No Room Mixing

  • Thread starter Thread starter cadillac6661
  • Start date Start date
Shhhh, did you hear that? I think I just heard two dust mites having sex.
 
It'll never be completely silent. Not with my damned ears ringing all the time. :(

Back on topic, sort of: acoustic treatment and sound isolation are two different things. Like I said, "sort of"...
 
Yeah, I was waiting for us to get serious again to mention that room treatment has little to do with making a room "dead". It's about controlling bass frequencies and standing waves more than anything else.
 
I'm training my tinnitus to be in harmonies :)

45 min max anyone's been able to handle? Seems odd.
 
Lol. I've always been an earplugs guy. I gig with earplugs, practice with earplugs, go to shows with earplugs. I don't care how lame it looks, I can still fucking hear. :D
 
I fucked my ears pretty early. I'm more than half deaf in one and probably close to half deaf in the other. The good news is I've seen an ear doctor and have an appointment for a formal ear test that will probably lead to some kind of hearing aid by next year. I'm also getting my eyes fixed in a couple of weeks (cataracts). I'm way too young for both of that shit, but I wasn't careful at all when I was younger.

This time next year, I'll be bionic.
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. I've always been an earplugs guy. I gig with earplugs, practice with earplugs, go to shows with earplugs. I don't care how lame it looks, I can still fucking hear. :D
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You were gonin on about cranking your stacks' to hell with 'too loud in that other thread. but then that could'a been you just messing with somebody.

Between guns and the earlier amp days I'm amazed what I've gotten away with.
 
Not the only article written as stated by other members. I just picke the top one of a million some odd...
 
mixsit said:
You were gonin on about cranking your stacks' to hell with 'too loud in that other thread. but then that could'a been you just messing with somebody.
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No that's true. It's easy to be loud as hell when you're using ear protection. :)
 
mixsit said:
Between guns and the earlier amp days I'm amazed what I've gotten away with.
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I know the day mine started. I was building my studio in Virginia in the basement. I was using a ramset to drive nails into the concrete and couldn't find my earplugs. Oh well, I thought, it'll only be a few nails.... :(

But I think it's cumulative damage. I also work in a high noise industry around vacuum pumps, et al. They identify hearing loss as a hazard, but don't really push it like other hazards, chemicals, vision, etc.
 
Chili said:
I know the day mine started. I was building my studio in Virginia in the basement. I was using a ramset to drive nails into the concrete and couldn't find my earplugs. Oh well, I thought, it'll only be a few nails.... :(

But I think it's cumulative damage. I also work in a high noise industry around vacuum pumps, et al. They identify hearing loss as a hazard, but don't really push it like other hazards, chemicals, vision, etc.
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I've always been a pistol fan. Hearing protection came fairly early, but there's been a few.. times
Not sure how that stack up in with a Twin and 4 D-130's
 
Chili said:
I know the day mine started. I was building my studio in Virginia in the basement. I was using a ramset to drive nails into the concrete and couldn't find my earplugs. Oh well, I thought, it'll only be a few nails.... :(

But I think it's cumulative damage. I also work in a high noise industry around vacuum pumps, et al. They identify hearing loss as a hazard, but don't really push it like other hazards, chemicals, vision, etc.
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It is cumulative, and something relatively innocuous can sometimes be the tipping point.

Mine was an ear infection that took an absolute age to clear up, and when it did, well, I've had constant ringing in my left ear ever since - going on about 8/9 years now
 
WE don't "listen" in mixing rooms. That being said, there is a reason for two different types of rooms for mixing and mastering. The room can "color" the sound, changing the listening effect and causing the engineer to add or subtract too much of one or more frequencies. For the home recordist, there are two solutions. Set up a pair of near field monitors ($200 - $500) equidistant from your seat in an equilateral triangle (you knew geometry might come in handy some day, didn't you?) Sit in that chair to listen and adjust things accordingly for the sound you want. All the rest of the room should have things in it, the more the better. Even people sitting around help, but if you have furniture, that's the best. Hang old blankets on the walls, things like afgans from a thrift store. Roll out a rug on the floor. Avoid hard flat surfaces by laying a towel on glass or wood tables. This will prevent reflections. I used open boxes from equipment for a while. They make good bass traps since bass frequencies are the ones that build up the most. Then, be sure to take your mixes to friend's houses to listen to them in different situations. This is the test for any adjustments to errors that your room might have introduced.Do NOT mix on headphones! Try this experiment. Do a rough mix of levels only on your headphones and then leave the room and come back tomorrow and listen to it on your speakers. Headphones will fry your ears and you will begin adding too much of the mid and upper highs to compensate. Good Luck,

Rod Norman

cadillac6661 said:
As the title suggests I really have no room to set aside as a mixing room. All are in use save for the garage really and, as much as I 'd like to fully convert it, I'd like to make sure that it (mixing) is something I do well before I get that involved. Usually I only record vocals and and mix with tracks recorded elsewhere by my band and I. Normally I mix with headphones but would like to possibly use monitors... All that said what would be my best option knowing that any room I use will have "stuff" in it?
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The key to a recording environment with no prepared mixing room is the position of the speakers and the seat you sit in. Set up a pair of near field monitors ($200 - $500) in an equilateral triangle with your ears at the nearest point of the triangle. 5 to 6 feet on a side should do fine. Do NOT use headphones to mix. Now lay down a rug, put furniture around, hang old blankets of afghans on the walls and for any hard surface, lay a towel on it to minimize reflections. Start with the vocal or lead instrument and get a good level. Bring in the low instruments, then the percussion, then the other instruments one at a time. Now here is the important part. Take your final mix to all your friends and see how it sounds in their environment. Then go back and make adjustments that are very minor. You should be good to master now. Your mastering should be done a few days later. Use a multiband compressor and select each of the presets to see if any of them do right by your ears. Pick one and then take the final back through your friends homes. It should be good to go. I suggest presets on multiband compressors becasue top engineers have set them up and at least one of them will be good for your mix. Good Luck,
Rod Norman

cadillac6661 said:
As the title suggests I really have no room to set aside as a mixing room. All are in use save for the garage really and, as much as I 'd like to fully convert it, I'd like to make sure that it (mixing) is something I do well before I get that involved. Usually I only record vocals and and mix with tracks recorded elsewhere by my band and I. Normally I mix with headphones but would like to possibly use monitors... All that said what would be my best option knowing that any room I use will have "stuff" in it?
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