The whole point of small near field monitors is that you sit close enough that you don't need a treated room. Amazing how many people don't seem to get that. 

I'm sorry but I disagree completely.  being "small near field monitors" doesn't negate the fact that lower frequencies will still build up in the corners of the room - there's nothing an engineer can do to a monitor to make that not happen. 

I thought the post was a joke. They are called "NEAR" field monitors.
I guess it is a serious dicussion.

guitardog247


I thought the post was a joke. They are called "NEAR" field monitors.
I guess it is a serious dicussion.

yeah, but they're not called "2 meter monitors" so the OP wants to know the definition of "near"

Beagle

guitardog247


I thought the post was a joke. They are called "NEAR" field monitors.
I guess it is a serious dicussion.

yeah, but they're not called "2 meter monitors" so the OP wants to know the definition of "near"

Exactly..What is the definition of near-field when it comes to monitors ?

Ok so when I bought my Events, the company and the music store I bought them at, said near-field. So in my opinion, "near" means close.

Where do they say six foot or 2 meter monitors ?

...Or is this info that someone should should not ask, caused it assumed EVERYONE should know ?..Or is this another Sonar Forums ****ism, I'm a super producer but still have time to post on here kinda thing ?

it's not defined anywhere that I'm aware of - but the guys are right above - approximately 6' or 2 meter triangle with your head is where near fields should be placed.

Actually it's 3 to 6 ft.

While a 6' triangle is probably ideal, I don't have the space to sit 6' away from my monitors, so I am probably more like 3.5-4' away, and they still sound pretty good.  However, I do have a subwoofer as well, so if you don't have the 6' triangle luxury then a subwoofer might help.

This is from Sweetwater tech. advice:
 
From David Stewart, Sweetwater's Service and Technical Support Manager -
 
Common question: "How close should I position my "near field" monitors?"
 
Our general rule of thumb: If they are smaller speakers, put them out about arm's length away from you, with about that same distance between them (about one meter). They should be pointed in towards your head. Envision an equilateral triangle with one of the points being the tip of your nose. The monitors should also point towards the tip of your nose so the on-axis sound kind of crosses right in front of your face. Your results may vary and personal preference should always take precedent over these rules, but this is a good starting point; from here adjust to your taste.
This method generally works well with small two way (or dual concentric) near fields. If you have larger monitors or three way monitors the space between the drivers on the cabinet may dictate that they be placed a little further away. If you sit too close to monitors with multiple drivers or monitors that have a large distance between woofer and tweeter you will experience phase distortion anomalies.
 

 
 
 
And this from Musician's Friend:
 
Near-Field Monitor Placement
 
Near-field studio monitors are small speakers that minimize the effects of your room on the sound source. Clear, accurate, and balanced monitors will obviously deliver a more precise sound than your old hi-fi speakers, and accuracy makes a huge difference in tweaking your mix.
The position of the monitors is very important. First, you should be close to the sound: about 2 to 5 feet from the monitors is cool. Mount the monitors at ear level, positioned so that your head points to right between the two. If the monitors are mounted 4 feet apart, you should be 4 feet away from them, so the monitors and your head form a nice imaginary triangle. Angle the monitors so the tweeters are aimed at your ears. This placement should provide more accurate monitoring.

Sweetwater also offers this posted "reprint" of a Tannoy near field tutorial that's worth a read:
 
http://www.sweetwater.com/NearField/

There are a number of factors to take into consideration. The two main factors are the physical dimensions of the speakers and the dimensions of the room, with the latter being far more important.

Conventional wisdom is that small woofers can be closer, but large woofers should be further away, and that's how it's normally done.

5" and 6" speakers are usually placed about 2.5' to 4' away, 8" speakers between 3' and 6' away, and 10" placed 6' to 8' away. Large, full-range speakers, which typically have 12" or 15" woofers, are usually soffit-mounted 10 to 12 feet away. These examples are based only on what I've seen in studios, and not on any scientific principle that I know of.

In practice, there is really no problem setting 8" speakers 3' away or 6" speakers 4' away. Arguments about "letting the bass develop" are bogus in the context of a control room. You don't actually want the bass to "develop". That's a concept for PA systems, live sound and churches, not for control room monitoring. The whole idea of nearfields is to try and reduce the interaction between the speakers and the room.

What you do want is for the outputs of the woofer and tweeter to blend nicely, with minimal phase cancellation. That's an acoustical process, and it does need some air to do it in. But you only need a listening distance that's at least 3 times the distance between the woofer and tweeter. Take a ruler and figure out what that comes to - on my speakers, that's about 18". Double that to 3' as a safe, conservative rule-of-thumb and phase alignment will not be a concern.

Far more important is where the speakers sit in the room. You want them as far from any walls as you can get them, you want them to be laterally equidistant from the nearest walls, and you want to avoid siting them in the dead center of the room or have your mix chair in the dead center of the room. Getting them out away from the wall behind them is very important, especially if your speakers are rear-ported.

Ideally, you want the nearest boundary (walls, floor or ceiling) to be at least 3 times further away from the speaker than your ears are. If pulling the speakers closer to your ears is the only way to get them away from the walls, go ahead and do that.

The OP's problem is that he's not hearing the bass accurately in the studio, and is correct in assuming that speaker placement may help. In the absence of serious acoustical treatments, the best strategy is probably to move the monitors closer (while still keeping them in an equilateral triangle).

Of course, this won't prevent the room from screwing with the sound. Only heavy bass trapping is going to help with that.

As for the lightness in the highs, that could be because the room is particularly bright and reflective, or it could mean a speaker adjustment is needed.

I'd take some measurements first, running white noise through the speakers into an omnidirectional microphone. I'd want to verify that my speakers are reasonably flat above 4KHz. If not, there is probably an adjustment on the speaker to turn the tweeter up.

But if the problem isn't with the speaker, the room is the likely culprit. Some absorption should clear that up, especially absorbers to the left and right of the speakers, and a ceiling cloud above, midway between speakers and mix position.