Get this. My new way to tweak my final mix

  • Thread starter Thread starter adclark
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adclark

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I was always told not to mix with headphones. I use my Tapco S-5's in a regular room. Bass response is not good. I always had problems when I listened to my mixes on other systems. Some instruments were buried or too loud, etc.. But, I after I get what I call a good mix on the Tapco's...I go back and fine tune listening thru my cheap AKG k-44 headphones. If I get the mix to sound good on these things...the mix sounds good on other components. Kinda like the old Yamaha NS10 monitors. These things sound like crap when listening to CD's, etc...
 
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Using headphones as a second or third reference along WITH monitors is fine! The rule of thumb is generally that you shouldn't mix SOLELY with headphones...
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Using headphones as a second or third reference along WITH monitors is fine! The rule of thumb is generally that you shouldn't mix SOLELY with headphones...
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Blue is right. I always set up my mix on monitors. Before committing to it though, I'll double check stuff like reverb, levels, and the occassional EQ tweak via headphones, take a rest and then switch back to my monitors (Always take a little break after using headphones. Trust me, you can't trust anything your ears hear 100% after using phones. So give 'em a half-hour or so, unless you only used your phones for like 30 seconds or something).
 
Since my monitors crapped out on me I've had to mix soley on headphones. It's a pain in the ass because I have to burn the mix and run to my car, home stereo, my wife's little boom box, to check the mix.

And even then, it takes several tries at it to get things right. Some good monitors are first on my list when I get my gear reassembled...
 
Rokket said:
Since my monitors crapped out on me I've had to mix soley on headphones. It's a pain in the ass because I have to burn the mix and run to my car, home stereo, my wife's little boom box, to check the mix.

And even then, it takes several tries at it to get things right. Some good monitors are first on my list when I get my gear reassembled...
Click to expand...

Yeah the old checking the mix thing can be a pain in the ass. I stopped burning cd's and now I just put it on my MP3 player and run it into different stereos. My stereo in my truck has an aux input so I'm lucky there.
I discovered last night while mixing that I wasn't hearing the bass enough until I really cranked up my monitors. Then I discovered that the kick was too much and the bass was way loud. I corrected the levels and went back out to the truck with my MP3 player and it was way better. I thought it wasn't a good idea to mix too loud but it seems to help bring out the bass issues in my studio.
 
EdWonbass said:
Yeah the old checking the mix thing can be a pain in the ass. I stopped burning cd's and now I just put it on my MP3 player and run it into different stereos. My stereo in my truck has an aux input so I'm lucky there.
I discovered last night while mixing that I wasn't hearing the bass enough until I really cranked up my monitors. Then I discovered that the kick was too much and the bass was way loud. I corrected the levels and went back out to the truck with my MP3 player and it was way better. I thought it wasn't a good idea to mix too loud but it seems to help bring out the bass issues in my studio.
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Man, how can you effectively check your mixes after they've been converted to mp3s?????

I guess you could rely on levels, but anything else.......?
 
What's missing from your MP3?

If you were ever curious as to just what was missing from your MP3, run this quick test:

1. Save your mixdown as a stereo WAV.

2. Convert that WAV to MP3 using you best MP3 converter.

3. Import both the WAV and the MP3 back into your DAW editor as seperate tracks (losslessly converting the MP3 back to WAV again.)

4. Invert the polarity of the MP3 track(s).

5. Sum/mixdown the WAV and the inverted MP3 together.

The resulting mixdown is all the information in the original WAV that was lost when the MP3 was created. I think most will be amazed, regardless of the bitrate/quality setting of the MP3 software.

G.
 
Most MP3 players can play back wave files :)

I've never tried it with my Creative Zen, but you might even be able to have it play 24-bit wav files (I doubt you could playback a higher sample rate though)

So hopefully EdWonBass is checking wave files and NOT mp3/pick-your-favorite-lossy-compressed-format files ;)

fraserhutch said:
Man, how can you effectively check your mixes after they've been converted to mp3s?????

I guess you could rely on levels, but anything else.......?
Click to expand...
 
fraserhutch said:
Man, how can you effectively check your mixes after they've been converted to mp3s?????

I guess you could rely on levels, but anything else.......?
Click to expand...

The idea is to get a quick listen see if the bass is overpowering the mix without burning countless cd's.
 
EdWonbass said:
The idea is to get a quick listen see if the bass is overpowering the mix without burning countless cd's.
Click to expand...

Well, then OK, you're using it for levels..... man, I don't even like to *listen* to mp3s...... more less trying to mix with them :)
 
fraserhutch said:
Well, then OK, you're using it for levels..... man, I don't even like to *listen* to mp3s...... more less trying to mix with them :)
Click to expand...

I'm trying to get used to my monitors. I keep over doing it in the bass department so I just use the MP3 mixdown to keep checking the low end without have to waste cd's. When I get the mix where I think it should be I will burn a few cd's.
 
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