Monitors

[GardenoftheDead]

Treatment is the easy part. Sound absorbing foam is cheap and you can just make your own bass traps. 90 degree angles are the devil but they also make your sound problems really easy to identify and address.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

Options are good. I say listen as many ways as possible to hear how the mix varies between them.
My uncle used to joke about putting his old 95 Civic coupe (which later became my first car) in his studio for final listening tests. It only had the stock bare-bones Honda tape deck with 2 door coaxial speakers, low power... but its acoustics gave you a shockingly balanced front of house perspective. If a mix sounded good on them it was all but guaranteed to sound good on anything. Love those mid 90s Civics.

yea the car is the final test for me. gotta bump it in the whip and cruise around. maybe roll up a doob.

Most importantly, I know the speakers so I know how mixes should sound like on them. You have to get used to your speakers, listen to them and learn them.

+100000 i think u can make up for a lot of things if you know your speakers and how they sound in your space. i know cats who mix and master on shitty computer speakers. like really shitty ones, and their mixes are great. it works both ways. monitors don't magically make your shit sound better or worse.

ALSO A Q…how much difference do isolation pads make? i feel like i should have gotten some a long time ago.
iiiiiii just got this new sub and it is fucking gigantic. wayyyyyyy bigger than i expected. will a pad help cut down on the vibration of the floor and walls?
from what i read, it seems like so. just looking for some real life experiences

and whats a good SPL meter app for iOS? there is like a billion of them….lol

[rustywire]

Isolation pads: YMMV. Generally a good investment, but the difference can go from negligible to dramatic depending on where you have yours (on desk, stands etc) and the nature of the space in which they reside, styles of music etc.

I would def get a pad for the sub @Doc but also play around with placement. In some rooms I like it between/underneath the monitors, in others I prefer it in a corner. No 2 rooms are identical so it's best to try, try, try. Remember, it's going to sound better with some distance between you & it. Bass needs space.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

awesome. thanks RW.

my placement options are limited due to the way the other stuff in the room is setup and even more so because of the size of this mf'er. also i should have gotten longer cables haha

i've got it set up prob about half way between center of the room and my right monitor
sounded the best there out of the few options i had. gives me that space when i am right up at my desk.

i think my thing is more that i should gotten the 8" sub for my room size, but the 10" one was actually like $100 cheaper and also new so thats why i went for it, not realizing just how large it is.
mainly asking b/c i like to be as considerate as possible w/ my neighbors i've been living in smaller apts or row homes for years and i am always one of the loud ones.
never had a problem tho. wanna keep it that way and the sub is new new for me.

i gotta say its pretty awesome tho . being able to really hear the low end now for mixing is going to be so so nice.

[rustywire]

Not just hearing the low end, feeling it in your chest. Makes a massive difference in how you mix.
Here's a video on a technique known as the subwoofer crawl popular for home theater, but the same principle applies with music.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4o13mNmlaA[/youtube]

Edit: Also make sure you experiment with the crossover, so there are no frequency gaps between the upper register of the sub and the lowest range of your other monitors, with minimal intermodulation and phasing.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

used the packaging foam that came w/ the sub to test it out. definitely cuts down on the rumble but i can still feel the bass. much improved! hopefully for my neighbors too.

[maggot]

I'd get small, relatively inexpensive near-field monitors if you have an untreated room. I have the M-Audio with the 5" woofers. They're fine. Listen to your mixes on a lot of different setups. Read about simple fixes for acoustical problems in rooms. You may be able to work out some kinks very easily.

Do some reading about what you want to do, and most important, don't use too much compression and don't master your own stuff if it's a real release. You can get someone who knows what they're doing and has specialized equipment for about $35.00 a song. So worth it.