Speaker Placement (Redux)

I have two Behringer B2031A speakers for my HW setup. Right now I have them about 8 feet away and 8 feet apart aimed at my ears. In an effort to squeeze one more instrument into my tight studio, I am thinking to place them on the organ console itself which would place them about 4 feet away from my ears and about 3 feet apart. As studio monitors I thought you could use them pretty close. Is this too close? Will I lose a lot? A quick trial only said that my subwoofer wasn't so obvious, otherwise, apart from volume it sounded OK. What is the received wisdom of the Forum?

Thank you.

Sandy Hackney
Easton, NY

Increase the gain of the subwoofer channel, and enjoy!

I have used that exact console speaker set-up; it pounds
very fine.

I have two Behringer B2031A speakers for my HW setup. Right now I have them about 8 feet away and 8 feet apart aimed at my ears. In an effort to squeeze one more instrument into my tight studio, I am thinking to place them on the organ console itself which would place them about 4 feet away from my ears and about 3 feet apart. As studio monitors I thought you could use them pretty close. Is this too close? Will I lose a lot? A quick trial only said that my subwoofer wasn't so obvious, otherwise, apart from volume it sounded OK. What is the received wisdom of the Forum? Thank you. Sandy Hackney Easton, NY

Hi Sandy,

Here is the little booklet that comes in the BX5a box to show you some tips and techniques.

http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/me ... %5D_EN.pdf

From this little pub, the answer to your question is;
1) speakers at ear height when seated at the bench.
2) The distance between the speakers should be the same as the distance from the speakers to your ears.

This places you in the center of the stereo field and the distance you describe places you in the near field distance,
You still put the sub where it sounds best to you at the console. It works for me very well but it is very demanding of a quiet source (no hum, low noise) which I think means you load in 24bit uncompressed. If you can get it to fit in the 11GB sample space.

Pax,

Thomas

Have you tried facing them upward? If you are near a wall, you would get some dispersion from the wall. Another idea is to face them 90 degrees from your playing position, in other words, facing left and right. Much depends on the room and your position in the room.

Rgds,
Ed

Ed,
Your response tempted a personal reapraisal over what I have concluded. I use Behringer B2031 monitors and a Behringer B2092A sub-woofer. With previous setups associated with a single arranger keyboard (Tyros2, then Tyros 4) used in a square room, 3 x 3 metre 3 m ceiling height, I have followed the convential wisdom and set the monitors either side, ear height facing each ear as appropriate. Result satisfactory.
However when I set up Hauptwerk in a room 3 x 6 metre x 3m height with the organ set in the middle of the 6m wall, facing the wall the same configuration didn't sound good.
I have now evolved to placing the monitors 45 degrees away from my ears and am more satisfied with the output.
I'm trying to rationalise why this is so. Certainly the room is different, however I suspect the output from the Hauptwerk samples reacts different to the room than do the in-built sounds of an arranger keyboard. Perhaps?
Orginally I also had one monitor sitting on top of the sub-woofer, but moved that as I was getting a booming sound.
Keith

I agree with Keith. Facing them directly to your ears was unsatisfactory. Mine are on each side of the console facing straight out and slightly above my ears. I like it a lot. See picture at http://omayes.com
Ollie Mayes

[mdyde]

Hello Thomas,

It works for me very well but it is very demanding of a quiet source (no hum, low noise) which I think means you load in 24bit uncompressed.

Hauptwerk's compression is *lossless*, i.e. there's absolutely no difference in audio quality between having it enabled for a rank or disabled. (Think of a ZIP archive - you can ZIP a file, unZIP it again, and you will get back *exactly* what you put in.)

Hence there's no reason ever to load ranks uncompressed unless you're running out of CPU power/polyphony (decompressing uses slightly more CPU power, getting 10-15% less polyphony from a given CPU.)

Thank you all for sharing your experience. Following Ollie's lead I spaced the speakers more widely and faced them straight out. But then!! I put the Behringer subwoofer between them on the console and it is right behind the music stand about two feet from my face. What a difference! It reminds of that ad for some sort of stereo speakers and it showed a guy slouched down in an easy chair and his hair was being blown horizontal by the sound. That is how I feel. Utterly fantastic!! Thank you.

Sandy Hackney
Easton, NY