Original Message                 Date: 13-Apr-05  @  11:30 AM   -   anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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Hi all,

after spending inordinate amounts of time trying to balance my mixes ive come to the conclusion i have a mointoring problem, i have very little room to move things about (although im moving house so that will change)- what im finding is that im mixing and balancing stuff, getting a good approximation but when i try the tune out on say my headphones it sounds unbalanced.....badly...was wondering if anyone with particularly good eq ears could tell me what they think is wrong with say a couple of short examples, that way when i go about setting my new space up i can make sure im not doing anything that would just compound the issue

any takers?

greg

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Message 21/35                 Date: 05-May-05  @  10:35 AM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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right tomorrow ill post two mixes of the same excerpt....one done how i would balance thing (so you can get an idea of my monitoring) and one matched to the tonal balance of a pro release- i wont try and match sound or loudness just overall tonal balanace- hopefully that will help anyone identify my problem...

i have just abed some stuff on hte way into work in my car and was dissapointed that my top-heavy mix (which soudned a bit harsh too me) was dull compared to the pro tune i put in after- cant all be multiband compression and mastering? can it?

greg

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Message 22/35                 Date: 06-May-05  @  09:39 AM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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Right,

ive uploaded just one version, a version i balanaced against a morillo tune on a cd...to me this sounds a bit toppy and the bass end isnt as full....my previous version had the bass drum knocking harder but to conserve headroom ive had to renenvelope it and take some bass away- to me it sounds a bit thin but my last problem was they were too loud and prominent, the rest of the tune is balanced to the level of the bass drum and the spectrum of the morillo reference tune....

would be interested to hear your critiques on the mix balance....is the bass drum now too thin? is it just right? if i can crack the bd i can reference everything else to it and at least have a good starting point, as it is at the mo my procedure is this:

i get my bass drum banging, balance to it- realise i have very little headroom even though it is sounding as full as reference commercial tune- and good to my ears, record it at roughly the same volume as the ref tune- balk at the lack of top end in comparison- go back turn bd drum down make top heavy mix, balk at the fact my bass drums now sound like finger snaps, go back etc etc...

so if anything is not right please let me know- that goes for the mids too- any of them harsh to your ears?

oh and im moving soon so wikll potentially have a much better area to work in- woohoo!!

greg

ps- any constructive crits on the comp are welcomed although im not settled on the main riff- all suggestions on sharpening the sound are even more welcome!!

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Message 23/35                 Date: 09-May-05  @  12:58 PM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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right- im thinking the problem is definitly my monitoring- i did a tonal balance abing to a similar track- all was fine...recorded it and then listened through my headphones- no top end- used a 2 band parametric in the waves q10 to make a kind of s shape on its side- dip in the lowmid and boost in the high mid- helped enourmously but cant help wondering how i can get it so wrong- im moving soon so hopefully my new space will alieveate any monitoring problems i have,

greg

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Message 24/35                 Date: 10-May-05  @  02:34 AM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

k

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what speakers you got again?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 25/35                 Date: 10-May-05  @  08:34 AM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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alesis monitors passive mark 2s.....

greg

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Message 26/35                 Date: 10-May-05  @  01:12 PM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

k

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damn! - cant listen to the clip now - cant you add it as a form attachment or as a music file?

what's the room like?... what sort of walls?... floor?... shape, ?.... where are the speakers located? - what amp? is it a hi-fi amp?.... got it all set flat etc?

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 27/35                 Date: 10-May-05  @  01:42 PM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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damn! - cant listen to the clip now - cant you add it as a form attachment or as a music file?

what's the room like?... what sort of walls?... floor?... shape, ?.... where are the speakers located? - what amp? is it a hi-fi amp?.... got it all set flat etc?


>>>>>>>>>>>

ill give it go, not done that before but cant see it being too difficult

basically my room (read bedsit) is a square but the furniture arrangements have mean that all my gear is in one corner-

speakers cant be more than an arms span away from each other-probably less- no more room in that sense- one is mounted on a kitchen cabinet the other on some books....at 60 degrees angle

amp is a samson servo, the monitor outs from my mixer run straight into that and then out into my speakers...

solid walls- old skool house means the walls between rooms aren't just crappy party walls but proper insultaed affairs....

carpeted floor, kitchen downstairs- its a large windowed/tall ceiling kind of place....

whole of my setups height maxes at below my shoulders meaningt i have to sit down to have my ears level....
even listening in my car the mix sounded ok, then i turn on a pro recording and hear a greater clarity and depth of the high end- almost like its bias towards the high end....im not sure if i have too much mid freqs causing me to turn the bass up or what....

greg

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Message 28/35                 Date: 13-May-05  @  10:20 AM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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ill up the two examples over the weekend- one how i would mix it and one with an eq curve on it- hopefully someone can tell me why i seem to pile so much midrange on...ill post a pic of the setup too- cheers for your help

greg

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Message 29/35                 Date: 27-Jun-05  @  01:15 PM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

monkeybasket2001

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[image file]

Right, i moved house but didn't end up with the mammoth room i wanted so have a rather limited set of options

attached is a bev of my new room- ive marked where furniture is to show that where i have my setup is the best place for it in terms of space (but probably worst in terms of sonics)

i have to put it all in the alcove pictures, behind the wall is a corridor/bathroom so the wall the speakers back onto isn't thick. the righthjand side wall of the alcove goes to the outside and also has awindow on it and the left hand wall goies onto a corridor- basically there are different thicknesses of wall around the alcove...

because they are alesis m1 mk2's there is no option on the backs of the monitors to compensate for being near a wall....

my idea is to make a gap underneath the speaker stand so the speakers aren't directly flat on the stands but elevated via some thin pins and to put some foam behind the speakers to help absorb some of the bass i reckon wilkl transfer to the walls and be amplified...

have you guys got any better ideas other than moving house, upgrading monitors or beating my flat mate until he gives up the bigger room? id like to get everything optimized before i start cabling everything back together...

cheers

greg

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Message 30/35                 Date: 27-Jun-05  @  05:37 PM   -   RE: anyone got good eq ears?

k

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pu the bed where the gear is now by the wiondow uin the corner and put the gear & speakers on the longest wall where the bed is mebbe

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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