User Manual

8
A Brief Tutorial on Studio Monitors
Use the tools your monitors give you to overcome
problems in your room.
Ideally, your mix space should be large enough to allow
you to set up your listening position well away from walls
and corners. But this is not always possible, especially if
your mix environment also doubles as a bedroom, den,
or family room. Luckily, some studio monitors, like all
PreSonus full-range studio monitors, provide onboard
controls to help mitigate this.
When a monitor is placed close to a wall, or in a corner, the
low frequencies tend to be emphasized more than if the
monitor is far from any room boundary; this eect is called
“boundary bass boost.” It is typically most pronounced if
the monitor is in a corner and is less pronounced (but still
present) if the monitor is near one wall.
Acoustic Space controls, like those on every PreSonus
studio monitor, cut all frequencies below a specific
frequency by a fixed amount, which can help with this
problem. If you find that your monitors sound “muddy,”
or if your mixes lack low end everywhere but your mix
environment, try these controls.
Monitor stands are worth the investment
Placing your speakers directly on your desk can limit their
ability to produce clear, balanced audio because the
sound waves coming from them are bouncing o of a hard,
reflective surface (your desktop) before they reach your
ears. Studio monitors also transmit their vibrations to any
surface they are resting on, including your desk. This can
lead to loose screws rattling or other less-obvious noises
that can muddy up your mix. Furthermore, your desk will
most likely have a resonant frequency or two, so as you
turn up your monitors, the desk itself will boost particular
frequencies by sympathetically resonating with the
vibrations of your monitors.
Desktop placement also puts most speakers below
ear level, which is not ideal. Monitor stands can raise
the speakers closer to ear level and help prevent
early reflections from interfering with your listening
environment.
However, if you’re working in a tight space (or on a
tight budget), and don’t have the square footage (or
spare change) for conventional speaker stands, your
speakers may need to be placed on your desk. This is
where isolation pads, like the PreSonus ISPD-4 come in.
Generally, isolation pads are relatively cost-eective foam
or rubber stands for your monitors that help to mitigate
the vibrations and sympathetic resonance that can occur
whenever a speaker is resting on a hard surface. Monitor
pads solve this by decoupling the speakers from the desk.
The monitor’s vibrations travel harmlessly into a flexible,
absorbent material, instead of through and o of your
desk.
As an added bonus: most monitor pads, including the
ISPD-4, provide some method of adjusting your monitors’
vertical angle. This is ideal if you’re placing them on a
surface that is higher than your seated mix position. This
can also be useful when placing your monitors on stands.
Whether your monitors are placed on stands or on your
desk, be sure to follow the best practices discussed earlier
when placing them in your mix environment.
Calibrating Full-Range Monitors
After you have properly positioned your studio monitors
and listening position, it is helpful to set all the levels in
your studio so that you are optimizing every component.
While not essential, taking the time to properly calibrate
your speakers can be very helpful in this respect and will
also give you a great starting point to troubleshoot or fine-
tune your mixing environment.
Acoustic Space
ISPD-4 Monitor Pads with Eris E44 Monitors