steffeeH
New member
Please read the whole post before you rip your hair off and point fingers 
There are a lot of things to consider
Background
Right now I only have a pair of "usual" speakers of the cheaper kind, but they sound good and very balanced - with EQ on the output.
I have a long background in using room EQ (even from before I started producing a few years ago), since I haven't had that much cash before, but I still wanted to have a good and balanced sounds - so I just got a pair of regular speakers and headphones that weren't too weak, and then used EQ to make them as even as possible.
When I decide on an EQ curve I listen to a ton of music from a vast number of genres so that the EQ curve is as natural as possible and so it doesn't only work for a certain musical "sound". So there's a lot of time behind every cut and boost. And I tend to focus on the wide boosts or cuts so I more correct the musical tone on the speakers rather than getting stuck on a narrow bad area, not do I focus that much on the bass except if the bass on the speakers is horrible. The only exception is when there's a nasty resonance somewhere.
I still use room EQ this very moment, even when I produce, and I think my tracks still respond very good among different soundsystems and people say my music sounds professional.
But now I'm about to get some real studio gear - studio monitors and an audio interface, and some soundproofing in the near future.
And I can't happen to feel that I maybe need to re-think all this with the room EQ'ing.
There is this side saying that room EQ is bad for music production, that it alters frequencies in an unnatural way and that one slight boost or cut can have a much bigger impact than you think and ruin the sonic quality on your music.
This is of course legitimate as there are a lot of factors to consider in the world of acoustics.
But then there is this other side, that I until now have participated in and that I fully understand - the psychological side.
Meaning if I as a producer, always have to listen to a soundsystem that in my personal opinion has some kind of uneven flaw in the frequency spectrum - then I will eventually start cutting or boosting this certain area in order to correct it so the tone of a sound matches the one I hear in my head - even without thinking of it, and it will grow during a long time until it has reached the full point where I have basically corrected my speakers, but inside the DAW instead.
This is true, and I've already experienced it. It was the 2k-3k area in the spectrum, which I first felt I had a good balance at, but after I while I realized that my tracks were a little too heavy in this area compared to other music, probably because I wanted more of that in my songs - so I boosted it slightly more to pronounce it more, and now my tracks doesn't have this issue anymore, because it doesn't take an as loud boost to make it sound too much in that area.
And I keep thinking - what if I won't be 100 % happy with the tone on my studio speakers (even if I have soundproof), should I still keep it flat and take the risk of "correcting" the speakers when I mix because it doesn't match with my preferred tone, or should attenuate different frequencies using the same method as I have used before to have a nice EQ curve that sounds natural to my ears, and risk the acoustics getting uneven?
I understand that studio monitors will definately sound better than my current speakers, but there's stil lthe risk that I feel there is something off in the musical tone on them, even when I just listen to music and doesn't produce.
This sounds like choosing between two different diseases to me...
And I mean I do keep my listening level when producing quite low, so there's not that many early reflections in the room to be heard.
So what is your stance on this?
Should I avoid room EQ'ing at every cost, or should I listen to my inner ear if that means that the outcome is better music (because it has been that way so far)?
There are a lot of things to considerBackground
Right now I only have a pair of "usual" speakers of the cheaper kind, but they sound good and very balanced - with EQ on the output.
I have a long background in using room EQ (even from before I started producing a few years ago), since I haven't had that much cash before, but I still wanted to have a good and balanced sounds - so I just got a pair of regular speakers and headphones that weren't too weak, and then used EQ to make them as even as possible.
When I decide on an EQ curve I listen to a ton of music from a vast number of genres so that the EQ curve is as natural as possible and so it doesn't only work for a certain musical "sound". So there's a lot of time behind every cut and boost. And I tend to focus on the wide boosts or cuts so I more correct the musical tone on the speakers rather than getting stuck on a narrow bad area, not do I focus that much on the bass except if the bass on the speakers is horrible. The only exception is when there's a nasty resonance somewhere.
I still use room EQ this very moment, even when I produce, and I think my tracks still respond very good among different soundsystems and people say my music sounds professional.
But now I'm about to get some real studio gear - studio monitors and an audio interface, and some soundproofing in the near future.
And I can't happen to feel that I maybe need to re-think all this with the room EQ'ing.
There is this side saying that room EQ is bad for music production, that it alters frequencies in an unnatural way and that one slight boost or cut can have a much bigger impact than you think and ruin the sonic quality on your music.
This is of course legitimate as there are a lot of factors to consider in the world of acoustics.
But then there is this other side, that I until now have participated in and that I fully understand - the psychological side.
Meaning if I as a producer, always have to listen to a soundsystem that in my personal opinion has some kind of uneven flaw in the frequency spectrum - then I will eventually start cutting or boosting this certain area in order to correct it so the tone of a sound matches the one I hear in my head - even without thinking of it, and it will grow during a long time until it has reached the full point where I have basically corrected my speakers, but inside the DAW instead.
This is true, and I've already experienced it. It was the 2k-3k area in the spectrum, which I first felt I had a good balance at, but after I while I realized that my tracks were a little too heavy in this area compared to other music, probably because I wanted more of that in my songs - so I boosted it slightly more to pronounce it more, and now my tracks doesn't have this issue anymore, because it doesn't take an as loud boost to make it sound too much in that area.
And I keep thinking - what if I won't be 100 % happy with the tone on my studio speakers (even if I have soundproof), should I still keep it flat and take the risk of "correcting" the speakers when I mix because it doesn't match with my preferred tone, or should attenuate different frequencies using the same method as I have used before to have a nice EQ curve that sounds natural to my ears, and risk the acoustics getting uneven?
I understand that studio monitors will definately sound better than my current speakers, but there's stil lthe risk that I feel there is something off in the musical tone on them, even when I just listen to music and doesn't produce.
This sounds like choosing between two different diseases to me...
And I mean I do keep my listening level when producing quite low, so there's not that many early reflections in the room to be heard.
So what is your stance on this?
Should I avoid room EQ'ing at every cost, or should I listen to my inner ear if that means that the outcome is better music (because it has been that way so far)?
