The Metallurgist's Semantics

[The_Metallurgist]

What made me wonder was your critic about the low mids. I have new monitors (Adam A7x) and moved to a new room here at my house so my ears are probably not used to both of them. On the adams your mix sounds like there is no bass at all. So i checked both mixes on my headphones ... and and as a result it looks like I have to spent quite some money on room treatment in the next days =) As a side note the mix sounds exacty like what you have described on my old nuPros.

the A7x's have a lot of love. i certainly liked them on audition, but listening and mixing are not equal affairs. i wouldn't have bought my current monitors based on pure listening experience, that's for sure. i wish you a lot of good mixing on them and i'm sure once you are familiar with their presentation and the room, you will be making some good headway. half the battle in producing mixes, is hearing things properly so you can at least make more informed mixing decisions.

bass is one of the most challenging frequencies to get a handle on. headphones are good at taking out the room's inherent weaknesses, however they are utterly, totally and blatantly useless at defining bass in a qualitative way; 4 decades of audiophile have helped me conclude that. i recommend you cross reference your mixes against as many different playback devices as possible, especially less bass shy gear. the more devices you employ (and their relative environments), the better you can average and thus get an informed picture on your mix decisions. it's a long battle.....most don't engage with it.

it's easy with monitors in an untreated room (or a room that has been inappropriately treated - both will mess with your beliefs and perception), to be sitting smack-bang in a null....and with bass these can be anything up to -30dB! and of course, it can go the other way too.....rather alarmingly! go for bass trapping in all the corners first, including walls-to-ceiling...because these will also absorb higher frequencies too, perhaps too much so look out for that. if you over-do the mid range (non-bass trap, general broad-band absorbers), you will skew the response in your room entirely in the wrong direction. DON'T USE FOAM!!!!!!! if your room is small (what's small?) a 7 inch woofer is going to be a nightmare irrespective of what room treatment you apply because the science won't be on your side. i wish you a good outcome.