Mix/Monitor problems PLEASE HELP!!

[adclark]

I have Tapco S-5 monitors. I have Bass setting on back set to high (+4db). I'll get a great sounding mix on my monitors. When I play in the car, The bass is too big and boomy. I have to go back and adjust the bass (bass drum/bass guitar) with an EQ, bounce again, listen in car and home stereo, make changes and do this over and over until its right. I have the bass on monitors set to highest position so Bass is more up front. The mids and highs are right on. I have a regular carpeted room with regular dry wall. The back of monitors are approx 4-5 inches away from walls and at angle toward listener. What can I doo to help the situation. I know its normal to adjust mix a bit but the bass thing is bothering me. From what I've read theses are not bad monitors. What kind of room treatments (cheap) would make my mixes more accurate?

 

[Zed10R]

I have Tapco S-5 monitors. I have Bass setting on back set to high (+4db). I'll get a great sounding mix on my monitors. When I play in the car, The bass is too big and boomy. I have to go back and adjust the bass (bass drum/bass guitar) with an EQ, bounce again, listen in car and home stereo, make changes and do this over and over until its right. I have the bass on monitors set to highest position so Bass is more up front. The mids and highs are right on. I have a regular carpeted room with regular dry wall. The back of monitors are approx 4-5 inches away from walls and at angle toward listener. What can I doo to help the situation. I know its normal to adjust mix a bit but the bass thing is bothering me. From what I've read theses are not bad monitors. What kind of room treatments (cheap) would make my mixes more accurate?

You have to just get used to how your monitors sound. A good way to do that is to A/B a track of an artist you like and your own while mixing. Just copy a track off a cd and play it through your monitors. If you play your mix through your monitors and it sounds like you would want a car stereo to sound, it's a good bet you are mixing in too much. You just want to know it is there. You don't want it accentuated in your mix. And get the best source sound you possibly can to avoid having to mess with EQ too much.

 

[ds21]

How do some commercial CD's of the same genre (at the same playback level) sound, it might be that you can't hear the lower bass thats really there, looks like the S-5 only have a cut off point of -3db@64hz, what kind of music are you mixing?

 

[daav]

Any chance you happen to be in a "dead" spot in the room where the bass is dropping out from the monitors? Is it treated or if you move your head around the room, does the bass level fluctuate?

Although mixing with headphones is generally discouraged, it might be a good idea to use a pair for reference from time to time to help give you something other than the monitors/room to compare with the sound from the monitors.

Daav

 

[adclark]

Thanks for replies. I think I really like Bass heavy music (Rush albums really have the Bass upfront). Thats how I am trying to mix. My style is new age/rock electronic instrumentals ( a cross between U2, Moby, Rush, Coldplay, with Strings/Synths). I'm a drummer but have to use loops since I now live in a condo. I've read other posts where people automatically Roll of frequencies below 45db.

 

[adclark]

Thanks for advice DS21. I went thru my iTunes catalog on my computer(I have lose to 2000 songs already transferred from CD's) and ran the songs that I really like the mixes and listened closely on my S5 monitors. The bass heavy songs really were not that heavy on the s5's afterall. I think that I knew these songs so well (listening to other systems) that i "knew" the bass was upfront and punchy and I assumed on these monitors they were the same. I started A/B my mix with the iTunes music and I can tweak my mixes to be similar. The new mixes also sound good in the car. The next step will be to send them off to mastering once I'M FINISHED