DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Why wouldnt they want to do this you ask?
Well, once you convert a room into a real mixing room with foam panels, and moving the monitors in the right spot.......well now you have just that.....a real mixing room! Alot of hobbyist dont want to take it to that level, not for something they maybe they do once on a weekend here or there.....or when time permits after their day job.
I for one, would LOVE to convert my room into something as a "real setup" should be like. But simply the wife doesnt want that (LOL). Surely not worth doing for someone who is a novice/hobbiest who does music occasionally for self indulgence.
i think thats the problem here with alot of folks on this "Home recording forum", its has alot of people who like to record/mix at home simply for self indulgence (not recording/mixing other people, just doing it for their own music for fun).....for i am one of them.
then there are a few 'pro' people who make appearances and posts on this forum who have a real recording/mixing studio and charge $$ for clients. For the most part, they offer great advice........but the fact is.....alot of hobbiests just dont want to convert a room into something that might not get full use out of.
if i was going to open a real recording studio, YES....i would definalty have the room treated and the monitors placed in the right spots. But to convert my spare bedroom?........for something i wont even make $$ from?
naw.....ill pass. the occasional headphones check is fine for me....
I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but you're really answering your own questions.
You'd rather use impulses and software models than a live, loud, mic'd cabinet because you don't want to deal with the volume and the difficulty in micing a cab, especially with more than one mic.
You don't want to acoustically treat the room you work in because you don't want it to "look" like a studio, partly for your wife's sake and your guests' sake and partly because that involves crossing the psychological threshold between a "hobby" and a "serious pursuit."
You think an occasional "headphones check" is good enough, even though that conveys zero information about potential phasing issues.
And yet, you want to know why this dude (I'm getting a bit sick of seeing his initials used as shorthand too) consistently turns out a better sounding recording than you do, and what you can do to make your recordings better. Going out on a limb here, I think he's not too concerned with the appearance of bass traps or about not wanting to turn up an amp, or whatever.
Try this - you keep making excuses about why his stuff should be expected to be better than yours. Except, every time you make an excuse about why you're handicapped being a home recordist, stop dead, pause, reset, and think about that excuse and what you can do to overcome it. Start looking at it as a growth exercise. Ok, your room isn't very good? Rather than writing it off and moving on, what can you do to fix that? I was surprised how much just moving my monitors to a more appropriate position did for my ability to gauge bass response. You can't turn your amp up loud because you're in a 'normal quiet suburban home'? Ok, what can you do about that? Can you maybe demo with impulses, but go somewhere where you CAN turn up to track for real? Or maybe could you try a lower wattage amp? Off the top of my head, if you're a Legacy user, maybe a Egnator Rebel 20 would be right up your ally, with a TS9 out front.
Change your mindset. Don't look at them as limitations, look at them as challenges that you can overcome to make better mixes.