No Place To Mix!!!

[Ko17]

Hi, I'm a college student and cannot afford monitors at this junction in my life. I have no access to anything worth mixing/mastering on, and so my question is this...What is the best way to mix a song without proper monitors? I have done some mixing/ mastering on a home theatre setup using a flat eq in stereo mode (not any of the surround modes). The speakers are large, ported bookshelf type speakers, and I have a 10" woofer as well. Will this give me an decent mix? I have also mixed a few songs in my car via an aux input in my head unit from my comp. Will this give me decent mix? Using just headphones has not worked out well for me...

Here are some examples of songs that i mixed in my car...if you have some decent monitors i would be interested to know what they sound like...thanks

 

[Massive Master]

Hi, I'm a college student and cannot afford monitors at this junction in my life. I have no access to anything worth mixing/mastering on, and so my question is this...What is the best way to mix a song without proper monitors? I have done some mixing/ mastering on a home theatre setup using a flat eq in stereo mode (not any of the surround modes). The speakers are large, ported bookshelf type speakers, and I have a 10" woofer as well. Will this give me an decent mix? I have also mixed a few songs in my car via an aux input in my head unit from my comp. Will this give me decent mix? Using just headphones has not worked out well for me...

Here are some examples of songs that i mixed in my car...if you have some decent monitors i would be interested to know what they sound like...thanks

The car thing isn't working. But I can tell that you have overactive woofers and dark tweeters in your car (or you were mixing with a wool cap on).

There is no shortcut or substitute for monitoring. Any engineer, any mix, any studio is only as good as their monitoring chain. You can not tweak what you can not hear, period.

No doubt, the headphones aren't going to work. I'm not surprised there...

Most home stereos aren't going to work either. Granted, some home stereos are far superior listening systems than those that are found in most home studios - But for the typical ~$1,000 home theatre system in a typical living room, probably not. "Large, ported bookshelf" speakers isn't telling much. Brand, model, amplifier model might be helpful - but again, if it's a typical hype-fidelity home system, it's probably not going to give you the accuracy and consistency you need.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

What is the best way to mix a song without proper monitors?

There's no way to tell for sure based upon this post whether you have the proper monitors or not. Plus there's the additional factor that is just as important, how your monitors are set up in the room, and how the room itself sounds. That is all part of the monitoring chain too.

Nor frankly are listening to your mixes going to tell us much; we have no way of knowing how much of what we hear is because of your monitors, your room, your ears, your tastes, your recordings or your mixing skills.

That said, if we treat it just as a hypothetical, the direct answer to your question is, "There is no best way to mix a song without proper monitors."

It's like asking what the best way is to get a job without having the proper interview skills (except with the monitors, there is no chance for nepotism or sleeping with the boss ), or what the best way is to take a professional-looking picture without the right camera equipment.

If your monitors and/or your room are compromising you, your mix will be compromised The best you can do is to try and translate what you hear in the studio to what sounds right on a CD outside the studio. What sounds best in your studio may not be what sounds best when you get it out there. If you can learn that you have to adjust your mixes so that it sounds a little bad in this way, that it actually sounds better on the outside, that will definitely help at least some, and is about the best you can do. But there may very well be deficiencies in your monitoring, as John said, that you will simply have to accept that you might not be able to overcome, and that can crimp your mixes a bit.

G.

 

[thundercage]

Massive Master is right. If you can't hear it, it can't be mixed or mastered properly. I do have a low budget answer for you though. Use a combination of every sound system you have available. It's not too practical, but listen on everything from a boom box to headphones to your car. Go back and make modifications, do it again, and again. When you think you have it the best possible, that's as good as you can get it. It still won't be perfect, but that's low budget.

 

[Ko17]

Cool cool, all of this advice is great...Massive, you were dead on, on the sub's being overactive in my car. I understand now what you were saying about there not being a "best" way to mix without monitors, just no way around it. As far as the room that I record in it is def. not ideal. I just enjoy writing tunes and then trying to make them sound as good as I can with my limited setup (old realistic condensor mic straight into my input on my macbook pro, using garageband)