Monitor Positioning

Something often overlooked in a small studio or project studio is proper positioning of the monitor speakers.  Let’s look at a few basic tips to help you find the best “sweet spot” for listening to your monitors while tracking and/or mixing.  We’re going to look at how to position a set of near-field monitors properly to get the best sound and imaging from them in your studio.

If you’ve seen pictures of or have been in a number of recording studios you’re sure to notice the monitors.  Often they’re placed on the back of the recording console, sometimes you’ll see mid-field ones inset into a wall or mounted on the wall and sometimes they’re found on stands to either side of the mixing desk.  Oddly enough, many times these configurations that you see are inefficient and on occasion, at least one set of monitors is targeted for clients sitting behind the engineer rather than for the engineer’s benefit.  So what’s the best way to make sure you’re getting the best sound from your monitors?

First, wherever you place your monitors, they should be stable and de-coupled from whatever surface they’re sitting on.  Auralex and Primacoustic are two companies that make specific products to place under monitors for this purpose.  This helps reduce vibration and sympathetic resonance.  I like having the monitors on stands because it helps to alleviate some reflections encountered when the monitors sit on the back of the mixing board or metering rack as sound will bounce off the board or desk to some extent before it reaches your ears.

Next, you want to ensure that the speakers are sitting at about ear-level when you’re seated in your mix position.  Stands can work well to get the right height.  Go for having the tweeter at head-height.  Most monitors are designed for upright (tweeter on top) configuration but check the info for the specific model from the manufacturer for proper orientation (sideways or vertical). 

Lastly is distance.  What we’re looking for here is a rough equilateral triangle formed by the two speakers and your head.  In other words, the speakers should be as far apart from each other as the distance from the speaker cone of each speaker to your head.  It will probably help to angle each speaker inward a bit to reinforce the triangular concept as well. 

Once you’ve setup your speakers in this manner have a seat in the center of the triangle and listen to some known reference material.  You’ll probably find better imaging and stereo separation as a result and your mixes will benefit too.  What you’ve done is created a “sweet spot” in your listening position.  Although you may have to move around at times during mixing, at least you’ll be able to easily return to the focal point for more critical assessments.  Give it a try and see if you like the results – you might be surprised at how a little re-positioning can make a huge difference in what you hear.