Is this a sign I need room treatment

S

Stubby03

New member
I was mixing the other day, I had a sweet sound coming out of my KRK Rokit 5's. I used a mastering preset, just playing with the presets. I went and played it in my truck. There was to much bass guitar. Is this a sign of my garage needing room treatment? I am building a studio starting this spring in my pole barn. Have to use my garage for now.
 
I might be. It could also be a sign that the 'mastering preset' was no good for your mix. Presets are starting points, different styles and mixes need different settings. It might also be that your truck's playback system is bass heavy.
 
What mjb said. It's also a sign that you need to learn more about room treatment. You say: "The other day I had a sweet sound coming out of my KRK Rokit 5's," so you know what sounds good. But you're asking if your garage needs treatment. Look, if you study anything about treatment, the first thing you'll figure out is that *every* room needs treatment, especially garages and basements and the endless leftover crap spaces that most of us deal with. You can sometimes get away with recording in a duff space, but you can never get away with mixing in a duff space.
 
Everyone has told you good stuff already. Only thing I would/could add is that you should check with various systems.

If you do end up treating your mixing room, you will find once you have checked a few sources and get your ears dialed in, you won't have to keep checking over and over, you will be able to trust your mixes and they will port reasonably well to any system.
 
Thanks for all your input. I cant wait to get this studio built so I can treat it. I have read a lot about doing it. My garage just sucks. Washer/dryer. Furnace, which I don't do anything while it is running. Hell, I even turn the heat down so I can keep it from coming on while doing some scratch vocals or drums. lol I did have my truck's bass turned up a lot. I like a meaty heavy song. I was just wondering if that was it.
 
Stubby03 said:
Furnace, which I don't do anything while it is running. Hell, I even turn the heat down so I can keep it from coming on while doing some scratch vocals or drums. lol
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Get an electric heater. I've got one. Heat + quiet = good.
 
Exactly. I mean, he says he's getting 'a good sound' from his monitors, but although it sounds good, how can he be sure it *is* good? The room might be skewing frequencies like crazy. "Sounds good!" Yeah, right.
 
Simplify things...Use your monitors just for playback and do your mixing in a set of headphones. Mixing in headphones gives you a very direct perspective. If you don't already have a pair that cancels out back round noise I recommend something like the Sennheiser HD 280's. There only $100 as appose to spending several $100's on room treatment. However, if you don't mind spending the money on room treatment go for it! I recently treated my studio over the summer and it has improved my mixing (still use headphones as well) Here is the site I ordered from: Get Acoustic Panels like Acoustic Insulation Panels at Acoustimac.com Hope this helped
 
If you're building a studio, you might as well start buying some Roxul or OC. You're going to need it anyway. Just devise a system of hanging it that allows you to get it into the pole barn when the room's done.

You'd be surprised how far floor to ceiling super chunks and a couple of ceiling clouds will go in your garage...oh, and don't forget to hit the primaries (reflection points) either. :D
 
In the vertical corners of my room, I've got 4" thick floor-to-ceiling heavy fiberglass panels. It's great. However, I know one guy who went to the trouble of cutting triangles of the stuff and then stacking them. Easy enough to do, but maybe it's overkill. I mean, the way I did it, some of the frequencies that get through it reflect from the corner and then get nailed on the way back out.
 
dobro said:
However, I know one guy who went to the trouble of cutting triangles of the stuff and then stacking them.
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I did that too and it was pretty easy/quick. Made a nice difference.

I have heard about it possibly being an advantage to doing it your way. Something about dead space behind the panels helping to make the trap more efficient.
 
I am going to treat my room that I am going to build. I have a lot to learn about recording, but, after I returned my bass in my truck to 0, instead of 6 (max) my mix did sound good. I also checked on other forms and had a good mix. I do use headphones here and there. I have played live for 30 years. I know its different mixing music than playing live. But I do know what sounds good and what doesn't. I know what I want everything to sound like in my head. Drums, vocals, guitars, etc. Not having my garage treated, waste of time right now, I wanted opinions. Sure seems like people have trouble giving advice without judging the new people on here. Thanks to the guys who offered me help.
 
Stick around. You're okay. People here aren't bad, they're just football players.
 
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