So How Do You Do It?

The above remarks suggest, perhaps dictate, that the Median Plane should lie along the long axis of the control room, and that control rooms be long rather than wide. Further, the acoustic character (materials, absorptivity at frequency, furnishings, etc.) of the side walls should be similar and roughly symmetrical as well (to the foot). Try to get your Median Plane itself accurate to the inch, especially regarding speaker placement.

Once you've done all that, then you've got to consider the placement of your studio furniture.

Consoles are wide rather than deep, by design. Usually, the master section is off to the right, which is a major pain. I try to set things up so that I can easily reach the various master functions I need all the time without moving my head off the Plane. This means that I like for the console to usually be offset a little to the left. I normally set up mix assignments on the console channels closest to the master section, and assign the most critical channels (would you believe vocal tracks, bass, and kick drum?) to the channels closest to the Plane.

Are you doing a lot of synth work? Then you should locate the keyboard along the Median Plane. This is particularly true if you are doing any patch editing or development that has stereo implications.

If you have clients, or a producer, or anybody else also working with you, you should have comfortable chairs or a sofa on the Median Plane for them. Try to not have comfortable chairs anyplace else.

All of this means that when you are working on stereo material, you are all lined up along the Plane, on a line from front to back. Odd as it feels, this is probably the best way to do it. I've often wondered about the "producers desk" on consoles, that tiny little work surface off to the right just below the patch bay. Aside from the fact it's too small, it condemns the producer to a defective, error-inducing listening position.

One of the best ways I know to keep people on the Median Plane is through the use of strong visual cues. Years ago, at Dondisound (my first studio), I pasted a paper moon to the control room wall above the windows that was right on the Median Plane. Then, about two feet out from the wall, I hung a model W.W.I biplane situated so that it was facing out into the room along the Median Plane. If you saw the plane coming out of the moon, you were on the Median Plane. Such a cue works pretty well, and it amuses the clients (a major virtue). Other visual cues I've used include installing an RTA on the meter bridge right on the Median Plane and putting colored tape on the meter bridge and console arm-rest to mark the median plane.

If you have In-Yer-Face® speakers on the meter bridge, you should carefully mark their correct location and toe-in angle, so you can always get them correctly positioned. One trick I've seen to help with this is Velcro hold-down patches on the bottom of the monitors and similarly on the meter bridge.

Another, fairly high tech, indicator that you can use to really impress your clients and neighbors is an LED (always on) at the far end of a tube aimed down the Median Plane. If you can see the LED, you are on the Median Plane. I recall KEF used to use such a trick for some of their loudspeakers.

In my new room, I've done several things to really make the Median Plane obvious and useful. First, I've made it the visual focus of the room, with a big atrium-type window whose center mullion is the Median Plane, with a window bench below it on which to place speakers. Second, I've put down an oriental carpet whose center line is on the Median Plane. The symmetrical design of the carpet makes it a cinch to locate speakers on the floor accurately. Third, I built a "desk" that houses all the hardware and placed it very carefully on the Median Plane. Finally, I situated all the couches in the room on the Median Plane, so that the obvious, comfortable places to sit and listen are the correct places, technically speaking, to sit and listen.

You can use any or all of the above to help in your own room. Just keep in mind that you are going to have to go the trouble of getting the furniture to work, because the manufacturers aren't any real help, and particularly when space is tight you may have significant hassles getting the equipment to fit nicely along the Median Plane.

What I did was, I designed and built a piece of furniture, which I called . . .