Workstation in corner of the room??? Bad Idea???

[Pat Engh]

I always see studio consoles behind a flat wall, is it bad to set up in corner areas of the room???

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

In a properly set up room, you shouldn't see the console against the wall at all. They should be a minimum of 18" away from any surface, and depending on the size of the room, triple that is better. Corners can be scary too, because of the dual reflection surfaces. If you use a corner, be sure to test for combining freq points. I'd recommend having someone from your local professional audio shop come in and do an analysis with RTA, and don't be surprised if you end up with a few problems.
If it's a small bedroom-type suite, and you monitor at very low levels, it'll work, just not as optimal as it could/should be.

[Steve House]

Douglas, would a corner or along the wall arrangement be improved by wallpapering the lower half the walls down to the floor with Auralex foam or similar absorbant materials, or at least fastening absorbent foam to the wall extending a few feet around a point directly behind each monitor speaker? Is the problem with close walls that they reflect too much sound or is it the sound they reflect arrives at the ear too close in time to the direct sound from the monitors, thus creating phase artifacts as they mix?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

There are several problems with corners, the largest of which, you've correctly identified. Corners can often cause reflected sound to hit the sweet spot at nearly the same time as direct, causing a node or comb. Anti-reflection/diffusion is usually beneficial in a small room, but I don't know that it would be enough to combat the effect. Putting absorption in the corner in the form of Lenr'ds and then something like Metro would help a lot, but still don't know if it would diffuse/absorb enough to correct. I have a semi-corner set up in our video room, and as long as I keep levels below average, it works fine. But, as the volume goes up, so does the cancelation and there is a big lo-mid node right at 300 that is simply ugly at average to loud levels. No amount of treatment applied to the wall will kill that; the room construction or angle needs to change in my particular case.