Just saying that you need more expensive studio monitors is often a crock. While there are some cheap studio monitors that totally blow for you, there are probably some expensive monitors that also blow for you. Every monitor is going to have it's own personality. There is no perfect studio monitor. So with that being said, you are just going to have to learn your monitors.

How Do You Learn Your Studio Monitors?

Put in a major label cd of your favorite genre of music. Listen. On my Mackie HR824s, it sounds like someone just took 300Hz and sucked out like a million decibals. Okay, not a million, but the cds sound VERY scooped compared to the mixes I generally do. THIS is the problem.

The solution to this problem is I can either try to find other studio monitors that basically sound muddy (with the inverse effect, my mixes should sound unmuddy) or I can live with the monitors I have and work around them.

Hang On Just A Minute

If major label cds sound different than my mixes, what is the real problem? I can blame the monitors if I want to. However, it sounds to me like the real issue is in my mixes. Maybe I'm just letting too much dullness through? Maybe the real adjustment needs to come in what I'm going for in a mix.

I must admit that now that I've started to mess around with sequencing and such, the cheesy midi drums don't sound a bit muddy. They sound hifi and clear. Maybe I just needed to be listening to electronica on my monitors and then mix a rock song.

Put Some Burden On Your Ears

The funny thing is, I can immediately hear what the major label cds are doing differently. I hear that low mid junk in my mixes. I hear it even when I'm mixing. It generally sounds pleasant to me. Well, I'm just going to have to put some burden on own ears hear. I'm going to be less tolerant of low mid muck.

Find Workarounds To Your Studio Monitor Problems

While in an ideal world, everyone would have an SSL or Neve and a perfect sounding room, it's just not reasonable in the home recording world. You'll need to come up with makeshift tactics to get you through the mission.

• I've learned that my my mixing position does not have super deep bass, but if I back up about 2 feet, I can hear the kick drum get WAY deeper. Which one do I listen to? I always listen in my main mixing position. However, at some point, I'll back up to see if the kick is hitting hard in the deepest octaves. If it is hitting a little bit, I'm good. If it's not, I need to dial some 40Hz or so in.

• Since I don't trust the way my low end sounds in the room, I use my fingers. Seriously, if I need to know how a kick drum and a bass guitar are working together, I'll touch the speaker. Why not? The acoustics of the room may distort the sound to the point of unreliability, but the acoustics do not effect how hard the speaker is working. This can also tell me if a kick drum is too deep during tracking.

• Walk around the room when you mix. You'll eventually learn certain sweet spots that will expose more and more flaws at various frequences.

• Switch over to your major label cds from time to time while you mix. You don't necessarily need to copy them, but you need to have the same basic frequency curve. I've found it best to listen to second clips of 10 different major label records from different genres to clear my ears. If my mixes can't compete on my studio monitors, why should they compete anywhere else? (Note: Never play a major label cd when the band is in the room).

• Use an EQ plugin. I'll probably get slammed for this one, but I can say that it has helped me. On the 2 bus of your DAW, slap up a 2 band parametric EQ. I have problems with too much low end and too much mud getting through. So, I boost everything under 700Hz or so by 2dB. When I mix, I find that this helps quite a bit. Usually, about halfway through a mix, I'll take it off. This gives me a better perspective in most cases.

• Listen on other stereos. This is a given. Just make sure you are using these other stereos to learn what's wrong with your studio monitoring....not necessarily the mixes. In other words, if the kick drum is way too loud in your car, seriously listen to your monitors now. Does the kick drum sound too loud? I'm going to guess that it does. In other words, your monitors may not have lied at all...you just didn't notice. Maybe you just need to be pickier or develop the skills so that you can be pickier?
  Sometimes, a second stereo is more of a second opinion. In other words, a guitar may be a tad fizzy on your monitors, but it may work. When you listen on another system, you'll quickly learn if it was the right move or not. The point here is that your monitors aren't lying at all. You can usually hear everything in your studio monitors, but other systems may point out what you need to be listening for.

Conclusion

Room acoustics are a huge deal. I don't mean to undermine them. Choosing the right studio monitor is a huge deal. I'm still convinced that the Mackie HR824s aren't for me. However, my ear is still probably the weakest link in the chain. I'm the one that needs to get better. Entirely blaming my monitors for my audio problems is horrible copout and avoids the real problem....ME!