In this article I will give you five tips to improve your home studio acoustics.

Correct your speaker placement

Frequently ignored, this is the first important step to improve the way your speakers sound in your room. Speakers should be equally distant from left and right wall and from front wall. Your head should form a equilateral triangle with your speakers and the tweeter must be at ear height.

Avoid low frequencies resonances

Low frequencies, especially in small rooms, affect the way you perceive your mix. This is because standing waves cause booms, rumbles and confusion in the low section of the audio spectrum. To solve this problem we can use some bass traps, positioned in the corners of our room and on the ceiling/walls corners.

Reduce first reflections

The sound that bounce on the walls causes echoes and lack of stereo image perception. It travels through air and arrives at our ears at different times. First, we hear the sound coming from the speaker and then the one coming from the reflection on the nearer walls.

How to deal with First reflections?

To deal with this we can put absorbing panels where the first reflections develop. In addition, we can use the mirror trick: let a friend move a mirror along side walls and look into it. If you see your speaker in the mirror you have to put absorption in that area. The ceiling above your hearing position should be covered with absorption too.

Diffuse late reflections

Late reflections (the secondary ones) are similar to first reflections, but they take more time to reach our ears and they usually come from rear wall. To give the room more sense of space and get better sound diffusion, we can also use diffusers in the back wall. The main types of diffusers are the QRD and the Skyline diffuser.

DIY sound treatment

On the market you find many solution, but the cheaper way to go is the DIY option. You can build easy bass trap and absorbing panels by using rigid rock wool. Here are some ideas that could be useful for your home studio optimisation.

Improve you home studio acoustics was written in collaboration with Entropia Studios.

Further Discussion and insight

In the following video we discuss recording techniques, how to use monitor speakers as well as recording instruments professionally. We also discuss advantages and disadvantages of analog and digital and touch different topics which are usually discussed by musicians, audio engineers, music producers and everyone who works in the field.

Check my Tips and Tricks section for further ideas for musicians.