# Very Basic Help/Advice Needed



## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

I know only enough about mixing to get myself into trouble. When I create a track with my "music" computer using my studio quality speakers and Sennheiser HD600 headphones everything sounds great. 

If I play that same track using my "regular" computer with consumer quality Bose speakers it sounds awful.  It becomes slightly boomy, very muddy, and loses the clarity and definition that I want. The instruments of the orchestra seem to just sort of blend together into a gooey mess.  OK, I am exaggerating, but just a little.

So how do I fix this? I know experienced mix engineers are not going to tell me the exact EQ settings or plugins to fix it, but general advice would be really great. Or point me towards the right tutorials. PLEASE. Have mercy.


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## germancomponist (Dec 18, 2017)

Your mixing room is the problem, I bet .... .


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

germancomponist said:


> Your mixing room is the problem, I bet .... .



???????


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## Carles (Dec 18, 2017)

I'm using this (headphones edition)
https://www.sonarworks.com/reference

What is does is to try to achieve a flat response by removing the "nice" coloration (usually high and low ends are too much present. Great for listening as it sounds more "hi-fi" but not so good for mixing/mastering purpose).

You can try the headphone edition demo (fully functional for limited time), try to make it sound good with the HD600 generic profile and check after on other devices to see if you're getting a more balanced output on these too.

At the end, is more important that it will sound good as average than not excellent at home and not so good out there as you never know on what device people is going to listen to.

Said that, you always will find your music sounding "weird" as soon as you listen on a device you're not accustomed to, that's normal.


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## Polkasound (Dec 18, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> ???????



Mixing room = the physical space where you are doing the mixing work. Are the speakers from your music computer and speakers from your regular computer sitting next to each other in the same room?


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## mc_deli (Dec 18, 2017)

If...
You have not made a mix that translates to other systems
You have an untreated room
You don't know how your room is affecting what you are hearing
You don't know how your monitors are affecting what you are hearing
You don't know how your second set of "consumer quality" speakers are affecting what you are hearing
...than it's no wonder you can't make a mix that translates.

This is why e.g. Sonarworks is so useful, as you can measure your room and have some idea about what your room might be doing to your perception of your music. (Other software is available)
But the answer to your question is the same as if someone asks how to make orchestral music... look it up! There aren't any shortcuts to treating your room and creating good mixes. Otherwise everyone would be Bob effing Clearmountain!


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## patrick76 (Dec 18, 2017)

Do professional tracks suffer the same fate as your own tracks when going from your music computer to your regular computer? If so it may just be the result of the inferior equipment. If not, good luck! Carles does outstanding work so anything he says about the matter is well worth doing.

As far as tutorials go, I have enjoyed and found value in the following -
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior.
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinksi
Puremix.net

The above are not specifically regarding orchestral music but many of the concepts can be applied to it. Disclaimer - I'm no mixer!!!


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## patrick76 (Dec 18, 2017)

mc_deli said:


> Otherwise everyone would be Bob effing Clearmountain!


Ha! Indeed


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

Polkasound said:


> Mixing room = the physical space where you are doing the mixing work. Are the speakers from your music computer and speakers from your regular computer sitting next to each other in the same room?



No, different rooms. And music setup has speakers sort of centered on one wall. Regular computer has speakers on each side of monitor.


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

mc_deli said:


> If...
> You have not made a mix that translates to other systems
> You have an untreated room
> You don't know how your room is affecting what you are hearing
> ...



Thanks for the advice to everyone. But I never met Bob, and what an unusual middle name Effing, very unusual.


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## SchnookyPants (Dec 18, 2017)

Well, Paul, you could start by getting this free Spectrum Analyzer from Voxengo:

http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

Run a professionally-mixed piece of the same ilk as your piece thru it, followed by your mix. You'd then be able to visualize the general differences. It's an effing start.

It's relatively 'easy' to get a great sounding mix on great equipment. The trick is to get to translate well over a cheap car radio speaker, too. We used to actually do this 'back in the day" - Mix to satisfaction in the control room, then run out to the car with a cassette copy to see how it'd hold up on the cheap shit.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Dec 18, 2017)

your room will actually be of influence as others said, so that may be looked at, but "solving" it with plugins may not necessarily the route to go in my view. Where do your speakers stand? where are the walls, how does the sound reverberate in your room, do you need some bass traps?

I would also have listen/look at how you treat your mix:
- do you use 1 or 2 (or more) reverbs? and what have you done with rolling off the lower "muddy" stuff with the reverbs eq? how are they ordered in the chain and do they accumulate each others rumble?
- do you use eq (at all).... see also again to roll of lower end rumble.... btw, not just automatically as a rule, but have you tried to? especially tailered to what sample libraries//brands you use.
- are your instruments panned? how are the placement?

also:
- it is actually a common tool that mixing engineers use: after mixing check it on several kinds of ordinary equipement to listen to how it sounds.
- some engineers also try to listen to the mono result (some even suggest to mix in mono) because then you will also hear the most obvious disbalances and/ or things that are in the fore or background or not audible at all.

good luck with it !


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## rrichard63 (Dec 18, 2017)

After you have settled on room treatment and/or Sonarworks and gotten used to the resulting improvement there, the next step is to get some practice taking your mixes to multiple other locations and playback equipment. As a third step, you might want to look at plugins that make your studio system emulate (more or less) various other playback systems. Sonarworks has one version of this built in -- click on "Simulate" underneath the graph. Another frequently recommended tool is Audified MixChecker. If these tools work for you, they let you get a rough idea what your mix will sound like in several situations, without having to get up out of your chair.


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## artomatic (Dec 18, 2017)

SchnookyPants said:


> It's relatively 'easy' to get a great sounding mix on great equipment. The trick is to get to translate well over a cheap car radio speaker, too. We used to actually do this 'back in the day" - Mix to satisfaction in the control room, then run out to the car with a cassette copy to see how it'd hold up



This.
I still do that (via bluetooth) to this day! It's my go-to during the final stages of my mix since I am so accustomed to the sound of my car's stereo system. In your case, I recommend you import a reference song to your DAW and A/B that to your final mix then adjust to taste.

All the best!


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

SchnookyPants said:


> Well, Paul, you could start by getting this free Spectrum Analyzer from Voxengo:
> 
> http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/
> 
> ...



This sounds like a great idea.


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

I purchased SonarWorks. The bass is boomy on the cheaper equipment so I think I have too much bass.


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## aaronventure (Dec 18, 2017)

For the final tone, you could check how it holds up with iZotope's Tonal Balance Control. It comes with Ozone 8 and while I don't have much use for it nowadays, I wish I had it 7 years ago. There are presets such as Bass Heavy and Classical which have different targets across the spectrum.

You drop it at the very end of your master chain and play your piece. It then analyzes your spectrum and displays how off from the average frequency response of that genre it is (they analyzed thousands of mixed). Since it comes with Ozone 8, have Ozone 8 (or Ozone 8 EQ if you go Advanced) before it on the chain, but before your limiter. You can control it from within Tonal Balance Control. If you get stuck, it's all well-documented in the manual (I think they also have videos). 

It has a fine mode and broad mode, fine will display a much more precise target across the entire spectrum and if your mix is off by a lot in certain areas (like the troublesome 200-500 Hz region which is what we perceive as _muddy_) you'll see it. Then it's like a game - you have to get the the line within the target. Once you do, print it and check it on different systems and see how it holds up. Try trusting that instead of your ears just to see how it works out. 

Ozone 8 has free 10-day trial available.


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## MichaelM (Dec 18, 2017)

Paul, I was mixing my E.T. mockup using a pair of Beyer Dt880s. Every now and then I'd throw the track through a pair of speakers. Any kind of speakers. Car, stereo, Bluetooth, etc. Most of the time it sounded like crap. Like the others said, I ended up downloading the trial edition for Sonarworks. After adding it to my master bus, man, was I shocked at how I started hearing my piece. After making adjustments with Sonarworks plugin, it started to sound a bit better over time. I know I had said in my thread that I dialed the reverb back alot over time working on that mockup, and that was mostly thanks to Sonarworks. Having that nice cleaner neutral signal really helped. 
But just for sanity checks along the way after using Sonarworks, I'd still listen on other speakers, headphones, cheap ear buds, etc.
Also I would listen to my favorite music with Sonarworks on, so I could hear how it affected the tracks I was trying to emulate.

Also in my case I started trusting that the folks at Spitfire, Cinesamples already did a wonderful job getting their libraries to sound good and don't need me turning knobs that I'm not 100% sure of!


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## gsilbers (Dec 18, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> I know only enough about mixing to get myself into trouble. When I create a track with my "music" computer using my studio quality speakers and Sennheiser HD600 headphones everything sounds great.
> 
> If I play that same track using my "regular" computer with consumer quality Bose speakers it sounds awful.  It becomes slightly boomy, very muddy, and loses the clarity and definition that I want. The instruments of the orchestra seem to just sort of blend together into a gooey mess.  OK, I am exaggerating, but just a little.
> 
> So how do I fix this? I know experienced mix engineers are not going to tell me the exact EQ settings or plugins to fix it, but general advice would be really great. Or point me towards the right tutorials. PLEASE. Have mercy.



the sonarworks mentioned above is good. 

you can also get magic A/B plugin so you can compare your mix w profesional mixes so you get closer to the sound you want with EQ comp verb etc. 
you might also want to get a loudness monitor mixer plugin. it will help get your track at the same "loudness" (not volume) and help get the mix closer to references mixes. 

in general its really hard to do for everyone and takes time to get the mix in a good ball park and sounding good in all speakers.


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## Ron Kords (Dec 18, 2017)

Hi Paul,

If you're writing and mixing in an 'untreated' space you will be hearing, basically, reverb of your room as well as your music. 

I used to write are the end of my open plan kitchen, living room, dining room that has wood floors. The room would make the lower end sound louder than it was (and other, various refquencis) and so I would turn the bass down to make things balanced with the result being dissapearing bass when listening back in a 'normal' space.

There are others here with ALOT more knowledge than me but I would suggest mixing more on headphones to alleviate the above issue. There are limitations with this in terms of each ear only hearing one side (with speakers both ears hear both sides) but it may help some with removing the 'room sound'.

It's really worth reading some stuff on room treatment and doing what you can to fix things (you can make sound absorbers quite cheaply and place them on side walls and above you (if practical)). It feels very non-creative spending time on this but it is worth it. 

You're basically trying to create a zone in your room where you only hear sound direct from your speakers and not the sound reflected from walls and ceilings....

Hope you manage to improve things to your liking


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 18, 2017)

aaronventure said:


> For the final tone, you could check how it holds up with iZotope's Tonal Balance Control. It comes with Ozone 8 and while I don't have much use for it nowadays, I wish I had it 7 years ago. There are presets such as Bass Heavy and Classical which have different targets across the spectrum.
> 
> You drop it at the very end of your master chain and play your piece. It then analyzes your spectrum and displays how off from the average frequency response of that genre it is (they analyzed thousands of mixed). Since it comes with Ozone 8, have Ozone 8 (or Ozone 8 EQ if you go Advanced) before it on the chain, but before your limiter. You can control it from within Tonal Balance Control. If you get stuck, it's all well-documented in the manual (I think they also have videos).
> 
> ...



Thank you Aaron. This sounds like it will be a great help for me. Do I want the standard Ozone 8 or the advanced Ozone 8?


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## aaronventure (Dec 18, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Thank you Aaron. This sounds like it will be a great help for me. Do I want the standard Ozone 8 or the advanced Ozone 8?



I think Tonal Balance Control is a special feature of Advanced. Ozone in general has been in my lonely island kit for years now, along with Slate stuff. Every single module is godlike. I would find it hard to justify dropping $400 only for Tonal Balance Control, but if you're gonna be using everything else, you can't go wrong. 

Do try it out first and see how it works for you, and report back! I'm really curious if it will work for you.


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## Naoki Ohmori (Dec 18, 2017)

Generally it's hard to monitor the low end with headphones properly. 
I use smartphone's ear pads to monitor the low end at the final stage of mixing. 
Ear pads tend to have too much low end. 
So, when it sounds good on the ear pads, it mostly sounds good on other devices too. 

Also, it's important to have reference tracks to compare how commercial tracks and your tracks sound on your headphones, ear pads or speakers.


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## mc_deli (Dec 18, 2017)

... amidst all the talk of buying plug ins... just a little reminder, as others have hinted... you need to treat your room, or at least be comfortable and "know" the room where you mix. Lots of great mixes are made in places with "bad" frequency response but that doesn't have to a barrier to mixing well - it does make it more difficult. There is no substitute for room treatment (especially controlling bass frequencies).

What is crazy in all this is that one of the first replies came from @Carles who, IIRC, mixes just on headphones (?) and makes just amazing mixes! A reminder as well that talent and craft are far more important than treatment and software!


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## Rctec (Dec 18, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> I purchased SonarWorks. The bass is boomy on the cheaper equipment so I think I have too much bass.



...actually, it means you don’t have enough bass coming from your main studio monitors, not that you have too much bass.
But it’s all guesswork. I know engineers that can do great mixes in pretty much any room or any set of speakers. Using spectrum analyzers will tell you that you have a problem, but not really how to solve it ‘artistically’. And I do mean that mixing and mastering is an art that needs to be learned. And not overnight.
But to start with, I’d start my mix on the speakers it sounds terrible on, and then see how it translates to your good speakers. Might not be as much fun and will certainly be a vibe-killing experience, but you’ll learn something...
This is such a complex subject, I don’t think you can solve it through bits of advice on a forum. I suggest getting a good recording engineer and a good mastering engineer to have a listen to your material in their room and to maybe have a decent accoustician come to your place. A conversation in the actual place you’re creating and making decisions by listening is a lot more revealing and precise than any bit of software...
I know none of my suggestions are cheap, (maybe you can call in some favors - engineers are a helpful bunch) and I don’t mean to sound elitist. But if you value your music and the time you put into it, you might try to get the basics sorted...


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## Rctec (Dec 19, 2017)

One of my favorite engineers working in a shit sounding room...


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## mc_deli (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> ...actually, it means you don’t have enough bass coming from your main studio monitors, not that you have too much bass.
> But it’s all guesswork. I know engineers that can do great mixes in pretty much any room or any set of speakers. Using spectrum analyzers will tell you that you have a problem, but not really how to solve it ‘artistically’. And I do mean that mixing and mastering is an art that needs to be learned. And not overnight.
> But to start with, I’d start my mix on the speakers it sounds terrible on, and than see how it translates to your good speakers. Might not be as much fun and will certainly be a vibe-killing experience, but you’ll learn something...
> This is such a complex subject, I don’t think you can solve it through bits of advice on a forum. I suggest getting a good recording engineer and a good mastering engineer to have a listen to your material in their room and to maybe have a decent accoustician come to your place. A conversation in the actual place you’re creating and making decisions by listening is a lot more revealing and precise than any bit of software...
> I know none of my suggestions are cheap, (maybe you can call in some favors - engineers are a helpful bunch) and I don’t mean to sound elitist. But if you value your music and the time you put into it, you might try to get the basics sorted...


What this guy said


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## Carles (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> and I don’t mean to sound elitist. But if you value your music and the time you put into it, you might try to get the basics sorted...


I think we all know that you're not elitist (while I'm not a fanboy of your music* I admire your personality).
Is just that while some people can afford certain things other can only dream with something like that.
Currently my "workstation" is a desk in a corner in my living room, with a computer, an old Steinberg Ci2 interface and a pair of headphones (literally) and since I'm investing all my savings on a composer career (to pay bills as I've left my day job in order to have time for music) I won't be able to spend on instruments/plugins purchases for more than $99 until at least 2020, so I'm rather just crossing my fingers wishing that this setup will last for a couple more years :(
However, I find the thread interesting for the future of course. Thanks for sharing your point of view, surely that's good advice.

*EDIT: I don't mean I don't like your music, you've composed great stuff which I have enjoyed a lot, just not a typical fanboy.


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## germancomponist (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> But to start with, I’d start my mix on the speakers it sounds terrible on, and than see how it translates to your good speakers...


A good point! In the very past I did this on my Yamaha NS 10 monitors and it worked well.


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## leon chevalier (Dec 19, 2017)

A lot of great advices here !

But Paul, if I may give you a very basic advice (knowing that I'm just a free time composer) my mix started to sound the same across different audio devices/rooms when I've started to gently removing a bit of low end / low medium on every instrument except the basses. I think the muddiness often come from the situation where too much instruments are fighting in the low medium frequencies.

I don't know what lib you are using, but it's even truer with totally dry or close miked instruments that have a lot of low frequencies. Not an ultimate rule, but worth to try.

Leon


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## AllanH (Dec 19, 2017)

A few additional comments: One of the challenges with Bose (imo) is that the sound is highly processed and tends to be boomier in the low-end. This is simply (again, imo) how Bose sounds. I used to mix/write on headphones and then test on a bose 2.1 system with the thinking that the bose was a good reference for what others would have. _I found that I could improve the sound on bose significantly by making sure that there was very little low end in my reveb._ I would look at that first.

I have since switched to writing/mixing on a pair of JBLs, alternating with headphones, as the bose lost so much clarity and separation.


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> ...actually, it means you don’t have enough bass coming from your main studio monitors, not that you have too much bass.
> But it’s all guesswork. I know engineers that can do great mixes in pretty much any room or any set of speakers. Using spectrum analyzers will tell you that you have a problem, but not really how to solve it ‘artistically’. And I do mean that mixing and mastering is an art that needs to be learned. And not overnight.
> But to start with, I’d start my mix on the speakers it sounds terrible on, and then see how it translates to your good speakers. Might not be as much fun and will certainly be a vibe-killing experience, but you’ll learn something...
> This is such a complex subject, I don’t think you can solve it through bits of advice on a forum. I suggest getting a good recording engineer and a good mastering engineer to have a listen to your material in their room and to maybe have a decent accoustician come to your place. A conversation in the actual place you’re creating and making decisions by listening is a lot more revealing and precise than any bit of software...
> I know none of my suggestions are cheap, (maybe you can call in some favors - engineers are a helpful bunch) and I don’t mean to sound elitist. But if you value your music and the time you put into it, you might try to get the basics sorted...



Thanks for the advice. I am just a hobbyist composer. I write tonal (late-romantic style) concert music as a hobby. I am retired age 65. I know my music is probably never going to be performed, so my best chance to hear what I have written is my mockup. With all of that being said, money is not an issue for me, thank God. I have all of the sample libraries I can jam into my computer and can afford any plugin I want. But my wife is not going to be very understanding about me "re-decorating" my music room. And after 39 years of marriage, one thing I know for sure is a husband has to pick his battles very carefully.  A divorce would reverse my situation, I could do whatever I wanted in the music room, but I would have no money.


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 19, 2017)

Do I really want to learn how to be a mix engineer? Not really. I came very close to engaging Aaron Venture to do some mixing for me. I guess I hate the idea of giving up control. Also, and this is even worse, I tend to keep changing my pieces and trying different orchestrations or even changes as drastic as cutting or adding sections. Based on experience, it is going to be hard to say, enough, it is done, no more changes.

So either I learn to stop rewriting and also learn to trust someone else to mix for me, OR I learn to mix for myself.


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 19, 2017)

AllanH said:


> A few additional comments: One of the challenges with Bose (imo) is that the sound is highly processed and tends to be boomier in the low-end. This is simply (again, imo) how Bose sounds. I used to mix/write on headphones and then test on a bose 2.1 system with the thinking that the bose was a good reference for what others would have. _I found that I could improve the sound on bose significantly by making sure that there was very little low end in my reveb._ I would look at that first.
> 
> I have since switched to writing/mixing on a pair of JBLs, alternating with headphones, as the bose lost so much clarity and separation.



Now this is interesting. I did not know that about Bose. I will try different speakers.


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## Rctec (Dec 19, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> Thanks for the advice. I am just a hobbyist composer. I write tonal (late-romantic style) concert music as a hobby. I am retired age 65. I know my music is probably never going to be performed, so my best chance to hear what I have written is my mockup. With all of that being said, money is not an issue for me, thank God. I have all of the sample libraries I can jam into my computer and can afford any plugin I want. But my wife is not going to be very understanding about me "re-decorating" my music room. And after 39 years of marriage, one thing I know for sure is a husband has to pick his battles very carefully.  A divorce would reverse my situation, I could do whatever I wanted in the music room, but I would have no money.



Retired at 65?!?! I’m 60 and Just getting going! There is no time limit to being a composer, to creativity and if not now - when? This is when you actually have the time to write a piece that will be worthy of real players having the joy to perform it. This is the time to sit around with recording engineers and chat about mixes, speakers, gear, players, music! With the right engineer, you never give up control. All they try to do is make your vision better!

Oh, and you don’t need to re-decorate. A bit of moving the right size speakers around (out of the corners, away from the wall...) can do magic.
And yes, most of those little computer speakers have a loudness curve that is artificial...

-Hz-


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## Paul T McGraw (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> Retired at 65?!?! I’m 60 and Just getting going! There is no time limit to being a composer, to creativity and if not now - when? This is when you actually have the time to write a piece that will be worthy of real players having the joy to perform it. This is the time to sit around with recording engineers and chat about mixes, speakers, gear, players, music! With the right engineer, you never give up control. All they try to do is make your vision better!
> 
> Oh, and you don’t need to re-decorate. A bit of moving the right size speakers around (out of the corners, away from the wall...) can do magic.
> And yes, most of those little computer speakers have a loudness curve that is artificial...
> ...



That was very inspirational, I think I will take your advice. Thank you!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Dec 19, 2017)

Rctec said:


> Retired at 65?!?! I’m 60 and Just getting going! There is no time limit to being a composer, to creativity and if not now - when? This is when you actually have the time to write a piece that will be worthy of real players having the joy to perform it. This is the time to sit around with recording engineers and chat about mixes, speakers, gear, players, music! With the right engineer, you never give up control. All they try to do is make your vision better!
> 
> Oh, and you don’t need to re-decorate. A bit of moving the right size speakers around (out of the corners, away from the wall...) can do magic.
> And yes, most of those little computer speakers have a loudness curve that is artificial...
> ...



Excellent post! Age means nothing and is a moot point. Why not have your music performed? And why can’t you?

I must admit, I never bought into the whole room treatment thing. Mostly because I’m lazy.....but I found that taking the time to learn how your monitors “speak” to you is the key to creating successful, consistent mixes.


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## Polkasound (Dec 19, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> I found that taking the time to learn how your monitors “speak” to you is the key to creating successful, consistent mixes.



Yep. I've been mixing in the same spot, in the same room, through the same amps and monitors, for almost 25 years. It's just a small room that's padded from floor to ceiling like an anechoic chamber. I never did any specialized treatment or spectral analyzing -- I simply got used to the space and equipment and how everything sounds going through it. The crutch, though, is that I can't mix on anyone else's system. After all these years, my ears are married to my room and my gear.


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## aaronventure (Dec 20, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> I must admit, I never bought into the whole room treatment thing. Mostly because I’m lazy.....but I found that taking the time to learn how your monitors “speak” to you is the key to creating successful, consistent mixes.



It's key in untreated rooms and colored systems. It's a tedious process and you're still relying on your re-calibrated ears not making a mistake, especially when you just woke up and sat down to do some work. I've been there. In untreated rooms and on speakers with their own colored frequency response some notes will sound better than others, simply due to volume difference and different overtone balance across the spectrum. The most dangerous are the nulls and peaks in the low end, which are guaranteed to be there unless you have some absorption in the room. 

This way, you have to be aware of your system, where these peaks and nulls are, how different tracks which are in different keys sound on your system, what to aim for, and work accordingly. But that's just it, you always have to be aware of it. Sometimes the bassline will sound off, and you'll have to think whether it's your room or it needs work.

While this isn't an issue for an experienced engineer who's been doing this every day for 40 years and knows what colors he has before he goes to paint and what happens when he mixes any number of them together, you really don't have to put yourself through this.

Treating your room and calibrating your equipment lets you simply _listen _instead of having to think all the time. Because then you hear everything as it is. And you just follow your ears. 

I rarely have to check up on different systems. Before I had a treated room and calibrated speakers? All the time, yes. And I always did all the important decisions on headphones. While I was still pulling off good mixes, it was a tiring to _always, every time _go back and fix things. 

Mixing doesn't have to be tedious, annoying and frustrating. It's a skill and an art-form in itself and if I were to spend the rest of my working life only mixing and mastering, I'd be fine with it. 

*But would you paint (or learn to paint) while looking through colored glasses?*

Some people can't afford a dedicated room and/or acoustic treatment, and that's perfectly fine. You can still do fantastic work on good headphones while checking your mixes on different systems (mom's stereo being the most important one). Even if you're familiar with your system, a good pair of headphones (preferably calibrated) will make it much easier; 'cause if you never truly saw the colors you're working with, can you really at any point expect to always do a great job?


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