Will a mix done at low volume & sounding good be so when played loud ?

[flatfinger]

There are a few methods that involve calibrating your monitors using an SPL meter and pink noise ( B. Katz site ...digido.com or something please google) has details . The idea is to make it utterly repeatable so you "find a groove " so to speak. If you find yourself stacking compressors on top of compressor and pushing all the faders up you should try stopping that and turning up the monitor gain !!!!

I tend to side with the check it in as many environments and levels as you can team . Of course you know a mix is never really finished , you just run out of time or get fed up !!!!!!! This is made worse by digital and instant recall. I used to save so many iterations that I'd go batty trying to organize them !!!


It is advisible to check that the most important item ( the vocal if it's a pop tune ) is the absolute last thing to go away as you turn it down into infinity .
(unless the vocalist sucks ; . then bury them in effects !!!!)

 

[G-Jay]

I usually mix at low volumes, around conversation level. I especially use this volume level to check balance, eq, and overall tone.

However, I always turn it up a good bit to judge reverb and delay. It's too easy for me to use too much ambiance at lower levels and it really becomes obvious when you crank it or do a bit of fake mastering.

If the mix is going to translate well, it has to sound good at all reasonable volume levels.

 

[xxx_Eli_xxx]

What I do is a first mix with monitor speakers and when recording done I switch to head phones mine are the DT 770 PRo at 80 OHM price 300 bucks. the head phones are not that loud and allow you to hear the recording in your head with the head phones on you can hear the hisses and moans that the loud monitor speakers can not. so by switching from loud moniters to mid loud head phones you are able to Correct in your sound. Does This make any sense?

 

[RAMI]

What I do is a first mix with monitor speakers and when recording done I switch to head phones mine are the DT 770 PRo at 80 OHM price 300 bucks. the head phones are not that loud and allow you to hear the recording in your head with the head phones on you can hear the hisses and moans that the loud monitor speakers can not. so by switching from loud moniters to mid loud head phones you are able to Correct in your sound. Does This make any sense?

If you're saying that you use headphones to "fine tune" or listen for details, then yes it makes sense.

If you're saying you actually MIX with headphones, I'd say that's not a very good idea.

 

[Treeline]

How quiet is "quiet"? If you're mixing on a small set of monitors you may need some volume just to hear everything the speaker will produce. I wrestle with this all the time and have never been really happy with my results and there's no budget for higher end monitors.

I'm using a powered set of Event TR5s, which seem pretty solid, but I miss the low end. So I take the idea of playing the cut on other systems to a bit of an extreme sometimes - I have a couple of Bose systems, a set of the original walnut Advent 1s that still do pretty well (although one is on probation right now) and then there's the car stereo and the SONY BoomerBoxerthingie. In other words, I run a mix through whatever crap is lying around to see how it sounds. An unbalanced mix will do some very weird things sooner or later on one of these systems.

 

[PDP]

I tend to side with the check it in as many environments and levels as you can team .

Same here, I dont think I could get a good mix at one level, whatever the level was. I constantly change, and agree it keeps the ears fresh.