I've done this for the last few years, but I only put two small pads within a reasonable point on my desk of the reflection points. James Khan confirmed a few months ago as well. So it is good to hear you have acknowledged him for finding this out and reiterating this to your audience as well. I recommend this technique as well. Good work!
What you can do is to put tilted pieces of wood on reflection points and use that real estate to place something on them so that the space is usable as well
I know for sure my big desk is problematic because the FAA made me instal a windsock and runway landing lights for local aircraft flying into South Florida! ;-) Seriously, this is perfect timing because my desk is 36x84 and I have TWO 32" Monitors on my desk. I've tested with big fluffy beach towels on the desktop on each side of my keyboard and I've covered at least one of the 32" monitors with beach towels too as test. Everything matters and your ideas will help me solve the desk reflections thank you but I'm totally lost on how to treat the monitors. Both are on VESA arms that swivel etc. Do you think pivoting them to reflect my voice OFF to the sides could help and yet still let me see the screens? That's about the easiest fix I can think of. Thanks! ~Robert
Kudos for even thinking of this solution in the first place. What about suspending those panels right under the speakers, but not blocking the path to your ears? You would have to make some kind of arms or supports to do that. Another idea would be some sort of absorptive acoustic "matte box" (like for a cinema lens)? The closer to the speaker, the earlier it could kill sound going off in less desirable directions.
Catching the reflections earlier is an interesting idea and something I didn't think about before. I might try to think of a way to do this... Thanks for the suggestion!
I have two angled control surfaces on the mirror points on my desk. So my work flow gear doubles as a shallow angle surface for my monitor sound waves. The effect is easily noticable and very positve. I had angled pads installed before this, but they seemed to color the sound more. I can post measurements if anyone should be interested.
Trying this in the morning! Actually had it on the list to test with room eq wizard but glad to see someone else doing it too. Been working a mixing setup i can quickly bring in some extra panels to improve clarity
The first angle of reflection is super important to treat. If that is your desk then what you showed is a good solution. I would be curious to know your desk height, your tweeter height, and your ear height.
I have kind of a custom built desk and don’t really have much real estate available for even small panels, but I really want to try this out and maybe I’ll work something into the next iteration!
The small desk might be all you need Greg! Another option is to drill holes in the desk at the reflection points, but that can be a little sketchy... 😆
i might give this a try! i've got some extra insulation in the basement and some extra plywood in the garage, if nothing else at least the cats will have something new to lay on lol
I think this would absolutely work to some degree! I was considering the gaming mat/neoprene idea but had these materials left over... If you do it, let me know if it helped! Cheers!
Thanks for the video, great solution 👍. I have a few questions. I have my speakers on my pc desk and their reflection points are way too close to me - partially covering my mouse mat and keyboard - so the mini panels wouldn’t fit. I can’t push the speakers back due to limited space. I was wondering, if the Mini panels are angled at, say 10 degrees (facing towards me), would this push their reflection point back further on the desk? Would the angled plywood at the base of the mini panels reflect the affected frequencies? If so how thick would the wood have to be? Cheers!
Hmm I'm not totally sure about that. Tilting the speakers or your desk is and option, but be careful not to tip things over like you're monitor or speakers! This is probably something you just need to experiment with. One other ideas is maybe get a large thick"gaming mat" that could cover your entire desk and also absorb some frequencies. Thicker the better for this.
Man, why are you talking about freq response if the whole magic happed in reflections? Your first reflection (that comes from the desk) now is quiter so you don't hear doubled like signal, and that's why everything sounds clearer, but its not about frequencies......
The reflections cause a cancellation of certain frequencies at the listing position by interacting with the other room reflections. I hope that makes it more clear now - thanks for the comment!
hope the insulation particles don't get into your lungs - cuz thats a real thing i figure - being so close your nostrils there but, hey great idea to somehow treat the desk!
th-cam.com/video/b3O8jmDVZgs/w-d-xo.html - Hey Bobby, I see 2 BIG bumps in the green treated curve at the first arrow and to the right of the 3rd arrow - like you're getting MORE reflection with the treated panels in place. What do you think might cause that?
Good observation! I think those could be caused from the removal of sound waves that were destructively canceling frequencies in that area (caused from the reflection from my desk). If I wanted to retune my room by EQing my speakers, I could probably offset those peaks. I will say though that the improved imaging far outweighs some of the minor changes in other areas of the frequency spectrum. For my case this is a night/day improvement. Thanks for the great question!
Yes! This is something I hope to do at some point, but given all the different things I do in addition to mixing music (like making these videos haha!) this is the optimal setup for me. If you were just mixing and that's it, I'd say get rid of the desk all together!
Having a flat or dead room will not make you a better mixer. Chris Lord Alge's studio for example is definitely not an Ideal space acoustically with all his gear directly behind him. A measurement in a lot of pro studios would show bad eq curves. It's what you can achieve with what you have. Making it flatter doesn't make you better. Just like better gear doesn't make you better.
Great points here. But I would like to challenge this a little bit if you don't mind 🙂 how much BETTER could these mixers be if they had a slightly better sounding room? Or in our home studios, how much better could the final mix become using these small tricks to improve our imaging or freq balance? Or if not better, how much faster could we mix not having to check the mix on multiple sources? Just my thoughts at the moment 🙂 thanks for sharing!
@@RaytownProductions I can agree with you on that. Putting treatment on your desk is a little overboard in my opinion. Have not seen any pro home studio people doing that. Also, EQ curves don't tell the whole story. Everyone hears different so results of a mix would be different.
Looking at this picture of where the Genelec studio monitors are located... it appears they are too close together and aimed at your face and not aimed toward the back of your head brushing by your ears. So yes, I'm commenting two years later so maybe you moved them farther out by now... he he.
Turn down the volume and be happy without reflection problems during mixing.
I've done this for the last few years, but I only put two small pads within a reasonable point on my desk of the reflection points. James Khan confirmed a few months ago as well. So it is good to hear you have acknowledged him for finding this out and reiterating this to your audience as well. I recommend this technique as well. Good work!
That's awesome man! James is great and someone I respect and trust. Glad to see it's working for you as well. Cheers man!
Thanks for the shoutout man! Desk reflections are severely under-discussed in general and I'm glad you took the time to make this awesome video 🙏
Hey man! Absolutely - thanks so much for the suggestion. It's a game changer 🤘
Thank you
What you can do is to put tilted pieces of wood on reflection points and use that real estate to place something on them so that the space is usable as well
I know for sure my big desk is problematic because the FAA made me instal a windsock and runway landing lights for local aircraft flying into South Florida! ;-) Seriously, this is perfect timing because my desk is 36x84 and I have TWO 32" Monitors on my desk. I've tested with big fluffy beach towels on the desktop on each side of my keyboard and I've covered at least one of the 32" monitors with beach towels too as test. Everything matters and your ideas will help me solve the desk reflections thank you but I'm totally lost on how to treat the monitors. Both are on VESA arms that swivel etc. Do you think pivoting them to reflect my voice OFF to the sides could help and yet still let me see the screens? That's about the easiest fix I can think of. Thanks! ~Robert
Kudos for even thinking of this solution in the first place. What about suspending those panels right under the speakers, but not blocking the path to your ears? You would have to make some kind of arms or supports to do that.
Another idea would be some sort of absorptive acoustic "matte box" (like for a cinema lens)? The closer to the speaker, the earlier it could kill sound going off in less desirable directions.
Catching the reflections earlier is an interesting idea and something I didn't think about before. I might try to think of a way to do this... Thanks for the suggestion!
I have two angled control surfaces on the mirror points on my desk. So my work flow gear doubles as a shallow angle surface for my monitor sound waves. The effect is easily noticable and very positve. I had angled pads installed before this, but they seemed to color the sound more. I can post measurements if anyone should be interested.
Trying this in the morning! Actually had it on the list to test with room eq wizard but glad to see someone else doing it too. Been working a mixing setup i can quickly bring in some extra panels to improve clarity
Nice video bobby! Gamechanger for anyone using monitors
Would be interesting to see a comparison vs MLV which would be much more practical and could cover the entire desk.
I’ve put pillows on my desk to record voiceover and the difference it makes is absolutely massive
I had the same experience with these little pads! I think it depends on your situation, but in my case it was like night and day.
Thanks for the heads up! Definitely going to do this hopefully this weekend 💯
The first angle of reflection is super important to treat. If that is your desk then what you showed is a good solution. I would be curious to know your desk height, your tweeter height, and your ear height.
I have thought of this but always assumed that it wasn't a big deal. Gonna try this for sure! Thanks!
Me too haha! Hope you find it helpful 🙂
I have kind of a custom built desk and don’t really have much real estate available for even small panels, but I really want to try this out and maybe I’ll work something into the next iteration!
The small desk might be all you need Greg! Another option is to drill holes in the desk at the reflection points, but that can be a little sketchy... 😆
Gonna give this a try once I have some extra insulation. Thanks for the video! Will report back.
Please do! Was a game changer for me!
i might give this a try! i've got some extra insulation in the basement and some extra plywood in the garage, if nothing else at least the cats will have something new to lay on lol
Hahaha it will blow your mind. I could NOT believe the difference it makes. But then you will have cat diffusers and these mini panels on your desk 😉
How about using 1 or gaming mats or a layer of mass loaded vinyl or just thick cloth.
I think this would absolutely work to some degree! I was considering the gaming mat/neoprene idea but had these materials left over... If you do it, let me know if it helped! Cheers!
This is rad!
Thanks for the video, great solution 👍. I have a few questions. I have my speakers on my pc desk and their reflection points are way too close to me - partially covering my mouse mat and keyboard - so the mini panels wouldn’t fit. I can’t push the speakers back due to limited space. I was wondering, if the Mini panels are angled at, say 10 degrees (facing towards me), would this push their reflection point back further on the desk? Would the angled plywood at the base of the mini panels reflect the affected frequencies? If so how thick would the wood have to be? Cheers!
Hmm I'm not totally sure about that. Tilting the speakers or your desk is and option, but be careful not to tip things over like you're monitor or speakers! This is probably something you just need to experiment with. One other ideas is maybe get a large thick"gaming mat" that could cover your entire desk and also absorb some frequencies. Thicker the better for this.
@@RaytownProductions thanks 🙂
Man, why are you talking about freq response if the whole magic happed in reflections? Your first reflection (that comes from the desk) now is quiter so you don't hear doubled like signal, and that's why everything sounds clearer, but its not about frequencies......
The reflections cause a cancellation of certain frequencies at the listing position by interacting with the other room reflections. I hope that makes it more clear now - thanks for the comment!
hope the insulation particles don't get into your lungs - cuz thats a real thing i figure - being so close your nostrils there but, hey great idea to somehow treat the desk!
th-cam.com/video/b3O8jmDVZgs/w-d-xo.html - Hey Bobby, I see 2 BIG bumps in the green treated curve at the first arrow and to the right of the 3rd arrow - like you're getting MORE reflection with the treated panels in place. What do you think might cause that?
Good observation! I think those could be caused from the removal of sound waves that were destructively canceling frequencies in that area (caused from the reflection from my desk).
If I wanted to retune my room by EQing my speakers, I could probably offset those peaks.
I will say though that the improved imaging far outweighs some of the minor changes in other areas of the frequency spectrum. For my case this is a night/day improvement.
Thanks for the great question!
I did this but used 1/2 sheets of cork
Couldn't you just put a lot of that equipment on a side table, then have your keyboard, mouse etc. On a small/narrow desk on wheels?
Yes! This is something I hope to do at some point, but given all the different things I do in addition to mixing music (like making these videos haha!) this is the optimal setup for me. If you were just mixing and that's it, I'd say get rid of the desk all together!
Having a flat or dead room will not make you a better mixer. Chris Lord Alge's studio for example is definitely not an Ideal space acoustically with all his gear directly behind him. A measurement in a lot of pro studios would show bad eq curves. It's what you can achieve with what you have. Making it flatter doesn't make you better. Just like better gear doesn't make you better.
Great points here. But I would like to challenge this a little bit if you don't mind 🙂 how much BETTER could these mixers be if they had a slightly better sounding room? Or in our home studios, how much better could the final mix become using these small tricks to improve our imaging or freq balance? Or if not better, how much faster could we mix not having to check the mix on multiple sources? Just my thoughts at the moment 🙂 thanks for sharing!
@@RaytownProductions I can agree with you on that. Putting treatment on your desk is a little overboard in my opinion. Have not seen any pro home studio people doing that. Also, EQ curves don't tell the whole story. Everyone hears different so results of a mix would be different.
Looking at this picture of where the Genelec studio monitors are located... it appears they are too close together and aimed at your face and not aimed toward the back of your head brushing by your ears. So yes, I'm commenting two years later so maybe you moved them farther out by now... he he.