Getting Mixes To Translate

The recording process is long and hard. After you figure out how to hook all this crazy tech stuff together, you are faced with learning a highly difficult program, and then somewhere in there you get into audio engineering and mixing. You never really stop learning those, but as you mix more and more, you get serious about competing with the big boys. Your goal is to have your mixes sound great in your car. It probably seldom happens.

Room Acoustics

Most of the time, the problem lies in room acoustics. Your room has a frequency response all of it's own. Don't believe me? Crank up something with a big, thick kick drum and walk around the room. Listen to the deep part of the bass drum. More than likely, it will change violently. You will probably find a place in the room where the kick drum is really freaking deep (maybe too deep) and then moving just a matter of feet, you'll find the low end completely disappears.

Unfortunately, this happens at all frequencies. In other words, mixing is complete guess work in an unfamiliar room with poor acoustics. What sounds smooth in the room, may be harsh in your car. What sounds deep and thick may actually be thin. So room acoustics do make a huge difference in an unfamiliar room.

Studio Monitors

Unfamiliar studio monitors can be quite a problem as well. Studio monitors also have their certain character and sort of tell their version of the story (or in this case, the mix). Some studio monitors are very harsh and some are very smooth.

You need to aware of the inverse theory. This basically says that your mixes will turn out the exact opposite of how your mixes sound. If you are using bright monitors, you'll end up with a dull mix. If you are using dull monitors, you'll end up with a bright mix.