Soffit or not ot soffit, that is the question..

orangenumerik · Post by **orangenumerik** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:13 am

Wow! this is really a great forum, thanks to everyone that make it possible.

Can someone clarify this : In a lot of studio design i have seen on this and other sites a lot of peoples use free field references monitor in a soffit manner, i don't get it. I always though that free field (near field-mid field) speaker were calibrated and made to be used on a stand otherwise you skew the frequency response.And if you want soffited speaker you need to buy some that were design to be so. Any monitor front ported or not will have bass radiating behind it and was measured and designed taking that in consideration. I need really some light on that issue. What are your theories/opinions/ideas on the subject.

I am actually designing my whole studio (see link below) and this is spinning in my head like crazy ':shock:'. Most engineer i have talk with around here tell me not to soffit, but i have a space issue, so....

My Studio design

BTW my monitors are KRK E8t active as mains and KRK7000b passive as second.

Thanks to all.

Eric Arbour
Orange Numerik
Montreal

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:56 am

Eric, did you see my response to your other thread, same question? Steve

orangenumerik · Post by **orangenumerik** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:17 am

Yes i did Steve thanks. I did read the thread you are refering to from barefoot. But Barefoot also stated in another thread that he wasn't sure that soffit was the best solution.

BTW sorry for double posting but i though i might get faster response by asking the question in the right forum. I won't do it again promise.

knightfly · Post by **knightfly** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:32 am

I think that maybe part of the reason Barefoot's changing his mind is that he's been talking to more mastering engineers lately than mix engineers; almost NO mastering engineers I've communicated with are proponents of soffiting, I think mainly because the goal of mastering is to make as close to an ideal "living room" as possible, so that the final product will sound "right" in that environment, assuming the home listening setup is done as well as possible.

When mixing, being able to localize a particular sound in the mix is arguably more important than when mastering, plus a CR usually doesn't have as much furniture, etc, so needs to optimize modal characteristics of the room as much as possible; and soffiting lessens some of the SBIR problems, etc, moreso than freestanding speakers.

Just my $.02... Steve

serge instrumental · Post by **serge instrumental** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:55 pm

knightfly wrote:I think that maybe part of the reason Barefoot's changing his mind is that he's been talking to more mastering engineers lately than mix engineers; almost NO mastering engineers I've communicated with are proponents of soffiting, I think mainly because the goal of mastering is to make as close to an ideal "living room" as possible, so that the final product will sound "right" in that environment, assuming the home listening setup is done as well as possible.

When mixing, being able to localize a particular sound in the mix is arguably more important than when mastering, plus a CR usually doesn't have as much furniture, etc, so needs to optimize modal characteristics of the room as much as possible; and soffiting lessens some of the SBIR problems, etc, moreso than freestanding speakers.

Just my $.02... Steve

I would say that in a short answer you give all the subteleties between recording and mastering.

Every job has it's own clue.

You're teaching some real basic here!

Soffit=more money but greater idea of what is going on, but mastering setup=closest to home listening.

Anyway you did it.