There was a time when my trusty M-Audio BX-5 speakers were a mainstay on my desk. While not the most elaborate near fields, they had a decent range of controls for tuning their response, and seemed to give an honest acoustic portrayal of what’s piped through them – for their price range. But with a recent spate of surround work, they managed to get pushed to the back of my gear closet and have been gathering dust for some time. I had grown accustomed to the sound of the LX-4 5.1 surround system, and often used them for stereo work by simply routing to them in a 2.1 configuration.

Of course it’s much better to check mixes through multiple speaker sets, to increase the chances that a problem hiding on one set of speakers might somehow emerge on another, making for a more even mix that will translate well to “the real world”. Now that I’ve installed the SmartAV Tango and an extension bay, there’s a lot of new flexibility in routing through Nuendo’s Control Room function that makes checking mixes through multiple speaker sets a real breeze. I’ll be cutting a video or two to show how that works, but before any of that could happen I really need to have everything set up and calibrated.

As usual, it took a great deal more time than I had originally expected. That’s because, of course, once I moved the left and right LX-4 speakers around to make room for the BX-5s, they needed to be re-calibrated as well. Plus I think the SmartAV console is entering into the acoustic picture more than I expected. I think there are some additional things I can do to make the room a more “friendly” acoustic space, and reduce the amount tweaking I would have to do in order to get things dialed in. My first guess is that the large angled surface of the Tango console has done something to change the initial reflection of sound in the room, which can affect overall sound perception fairly dramatically. I think I’ll move some of the acoustic treatment around to compensate.

In the past I’ve managed to generate some controversy around statements I’ve made regarding the amount of money people should spend on near field monitors versus the budget for acoustic design/measurement/treatment in the room.  I believe that a lot of folks get caught up in an acoustic “arms race” of sorts, wasting time and money and in essence trying to solve the wrong problems with the wrong tools. And here I am at the limit of what’s possible in my space, trying to apply those very maxims to my situation. I’m just about “maxed out” on the amount of money I can spend on speakers *or* acoustic treatment for the studio I’m in. I might just have to learn to live with the changes and “adjust” my ears to compensate. It will take some initial changes, some listening to old and new material (plus some favorite music that I know well as a baseline) and see what needs to be done next. At a minimum, it will give me an excuse to create some new music for my reel – but all of that will come with the New Year.

Anything more than that and I’ll have to seriously consider moving to a larger space and setting up a mid-field arrangement. Here’s to hoping that the projects in 2009 will support such a move. Until then, I’ll keep playing, composing, arranging, recording, mixing, and of course listening and adjusting.