Speaker Set-ups

Speaker set-ups?

What are the different set ups for speakers?

There are any different ways you can set up speakers/monitors, depending on the different environment and the reason for your chosen type of speaker. This is because some speakers are better for some uses than others.

Studio speaker layout/ set up. –

For a studio whether it be at home or professional one in another location, this rule still applies. This rule would be that you will always nee the speaker to be facing you. For example you are sat directly in the middle of two speakers that are mounted on a wall in front of you but slightly to the side so your computer can sit in the middle. You would then need to put the speakers at an angle so they are facing you. This is so that the sound is travelling exactly in your direction and into your ears, letting you hear more of what is being recorded, or whatever the microphones are picking up. This rule applies whether you are in a home studio or another producer’s studio in a different location. Speakers should always be facing you. This ensures that you are hearing the purest sound that is being recorded.

Home theatre set-up. –

For a home theatre you will want surround sound. This is important and great because it will feel like the person/you watching the film is submerged into the film itself. It will also help for 3D effect. Will make you feel like different sounds are coming from in front, the side and behind you.

You could place in wall speakers making them hidden. This has advantages such as not being able to notice them keeping the room clean from having either powerful small speakers or big powerful speakers coming out from the wall.

In wall speakers can be Surround sound speakers that can actually be plastered into a wall so as to become completely invisible to the eye, but not to the ear. However you will also need to find speakers suit as powerful. So make sure you search around and get the best quality speakers for a theatre room.

The same kind of rule applies to the theatre that it does to the home/any studio speaker set up. You out them in the direction of the listener. Whatever the position might be.

You may notice that this rule will also apply to most speaker set ups. This is because you want to make sure that the sound is going in your direction. Otherwise they will not hit your ear the same time. You will also not pick up the best sound clearly if the speakers are on facing in your direction. This is why in a theatre you will notice that they will have many speakers on the outside of the room up near the ceiling. This is so that the room is evenly distributed of sound. This allows the feeling of being submerged into the film itself.

However with live sound on the other hand, well this may be a slight different approach.

There may be a few things you will need to have in mind when placing speakers for live sound. These things could be the room size, the reflectivity of the room, and construction. You may even want to be fancy and work out the reverberation time. You can do this by using the RT60 method. Complex but once you know what your doing is actually quite easy. Check out previous blog post on RT60 method and how to work out room modes. You do this because you might come up with some room problems that you may need to fix.

Reverb is like an echo almost, when in a venue and performing you do not want your speakers to be giving out sound and it being echoed all around the room.

With speaker layouts you will have two different types of speakers. This is FLOWN speakers and STACKED speakers.

Flown speakers?

A flown speaker is a normal speaker but instead of being on the floor or up on a stand, they are attached to the ceiling and are hanging there. This is an advantage because it is out of the way. This is why you may notice that in a big venue they will have flown speakers. This just keep this safe. However you will have to make sure they do not fall. But this makes sure that nobody can budge into them and knock them over.

Stacked speakers?

Stacked speakers on the other hand are just two or more monitors/speakers that will be put one on top of the other.

When it comes to setting up the speakers, you also have to remember the sub woofers and normal mid-range to high frequency speakers. This is because they may be placed in different places.

Bass frequencies will travel further than high frequencies, so you will also need to check that they are at a certain distance away from any other objects.

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Here is a picture of the decibel level, and the distance away that it should have.

This ties in with the NIHL which is where you can only be exposed to a certain level of decibels for a certain period of time.