Basic monitoring question...PLEASE HELP!

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singlecoil

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To give me a reference point EQ wise for monitoring my own material, I
play some well produced commercial CD's thru my board+power
amp+monitors to hear what I should aim for EQ wise. Problem is, I
have to add high and low EQ for these to sound similarly good like thru
my home stereo which has the treble and bass boosted as I am used to
hearing them. With no EQ they just sound dull and low on bass. So, do
I listen to these CD's with board EQ or without board EQ. Then should I
then try to make my mixes sound similar to the unEQ'ed CDs or the
EQ'ed CD's? Or, should I listen to the CD's on my home stereo and try
to get a similar sound with my material thru my board? OR, should I
monitor thru my stereo reciever with it's EQ on like how I usually listen
to it? I never have read anyone discuss this anywhere. What is the
"pro" way to do things? If I try and get proper treble and bass thru my
board and monitors, then isn't that adding to much bass and treble,
because when I then listen to it on my home reciver or car stereo, it
has too much bass and treble because the bass and treb are already
boosted on those systems, which is how most people adjust their home
stereos, car stereos, boom boxes, etc. Or, do I try and mix
comparitively to "flat" CD's thru my board and try to make my
resordings sound equally flat? I'm confused.
 
Ooh, tough question!

My first thought is that both your monitor system and your home system sucks, if you have to turn up the bass and treble a lot to make it sound good. Then I thought, maybe it's just you that are so used to listening to stuff with those settings...
Of course, I have no way of knowing which is true. In this case, I'd recommend buying a good set of reference headphones, and stick them into your mixer, so you can check out what the heck you really are listening too in the first place. :) I don't really know much about headphones, but you'd probably have to shell out $100 bucks... Talk to the people in your favourite pro music shop.

If it turns out your home system is really good, and you just turn up the bass and treble too much, turn them down. If it runs out it sucks, keep it! Good system to check material on. Most people home stereo sucks, so it's nice to have reference systems like that, to make sure that the mix doesn't just sound good in your studio. I usually check my material on the crappy pc-speakers I have at work. :)
 
Thanks for the reply. My equipment is all good "standard" home recording equipment, so I think it is that I am used to listening for many years with bass and treble boosted. Here's my gear:

Monitors:Alesis Monitor 2's + Event 20/20's
Mixer:Behringer 2004A (similar to a mackie)
Phones:Sony MDR-7506 (everyone uses these!)
Poweramp: QSC 1700 ($900 1000W PA amp)
Home Stereo-Sony 300W Receiver (very nice, digital surround, etc.)

Here's how I've always set up and listened to home and car stereo systems over the years:

Bass Boost button ON
Bass knob just below boominess (+6db at 100)
Treble knob usually full (+6 at 10K)

To get my own material to sound like this thru flat recording gear, obviously I have to boost the lows and highs similarly. But i am afraid to do this because then I listen to it on my stereo gear, and there's too much treble and bass, because it's been applied TWICE by this time. It's really hard for me to listen to and mix without hearing the big bass and clear airy treble I'm used to. What do I do? My ear is just used to this kind of "smiley" EQ curve. BUT, almust everyone I know sets up their home systems the same, so I don't think it's just me. If I had been raised on listening to "flat" systems my whole life, there would be no problems. But, home equipment has EQ for a reason- to make it sound "better", whatever that is to the listener. It seems that most people like myself crank the bass and treble as high as our ears (and speakers) can stand.
But how do I translate this thru "flat" recording gear? Mix thinking that the listener will crank the bass and treble so I shouldn't add it on my end, or mix thinking people set their systems "flat", and add the needed bass and treble?
 
OK, I really don't know then, because I would never set up my home stereo like this, because it sounds, well, like crap. :)

I don't have any real experience of what to do in your situation, but my guess is this:
Stop setting up my home stereo system like that, and get used to listening to the music as it is supposed to sound. It's good to have the commercial stuff as reference, but then you need to know how it really sounds. I would imagine that you loose a LOT of detail like that.

But all this is just my guessing. What do you other people think?
 
Hi,
I think that the most important "musical information" is situated around the 1 Khz frequencies. If you boost the irelavant rest, you will miss the most crucial information in music.
I think SingleCoil will have to learn and listen to music in a new way.
Try to record acoustic instruments for a while, and learn how these frequencies are natural. You can always go back to the BOOSTIN' later.
I guess this will take some re-adjustment of your ears. But when you are listening for a while to your equipment FLAT, you will discover more music (at low volumes), and you will finally hear what you always missed with Led Zeppelin / Beatles /Abba and Beach Boys. That includes the "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and "Burt Bacharack".
Enjoy your new way. And your new ears.
 
Do yourself a favor and invest in a decent monitoring setup.
the goal of a good pro monitoring setup is to reproduce a completly FLAT signal.
a flat signal is not always the most pleasant sound to the ears. listen to your fav CD's on a flat system. make your mixes sound like this. let your listeners EQ their own systems however THEY want! Reference your mixes on as many different, crappy systems as possible. listen in your car, on your boombox and through the earbuds you've let you dog chew on for the last month.
if you can get you mix to sound great on these lowest common denominators, you have succeeded.
 
I'm completely with Hano... you should re-train your ears. The rest of the monitoring equipment is good enough, but your ears are tainted from your consumer EQ habit.

Since your ears are used to hearing the boost, you'll tend to mix that way. Then everything will be outta whack when you listen through your stereo (as you suspected). Back those knobs off, kill the bass boost, and start playin' the CD's through it. The sooner, the better.
 
Well, that was enlightening. Thanks to all those who replied. I was afraid of that conclusion -that I will have to retrain my ears to listen and mix dead flat. It's gonna be tough. Just one more quick thing: When I test listen on friends crappy systems, should I set them flat, EQ them how I like, or leave the EQ settings how the owner has them set already?
 
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