21-10-2015, 04:21 PM
Not directed at anyone in particular, just my thoughts on the topic:
Given that consumers who aren't listening to music primarily on earbuds are most commonly listening to music on a cheap 2.1 computer speaker systems, usually with a ported, resonant speaker pointed at the floor, keeping the low mids clean is paramount to mixes that will translate. Manufacturing tolerances on cheap PC 2.1s are also really loose, and as The_Metallurgist has noted, the lower frequency response in untreated listening environments is usually problematic at best.
It's a little depressing, but there are monitoring workarounds and fixes that offer quick improvements while working toward a more complete solution.
1. If your loudspeakers are rear ported like most, get them further from the wall. Your monitoring position should also not be anywhere near a corner.
2. If they're sitting on your desk, you can avoid the desk from resonating in sympathy by placing them on thick acoustic foam. This is one of the only useful purposes I've ever found for the stuff. I don't recommend the monitor pads that angle the speakers, though, because you'd be angling them at the ceiling, which makes the first reflections problem harder to solve. Most monitors are designed to disperse sound from the tweeters horizontally specifically to decrease the role of the ceiling in what you're hearing, so it makes no sense to defeat the design.
3. Most acousticians advise bass management systems in the room corners made out of duct board. Duct board can be hard to find and lots of building supply places only want to sell it in huge quantities. Anything that absorbs low frequencies will improve the bass reverb in a small room if you stack it in the corners. Solid core mattresses, couch cushions, anything will help enough to make a difference, but building insulation is really your best bet. Those big chunks of blown-in fiberglass compressed in the packages are cheap, readily available, and effectively absorb bass to reduce comb filtering. If you can stack those floor to ceiling in the room corner closest to your monitoring position, you will notice a significant improvement in bass intelligibility. Stack them in all four corners and the improvement will be unbelievable.
4. Gently roll off the low end from your monitors. This obviously won't work when mixing music driven by the bass, dance, rap, etc, but a gentle roll off starting around 80 hz will at least make it easier to hear what's going on in the low mids. When you're dealing with layered distorted guitars like this, a temporary high pass filter on the mix bus wouldn't be a bad referencing decision even in a well treated room.
Anyway, those don't comprise a complete solution, but any one of them and especially all four will make mixing a lot easier. Fixing the bass in a bedroom also makes listening to music a hell of a lot more enjoyable.
Given that consumers who aren't listening to music primarily on earbuds are most commonly listening to music on a cheap 2.1 computer speaker systems, usually with a ported, resonant speaker pointed at the floor, keeping the low mids clean is paramount to mixes that will translate. Manufacturing tolerances on cheap PC 2.1s are also really loose, and as The_Metallurgist has noted, the lower frequency response in untreated listening environments is usually problematic at best.
It's a little depressing, but there are monitoring workarounds and fixes that offer quick improvements while working toward a more complete solution.
1. If your loudspeakers are rear ported like most, get them further from the wall. Your monitoring position should also not be anywhere near a corner.
2. If they're sitting on your desk, you can avoid the desk from resonating in sympathy by placing them on thick acoustic foam. This is one of the only useful purposes I've ever found for the stuff. I don't recommend the monitor pads that angle the speakers, though, because you'd be angling them at the ceiling, which makes the first reflections problem harder to solve. Most monitors are designed to disperse sound from the tweeters horizontally specifically to decrease the role of the ceiling in what you're hearing, so it makes no sense to defeat the design.
3. Most acousticians advise bass management systems in the room corners made out of duct board. Duct board can be hard to find and lots of building supply places only want to sell it in huge quantities. Anything that absorbs low frequencies will improve the bass reverb in a small room if you stack it in the corners. Solid core mattresses, couch cushions, anything will help enough to make a difference, but building insulation is really your best bet. Those big chunks of blown-in fiberglass compressed in the packages are cheap, readily available, and effectively absorb bass to reduce comb filtering. If you can stack those floor to ceiling in the room corner closest to your monitoring position, you will notice a significant improvement in bass intelligibility. Stack them in all four corners and the improvement will be unbelievable.
4. Gently roll off the low end from your monitors. This obviously won't work when mixing music driven by the bass, dance, rap, etc, but a gentle roll off starting around 80 hz will at least make it easier to hear what's going on in the low mids. When you're dealing with layered distorted guitars like this, a temporary high pass filter on the mix bus wouldn't be a bad referencing decision even in a well treated room.
Anyway, those don't comprise a complete solution, but any one of them and especially all four will make mixing a lot easier. Fixing the bass in a bedroom also makes listening to music a hell of a lot more enjoyable.