Mixing in a really small room….

[Brad]

Although I have been able to get “acceptable” mixes from my very small, square space. It’s really difficult and a long process, because as much as I try, I can never get it quite sounding right until I get the mixes out of the room and played a) in the car b) stereo in a bigger room c) ANYWHERE else…. at which time I go back and try to calculate what needs to be tweaked and what I was hearing too much of, or not enough of, in my room. Although outside of the space my Dynaudio BM5A’s sound good, I believe the rear ported bass is just giving me too much grief.

So, I have been looking at replacing them with something considerably smaller placing 2 products at the top of the list.
Genelec 8020b and Focal CMS40 monitors.

Anyone using or having experience with either of these products, I would really like to hear from you.
(Or anything else that fits into that category of monitor).

Thanks

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro, Pro Tools Studio
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

Topic

[John]

Well,

I have a VERY small (you’d be surprised) project studio room and I use the Genelec SE DSP (5.1) system.
Of course, I have treated the room the very best I can but the DSP system really helps.
I have mixed radio and TV-spots, albums and actually some Theater commercials in 5.1 without getting any complaints.
For real world checks of ordinary Stereo material, I have a cheap mono radio and listen through my MacBook Pro.

Maybe not exactly what you were asking but my 2¢.

BR,
John

John Rammelt - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Brad]

Thanks John… I still demo in my car… I think it’s the worst stereo ever made and if I can tolerate it there it usually works every where….
My room is treated as best as possible as well, it’s really the proximity to the back wall that I can’t do anything about. For some reason my wife won’t agree to me taking over the living room which would be perfect…. go figure!
Genelec DSP was an option although I’m trying to keep within a certain budget as I just bought a new bass and amp.

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro, Pro Tools Studio
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[VOLiTiAN]

Silly question maybe, but how much have you treated the room you’re in? Rear sub ports, speakers close to walls and a close wall behind the engineer is just begging for standing waves, have you covered room height bass traps etc?

Besides, surely smaller set of speakers is only going to specifically reduce the amplitude of what you’re hearing, it’s not going to make an actual change to your listening environment, and with regards to a port on the front or back given a small space internal reflections are always going to be a problem

Besides isn’t the sign of a good engineer more someone who knows their own gear and perhaps more importantly knows how to overcome it’s foibles? 😛

Kind regards

D.

www.myspace.com/VOLiTiAN www.soundclick.com/VOLiTiAN www.reverbnation.com/VOLiTiAN www.soundcloud.com/VOLiTiAN

[Brad]

It was the rear ported speakers that really seemed to be the issue. The wall behind me (the engineer) is treated with bass traps and diffusers. I tried diffusers and traps behind the speakers, but nothing really worked.

Replacing the BM5a’s with either CMS40 Focals or VXT4 KRK’s, have both at home to demo. It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses for my ears. The difference is very noticeable. The changes seem to translate favourably to mixing, that is, I can actually come out with something that closely resembles a decent mix 1st time around.

Thanks….
B

Mac Studio M1 Max, RAM 64 GB, 1TB Drive, OSX 12.x/13.x and Windows 10 (VM)
DAW: Studio One Pro, Pro Tools Studio
DTX Express III (Extreme triggers), Nektar LX88
OWC Thunderbay Mini (4 X 1TB Sata SSD), Express 4M2 (4 X 2TB M.2 SSD), Envoy Express (1TB M.2 SSD)
Presonus Quantum, Faderport & Faderport 8
Black Lion Sparrow Mk2 A/D, FMR-RNP-RNC, MIDI Xpress 128, BM5A, KRK VXT4, Equator D5
2020 Macbook Pro 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD Audio(mobile rig)

[Author]

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