Lenoh said:
I knew the barrage was coming lol
SouthSIDE Glen you are correct,it is the industry standard to do so(flat eq and reasonably flat monitors). I previously made songs in a proper studio with reasonably proper monitors, that relationship has dissolved so i am basically at square one right now. I am aware that attempting to compensate for my room and monitoring system with eq is futile, but I love to make music, and the struggle to find things that work and not are part of the process. That being said, I am willing and excited to try a number of things correct or incorrect.
Future posters have mercy on me lol
Lenoh.
No barrage intended
. You asked a question - one in which you already know the answer, apparently
- and got the correct response you expected.
And you are right when you say that trying to use EQ to compensate for problems in the monitoring chain and environment is futile; EQ is just not up to the task for several solid technical reasons. You may be able to use some EQ in your monitoring to somewhat adjust, but it will never be a satisfactory solution, unfortunately.
There's really only two general tacks one can take to help in getting mixes to translate well to the outside world that will have any lasting positive effect. The first is to try and eliminate problems in the monitoring chain instead of trying to bandaid them or adjust for them. This means not only halfway decent monitors that allow you to hear what you need to hear in order to do your job well, but it also means a good physical setup within your room. Set up your monitors symmetrically within the room, keepingthem and yourself out of the corners and not directly up against a wall, if possible. Also, room treatment in the form of bass trapping and diffusion of first reflections at the minimum. Yeah, monitors cost money, but the physical arrangement an the acoustics don't have to cost that much, if anything at all. A few well-placed bookshelves, drapes or paddedc hairs/counches can help immensely, and bass traps can be made DIY realtively cheaply (see the studio building forum for more on that.)
Second, and perhaps most important, is teaching your ears how to translate your room to the outside. If you learn that if your mixes sound like A in your room, but sound like B when played back everywhere else, then you need to learn how to compensate for that. For example, if the 2-5k range sounds fine in your room but sounds too bright or harsh when played back elsewhere, then learn to cut back on that range a bit in your final mix so that it actually sounds a little anemic in your room.
A good way to try and figure out the translation factor is to play a good, balanced, commercial CD in your room. Use that as a rough template to start with in figuring out a) what your room needs in the way of treatment, and b) how you may beed to translate your mixes to sound similar. NOTE: That does
not mean, however that you can or should expect your mix to sound like the CD. They are different musicians using different gear for different songs; it will sound different than your stuff...as it should. All the idea is is that you can hear how your room
affects that CD (e.g your room boosts the bass or harshes the mids or whatever) and know that it might have a similar effect on your mix that you need to compensate for.
HTH,
G.
