So What Is The Median Plane Exactly?

The Median Plane is a line along which all points are equidistant from the two loudspeakers. If you have multiple pairs of speakers (and you should) they should all share the same Median Plane. And it would be really nice if the room also shared that Median Plane, so that its side walls are also equidistant from the Median Plane.

Establishing The Median Plane In Your Studio

Back in the '80s, when we conducted the National Public Radio Music Recording Workshops, our resident guru Neil Muncy went to great pains to establish the Median Plane, to the point where he had us build a monitoring "shell" inside each of the various spaces in which we conducted classes. This shell was strictly symmetrical (to the inch), and he then usually laid tape down on the floor to show the Median Plane. Listening seats were in rows of three along the Plane, with the center seat exactly on the Plane.

During the course of the workshops, we went to similar pains to get everybody used to listening on the Median Plane, and to sensitize them to the differences in what they heard when they on the Plane compared to what they heard even a little off the Plane (oh, say, six inches or so). The differences were significant, and we all became painfully aware of just how important listening on the Plane was.

Virtually all professionally designed and built audio control rooms are symmetrical, with viable Median Planes. However, many if not most project rooms, multipurpose rooms and in-house-designed educational rooms (both Berklee's and Emerson's studios are typical examples of this genre) tend to forget the Median Plane under the pressure to get everything else in. This makes stereophonic mixes far more difficult to hear, understand and produce than it is in rooms with more carefully established and maintained Median Planes.

Even in rooms with a good Median Plane, placement of the console, racks, chairs and other furniture, not to mention the video monitor, the studio window, etc., tend to mess things up, particularly as the room evolves over time. So you've got to take on-going pains to make sure that the evolution of your studio doesn't inadvertently cost you a good Median Plane just because you get a different-sized (er, bigger) console.

So, to the extent you can, lay out a viable Median Plane, get all the speakers to relate to that Plane, make the Plane visually obvious, and place all the favored working positions for studio production functions along the Plane.

You will be rewarded for your efforts, in terms of productivity, improved recording quality, and client morale.