Thanks to the marvels of modern manufacturing, entry-level studio monitors are affordable to all but the leanest of budgets, and they sound stellar — especially for the money. That said, even value-priced Hi-Fi or multimedia speakers can get the job done if you know what you’re doing.
After all, many well-known mix engineers work on the same studio monitors they’ve used for decades. And oftentimes these old-school speakers sound horrendous!
Don’t believe us? Sit in front of a cranked set of 1970s-era Yamaha NS10s for a while — it’s a bona-fide migraine-inducing experience.
In this post, we’ll explore various ways that you can improve your mix environment, even if you’re mixing on a $150 set of speakers. Sticking to these fundamentals is guaranteed to elevate the quality of your mixes.
Common Room Problems
Unless you’re mixing in a professionally designed space that was tailor-made for audio production, your room is most likely chock-full of sonic deficits. This is especially true of the square or rectangular rooms found in most residential housing.
Flutter Echo
Thanks to their abundance of parallel surfaces, most home studios are replete with flutter echo and slapback. You can verify this by clapping your hands.
If you hear a high-pitched, reverberant ring, flutter echo is the culprit. This lends a hollow, tube-like sound to the room that will greatly affect your mixing decisions.
Standing Waves
Another problem created by the parallel surfaces in your room are standing waves. Standing waves occur at frequencies where the distance between any two surfaces is equal to one half of its wavelength.
Standing waves reinforce and attenuate different frequencies in your room. This means that some frequencies will be perceived as louder than they actually are, and other frequencies will be perceived as quieter than they actually are.
To experience this, play back your mix. As you walk about your room, you’ll hear frequencies — especially bass frequencies — get louder and softer depending on where you’re standing.
Sometimes your bass will all but disappear. You can imagine how off kilter your mix will sound when it’s played back in a room without these same acoustic flaws!
Boundary Proximity
The last common room issue we’ll explore is boundary proximity. This results when sonic reflections off the wall behind your studio monitors cause low-frequency anomalies.
This is perceived as a horrid-sounding dip, notch, or null in the low-frequency response of your speakers. Thus, if you think your speakers suffer from a massive bass deficiency, it may not be the speakers’ fault — it’s your room!
Improve Your Room, Improve Your Mixes
Logic dictates that the easiest way to mix in a bad-sounding room is to improve the room. Fortunately, upgrading your room’s sound is easier than you think — a modest investment in acoustic treatment will work wonders.
There are three primary types of acoustic treatment to consider: absorption, diffusion, and bass traps.
Absorption
Absorption is achieved by placing acoustical panels — typically made of foam or fabric — on your walls. This will alleviate flutter echo and slapback.
After installing absorption panels on your walls, you’ll notice a marked improvement in the clarity of your system’s high frequencies, as well as in your perception of imaging and timing.
Diffusion
Diffusion panels look a bit odd, thanks to their uneven, blocky appearance. That said, diffusion can be a game changer — especially in small mix spaces.
Diffusion prevents sound wave buildup, safeguarding your room against artificially boosted and attenuated frequencies. It also disrupts standing waves and flutter echo, but rather than removing errant frequencies like absorption, it simply scatters them about.
The proper use of diffusion will correct sonic deficiencies without altering the acoustic energy from your room or changing the frequency content of your mixes. Diffusion can also make small rooms sound much larger. ………
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