Sweet Spot

Following on from the last issue’s look at the various work stages involved in creating a studio from an architectural/acoustic perspective, ROGER D’ARCY gives some real-life cost analysis for a selection of real-life case studies. It offers an invaluable insight in to how your budget will be broken down if you build that room correctly.

More manufacturers are adding digital monitors to their ranges but what does ‘digital’ mean in this context? PIERRE THOMAS from Fundamental Acoustic Research documents his company’s progress into digital monitoring.

Recently introduced as an affordable and complete acoustic treatment package that you can have specified remotely, DPA/KKDK Acoustic Panels promise much for rooms looking for improvement. NEIL HILLMAN test drives the process and the system in his own The Audio Suite.

You use them on a daily basis and base all your judgements upon their output, but do you understand the fundamental differences between the different types of loudspeaker box? PMC’s JOSEF ALBERS gives a crash course in loudspeaker basics.

‘Fantastic, true sounding bass: these small monitors tell you exactly what is on the recording’ – a statement typical of what you read in many advertisements, but it is often far from the truth. In fact it cannot be true says PHILIP NEWELL. At realistic monitoring levels, the low frequency response of small loudspeakers cannot be as accurate in terms of frequency response and transient response as a good large monitor system, flush-mounted in the front wall of a well-controlled room.

As with all tools, their inherent usefulness is determined primarily by the hands that use them and in the case of control room monitoring environments, the ears that refer to them. SOOCH SAN SOUCI from Audio Engineering SARL discusses multichannel control room issues and considerations.

There’s more to a studio than a PC and a sound card, right? Leaving aside the operational differences between cheap and expensive audio systems, the one thing that unequivocally still takes considerable time, money and know-how to accomplish is a soundproofed room with decent acoustics and monitoring. JIM BETTERIDGE documents the rebuild of his studio.

The fast spread of discrete multichannel audio logically reinforces the use and development of subwoofer speakers. While subwoofers are extensively used in professional, consumer, home theatre, car audio and movie theatre markets, the history and development of their design and technology is quite poorly documented.

JBS's LSR6300 Series studio monitors employ a variety of technologies that aim to address the limitations of real-world control room environments and to offer consistent and optimised performance at the listening position. JBL Professional’s PETER CHAIKIN talks us through the thinking and the implementation.

You can get a big sound from a small room by employing SpaceCoupler panels to achieve loosely coupled spaces, according to Auralex Acoustics chief acoustical engineer JEFF D SZYMANSKI. He takes us through the principles and applications of this interesting new product.

Following his design and build, which has been covered in previous issues, JIM BETTERIDGE is now after a license for his Stationhouse post studios and explains his preparation and the process involved when dealing with the Dolby police.

Is music-only surround sound supposed to be a high fidelity medium, or is it just a pleasant spacial experience? PHILIP NEWELL asks if surround sound is capable of giving us all that we have grown to expect from the best stereophonic reproduction, plus, the sensation of greater envelopment within the music.

Integrating DSP into monitoring requires a number of key decisions to be made in the design and implementation stages if the technology is to offer real benefi ts to the user. Genelec’s CHRISTOPHE ANET and ILPO MARTIKAINEN explain the company’s take on the subject and how it has been applied to its new monitor products.

German monitor manufacturer ADAM has majored on its use of strange-looking drivers in its model range. ADAM Audio’s KLAUS HEINZ explains how they put the ART in their midrange and tweeter driver designs.

PHILIP NEWELL outlines the essentials of a recent paper, co-written with Shelley Katz, that describes an interesting new approach to surround sound*.

During the stipulation of requirements for Blue sky’s nearfield and midfield monitors, the company started at the end of the sound chain and worked backwards to the beginning. Blue sky international co-founder PASCAL SIJEN explains the process and the integration of the subwoofer.

JBl is celebrating 60 years in monitoring design — a period that has seen remarkable shifts in work methods and environments. JBl’s JoHn eaRGle says that from its earliest transducer designs to its high-tech studio monitors it has remained at the leading edge.