Mixing and mastering... outdoors?

[joshw]

I'm sure my situation isn't uncommon - I'm a home producer of my own music with too small a room to mix in. It's about 12x13 with 8 foot ceilings, which gives 1276 cubic feet (about half the recommended minimum size). Despite some bass traps and other tweaks, I still have some nasty peaks and valleys in the room acoustics. In my case, getting a bigger room isn't an option for now, so my mind started thinking about the biggest room in the world: the outdoors.

Has anyone experimented with mixing and mastering outdoors? This should solve most problems with uneven bass response. I'm guessing I'd need to mix with my mind on the dry side, since the lack of room reflections would give me the false impression of deadness, but it's easier to compensate for that than it is to compensate for bass buildup indoors.

It's obviously not ideal, given the fact that hauling gear around is a big pain, but making rough mixes indoors, then doing finishing them outdoors once or twice a year seems like a good idea.

Please share your experiences if you've tried this! And let me know if I'm missing something that would be a deal breaker. Thanks a bunch!

[ecktronic]

What the chance of getting all your lovely gear muddy or wet! Nah. You would get complaints. Although if you could take your mixing desk and monitors up a mountain far far away from any town or city that would be cool. At one with nature. Might get a more natural sounding mix!

[pdadda]

Well, air is a great sound absorber.

[giraffe]

i've actually thought about this before because my room bites my butt, but to much trouble to move everything.

[EdWonbass]

I would like to set up out on the screen porch one time to see what it sounds like.

[My Name]

Go for it man.

What's the worst that could happen??

Make sure you check the weather reports. I live in the UK so even the weather forcast can't be trusted but you may have better luck.

Experimentation is always the key to learning more.

[HogansHiro]

I've ran the old snake outide before and recorded a band that had two drummers...acoustic kit and percussionist. The band was pretty big with 7 members so there was no way they would all fit inside and feel comfortable to get a good recording.

We pulled out all the carpet we could find and carpeted a big section of the backyard and setup on it. As a joke we started pullig out furniture as well. A couch, end table with lamp, coffee table and a potted plant. it was like a living room outside. The guys played live outide in the new living room and it sounded great. We were lucky there was no wind.

When all was said and done they had three great songs with a live vibe and the picture they took of the session actually ended up being their album cover. The band set-up in a fully finished living room in the middle of nowhere.

[ecktronic]

Originally Posted by HogansHiro

When all was said and done they had three great songs with a live vibe and the picture they took of the session actually ended up being their album cover. The band set-up in a fully finished living room in the middle of nowhere.

Cool as man. Any chance of seeing the photo?

[giraffe]

yea, post it if you can!

[masteringhouse]

I'm pretty sure Led Zep recorded a few tracks outside, but I forget which ones.

As far as sound absorption, the great outdoors can also create noise. It would suck to record the perfect track only to have an airplane fly by. Also, you should have room ambience in a recording, it gives the recording depth.

[joshw]

Agreed - recording outside is a no-no in most cases, unless you're going for an effect (or have truly horrible room acoustics). Things sound unrealistically dead without the room ambience. I'm more wondering about mixing outdoors.

[xstatic]

I would have a hard time mixing outdoors. First, moving my 2000 pound console would suck. In all reality though, there are a few problems I see. First, you would have to adjust to how your monitors sound outside whcih could take a while. Second, there are a lot of noises outside that we all take for granted. Try placing a condensor mic outside for a while, close your eyes, and cue it up in headphones. I personally would be distracted, but there is a part of me that also thinks it might be a nice change too Third....wind. Wind affects things much more than just making a roaring sound in a microphone. Wind also affects the directionality and imaging of speakers. Even just a little wind could probably drastically change the way your little low wattage silk dome tweeters sound and image. Not only that, but it would be a pretty constant change. Almost like trying to do a mix down while someone has inserted a flanger on your speakers

[giraffe]

Originally Posted by xstatic

Wind also affects the directionality and imaging of speakers.

i never would have thought of that.

but really, how bad could it be? not worse than my garadge.

[MichaelM]

Originally Posted by John Sayers

http://saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html
Obviously the best thing to do is to build it in the middle of a 50 acre paddock in the country where your only external noise concerns are birds, wind and rain. Then you can build a simple skin to keep the rain out and allow all the internal sound to get out so it doesn't muck up the sound within the room.

I might try setting up some things outside next time I go home and record with my brother. My only problem is the other two brothers and the risk of footballs and basketballs etc crashing into things :S

[treymonfauntre]

i'm recording a 2 piece folky punk band outside.. big stand up bass, acoustic guitar, and a campfire.

[Stefan Elmblad]

The idea has crossed my mind too. But since I mix with a console and lots of hardware, it's kinda impossible. If mixed ITB with a piece opf moniters, it would be possible to sit on the lawn and mix.

[xstatic]

Well, I did a show last night in a stadium. Wind can have a HUGE impact, especially on high frequency content. This stadium gets a lot fo wind funneling through it from the canyon 1 mile away. The wind can change my usable HF response from 100 yards to 3 miles. It really does sound like a big flanger once the wind starts shifting and smearing your imaging and directionality.

[The Engineer]

Wouldn't all of your mixes sound like a reverb was put on them if you mixed outside?

I ono

[homerecorder1]

Reverb comes from reflections on walls...floors....

[7string]

Originally Posted by homerecorder1

Reverb comes from reflections on walls...floors....

Reverb comes from sound reflecting off of anything.

[Kasey]

i don't know how succesful mixing and mastering outside would be, but i've recorded outside a lot. But i suppose that's more for effect than for a 'professional sound'. I loved the sound of a slight wind every once in a while, a few birds chirping here and there... i play folk music so it works.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Mixing outdoors is like mixing in an anechoic chamber, except you can't control temperature, humidity or lighting. Not only will those first two affect how your monitors sound (usually for the negative), but the outdoors themselves have a tendancy to suck bass frequencies up like a black hole.

It's really kind of just the opposite of the biggest problem in setting up indoor mixing room acoustics. The biggest problem in our indoor situations is heavy low frequency modes all over the room just mucking everything up; hence the need for proper bass traps. Well, the outdoors (assuming there are no substantial reflective surfaces like building walls nearby) is like one big bass trap.

Of course the high freqs will also have no reflecting surfaces. This will make them very directional (the higher the freq, the more directional it "beams".) As such, the high-freq off-axis response of your monitors would be critical, as would your head placement in relation to the monitors. You are going to be getting zero reflections of the high freq sounds in your ears; only those traveling in a straight line fairly straight out the front of the monitors are going to hit your ears.

For these reasons, I'll give you 2:1 odds that most recordings mixed/mastered outdoors are going to sound a lot like ones mixed/mastered in headphones; they will be much too heavy on the bass and possibly a bit too bright on the high end as well.

G.

[Blackdog.sn]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

I'm pretty sure Led Zep recorded a few tracks outside, but I forget which ones.

As far as sound absorption, the great outdoors can also create noise. It would suck to record the perfect track only to have an airplane fly by. Also, you should have room ambience in a recording, it gives the recording depth.

Zeppelin did do this. It is most noticeable on Black Country Woman on Physical Graffiti. The recording sounds pretty good (despite the obvious bit of wind). I also plan on recording outside as I have lots of land to work with...tell us how it goes