ABSTRACT

The initial design of control rooms and their monitor loudspeakers tends to be calculated in terms of the performance in empty rooms. Historically, remarkably little thought was given to the way in which physical presence of a mixing console could disturb the acoustics of a room, but as the better control room responses improved, sometimes great differences were noticed in the sound of monitoring when an older console was replaced by newer one. Metal panels underneath many mixing consoles can also be heard to ring in response to drum beats. Studio designers have reported that significant differences in response of control rooms, of very similar size and with identical monitor systems, have resulted from the installation of different mixing consoles. Another case where convenience triumphs over good monitoring is when a mountain of computer and video monitors is placed such that they not only cause undesirable reflexions, but also obstruct the direct path from the loudspeakers to the engineers' ears.