hello mummies & daddies

seeing that i'm still in my nappies as regard to
this mixing & mastering malarky

plese offer some pampers as to
what volume you mix & master at.


personally when i've wet myself on low volume
i've found the mix to be more accurate
(when later tested out on high volume and on different speakers)

conversely when i wail at high volume
i find the mix to be inaccurate (when tested later on)


much cuddles

ps. i'm mixing on beyer dt150, straight from soundcard

Well, the number I hear bantered about all the time is 85-90 dB, which is were I mix and master at. Buy yourself a sound meter and use it always!!!

From your post however, it sounds like you are using headphones (only) for your mixing. This can be very dangerous, and will not give you a true picture of your sound, or the stereo spread. Think about this:

You have 2 speakers on your stereo...each of your ears is hearing sound from *both* speakers, not just one. Albiet, there is a slight delay between when the sound from the one speaker reaches one ear vs. the other. This slight delay is what the brain uses to determine the position and distance of the sound. By using only headphones, you are losing all of this.

My advice, get yourself some decent monitors, and some basic room treatment, and hear the difference!!!

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James
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" ~Napoleon Bonaparte~

You should mix at whatever level you feel comfortable with, so long as you take into account the Fletcher-Munson curve.

Essentially, at low volume levels, most of what you're hearing is mid-range. As the levels increase, the bass and hi frequencies come out and end up dominating. If you're mixing music with lots of emphasis on bass, it's critical you run some checks on the music at higher levels to make sure the bass is neither non-existant or wiping out everything else in the mix.

- Mark

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"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent."

It is recommended to monitor at low, mid and high volumes not only because of Fletcher-Munson but also because people will listen to it at various levels. Some times at low volumes the bass will get lost so EQ it accordingly for better recognition (you might have to use a different frequency than the one you used at mid or high volume!). Of course don't go mad over this. Use a sensible standard and check the mix at lower and higher levels occasionally...

Another thing to bear in mind is potential room problems.

If you have an untreated room, monitoring at high levels could mean that room problems / problem frequencies could become accentuated and influence what you think you hear. Ultimately this can cause damage to your mix and your songs may not translate well onto other systems.

For what it's worth, few people on this board have properly treated rooms, but this is just another thing to consider while mixing really ...

For me personally I work at lowish to mid levels most of the time, but will turn it up to check the low and high ends for short periods of time. But again, the above statement applies to me as well.

Regards,

D

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www.thirdfloormusic.com

mix at low/moderate volumes and then crank it occaissionally to check it at high volumes...

i also mix down to cd and try it in the car... make notes and then continue mixing...

i have the mission speakers and pretty flat headphones, forget the brand/model.. i think they are AKG...

Don't forget that monitoring at extended loud volumes reduces your ears' ability to detect subtlety as the tendons/muscles in your ears will tighten to protect the the eardrum. (Do it for long enough and this is what causes the ringing after clubbing & gigs, etc)

Hence they move less for the same amount of volume, and therefore affect your ability to hear what's really going on.

It only takes a few minutes of loudness to cause this effect, so go easy on yr ears!

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Cassette Electrik

I think the key points have been made. When mixing/mastering most people find they get better results when monitoring at relatively modest levels -- low to mid volumes.

Not only does this protect their hearing in the long term, it is also less fatiguing, so mixing sessions can continue longer and with more consistency.

However, when monitoring at moderate levels the hearing response changes slightly with frequency, making us less able to hear the extremes of the frequency range. Furthermore most speakers (especially reflex ported types) exaggerate this effect.

As a result, when monitoring at lower levels, both your ears and the speakers become more critical of the midrange frequencies. This is helpful because this is where the bulk of the 'information' is in music, and balancing the various 'lead' instruments voices and percussion correctly is the key to a good mix. This is the same reason why the Yamaha NS10 monitors are so often used as reference tools.

If you monitor at high volumes, both the ears and many speakers tend to become less critical of midrange signals, partly because of a 'masking' effect from loud LF signals, and also because with grater dynamics it becomes easier to hear 'into' the mix and disregard balance errors.

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

* burp *



(thats infantile for : u r so fab, o thank u, i'm so happy)