Professional Audio Setup & Best Studio Monitors for Editors

More editors than ever are working from at home since the pandemic. I love being able to do this, but as I’m spending so much time here, I need to make some upgrades. Here are a few changes that I made to my audio setup, that could also transform your workspace.

There are two main problems that I’m trying to solve:

• Reverb – my small, boxy room has terrible acoustics, so playback is okay, but recording sound is pretty difficult
• Monitoring – the speakers I currently own are incredible for their size, but they are not a reliable reference for mixing audio

Before we think about solving these issues, it’s also important to define the purpose of these upgrades:

• This is a work investment, not a luxury purchase. This isn’t about stuff being cool, it’s about helping us to edit more effectively, comfortably, and efficiently.
• I’m primarily an editor and colorist, so I don’t need the absolute best audio setup, but I do need something better than what I currently have.

Finally, it’s worth noting that this is a learning process – I’m not a professional sound engineer, just an editor like you. If you have any suggestions or advice, please leave it in the comments.

Absorbing Sound

To fix the problem, we need to understand the problem.

Hard walls are really good at reflecting sounds. Any sound you make is going to bounce from wall to wall, until it finally runs out of energy.

When you make a sound, you might hear thousands of reflections of that sound before it ultimately decays. This is where sound absorbing panels, or acoustic panels, come in.

There’s typically three parts to most acoustic panels: some sort of frame or structure, an acoustically absorbent filling, and an attractive fabric covering.

Once installed on your walls or ceilings, those panels reduce reverberations by absorbing sound waves instead of reflecting them. Even covering a small portion of your walls in acoustic panels can significantly decrease reverb.

Not all acoustic panels are equal though. For example, sound-absorbing materials need to be dense and soft, and lighter materials are less able to suck the energy out of the sound.

Hence, if a panel is too thin, longer, lower-frequency sound waves can pass straight through. The thicker the panel, the more sound it can absorb.

Buying Acoustic Panels

With that in mind, let’s look at some options.

First up, foam acoustic panels are super popular and cheap. There’s a couple of things I don’t like though:

• The quality of the foam can vary wildly. For example, foam that is too light or too hard will not act as a good absorber.
• Most tiles tend to be quite thin as well, affecting their ability to attenuate lower frequencies.
• They’re kind of fiddly to install, and you need to find a way of sticking them all together and then getting them up onto your wall.

Overall, I’m not really a fan of this option. I want something a little bit more invisible and subtle for my edit space.

What I want are proper acoustic panels. There’s lots of manufacturers that make them and prices will vary depending on size, thickness, and design features.

After doing some research, I found some that were a really reasonable price, but once I factor in quantity, my budget didn’t quite extend that far. However, lots of people have had success making their own acoustic panels, so I gave that a try.

DIY Acoustic Panels

To make these myself, I built some timber frames, filled them with acoustic insulation, wrapped them in fabric, and then hung them on my walls. I decided to use Rockwool acoustic insulation – it’s designed to go in drywall cavities and it helps to stop the transfer of sound from one room through to another.

Rockwool makes their insulation in different thicknesses. I could have purchased 100mm thick insulation, which will do a slightly better job of attenuating lower frequencies.

However, my office is kind of tiny, and I’m worried about it feeling claustrophobic with thick panels hanging on the walls. For that reason, I decided on using 50mm insulation.

The frame was built out of soft wood, assembled with glue and screws. Once the insulation was installed, I wrapped it with cotton muslin fabric.

It’s important that you pick a fabric that is as acoustically transparent as possible. A good test for that is hold the fabric up to your mouth and try and breathe through it; if you can breathe relatively comfortably through the fabric, then that’s a good sign that it’s at least partially acoustically transparent.

For this project I used saw, a drill, a staple gun, and some other miscellaneous tools. You can complete this project just fine with manual tools, but you will have to work a little bit harder for it.

To keep costs down, I used landscaping weed fabric on the backs. To mount the panels on the wall I used screws, staples, and picture hanging hardware.

Audio Upgrades

These Audioengine A2s that I currently own are fantastic. For speakers this small , they have an incredible amount of range.

However, I’m using them for something that they’ve not been designed for, which is mixing audio. So what I need are proper studio reference monitors, and I’ve chosen the Yamaha HS5s.

There are cheaper or more expensive options available, but these sit in the sweet spot for me. They are the right size for my desk, the right price, and more than enough quality for the kind of work that I do.

As I mentioned before, I’m not an audio expert. So instead of me trying to tell you more about how great these speakers are, check out this review by actual experts that we watched as part of our research.

The frequency response on the HS5s only goes as low as 54 hertz, which is pretty common for speakers of this size. For that reason, I’ve decided to pair them with Yamaha’s matching HS8S subwoofer. This giant speaker will fill in that gap and handle the very low frequencies.

These speakers need to be connected to your computer through a professional audio interface. They connect to your computer via USB and then they give you professional audio inputs and outputs.

Fortunately, I’ve already got one. I’m using the Moto M4. But I’ve also had great experience using the Focusrite TI2. I switched over to the Moto M4 because I wanted more inputs and outputs, and I also really love this LCD VU meter that it has built into the front.

The next thing that we’re going to need is cables. The speakers are daisy-chained off the subwoofer, so I’ll need four cables – two to run to the sub and two to run to the speakers.

It’s important to buy balanced cables, as they help to reduce unwanted noise and interference. All three pin XLR cables are balanced, but not all jack cables are. So make sure you buy TRS cables, not TS.

When it comes to selecting the right type of jack, it’s really easy to spot the difference. Just look at the jack and count the number of rings. A TRS cable will have three.

Finally, let’s talk about speaker placement. The HS5s are Near-Field monitors. That means they sound best when used at a short distance and a very sensitive to the direction they face.

High frequencies are more directional than low frequencies, so as a rule of thumb, position the speakers with the tweeters at ear height, then angle them so that they point directly at the spot where you usually sit or stand when you work.

To get my speakers at the right height, I am going to need speaker stands. So I’ve bought some inexpensive stands from König & Meyer. They are adjustable and they have rubber feet on to help stop vibrations from the speaker transferring into the desk.

Results and Cost

I think the panels look pretty great, and the difference is amazing – the room is noticeably deader. This is going to make a huge difference when recording voiceover. The speakers sound amazing too, they have so much more range and detail.

The overall volume is controlled by my audio interface, but you’ll want to tweak the sub woofer. First, dial the volume in, uou don’t want it louder than your monitors. Second, adjust the crossover, so the subwoofer is not playing the same frequencies as the monitors.

So how much did it cost? Well, your mileage might vary depending on how much materials cost locally, but here’s what it cost me:

• Acoustic Panel Materials – $250
• Monitor speakers – $430
• Subwoofer – $520
• Speaker stands – $70
• Cables – $80

So my total spend for a professional audio upgrade was $1350. If my budget was tighter, losing the subwoofer would’ve been an easy way to half the cost.

Wrap Up

This is miles better than what I had before, I’m very happy with the end result. This is going to be a big help with my work.

Once you’ve got your editing setup sorted, head over to our training page to get started with some sample lessons on any topic that you like, from general creative editing, to working with music, cutting action scenes, trailers, promos, and a bunch more.