representing the third. You’ll usually want the monitor speakers to be about 3 to 5 feet from your ears. Make sure the monitors are at ear level, and more specifically that the tweeters are exactly in line with your ears.
Using the Room to Improve Monitor Placement
Okay, so making the triangle is the easy part, making the best of the room you have to work in is the hard part. The acoustics of every room are different, and whether you notice it or not, sound is constantly bouncing off walls, ceilings, floors and doors -- and all at different rates. I won’t get too far into the theory of acoustics, but there are a few good guidelines to follow when it comes to monitor placement.
Center your set up between side walls, but not front to back walls. To preserve correct stereo imaging, you’ll want the amount of room on either side of your monitors to be equal. However, if you set up your desk in the direct center of the room, all of the frequencies and harmonics will essentially bounce to the center at the same time and interfere with each other and cancel each other out.
Avoid Multiples in Measurement. When choosing the front-to-back position, avoid exact multiples. For instance, if you are 2 feet away from the front wall of your studio, don’t position the monitors 4 feet or 8 feet from the back wall.
Following these two simple guidelines will vastly improve your listening situation with very little work.
A Few Additional Tips
Finally, here are a few more tips to improve your monitor placement.
- Don’t turn your monitors on their side. Though certain types of monitors are made to be placed this way, near-field monitors are designed to be upright with the tweeter on top of the woofer.
- If possible, place the monitors on stands behind your mixing desk, not on the desk itself. It is best if the tops of the stands have cushioning or insulation to reduce vibrations. This prevents the desk from reflecting sound waves, and also from creating vibrations in one monitor that might affect the other.
Make sure there is carpet in the room. Even if you don’t have the budget for expensive acoustic treatments for your room, ensuring you have carpet is the best measure you can take to reduce sound reflections from interfering with your mix.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
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2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
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4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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