There are those things in life we all have to go through that we hate. Now, unless you’ve lived in the same house all your life, moving is one of those things.
And last Monday was moving day for me…
I get that you might actually like moving, so in that case… what’s wrong with you?!
Despite moving being something preferably avoided, I had been looking forward to this day for a while because it’s exciting to be moving into a new space to mix and record music. But with that sense of excitement comes a nervous feeling of watching all of your gear getting packed up and put into a van.
“Will it make it to the other side in one piece?”
“Are my monitors OK?”
I tend not to worry in general but I can sadly admit that those thoughts passed through my brain.
So besides getting a life, the first thing I did when I got to the new place was unpack all my gear, make sure it was still working (it was) and started to figure out where my new mixing position would be.
Now, I understand you probably spend a ridiculous amount of time worrying about how to make your room sound perfect, what acoustic treatment you need to make that happen and just generally worrying about how your room affects your music.
Today, I want to share some very simple tips with you that I think will really help with all that worry:
- Make sure your desk is positioned at the midpoint of the shortest wall in your room. Having your desk centred on the wall is important for accurate stereo imaging. Use a measuring tape to speed up the process and avoid judgement mistakes.
- Make sure your monitors form an equilateral (all 3 sides are equal) triangle between each other and your ears. It’s easy to get our monitor placement either too wide or too narrow. By using this approach, you’ll get it right and save space in your studio.
- Point the top tweeters at your ears. I’ve seen a lot of studios that position their monitors “straight on”. By doing that, you’re going to make it harder to localise sounds because we localise sound with high frequencies. Remember that equilateral triangle? You want the sound going directly into your ears, so angle your monitors towards them!
- Use your reference set to make sure what you’re hearing sounds right to you.
Obviously, when you start mixing in a new room, it takes some adjustment. But what if you’re not in a new room like me and you’re trying to maximise what you already have?
Well, let’s go back to the title…
Stop worrying
There are more things you can do to improve how you mix in your existing room.
If you feel your room sounds terrible when you crank your monitors, then stop cranking your monitors!
Mixing at low volume will do a huge amount to take a bad sounding room out of the equation. Not only will you save your ears, but your mixes will sound better than ever.
There’s no such thing as a perfect room
Yes, acoustic treatment helps. There’s no point in lying to you. Acoustic treatment helps in the same way that premium plugins can beat stock or free plugins.
There are so many things you can do before even thinking about acoustic treatment and your mixing position is the most important.
Think about it… if you set up your mixing position all wrong and then treat your room, you’ve not only set yourself up in the wrong position but you’ve taken the time and money to treat the wrong parts of your room. No bueno.
Don’t forget that there are levels to every game and it’s important to recognise the level you’re at right now. When I started to get concerned about my new room and worrying about how my mixes would sound coming out of it, I thought back to a time when I didn’t even own studio monitors and I could still produce good mixes.
If you’ve done everything you possibly can to maximise your mixing position, your setup and your method, then acoustic treatment might be the logical next step for you.
So if you’re still worried about how your room sounds, here are some further tips:
- Don’t crank your monitors! There’s no such thing as a perfect room, but louder monitoring volumes will show up the imperfections in your room even more.
- If you know your mixing position is good, your mixes are solid and you’re happy with your method, then it might be time to consider acoustic treatment.
- Use the same setup every time. This is where a lot of us go wrong. If you’ve created an unbelievable mix using a specific template and approach, then you decide to “change it up” for the next mix, then what do you expect? Results will vary. If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it it.
- If you’re still worried about how your room sounds, don’t forget that you can always mix on headphones. Headphones completely remove the room from the equation.
- Listen to as much music as you can in your mixing position and use your reference set as often as you can.
We could all do with worrying less in life. Worrying about how your room sounds or if you can get a great sounding mix out of it is completely unnecessary. There are people out there producing unbelievable mixes on headphones and on the most basic of setups.
Aiming for a perfect sounding room or the perfect mix is admirable and I have nothing against you doing that. Striving for perfection will help you take action and you’ll become better than you ever imagined.
Take each step as it comes and don’t drive yourself crazy in the process by worrying about your room!
The bottom line is this… a bad sounding room is not an excuse. You can and will make great music even if your room is far less than perfect.
While I can’t promise you that your room will ever sound perfect, I can promise you that if you follow some of the advice in this article, you’ll be able the maximise your results without the stress!
Now, I’d love to know…
Are you still worried about how your room sounds?
Leave a comment below!
professional sounding mix every time...
Well. If I was worried about how my room sounds, I´d never mix a thing… or I would have to mix exclusively on headphones.
Of course I would love to have an acoustic treated environement, but I don`t (and first I would have to find an empty room in my house; kind of difficult…). The thing is I believe there`s no real “need” for that unless we need a space for recording acoustic instruments at home (am I wrong?). Otherwise we can always get good results following the advices above.
Good article.
PS: hope you`re happy with your new place! 🙂
Hallo Stephen,
great article like allways, since Justin Fisher shared the thing with the pink noise, it doesn´t mater in what kind of room, on what kind of speakers or headphones you work for mixing. Only the referencetrack is needed later, and done. All the best for your new room.
Now I`m REALLY curious about this method… Have to try it one day.
less worried
thank you
Stephen – You have more trust in others handling your equipment than I do. 🙂 I’ve done mobile recording setups in the past and have tried to personally load things like mic cases, monitors, etc., myself – cringing a bit when people offer to “help”. I wish you well in your move and hope all of your equipment remains in good shape (especially monitors and mics, the most susceptible to change in sonic character with mishandling).
To your question: I’m not too worried about my mixing room for two reasons.
1) I spent time with a signal generator getting things positioned as well as I could and using treatments to tame resonances that I found.
2) Mixes I’ve done in there have generally translated well to other sources, so I trust it – and as you put it well – mix at low to moderate levels. I’ve learned that even with a good setup, headphones are still an important tool for checking the mix at multiple stages.
Enjoy setting up your new room!
I all agree with all you said about not worrying too much about the room. The main aspect is to learn / know your room and monitors well. I all agree with using referece tracks as well. On the other hand, you simply can not fix what you don’t hear. If you are getting a low mid build up while you mix and you like that in your mixing environment (due to your acoustic environment or monitors or whatever) you may say “farewell” to a mix that’ll translate adequately. I make this statement because I’m having this situation. Using reference tracks may be a life saver but as long as you don’t hear the full range, sadly (most of the time) you will not feel excited about what you’re doing. That does make a huge difference on the quality of the final product.
I’m not writing these to argue, am just sharing my own experience.
I strongly believe and actually know that using some bass traps and some difusers does become a game changer when it comes to leveling your frequencies so that you get as close as possible to good traslating mixes.
All the best 🙂
Hey Ugur,
I agree that acoustic treatment always helps but I think it’s possible to get good and even great mixes without it.
The reason why I use reference mixes is because you will hear the full frequency range in any room you mix in no matter what. So if the low mids are built up in your references, then they will sound the same in your music. That way, you won’t overcompensate.
As a fallback, you can always check on headphones to make sure.
Thanks very much for sharing your experiences. And there is no argument. What you’re saying about the addition of bass traps and diffusers is true – they will help if set up correctly.
In fact, a nicely treated room does make a world of difference once you get used to it. With that said, I still feel a great mixer can put together a quality mix in an untreated room.
My 2c.
Thanks for your comment and your very interesting points 🙂
-Stephen