Three things came to mind:
- Consider getting a 2nd set of “really bad” speakers to approximate how a 3rd of your audience listens to your mixes. Make it sound tolerable on those, as well as on your main monitors (after following all the treatment advice here).
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I imagine the speakers are too close to the wall to make a rear-facing bass port do its thing properly. I’m aware there’s a lot of debate in this area so take that with a pinch of salt.
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Do the stands sufficiently isolate the speakers from your desk? If the desk is vibrating, it’ll project sound up to your ceiling, and down to the floor, which will monkey with the phasing and nodes further.
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Exactly.
Dont forget, theres plenty of well known artists out there that work in untreated, way less than perfect rooms. Karen Gwyer, Surgeon, Fourtet come to mind.
I guess my point is, do the best you can with what you have. There’s some small tweaks to your set up based on that photo, and the whine noise can be sorted. Other than that, dont stress on it too much. I know I dont! As mentioned, at least a third of your listeners use crap speakers anyway .
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I feel like buying stuff in this situation won’t magically fix your mixing problems. How much other music do you listen to on your monitors while sitting in your typical working position? While stuff like perfect treatment and absolute flat monitoring is essential for spaces that you may drop in or out of, or if speed is above all else in the critical mixing and mastering stages, but if it’s just you making music on your own time in a single room you can definitely train your ears to your space’s “flatness” rather than absolute flatness just by listening to music you’ve heard in clubs, listening rooms, or nice headphones that you think sounds great/flat/just mixed well/etc. If you are working for home, and it won’t annoy the other people in the house, try setting up your workspace on that table and listen to music at the volume you make music (hopefully not too loud!) for as much time as you can, intermittently shifting in and out of deep listening just to learn every nook and cranny of how the audio bounces the room.
I’ve heard great records mixed on apple earpods because the artist knew the sonic character of the headphones inside and out, work with what you have until you learn exactly what you need.
