Headphones, Monitors and The Room Itself.

  • Thread starter Thread starter djdarwin
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djdarwin

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Hey Everybody,

This is my first post. I just had several questions regarding Mixing/Mastering and creating that "hot" final product.

I have been mixing my tracks using headphones for about 18 months now as I mastered the learning curves assosiated with midi sequencing, reason and protools. Now that i have some experience i am ready to take my mixes to the next level. I am currently in the market for a pair of monitors for under 500. I would be working (recording, mixing and post production) in an untreated 10X12X8 foot bedroom. Would the KRK RP6's be a good pair for a room this size?

If the room is untreated (no bass traps or frequency absorbing foam) is the investment in monitors even worth it? Paying good money for a flat response makes a lot of sense but not if the room your working with distorts you results right?

Is it important to get the isolation pads for your monitors? Why?

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.
 
I wouldn't not buy monitors because of not having a treated room, provided the room has a reasonable amount of absorption and difusion. What that really means is that it has stuff in it, and isn't just an empty bare walled echo chamber. It's easy enough to "learn" the skew in freq response of your monitoring environment and have your mixes translate well enough. But it's very hard to ever get imaging and ambiance right in headphones, and it almost never translates well.
 
I concur with RobertD.

While the "professional" or "official" room treatment products out there are for the most part great stuff when used correctly, it is entirely possible to "treat" your room without having to spend a whole lot - if anything at all - on these official sound treatment gizmos. Judicious placement of furniture and bookcases, a couple of fiberglass panels from Home Depot, as well as the proper placement of your mixing desk and monitors can give you a more than acceptable - if not necessarily quite A-list white room - mixing environment.

Check out the studio building forum on this board for a boatload of good tips in this regard. Master that learning curve and you'll have plenty of money left over for your monitors.

G.
 
Robert D

What do you mean by learing the "Skew" in frequency response from the room i use to record?

For this i would need a Frequency Spectrum Analysis device correct?

Can i get those programs as software or hardware?

What do you recomend?

Thanks
 
I think he means understanding the frequencies your room does or doesn't emphasize. For example, if your monitoring in a basement with concrete walls right by your speakers, you might realize that it is giving things a brighter sound than is actually there, so rather than cutting those frequencies to get them to sound flat in the basement, you'd leave them where they were knowing that what sounds bright in your basement might sound flat elsewhere.
 
Like TF explained. For example I have a huge bump around 40Hz in my room. I mean when something hits those frequencies, the whole room vibrates simpathetically with it, the floor, the windows, the damn desk, everything. I have just learned to ignore it, and frequently check my mixes on headphones. If I get my mixes working well both in the room and the headphones, they usually translate rather well everywhere else.
 
i just mix on my monitors, double check it on headphones, and burn a quick copy on a CD-RW disk and run to my car/ living room stereo and listen to the playback on those real quick.

I keep a stash of CD-RW (rewritable ones) for my mixing, cause i can burn over, and over, again on the same disk without having to waste a disk to check it on other sound sytems.

god bless technology.......................
 
Your cd burning software should detect it as a CD-RW and allow you to rewrite it. Also, with just a normal CD-R you can leave the session open and later add more to it, though you can't take off what you've already done.
 
don't kid yourself...

you're going to have serious low end problems with a room 12x10x8. with these dimensions the modal stacking will be a real issue and will create serious dips and peaks in the low end response.

with that room, you should have bass traps in every corner, top to bottom and ceiling wall angled basstraps... as many as possible. treat the side walls (thinner treatments) at the angle of refraction and at the back wall where the second refraction occurs.

you can probably get out fairly cheaply, but it will take some DIY. I don't think furniture will be enough with these dimensions. also, furniture will decrease the volume of the room, which with a room that small needs as much volume as possible.

note though absorption is not the only treatment you need: absorption, diffusion and bass traps.

kp-
 
In my first "studio" the walls were covered with Drapes that were bought at a garage sale. For $5 I got enough to do the whole room (12x15). and it made a HUGE improvement . Don't ask about style or color co-ordination or other "deco" considerations. All I wanted was to kill the flutter and cancellation and it worked great. Just a suggestion...

chazba
 
Thanks Guys.. Especially Keiffer and Chazba. I will probably use both of your advice.

What is the proper way to build bass traps?

What material? How much?
 
djdarwin said:
Thanks Guys.. Especially Keiffer and Chazba. I will probably use both of your advice.

What is the proper way to build bass traps?

What material? How much?
Click to expand...

Check the Studio Building and construction section of the forum. I bet you will get all the answers right there. Very informative and precise. Enjoy! :)
 
be skeptical of advice that indicates thin treatments are the cure all such as: carpeted walls, egg crates, only curtains, etc...

the thinner the treatment (absorption), the higher the lowest frequency it will treat and using only those will result in an unbalanced room. basically absorbing only the high end and not touching the low end.

bass traps require either trapping air and having a resonator or thickness that's out from the wall such as 2" or 4" rigid fiberglass. check Realtraps.com

diffusion also requires depth and size but you can proably get by on absorption and bass traps only

for your room, you can go along ways with minimal amounts of absorption placed strategically and with ample bass traps.
 
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