From Kenny Balys Sent Mon, Feb 18th 2019, 16:44
From Kenny Balys Sent Mon, Feb 18th 2019, 16:44
Brian and Rob, This thread has taken the shape of really solid advice. My mixes are typically bass light and, in spite of my carefulness, I sometimes get rejected by the mastering engineer. At first I had no interest in a sub, but 70s synthesizers create noise under 90Hz (a lot) and a wiser engineer told me that if I was going to be making noise down there, I needed to hear down there. My car is a compact hatchback and it has a SD card slot so I am not burning CDR's (and then chucking them) anymore. Yeesh... I cannot believe the waste I used to create. The journey towards a proper listening environment has begun. I just hope I don't go too crazy. I would like to have something like the rooms at EMS in Stockholm. They are not dead and so their amazing Buchla collection sounds good in the open air. You really could just hang microphones up in the rooms and record the good old fashioned way. On 18.02.19 15:46 , Rob Walker wrote: > Biggest problem with untreated domestic rooms is the room modes accentuate certain specific bass frequencies. So one track which uses certain notes in the scale will be mixed a certain way, another a different way. Then you have inconsistencies between your tracks. In general the mixes end up bass light - treated rooms have less LF resonances, so you tend to mix the bass frequencies higher. > > Some music is just unlistenable in cars - deep bass often gets masked by the engine noise. Cars lie in a different way, but I agree they are useful for understanding what pokes out and what gets lost. Another trick I use is listening with the door open from the hall - it has a certain averaging effect and lets you hear certain types of problem. > > Rob > > >> On 18 Feb 2019, at 10:51, Brian Willoughby <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote: >> >> You could save yourself the 7 repetitions by using a laptop and a car stereo with a digital input (maybe even an analog input). >> >> About 18 years ago, I got a new car and installed a Nakamichi 6-disc in-dash changer with an outboard DAC. The DAC also had a spare S/PDIF input that could be selected from the front panel. My passenger seat then had a permanent cable dangling behind the seat. After an initial mix in the studio, I would copy the Logic Studio Pro project to my Mac laptop and head to the car. A simple USB Audio interface with S/PDIF outputs was all that was needed to interface to my car in a manner that was identical to burning a CD for playback. Between this car stereo setup, MD-7506 headphones, and the studio monitors, I was able to check mastering on three completely different systems. >> >> Of course, any improvements you make to your studio will help. >> >> I also have a home theatre system that includes a microphone for calibration. The four corners, center, and sub are all adjusted for time delay and amplitude matching. I’ve found that the biggest step in accurate sound is to correctly set the level of the subwoofer. Too many systems have a subwoofer that’s too small, or the volume of the sub is cranked up too high. Calibration helps make sure that the reinforcement of the sub is subtle, not overdone. Then, when you mix for a properly balanced sub, your mixes will also be subtle and powerful, as appropriate. >> >> Brian >> >> >>> On Feb 14, 2019, at 12:20 PM, Kenny Balys <xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote: >>> The problem I am trying to fix is one that I didn't know I had. >>> >>> My mixes are always inaccurate on the low end. As such, its >>> my habit to drop a test mix onto a SD card and run out to the car >>> to listen. The car tells me where the problems are. Then I run >>> back inside and adjust. This repeats about 7 (or more) times >>> per mix. >>>