A room to mix in

[bobsbarricades]

I've been using my Sony MDR headphones to mix with for about 5 years. I am tired of mixing with them and having my mix sound good ONLY in those guys. I bounce back and fourth when mixing between those, RP-21's, iPod buds, laptops speakers, crappy dell speakers, and a really absurdly bass heavy logitech pc speaker 2.1. It still sucks. In the end I end up with terrible crap on 80% of speakers and moderately acceptable on the other 20.

 

So I think I'm gonna sell some stuff and try to get some studio monitors. I don't think they have to be real nice, just GENERALLY flat. I figure I am always compraing my mixes to other albums so I can just do that, yea? Anyway I imagin eI'll spend at least 400$ on those...which makes me so sad. But the main reason I've never bothered with monitors was because I never had a room that was anything special to mix in.

 

So now I'm in a box, about 9ft wide, by 10ft long and about 9 foot high. There's a window opposite the door in the corner of the long measurement.

 

I don't need to really worry about sonic isolation because I don't plan to record in this room. I have Jeff Coopers "building a recording studio" and it's great...but great in a "hey I have space to execute some of this." I am going to use his advise as much as possible but...I'm in a box. I know I've got standing waves, I know I need bass traps and sound absorption but I need to do it as cheap as possible and last time I built a gobo it was like 90 bucks for materials =/

[rhys]

I did mine for about £200.

 

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=85239&p=445286#p445286

 

Check Shivers post and David's idea of the corner traps incase you have similar issues to me with a door in the corner. I made my stand up trap. It's just the same as the fixed corner trap except I used a P.A tripod and the plastic tripod adaptor from a PA speaker to attach the trap.

 

I also got hooks in the corner so it can be hung or it can be coupled against my other trap and it makes a nice little corner to stick a vocalist in to record. Vocalist don't need comfort they should count themselves lucky and have what they are given

 

Actually I would count myself lucky if I could find a decent vocalist Anyway yeah check the thread it helped me alot.

[rone2him]

A link to LPH Acoustics stuff:

 

http://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=261480#261480

 

8)

[DaveyBee]

i always mixed in my sennheiser hd270's and was reluctant to invest in studio monitors as i had no acoustically suitable room to monitor in. What i can say is this, that even in a relatively boxy room with no acoustic treatment i still get better mixes now that i have monitors. I check in the cans as i go along (as i know them very well now im able to read them quite well) and i always put mixes on my iphone, car radio and hifi too.

 

Cheers

DaveyBee

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

Speaking as the uber-budget scrimper that I am, the best advice I ever got is that whatever set-up you get, you will have to spend months getting used to it.

 

Obviously your headphones aren't working for you. Headphones rarely do. But, if you can listen to whatever you've got, with the knowledge of how that translates to other systems, you will eventually learn to compensate with your ears and come out with a reasonable mix. No matter what setup you have, you will have to learn how that translates to other setups, from iPods to home surround systems to car stereos to whatever.

[bobsbarricades]

I'm doing some things to my room, and so far it seems to be helping cut out some of the bass. But I know from probably 6 different rooms in different houses that this pc 2.1 system is absurdly bass heavy. I have an OS EQ, and I've cut out a decent bit of bass that way - Do you think there are any dangers to this? I will and always have referenced albums for my mixes but I have to cut this bass out; it's so obnoxious. If you check out my thread about recreating Justin Chancelor's (Tool) bass sound I think I did a pretty good job but that was with just mimicing the absurdly overpowered bass of my speakers; in the rp21's and MDR's it sounds spot on.

 

Anyway, I'll be sure to post pics of what I've done and you guys can offer more advice. Just lookin for pitfalls to be wary of with taking down the OS's (in this case, I know I know, it's a soundblaster Recon 3d external soundcard that I mix with - when recording and throwing ideas down I use the SaffireLE+RP21's. But the soundblaster software has EQ in it).

[bobsbarricades]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Bobsbarricades/photo1-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Bobsbarricades/photo2-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Bobsbarricades/photo3-1.jpg

 

Suggestions to help me get a better mixing environment? Also questions about using OS EQ to lower bass if still using reference material to mix with?

 

edit - yes it's a mess because I didn't want to put everything up and then have someone offer great advice and move it all again. And also I plan on getting something over the window - just gotta find a real thick something for cheaps. Might build my own hanger from a big dowel rod. Ideas?