Your DAW Setup Environment

[THE INTRANCER]

Your DAW setup is pretty important but I believe that the environment in which you may sit for long hours is too. So with that said, for fun, I've created a poll to gauge how people have chosen to set their studio up concerning any windows they have to contend with. You are free to change your votes.

[BBFG#]

Wait, if your DAW is facing the window, does that mean you have your back to it? What if your monitor is under the window? Then you'd be facing it and your DAW has its back to it? What if everything is Buddhist style and closer to the floor angled up toward the ceiling? This poll feels flawed. And I have three setups. All decided by the space itself to maximize the space first with the orientation being more about speaker placement.

[THE INTRANCER]

Wait, if your DAW is facing the window, does that mean you have your back to it?

No, it means you are looking at the DAW setup head-on and have a view out the window/s that doesn't require you to move your body (your torso) to see out the window.

What if your monitor is under the window? Then you'd be facing it and your DAW has its back to it?

You still have a view out the window and perhaps a better view if the monitor is under the window.

What if everything is Buddhist style and closer to the floor angled up toward the ceiling?

It doesn't matter how the setup is angled, think of it as sitting in the middle of a ring set in a horizontal position and how you sit relative to the window.

[BBFG#]

It's all about perception then, where everything faces me and I in turn face everything in my 11th dimensional realm.

[Aliens]

When one is working for hours on music and you're potentially sacrificing a room's best listening position and better mixes, just to be able to check what's happening outside the window for the feels, well, that predictably looks a lot like form over function.

[AdvancedFollower]

When one is working for hours on music and you're potentially sacrificing a room's best listening position and better mixes, just to be able to check what's happening outside the window for the feels, well, that predictably looks a lot like form over function.

Music serves no function, it's all form.

[thecontrolcentre]

The windows in my room are to the right and behind my DAW setup.

[BBFG#]

Windows are sound reflective. So my windows are sound proofed with quilted blackout curtains.

[Aliens]

Music serves no function, it's all form.

Music has functionality in a myriad of ways from multiple perspectives with various goals and ends, so that's quite incorrect in totality, but also not the point being made in relation to the topic.

[ramseysounds]

Im on Mac. I have no windows

[seafire]

Mine is on the top bunk in the boxroom. The window is a velux.

Hope that helps.

[vurt]

ooh get you, beds in the box room.

[sin night]

Mine is a very small room and I have no choice but to have the window on my side. I wish I had a bigger room.

If I had to make a proper treatment, I think there would be acoustic curtains on the window… but I definitely want some natural light during the day, so those would stay open as much as possible.

Another thing to take into account with a window is how the sun will illuminate your working position. My window is oriented to north (more or less) so, unless I go into the studio early in the morning in summer (no way!!!), I rarely have direct sunlight… it would be a nightmare having reflections on my computer screen, or having a strong light source behind my computer screen… this is something to take into account as well.

I work from home about three days every week, so that’s my working as well. Having to spend my day in front of a computer screen, the light is among my priorities.
Having to turn to the side to look outside (and relax my eyes) is not that bad, it’s helpful to think without looking at the computer screen (at least for me). It would be less than ideal if I had to critically listen to music, though.

[.jon]

Windows? I specifically arranged shit to maximise the window views I switched to a laptop to gain freedom and properly utilise the living situation we are blessed with- I can move between:

Open air/windows as walls:
Sitting on the pier/beach side garden with headphones, or facing the sea on the glass porch when it's colder (which is most of the time around here )

Facing big windows with windows everywhere, also above me:
Main living room looking at the sea with my big hifi 2.1 setup (huge, 5m high room in a wooden house leads to very nice acoustics)

Windows to the right and back:
Secondary living room downstairs (lightly treated for home cinema) with a Genelec 2.1 setup

Facing one single window:
I very rarely sit in the downstairs actual studio room because it has so little natural light compared to the rest

Windows above me and to the sides, facing the forest:
My actual favourite creative spot, the loft where my guitar amp and analog stuff is spread on the floor like toys, with small near field monitors... I often don't actually bring the laptop here, just play, get lost in the music and maybe record with a Zoom if I really feel like it. Garbage ergonomics and acoustics compared to the rest, but somehow so inspiring! I always dreamt of having a loft when I was a kid, now it's my personal space, sort of like a man-cave but it's a man-loft

I sometimes check my mixes at work where we have a professionally treated demo room hosting Genelec 8361As and no windows at all

Earlier with a windows tower PC I was stuck in the studio room with only one small window and it was quite depressingindeed. I guess I've slowly given up on it, robbing equipment piece by piece for the other spaces, and I'll probably repurpose it soon for another guest room. It just feels so closed in, even though it's supposedly the proper place for making music.