Home studio Sound treatment

[Superdude]

Hi all,

Brandon recommended that i invest in some sound treatment for my home studio, and after reading the soundonsound articules(below), im determined to 'sort' my room out. I never really considered HOW important this is, but now with hindsight, i realise that its probably THE most important thing to nail, if you want your mixes to translate well on other audio systems. I record and mix in the same room;While my mixes sound good to my ears through my monitors(samson resolv 65a's), when i play them back in a car stereo, they sound boxy, unclarified, >>>actually rather shit!

I dont have much money to spend on sound absortion materials, otherwise i would invest in some REALTRAPS! I do however have many blankets and duvet cover which i am about to mount to the back and side walls. Will this actually help much? Currently the walls around me are mostly bare, and when i clap, i can hear the resenance in the room; When i record vocals, they sound clinically nasal and boxy. Perhaps mounting these duvets covers and blankets will help, or perhaps i should just buy extra duvets to mount on the walls instead?

Brandon recommended fiberglass panels(eg.rockwool), but im still unsure about exactly what to buy and how to set it up properly. Help Brandon

Could you guys please give me some usefull advice or recommendations.Thanks

[Superdude]

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html


This is the best articule i came across

[dach]

not to muddy the waters.... but I have ZERO acoustic treatment in the room. I have to CAREFULLY watch the low end when mixing. The room affects me much more when recording (small room, no instrument decouplization) than mixing though.

The biggest deal is I can not get enough distance from mic to instrument like I would when tracking in a good studio space.... and I can't really use room mics in the traditional sense. The first tracks I record are always the most difficult to get right in terms of micing.... The room can be unpleasant if I let it, but I'll usually move both me and the mic to a different location. It's a tradeoff. Most of my work is writing - part recording instruments, but mostly samples ie: Orchestra... so I deal with the technical issues as they come while enjoying the convenience and low overhead of everything. Some things do suffer as a result but I can deal with them. Any issues I have, I try to make 100% transparent to the clients.

At some point in time, hopefully next year, I'll build another space from the ground up and I will treat it.

[scopeboy]

Hi guys

In my studio... err I mean apartment, I hung some blankets and rugs on the walls. Even covering one wall seemed to make a big difference to the "Clap test". I covered two opposite walls in the living room and it made it good enough to get some nice vocal and acoustic guitar recordings. It makes the place look like a hippy squat, but I can live with that :

The "control room" aka bedroom seemed to be OK, I just put some pieces of foam (from a packing case) on one wall where it looked like sound would reflect from the right hand monitor into my ear. I never bothered trying to treat the bass, since I think it's easier to just learn what the bass is like in my room and mix accordingly. It doesn't seem too bad though, I think my bed is working as a big bass trap.

Superdude, maybe your car stereo sucks ;D

[dach]

back to the original post, I find it beneficial to listen to ALL KINDS of commercial cd's in all the environments I will be working in and checking mixes. (I use a number of cuts I'm very familiar with to check my stuff)

Most commercial mixes sound great anywhere I reference them. If most commercial cd's sound great on your monitoring system and your car, then if you are doing a good job on your mixes, yours should too...

I could talk about this for days, but it really comes down to using your ears. Sometimes an environment can mask things, but you need to learn what those issues are so you can hopefully compensate. It just takes time and I believe it is more difficult when doing your own material (another topic entirely).

[brandondrury]

not to muddy the waters.... but I have ZERO acoustic treatment in the room. I have to CAREFULLY watch the low end when mixing. The room affects me much more when recording (small room, no instrument decouplization) than mixing though.

This doesn't muddy the waters at all.? In fact, it makes it a little clearer.? I believe that mixing skill is more important than room acoustics when it comes to control room acoustics.? I think this statement supports that.

Here's some recommended reading:

Live Room Acoustics vs Control Room Acoustics
http://www.recordingreview.com/artic...Acoustics.html

Why Do Mixes Sound Terrible In The Car?
http://www.recordingreview.com/artic...Translate.html

[Superdude]

Hi again,

Thanks all. The song ive just mixed sounds good through my monitors, good through my earphones but crap in my car. I have a vw golf stereo, and know its' sound well. Its very annoying, but my recent mixes seem to sound very quite compared to the radio/cds. (I have mastered it and used Har-Bal to match the loudness of commercial cds.)

I feel like just giving up somedays...>Im sure everyone feels like that sometimes(i hope im not alone on that 1)


BTW,Thanks for the links Brandon, i read them and they were helpful.


Who here does have their room treated??

[brandondrury]

I feel like just giving up somedays...>Im sure everyone feels like that sometimes(i hope im not alone on that 1)

I've got you covered!
http://www.recordingreview.com/artic...c-attacks.html

The song ive just mixed sounds good through my monitors, good through my earphones but crap in my car.

I'll argue that it doesn't good in your monitors and your headphones then either. I'm not being a dick. I'm just saying that if you had really nailed it on your monitors it would sound good in your car. I've got a feeling that it does sound pretty good on your studio monitors, but not good enough.

The car will tell you exactly what the mix needs. If you keep a positive attitude about this whole thing, you'll find that the car will point out exact flaws in your mix and you will probably be able to hear them immediately. If you take a negative attitude, you'll just blame the acoustics or monitors and never really learn anything.

I've got a feeling that you mixes sound dark in your car. I'm going through this right now. I'm doing some very serious mixes. I've been working on these songs since late June and I've produced them so it's a big deal that they totally kick ass. They are still not up to mega big boys standards, but I can live with them for now as long as I'm a lot better 12 months from now. What seams to really make the difference is adding a high end shelf on the two bus. I can't say how much, but for me it's usually more than I feel comfortable adding. Then I have to go through and find any new problems where sibilance jumps out or whatever and tame those a tad. After adding the high end shelf, thinks seam to translate better (OR GET REALLY THIN ???).

Good luck to you dude and don't give up. Keep working on that one song until you like it in your car. Don't forget to take breaks or you will burn yourself out.

Brandon

[Superdude]

Thanks Brandon


Which is the 2bus in cubase sx3? Is it just a group channel or master channel?


Yea, my mixes do sound dark; the main cause of this is the low notes from the acoustic guitars...>they have wayyyy too much bass in them. I tried eqing the problem resonances out from the acoustic recordings, using waves eq10, but im getting the q wrong since in the car, i can tell that i tooktoo much out.I think narrow notchband is probably what i need to sort this.Ive read that to fix frequency spike problems, you can use a limiter followed by an equaliser to control the problem.......I tried this but obviosly not as well as i thought >>>Im going to try this global eq solution of yours.

[brandondrury]

Upload the track and maybe all of us can figure out your problem frequency.

Which is the 2bus in cubase sx3? Is it just a group channel or master channel?

The 2bus always refers to the final stereo output. So, in this case, it's the master channel.

Im going to try this global eq solution of yours.

Just remember that's a cheap way of overcoming your brain and studio monitor situation. By no means is it ideal. However, I've had great luck with it. If you monitors can't trick you into mixing you want to, maybe you can trick yourself.

Brandon