Setting up diagonally in a room?

[Ermz]

Hey guys,

It's a possibility I might be moving house, and in the new place the only way I could set up a mix room would be diagonally, kinda straddling a corner, firing down into the center of the room.

Now I'm almost positive that there are some acoustic/modal reasons as to why doing this is bad, but I don't have time to delve into the acoustics boards do find out.

Would anyone be able to shed some light on the situation?

 

[Empathy]

What are the dimensions?

I'm not sure if firing diagonally into a room has a dramatic impact on room mode propagation, but it would make sense that whatever ear is facing towards the closer wall is going be hearing something a little skewed to the one facing the far wall. My home setup is rather horrid in that regard - I've got no choice but to have everything set up flat against the far right corner of the longest wall; so I've got a window immediately to my right, and a terrible 5m void of untreated space to my left. You can imagine how that sounds with Adam A7X's.

 

[Jordon]

Oddly enough, some of the best drum tracks I've gotten in our rather small overdub live room has been with the kit in the corner facing with some strategically placed gobos. I did this to get more space between the kit and the room mics, and it worked out nicely.

 

[tempe]

I've done it before, it's not ideal but treatment especially the amount you have should still make it reasonable. I feel for you dude transitioning mix rooms is absolutely awful. I've done it far to many times for my liking.

 

[John_C]

The stereo image will be a nightmare because obviously the reflections will be different for each ear. What are the dimensions?

 

[Ermz]

Why would the reflections be different for each ear? Am I not communicating what I'm intending to do correctly? The sides will be parallel, the speakers will effectively be straddling a corner, firing down toward the center of the room, beyond that another corner. It won't be a lopsided set-up, it'll be almost fully symmetrical.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Why would the reflections be different for each ear? Am I not communicating what I'm intending to do correctly? The sides will be parallel, the speakers will effectively be straddling a corner, firing down toward the center of the room, beyond that another corner. It won't be a lopsided set-up, it'll be almost fully symmetrical.

Is the room almost square is it??? Because I think that's what might be causing some confusion/ apprehension

 

[John_C]

Best-case scenario, the room is close enough to a square to avoid stereo image problems, but not enough to cause modal hell.

 

[MetalWorks]

Sounds like you are saying its perfectly square. With a wall of treatment up in the corners you could sort of create an Octogon shape and that would seem just as reasonable to work with.

Otherwise if it was rectangular I see where the concern would be that the left or right wall behind you would be closer on one side and the front walls would extend farther on one side. Seems like more of a distance of rear reflection issue arriving at different times if its a rectangular room.

 

[LeSedna]

I bet it's a square, ermz would have mentioned any asymmetry, not to mention he wouldn't have accepted the idea of working with an ear close to a wall and another facing the void.

His question probably is : what are the acoustic consequences of having your setup facing a corner of the room, I.e. 45 degrees off the walls, listening position towards the room center, and the center line of the stereo image being a diagonal in your room.

 

[vespiz]

I think the biggest hurdle will be the fact that (if) the room will be a square, it will have modes reinforcing each other. It's already bad if there are two dimensions in the room that are the same (eg. W and L) but when the third (H) is also the same... perfect cube!

Facing the corner has the advantage that you can stuff it full of wool and it won't be "in the way" and the same for the back corner. It would probably be dead space anyways. Dealing with the side walls (the ones behind the speakers) will present it's own set of questions, but it all depends on the size and orientation of the room etc.

 

[pikachu69]

Bass response will be your biggest issue setting up in or close to a corner. you will find you will have to decrease/hipass the low end somewhat or use in built speaker placement correction (if your speakers have this feature) for placement in or near a corner.
You can always use one of the many speaker/room testing files that have been floating round here to see where your new issues are.

The main thing will be to keep the monitors away from the corner as much as you possibly can.

 

[ArthurD]

I saw something similar on john sayers forum, you'll have to make loads of treatment

 

[Charles J]

Bad news Ermz, I've had to do this one and it's absolutely horrid. I 100% get what you're trying to get across.

It's not so much the stereo image (which I never had issues with as long as speaker placement is proper on precise) that fucks you, it's the fact that you'll be in probably one of the WORST spots, acoustically, to get ANY resemblance of a decently flat frequency spot.

Beyond that, +1 to whoever posted about having to RELOCATE YOUR MIX ROOM.

It's such a nightmare getting used to the sound, vibe, look, and even SMELL (whether good or bad, hahaha) of a new room. It took me about 3 fucking months of acoustical tweaks, constant listening and mixing of music, monitor placement tweaks, finding the optimal sub placement, tweaking the crossover on the sub, calibrating the A7's to the sub PROPERLY so i'm not over or UNDER doing the sub freqs in the room at my mix position.

I've got it tuned pretty fucking epicly right now though, ahahahaha. It's a purpose built control room meaning absolutely NO parallel walls, etc... it is VERY small though and oddly shaped. I've got about 8 traps in there, 2 corners that are trapped floor to ceiling and the rest on the wall behind me and behind my desk.

IDK man.... i'd try something a bit different, OR, just roll with it and make it fuckin' work man! =D =D 'Tis all you can do!