User Manual

6
A Brief Tutorial on Studio Monitors
Some subwoofers, like both the PreSonus Temblor T10
and T8, provide an onboard variable lowpass filter. This
allows you to fine tune the crossover transition between
your full-range system and your subwoofer, ensuring a
more even frequency response. If your studio subwoofer
does not provide this feature, you should consider
purchasing an external crossover for this purpose.
Temblor T10
Positioning Your Full-Range Monitors
You’ve found the best studio monitors for your budget and
your application. Now all you have to do it plug them in,
right?
Not exactly. Like everything in recording and mixing audio,
careful preparation will give you a better result. Luckily,
perfecting your mixing environment only takes a little
know-how, planning, and time.
Positioning your monitors and listening position is crucial
to creating an accurate mixing environment. The first
step is to pick the best possible arrangement for your
workstation and speakers.
This section will take you through a few best practices.
Like all rules, there are exceptions and variations. When
followed, these should provide you with a good starting
point for your mixing environment. Once you have that set
up, feel free to make changes as needed. Remember that
even best practices will not work in every mix environment.
Your goal is to find the best configuration for your room
and your needs.
Set up your desk so that your speakers will be away from
walls and corners.
Make sure that your speakers can be placed away from
walls. Eight to twelve inches will be adequate to prevent
sound waves from hitting the wall and reflecting back to
you, causing phase cancellation and other potentially
harmful acoustic interactions. This might not always be
possible, and there are some ways to mitigate cramped
mixing spaces. (We’ll get to those in a minute; remember,
these are just best practices.)
Speakers 8” to 12” from wall
Minimum distance from walls
An added bonus of putting some distance between your
speakers and the walls is that it gives you easy access to
the back of your rig, which is never a bad thing.
Avoid setting up in a corner; this will help prevent the bass
buildups that naturally occur when two reflective surfaces
meet.
Vertical or horizontal?
Many studio monitors shouldn’t be placed horizontally, as
horizontal placement can degrade the stereo image, so
it’s important to read the monitors’ documentation. Some
monitors, like the PreSonus Eris E5, E8, E44, and E66, can
be placed horizontally or vertically. When orienting your
studio monitors horizontally, they should form a mirror
image of each other, with the tweeters on the outside.
Proper horizontal placement