Hi everybody, i'm new to the forum, but there is alot of good info here. What's the easiest way to mix for all different sizes of speakers? I have 8" and 12" speakers that I listen thru, but alot of people have bookshelf speakers. I know the highs come out on them and the bass gets lost. Any suggestions on how to get a good balanced sound to translate to all sizes?
Good question. There's a reason certain facilities put tons of money into designing a proper mixing space and using the right set of speakers for that room. The idea is to create a close to perfectly neutral mixing space that ends up the "end all, be all" of listening accuracy. The higher the quality of accuracy at the source translates to the best possible listening experience for the mass population.
It used to be that you designed the room around your speakers, but it goes either way now. As long as it was a flat response (among other things) room, it gave you the option to trust your speakers, creating faithful mixes every time. Of course, it's not that easy, but it does start at your room, not your speakers.
I would beg to differ with the previous post of mixing on your large speakers first. There's a problem with that and I'll explain why:
In simple terms, you have to understand what your mixing room is doing to your mixes at your listening position. You could be making freakin fantastic mixes in the room and as soon as you step out into your car it sounds like shit.
You have to spend the time to really analyze your room and really understand what is happening inside that space. For all you know, you're speakers may be positioned poorly in the room, creating dead spots and all sorts of phase issues that translates into an inaccurate mix environment.
Think about it...how can you mix in frequencies that cancel each other out? Then on top of that, throw larger speakers into the mix, which the added lowend complicates things even more, suddenly you've complicated your situation. Your larger speakers give you a general feel for overall tonal balance, but not necessarily the most accurate speakers. It could be the other way around, however, you really need to do that specs research for yourself.
The truth is (as was mentioned before), you have to know your speakers. Understand why studio monitors are essentially different from home systems. You do that by listening to your favorite mixes (known as referencing) on different speakers and then attempting to create similar mixes accordingly.
Realize that all speakers affect mixes differently. You'll hear the phrase "flat response" alot, and it takes a bit of study and application to really understand what this means.
At a very basic level, you want to make sure your speakers can at least produce the basic range of frequencies. For most humans, this is 20hz-20khz or 20 thousand hertz. You can find those specs in your speaker manual. Like I said before, you can't mix in frequencies that aren't there.
To answer your question directly:
I would advise you practice listening on your speakers before you start mixing. Make sure your speakers have enough space away from objects such as walls, cabinets, doors, etc.
Next, I would advise to listen at lower than normal levels.The lower your listening level, the less chance for your room reverberation and other acoustic issues to interfere with accurate listening.
If your room is less than accurate, I would invest into a decent set of studio reference cans (headphones) to double check your tonal issues such as low end and high end.
The rest really chalks up to tons of practice. Great mixing dosn't happen over-night. So give yourself time to get used to adapting to different rooms and eventually you'll surprise yourself with better mixes.
