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hello and welcome back to the channel
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today I wanted to share with you
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possibly the most important piece of
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knowledge or advice I have about how to
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get a better production better mix
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better mastering using the equipment you
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currently own and this is not some
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clickbait mixing tip I'm not just going
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to tell you to mix in mono or use
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reference tracks although those really
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do work and I'm not telling you to go
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out and buy a load of acoustic treatment
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or buy loads of extra equipment that you
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don't currently have the topic I'm going
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to discuss can often get really advanced
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very technical and quite frankly very
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boring so I've spent a lot of time
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trying to find a good way to explain
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this without getting super technical in
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a way that everyone can understand I
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want this to be a really sort of open
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and honest video and not just simply
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full of needless jargon and technical
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nonsense like that so I do have a couple
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of tests and experiments that I'm going
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to show you later on which I hope can be
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a little bit fun and maybe enlightening
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but what this video is really about is
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it's all about how your room affects the
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sound you hear from your speakers and
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what you can do without buying a load of
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acoustic treatment to actually make your
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room sound better and there's a few
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reasons I'm making this video one is
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that I'm I feel really bad seeing so
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many people going out and buying tons of
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acoustic treatment just spending
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hundreds upon hundreds of pounds or
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thousands of pounds on just threw away
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acoustic foam and our panels that aren't
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really making a huge difference in their
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room there are good ways to use acoustic
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treatment in a room but a lot of people
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can't even use acoustic treatment anyway
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they're renting a place or it's a
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bedroom and I feel sorry for people that
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are spending hundreds of pounds on that
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and the next reason I'm making the video
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is because me and others like me share
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loads of mixing tips and tricks online
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but without understanding this core
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concept of how sound works in your room
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all of these mixing tips and tricks just
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they don't really work in the way that
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they should and you can apply them all
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and your mix can sound great in your
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room but then we all know it can just
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fall to pieces elsewhere when you listen
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and it's really there's not an enjoyable
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part of making music and what this video
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is about is trying to help you enjoy
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making music and not make it stressful
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so the core concept of this video is use
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the equipment you've currently got but
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use a calibration software to calibrate
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the output and create a perfect response
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for your room so that where you're
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listening is basically an ideal flat
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response from your studio monitors
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specifically the software I'm using to
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record measure and correct my studio
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sound is called soon our works but
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they'll be more about that later it's
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the software that I've been using for
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about eight or nine months to do this
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really really put it through its paces
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however let's start by just talking
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about professional studios so the ideal
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place to create music usually a
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multi-million pound facility tens or
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hundreds of thousands of pounds have
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gone into the design the layout the
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acoustic treatment and these spaces
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typically sound very balanced and if
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you've ever had the privilege of being
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in one of these spaces I've been so
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lucky to get into a handful of these all
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of the mixing tips and tricks you know
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the reference tracks mono using certain
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you know compression techniques EQ
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everything just fits into place the
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tracks seem to almost mix themselves
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because you hear every single frequency
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you can hear everything in the mix no
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matter which speaker you use in the room
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everything just sounds balanced now
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there is a certain coloration to a room
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different rooms of course have different
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tonal balances but but typically in some
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of the best rooms in the world they just
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sound balanced and if you can create a
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mix that sounds stunning in there when
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you can hear all the frequencies
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typically if you listen to it somewhere
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else in the car in the club in your own
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home studio it typically sounds really
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good it translates well that's the
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language that people use it translates
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well to the real world so it sounds good
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in your studio good everywhere else
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however if I apply the same principle to
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a smaller room like I'm in a small room
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here or even a medium-sized room maybe a
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bedroom a spare room that you're using
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is your home studio what tends to happen
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and it's just a consequence of being in
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a small room is that the sound leaving
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the speaker's hits the wall the ceiling
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the corner the floor and all of these
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sound waves add up multiply and subtract
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in different not complimentary ways so
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at certain freak
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you'll have big dips so potentially at
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82 Hertz you'll have a big dip big 5 10
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DB dip in your room and then at 125
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Hertz you'll have a big 6 or 7 DB spike
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and while using acoustic treatment to
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help prevent some echo e reflections is
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a fantastic idea you know if you can get
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more soft stuff in that room if you can
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leave a bed a bookcase some acoustic
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treatment that helps soak up all the
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sort of echo and reverb which is great
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it does almost nothing to deal with
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these big peaks and dips and spikes all
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the way across the spectrum and
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especially in the low end these
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beautiful acoustic panels that I made
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myself very expensively on my bass traps
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they help deal with the reverb in the
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reflections so that I have quite a nice
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stereo image but they do almost nothing
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to deal with the dips peaks and troughs
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across the frequency spectrum in my room
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I want to quickly say that I'm not
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trying to stress anyone out or say that
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you can't make music in your own room of
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course you can but what I want to say is
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that if you can't hear your music
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properly the way it's supposed to come
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out of your speakers at the end of the
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day you you can't mix what you can't
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hear and that's just a basic principle
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if you don't have a subwoofer for
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instance and you can't hear below 50
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Hertz then you can't mix below 50 Hertz
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it really is as simple as that and it's
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the same you know if you've got a big
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dip at 200 Hertz and you can't hear it
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then you're not going to be able to mix
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what isn't there what you can't hear and
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this is in my opinion the number one
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reason why the music that you mix in
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your studio your bedroom can sound good
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in your studio and maybe it doesn't
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sound quite as good as you want but it
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can sound good and well balanced in your
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studio but then if you listen in the car
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in a different studio or in a club or
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whatever it just doesn't sound the way
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you meant it to sound it is because if
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in your room you heard a big dip at 80
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Hertz then you're naturally going to
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boost that frequency until you can hear
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it in the mix and then when you listen
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to it in a different room that doesn't
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have that 80 Hertz dip there's going to
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be loads and loads of 80 Hertz in your
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mix and it's gonna sound really like
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muddy and awful and this happens all
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over the frequency spectrum they will be
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there whether you are using a hundred
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dollar pair of speaker
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or a $5,000 pair of speakers and if you
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don't deal with all of these peaks and
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dips and problems in the frequency
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spectrum then it doesn't really matter
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how many
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you know peril how much parallel
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compression you do how much how many
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times you listen to reference tracks or
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mix in mono if you can't hear it you're
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not going to be able to mix it and that
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is the fundamental concept but all hope
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is not lost there's a really simple way
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to fix this problem but instead of me
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just talking through this whole video
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I've set up an experiment in my room to
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show what I'm trying to say what I have
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done is set up a tone generator just
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playing about 30 notes across various
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octaves in the low end it just plays the
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note and a short gap then the next note
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and it just keeps increasing in pitch
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and all of them are at exactly the same
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velocity they should have the same
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amplitude and when I record the signal
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inside my door inside the software so
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not out of my speakers the result is
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that every single note is the same
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amplitude the same energy even though
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they increase in pitch now in an
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absolutely ideal studio so it's never
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going to be quite possible this ideal
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response would be what you actually hear
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out of your speakers so every single
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know if it's supposed to be the same
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volume you'll hear it as the same volume
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in the studio but this is not at all
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what happens in almost any room in the
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world so as a little proof-of-concept
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I've setup the best microphone I have
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this is the most sort of detailed one
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I've got the lct 540 set it up exactly
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am i listening spot between the two
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speakers and this is by no means a
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scientific test but it is sort of a
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proof of concept and you can see the
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result here as we go from lower
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frequencies up to around the low mids
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each note is at a completely different
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volume some hugely different some a lot
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smaller
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this result is slightly exaggerated
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because the audio recorder uses a sort
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of logarithmic scale so it looks further
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apart than it is but you can still see
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there's dramatic differences and
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variation compared to the ideal response
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versus what happens in my room and this
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is where that software and microphone
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sonar works comes in which is what I was
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talking about just earlier what it is is
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a reference microphone and software the
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pair together
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microphones calibrated and it walks you
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through really simply walks you through
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measuring your studio monitors responses
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in your listening spot and then what it
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does is it creates a profile it plays
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lots of test tones and runs measurements
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and creates a profile for what your room
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sounds like at your listening spot and
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you can create multiple profiles no
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matter how many pairs of studio monitors
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you have if you move them you can create
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another profile of course and what this
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does is it looks at how the frequency
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response reacts in your listening spot
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so where are those Peaks one of those
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dips in the spectrum and then it applies
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incredibly precise filtering each used
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various different sonic processors to
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even out this response make it
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completely flat really give you a very
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true and accurate stereo image and
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really extend the bass response and let
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you hear what's going on with it and if
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I refer back to my test again this was
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the response without sonar works so none
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of this calibration was applied these
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notes were all over the place
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immediately after conducting that test
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without moving anything changing the
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volumes
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I turned sonar works on and I ran the
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test again and this is the result
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although this is not a scientific test
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you can clearly see compared to that
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sort of baseline of what my room sounded
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like this is so much closer to the ideal
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response and this is a test you can do
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at home if you take a synthesizer that's
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like a SAP velocity or a tone generator
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and you just play from low octaves and
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just keep playing up if any of the keys
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randomly sound really loud or really
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quiet then you know where the problem
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area is in your room and I have quite a
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few of these in the low end and the low
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mids of my room but now when I turn
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sooner works on all of these problems
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are levelled out then what I do is that
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I leave sonar works on it applies this
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correction to the output of my system so
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I leave it on whilst I'm mixing and I
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mix through it okay so I can hear this
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balanced response and I can actually
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apply all these tips mixing in mono
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using reference tracks doing your
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parallel compression your EQ I can apply
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all these tips and tricks' the song
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feels like it's almost mixing itself
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because I feel like I'm in a good
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balanced room and then before I export
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you turn sonar works off because you
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don't want that crack ssin being applied
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all the time this correction is just to
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cracked your room not your mix if I
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export the mix with the sonar works
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turned off now and then I go take it to
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a different system it just translates
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better it's more likely to sound good in
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lots of different places and this is
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what I've experienced when I've been
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doing mixes for clients is that if I
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don't use the sonar works they tend to
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just keep asking me they're like what
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the bass feels a little bit off could
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you raise the kick because you can raise
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it again because you turn this down and
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I can narrate it seems to be quite a
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process backwards and forwards however
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when I use sonar works in the mixing
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process and then just turn it off to
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export and then send that file to the
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client and they are much more likely to
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be happy with it this is just my
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personal experience and I know that many
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other well-known mixing engineers trust
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in your sonar works every single day to
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try and conclude this video the most
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important thing or the biggest piece of
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knowledge I guess that I'm trying to
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pass on in this video is not just about
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the room correction but it's really
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about understanding how your room sounds
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with the equipment you have
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understanding that different speakers
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are going to sound completely different
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in different rooms putting your speakers
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in a different place in your own room
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it's going to make a huge difference and
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really taking a little bit of time to
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understand that your room isn't balanced
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at all to be honest like there'll be all
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these issues all over the place in your
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room understanding this concept goes a
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really long way and letting you
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implement all the other tips and tricks
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and techniques you have and just
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understanding that in your mixing room
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whether it's bedroom studio or a home
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studio if you can't hear something you
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can't mix it and whether that means
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getting a sub so that you can hear more
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of the low-end or ideally doing
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something like using correctional
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software so that you can really be
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mixing in a flat environment it just
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allows you to actually hear what's
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coming out of your computer and speakers
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the way that you're supposed to hear it
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so that you can actually just enjoy the
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mixing process and not get so stressed
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out and not have to drag it out over
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days and days and many many weeks and I
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also see so many people chasing gear to
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try and improve their their
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they're in a room whether they've got
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acoustic treatment or not and they're
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just upgrading thousands of pounds worth
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of speakers ad converters all new
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interfaces buying super expensive cables
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and this is all stuff that you're
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perfectly entitled to do but some of
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these people are spending so much money
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on this stuff where they seem to be
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missing like a critical step which is
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dealing with the size and shape of their
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room very very few of us can change the
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size and shape of our room but you
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absolutely can change the sound that's
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coming out of your speakers so that it
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sounds balanced so I hope this has been
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useful to some people I hope you enjoyed
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the testing I know it's been a little
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bit longer than a usual video but this
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really was something important that I
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really wanted tsch to share with you so
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anyway I hope you have a really great
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week and I hope to see you in the next
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video - bye for now
