Will this room setup work?

[postprosound]

I guess this goes out to Georgia, Dr. Sound, or any others out there who might know what I am trying to get at here….(and I have read the sticky on room setup, and searched!!!)
Let me explain my situation: my room is 20’7”L X 10’5”W X 9’7”H. (I know, room modes. But that is a different post.) Because of a lot of various circumstances, my edit station is situated about 11 or 12 feet from one wall, near the center of the room. How would I go about putting the clients in front of me, with their monitor against the short wall of the room, facing the same direction as I am? (Georgia, I was in your room a couple weeks ago, and liked your setup. I am looking to make a much more simplified version of that.) I am looking for specifics as to monitor choices, placement and the like. I am not a mixer, I am an editor. And do not have surround. Could one set of monitors placed on the far end of the room suffice? Would they have to be ‘far fields’, or would more typical near fields work? Or should I use two sets of monitors, one specifically for the client, and another set for my position? Any suggestions?

thanks in advance

[TVPostSound]

Here's one, if you mix at 85dB in the mixers position, how loud will it be to your clients who
sit in front of you???

[postprosound]

DIAFXMX--
Good point. I had thought about that. I’m guessing about 87 or 88; defiantly loud, but possible.
This is more for screening, as apposed to day in day out mixing-- I edit and my wife is a picture editor, so this would serve dual purpose.
So how should I do this? One set of monitors for everything? Or one for me, and one for the client?

[georgia]

Hi,

In a smaller room you can get away with "near" fields... I used 1031A's with a sub in rooms bigger than yours. If you are editing and playing sound design stuff or pre-mixing for clients you should have significant issues as long as the room sounds good and the 5.1 system is properly calibrated. The bottom line is you want your room to translate to where ever the outputs are going... threatrical, Broadcast, CD, DVD, wehatever...
Don't feel like you have to run at 85db for this kind of work. I sound design all day at much lower volumes on small 8020's upstairs in my place and bring it down the dubstage for mix with no significat changes.

You might want a pair of near fields at the listen position for stuff. I keep a pair of 1031A's around to plop on the console for music mixing and misc editing. I only use the big genelecs for film and broadcast mixes. And, when I do broadcast mixes I also toss a small set of monitors on the console to hear the mix on "TV". Even after I mix sometimes I route the mix to that crappy little TV /DVD player thingy in the kitchen and listen on that.

cheers
geo

[postprosound]

Thanks Georgia, I was hoping you’d post. We all like practical advice.

So what could be the pitfall of using N/F’s in the 'one monitor' setup? (Assuming that they can be driven that hard.)
What about having 2 sets, one for the client, and one for me, what would that be like?
And if you were to recommend M/F type monitors, which ones do you like? (In the low to mid budget range.)
On a similar topic, what do you all think of the JBL LSR4300s, specifically the room mode correction? (Or other manufactures versions of that) Does it work? What kind of experience do all have with it?

Thanks again!

[minister]

in a room your size -- which is not tiny, but not big -- you and the clients will still be sitting fairly close to the monitors. therefore, i would suggest that you calibrate your room to 79 rather than 85. reason being that 85 SPL (at the mix position) in a small room will sound louder than 85 SPL in a large room. TWO different playback levels will cause you a host of problems. an array of sorts -- 2 sets of speakes off of the same feed -- is not a bad idea, except that i think your room is not really big enough for that.

the JBL's you mentioned are fine speakers and a lot of people, especially film people, use JBL's quite successfully. but i would caution you if you think that buying a monitor that claims to be able to 'correct room modes' will solve your problems. if you have an acoustically bad room, eq-ing the monitors will not fix that. to put it simply, humans can easily discern between speaker and room colorations. in other words, we can't correct a room coloration by adding the inverse coloration to our monitor chain. one 'negotiationg point' is in the area of early reflections (say, less than 30 milliseconds), where if those are flat, then you are can fudge the rest more successfully. yet, every place in a room responds differently, so it is impossible to EQ-in a flat response all over the room. your first order of business would be to make sure that you get your room as flat as possible within your budget....even if you only hire an acoustician to come in and give you some advice on treatment and possibly build some panels for you and run an RTA on your room. then at least you might know what you are dealing with and fudge the rest with monitor EQ, but that is dicey business. (to add to the situation, mointors are often rated with a + or - 1 to 2dB tolerance at any given frequency. if you calibrate your room with one set of monitors and then buy another, you may see different test results.)

the JBL's you mention are good. some people like the newer genelec line, or a 1032 (which i think sounds much better than the 1031.). some use the Blue Sky system successfully. if you have an amp, Quested 108's are excellent nearfields. the dynaudio bm6's (which i prefer over the bm5's) or AIR.

hope that helps.

[minister]

... about 87 or 88; defiantly loud,

btw, i like things defiantly loud too!

[postprosound]

Thanks minister for the advice about the 79 v 85, which was a question I was going to ask. I was thinking of going in the 81. Time will tell.
And I agree about the RMC not being the silver bullet for a room that has unaddressed problems. Does it work in better rooms though?
Too, what about cinema type speakers of this type? http://jblpro.com/cinema/index.htm I worked a few times with one of the best major film mixers on east coast, this is what he used. (His room is probably 20 by 30 or smaller. Not the biggest, but the majors always seem to go back!) Granted, some are for very large locations. But many are made for much smaller rooms, such as these: http://jblpro.com/pages/cinema/2way_SA.htm
Thanks again