5 TIPS TO MAKE YOUR STUDIO SOUND BETTER
01 – Add some basic treatment
It is essential to install some treatment to your room to remove reflections and reverberations, tighten bass and keep a good frequency and phase response. Even top tier monitors will not function at their best in an untreated space. General rule is some absorption on the front wall, side walls and maybe the roof, bass traps on the corners and some diffusion on the back and/or the roof. Those are some starting points, most acoustic treatment companies will offer you expert consulting for your room before purchase. Last but not least a good carpet, some curtains on the windows and a selection of sturdy and heavy furniture can help a lot.
02 – Choose the right monitors
You have to choose the right size of monitors for your room. Big monitors will not function well in a small room and small monitors will not be enough for a big room. Also take into consideration how far away from the monitors you will be sitting. From there your decision depends on personal preference and budget. Take some time, pick some reference tracks and visit a store that offers monitor listening facilities, have a listen and compare what suits your hearing.
03 – Position your speakers carefully
This is a step many people neglect but it is a very important one. Try different positions for your monitors move them front to back, closer or further apart and hear what works best for your listening position. After that place and isolate your monitors the best possible. If you don’t, vibrations will affect a lot monitors’ performance. Our preference is any solution from IsoAcoustics. We have seen a huge improvement in monitoring detail and clarity by just placing our monitors on ISO Stands. There is a convenient online calculator available on their site that suggests the perfect ISO Stand for your monitors.
04 – Monitor at the right level
Depending on your room’s size there is a certain volume that sounds best. If you monitor too low you will not hear enough low end and the opposite when you monitor too high. As a general rule for a small home/bedroom studio a volume of about 74 dB will work best. A good monitor controller and a decibel meter can help you here a lot.
05 – Add a DSP solution to fine tune problems
Sometimes even if you follow all the previous steps you may still have issues with your room. In this situation a DSP or plugin solution (like Sonarworks) can help. By measuring your room you can see where your problems are and digitally fix them or use the results as a guide to add some more problem focused treatment to your room. Moreover it can work as a first aid kit to check that everything works as intended.
