2. Buying expensive speakers (and orienting them wrong)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Although it might seem intuitive that better speakers equal better sound, it\u2019s probably not worth shelling out thousands for top-of-the-line monitors in your bedroom setup. Yes, I want the PMC twotwo 8\u201d too,<\/a> but my room isn\u2019t treated well enough for me to be able to fully appreciate the differences they would bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do you get budget monitors to sound good? Well, I suggest starting by ensuring that they’re pointed at your head. It might be aesthetically tempting to place your monitors straight on, perpendicular to the back corners of your desk, but if you\u2019re after the best possible audio performance, you shouldn’t set your studio monitors parallel to each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about the direction of the air that your speakers move; if the vibrations go straight past your ears, more sound will bounce off the walls instead of hitting them directly, so you\u2019ll hear more room reflections, creating unnecessary mixing challenges. Instead, place your speakers at an angle, such that they form an equilateral (or at least isoceles) triangle with your head when you’re seated at your mix position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspiration comes and goes, as do the tools that producers use to channel their creativity. Simply owning a piece of gear does not<\/em> mean that you must always have it at the ready! I\u2019ve unnecessarily cluttered many a desks by feeling the need to set up each piece of gear that I own, regardless of whether I still use it frequently. Try putting some of your stuff away, making space to prioritize the equipment you really do need. Perhaps you can even use the opportunity to dive deeper into some of the gear you don\u2019t instinctively reach for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All quarter-inch cables aren’t created equal. If you, like the author of this piece, keep a milk crate and a few cardboard boxes filled to the brim with cable spaghetti (that you\u2019ve been meaning to organize for the last four years), you might also grab and connect an unbalanced quarter-inch cable instead of a balanced one in a rush to sample the cool pitch-down sound your ancient MicroKorg makes as its batteries die, only to listen back to the recording and learn that the audio was ruined by a nasty electrical hum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If, on the other hand, you were a seasoned audio professional setting up an ideal bedroom studio setup to use while working at home, you would organize any necessary audio cables<\/a> into beautiful, regular coils. You would take good care of your cables, hanging them lovingly on wide hooks made specifically for this purpose. Finally, you would avoid wrecking your recordings by using the right cables at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n An unbalanced TS quarter-inch cable (left) and a balanced TRS quarter-inch cable (right)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The acronym ‘TS’ refers to an unbalanced cable\u2019s two contact points: tip and sleeve. TRS cables, on the other hand, have an extra insulator ring: tip, ring, and sleeve. The extra insulation ring allows balanced cables to reduce noise through common-mode rejection. As a rule of thumb, unbalanced cables should only be used for mono instrument signals like electric guitar. Make sure you use balanced cables to connect your interface to your speakers! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have any common bedroom studio setup mistakes that we didn’t mention above? Let us know in the comments below \u2013 the last bonus tip I’ll leave you with is to avoid leaving your Nintendo Switch plugged into your screen\u2019s HDMI 2 port (this one\u2019s easier said than done). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Explore royalty-free sounds from leading artists, producers, and sound designers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Cramming all your gear onto your desk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Using unbalanced cables instead of balanced ones<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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