Hi all!
Recently moved my setup from a dream studio room in a dodgy house to a dodgy studio room in a dream house, and I'm having some trouble coming to terms with mixing in the new room...
I've done the usual renter's treatments (acoustic panelling etc) but I'm still finding lots of ugly resonances that are throwing me off when mixing. Adding to this, one of the walls in the room is just a mirror. Ceiling-to-floor, wall-to-wall mirror - I feel like this can't be ideal.
I'm definitely no pro but I've got some decent monitors (HS7s) and I've always loved mixing before and gotten lovely results - not anymore.
Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in mixing in such a sub-par situation? Is a mirror just utterly detrimental to the sound and I should try to either cover it up with like a makeshift curtain or just stick to mixing in my cans?
thanks everyone !!
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Mixing in a mirrored space
Moderators: Kent, Joe., luketeaford, Kent, Joe., luketeaford
Re: Mixing in a mirrored space
My first thought before reading the end of your post was “put up a huge curtain, or series of curtains”. Heavy felt or something like that. Maybe you can use a C-stand to do this if you’re not allowed to put stuff into the wall.
Anyways it’s just a thought, there are definitely people out there that know a LOT more about control-room acoustics than me.
In fact, there’s a pretty good Facebook group dedicated to this: “Room Acoustics: Absorption, Diffusion and Soundproofing”
Anyways it’s just a thought, there are definitely people out there that know a LOT more about control-room acoustics than me.
In fact, there’s a pretty good Facebook group dedicated to this: “Room Acoustics: Absorption, Diffusion and Soundproofing”
Re: Mixing in a mirrored space
Curtain seems like the way to go. Wondering what everyone's thoughts on mixing with good headphones with a less-than-good space to reference with?
And thanks for the group rec, I've just joined it!
Re: Mixing in a mirrored space
There was a pretty long thread on this a few months back with some good info: https://www.modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=262442
I posted my experience there, but again there are gonna be people with a LOT more experience than me.
My advice if going this route is: (a) watch your bass levels, you might need to rely on spectrograms and reference tracks cause it’s really easy to under- or over-estimate your bass levels, and (b) if at all possible, do your composing/rough mixing at home on cans and then get the mixes into a well-treated room with full-range monitoring to finish mixing
I posted my experience there, but again there are gonna be people with a LOT more experience than me.
My advice if going this route is: (a) watch your bass levels, you might need to rely on spectrograms and reference tracks cause it’s really easy to under- or over-estimate your bass levels, and (b) if at all possible, do your composing/rough mixing at home on cans and then get the mixes into a well-treated room with full-range monitoring to finish mixing
- lowkeyluce
- Common Wiggler
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- Location: SF Bay Area
Re: Mixing in a mirrored space
Aside from dealing with the mirror, which does sound like a problem (albeit a fixable one) - make sure to give yourself time to adjust to the new room. Listen to reference tracks, especially ones that you're already familiar with and have spent time listening to in your previous room, make mixes and check them on other systems that you're familiar with (car, hifi system, etc) and start the process of acclimating your ears to the new space.
Re: Mixing in a mirrored space
Just get a very good pair of fully open reference headphones. ;-)
seriously - I swapped to cans only a few years ago & my mixes have never been better.
seriously - I swapped to cans only a few years ago & my mixes have never been better.