Hey guys,check this out!How come my mixes,that I’ve done about a year ago,sound way better than the ones,that I’ve been working on right now???What’s wrong?The funniest thing is:!..is that the mixes from “the past” have been made on my dell computer speakers with a little help of my cheap SONY(DJ headphones),and now I’ve upgraded to ADAM A7x,and beyerdynamic pro 770 ,did all the thricks,with the room acoustics,learned a ton from all the forums available out there,and ooops!What a bummer!!!..for a reference I went back to my older mixes and find out that I’m going backwards …The world is up side down…I’m raedy to give up mixing.any thoats,my cubase 6 friends???
Well, don’t blame the software if that is your thought.
Probably your monitor speakers as they perform in your mixdown room. Your new headphones might be adding to the confusion because they might seem to have more bass than your monitors.
With your monitors, you could have a bass bump in your mixdown (due to a standing wave cancellation at the mixdown position) because you are adding bass that isn’t needed. Here, the question I would ask is: Are the new mixes worse because of the bass frequency content? In the headphones you probably have more bass than you had with your old headphones, and typically more than your monitors might seem to have IN YOUR ROOM if there is a standing wave problem. You tell me.
FWIW, it may even be that your old mixdown gear focused things in a way that let you find the magic when the mixes were played back on better gear. ?? On this note, some studios have a reference ghetto blaster type speaker setup to hear things in the real world. Maybe you mix better on ghetto gear right now? And this could change.
I think what’s interesting is that you feel that you can hear that you used to do a better mix. Is this playing your old mixes on the new speakers? Or playing the new mixes on your old gear? The car? The home stereo? Either way, you are hearing something that makes you ask, “Why?” To me this is a sure sign of personal growth actually. 
I suspect you will adapt to your new gear in time.
Different speakers/headphones, different room acoustics, thetas you’re problem. You need time to learn the new acoustics. Of course you may well have made things worse with the acoustic treatment. What and how did you go about treating your room?
Using Adams, are you? That’s what I’ve got and in spite of loving the sound they give I’m getting to the point where I have to admit there are not giving me very transferable mixes. To get the mid-range sorted out I end up mixing on my tiny Dell speakers…
I think you and I might have a similar problem.
Gentelmen,thank you for your posts…
mr.roos the trouble frequencies in my room are 500Hz and 2000Hz-5000Hz ,(so it’s not the low end)these are the areas where I always have to atteniuate heavy,to make my mixes sound half way decent.My older mixes soung better,than the new ones played on all different types of systems.Strange?
split :as far as my room treatments I hung up some 24"x24" foam panels.My room is 11’x12’ ,I’ve got 8 panels on the front wall and 8 on the back wall spreaded out evenly,two on the ceiling.too much?speakers are 3 feet away from the front wall ,and set up accoring to the diagrams I’ve been founding all over the place.But I think you’re right about making,everything worse also.I ran some pink noise,sine waves,used RE Wizard…and no results.
Crotchety thank god I’m not the only one…I’ve heard something on “sound on sound” podcast that if your mixes dont sound right it’s either a bad source or a bad room (nobody said anything about speakers) .In my case I dont think it’s the source,because I dont record my own stuff,so I couldn’t screw that part up.
there’s definetly something wrong,and I don’t know what it is.
thanks guys!
A 11’ by 12’ is almost a square room, very bad acoustically as the modes are almost the same for length and breadth.
Acoustic foam panels will absorb mostly in the mid to upper frequencies leaving the bottom end untreated.
Are you experiencing to much mid to top in your mixes?
Regarding standing waves, which will give you plenty of bassy boom in your room about the size of mine, wouldn’t it be better to sit as near to a wall as possible, where the standing waves will be at their lowest amplitude?
I don’t do this and I’ve just realised it might help a lot.
A lot easier than building slanted panels on your wall so they’re no longer parallel, which I hear is another way of dealing with them.
The simplest way to check a room’s acoustic is to play (loaded into Cubase) commercial material that suits your style (after first playing it OUTSIDE that room, a room where you’d normally just play music but not record).
Set all eqs flat thuout the system. Windows, Soundcard, then Cubase etc (my belt & braces, Cubase should probably override all). See what it sounds like. See what needs boosting or reducing (in that room on that system) and make notes.
Deleting the material and saving a template should get you close to a stable eq state where anything mixed referencing those notes and using the template should now play in your OUTSIDE room at mix levels that sound appropriate to your style and it should be near optimum and should, if I got this explanation right, be pretty close as you monitor your Cubase Projects thru the Adams.
Though you may need to make a new template for the headphones.
Split :yes,my mixes have too much upper mids in them.
Crotchety :I’ll try to move my speakers as you suggested as close to the wall as possible.See what that’ll do.
Conman :great tip,I’ll try that also.
thans for everything.cheers
Not the speakers - you! A simple standing wave is biggest in the middle and zero at its ends - the walls in this case - so the closer you are the smaller the amplitude. There’s always other effects to consider but worth a go maybe by actually putting your head in a few likely places before you go shifting the furniture around.
Putting your speakers close to the wall will make them bassier. Corners are even worse. Don’t work in one.
ooops!please forgive me,and thanks for clarifying that 
Hmmm, let me think about that… 
Could be due to too much absorption on the walls, or a lack of absorption at lower mids/bass, or more likely both.
In a square(ish) room of 12’ putting some bass absorption in the corners may help balance the sound a bit.
I’m guessing the ceiling is quite low to?
The key is getting the balance right, all upper-mid and high absorption without the countering low absorption can lead to overly bright mixes due to prominent lower mid/low and reduced upper energy in the room.
On the back wall a diffuser is a good thing and mid absorption on the side walls with bass traps in the corners, using the mirror trick.
Also using the same trick for the ceiling in the mixing position.
Just imagine for a moment that I’ve never heard of that…
The mirror trick is fairly straighforward. Imagine all your walls and ceilings are mirrors. Now from your listening position, look around you in the mirrors and mark where you can see your speakers. Those are the spots you’ll get the best use out of accoustic treatment.
Oh, right, I know what you mean. Never heard it called that, though. Good name and thinking of it like that makes it easier to see. Thanks.
Split ,thaks again for sharing your knowledge.as far as the ceiling hight,it’s pretty much standard,about 8 feet…what do you think about the free standing base traps,and the DIY(do it yourself)ones?Are they any good?It’s not that I’m cheap,I’m just little poor lately…Plus in my room,there will be no way to instali the permanent ones.Also,I know that It’s not adviseble to try to build your own defusers.Thoes things are a bit more complex,than most of the people think.and a bookshelf just wouldn’t do the trick - YouTube
Good video, notice the recording done next to absorption sounds quite dull next to the others.
Diy bass absorbers are a good way to go if you can afford the time, the cheapest and easy way to achieve some low absorption is to use rockwool in the corners.
Heres a good thread:-http://www.gearslutz.com/board/bass-traps-acoustic-panels-foam-etc/61293-diy-broadband-absorber-pictures-posted-3.html
That was an interesting video, thanks for sharing
haha… If you get someone with a real mirror and move it about the room walls, then it’s even easier to see 