monitoring / mix-down

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grubb
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monitoring / mix-down

Post by grubb » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:12 pm

My monitor set-up are the Behringer B2031P (Passive). They have an extreme flat frequency response. I leave my amp's bass & treble at flat and tweak the sounds during mix-down. I experiment on my mix in every CD player I own (in my home studio, on my kids PC, the home stereo, the car, etc.). So you can imagine the bulk of tester CD's I go thru. When I did the same experiment with a major recording artist's CD, I notice it sound good in everything. I was wondering if I should turn my bass & treble all the way up along with the super bass booster, go for a good mix and then see if that would sound good in everything? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:17 am

Well, if the commercial CDs sound good with the equalization flat, it seems to me that you'd want to make your mixes sound good the same way. Ja?

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:27 am

Put another way: the goal is to learn the sound of your monitoring system. I wouldn't recommend fooling yourself by boosting the bass and treble in playback, in other words. What you want to do is get more bass and high end in your mixes.If you're having a hard time with that, you might try getting the very bottom and top right in your mix early, rather than starting with the lead vox and building from there like many people do. (Assuming this is a pop-style mix rather than something acoustic like jazz or classical, of course).So you could start with the bass and bass drum, then as soon as possible, go for whatever is at the very high end - the sparkle of acoustic guitar strings, for example, or perhaps the high pads. Somehow the middle then takes care of itself.You certainly don't have to be strict about this, of course, since the first goal of mixing is communication rather than a purely technical exercise. But it's a good starting point.

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by zink » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:58 pm

Hey Grub,Something else that might help is listening to your favorite cd's (or records ) through your monitors. Get used to what they sound like flat and go from there.Z

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:42 pm

That goes without saying. You have to know what the standard is you're going for.

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by zink » Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:46 pm

Quote:That goes without saying. You have to know what the standard is you're going for.So does singing into the front of a microphone...

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:38 pm

Unless you're using a Royer 121, in which case the other side sounds good too.

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by zink » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:29 am

hmmm, both sides huh? So where does the gold dot go? Or are there two?

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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:46 am


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Re: monitoring / mix-down

Post by zink » Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:38 am

Thanks Nik, but that was meant as a joke.

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