How To Find The Sweet Spot For Your Studio Monitors

Almost every mix decision you make is based on information from your speakers. Here's how you should be positioning and spacing them - and yourself - for the perfect sweet spot.  

Designing a studio setup is something we all have to do, whether it's a dedicated, acoustically treated room or a small corner of a bedroom. Whatever space you are working with, one of the most crucial things to get right is the placement of your monitor speakers. Every combination of room and speakers will have a "sweet spot" - the point at which the sound is firing at your ears in just the right way to give an accurate picture of a mix. But how can you find it? This short video from expert producer Joe Albano has the answer.

Audio Concepts 103: Acoustics

In this video taken from the course Audio Concepts: Acoustics, Joe explains that almost every decision we make about a mix is based entirely on the information we get by listening to our studio monitors. So getting the correct positioning for them and avoiding undue colouration from the room is crucial.

Most people sit while mixing, ideally in a position exactly between the left and right speakers, making it easier to make accurate decisions about panning. The speakers also need to be a correct distance away from each other, so that the producer can get a sense of the width of the mix. Too close together and this is very hard to judge accurately. Too far apart and there can seem to be holes in the stereo field. The ideal position is essentially a triangle - the speakers and the listener all basically equidistant from each other. This ensures the best imaging and a mix that travels well to other systems.

Joe reveals much more about how to achieve the perfect sweet spot monitoring setup in this video - and naturally in the full course you will learn everything you need to know about acoustics in studio design and monitoring. Check it out using the links below.

Watch the course Audio Concepts 103: Acoustics in the Ask.Audio Academy | macProVideo | Ask.Video

Hollin Jones was classically trained as a piano player but found the lure of blues and jazz too much to resist. Graduating from bands to composition then production, he relishes the chance to play anything with keys. A sometime lecturer in videographics, music production and photography post production, Hollin has been a freelance w... Read More

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