Original subtitles

hello and welcome back to the channel

today I wanted to share with you

possibly the most important piece of

knowledge or advice I have about how to

get a better production better mix

better mastering using the equipment you

currently own and this is not some

clickbait mixing tip I'm not just going

to tell you to mix in mono or use

reference tracks although those really

do work and I'm not telling you to go

out and buy a load of acoustic treatment

or buy loads of extra equipment that you

don't currently have the topic I'm going

to discuss can often get really advanced

very technical and quite frankly very

boring so I've spent a lot of time

trying to find a good way to explain

this without getting super technical in

a way that everyone can understand I

want this to be a really sort of open

and honest video and not just simply

full of needless jargon and technical

nonsense like that so I do have a couple

of tests and experiments that I'm going

to show you later on which I hope can be

a little bit fun and maybe enlightening

but what this video is really about is

it's all about how your room affects the

sound you hear from your speakers and

what you can do without buying a load of

acoustic treatment to actually make your

room sound better and there's a few

reasons I'm making this video one is

that I'm I feel really bad seeing so

many people going out and buying tons of

acoustic treatment just spending

hundreds upon hundreds of pounds or

thousands of pounds on just threw away

acoustic foam and our panels that aren't

really making a huge difference in their

room there are good ways to use acoustic

treatment in a room but a lot of people

can't even use acoustic treatment anyway

they're renting a place or it's a

bedroom and I feel sorry for people that

are spending hundreds of pounds on that

and the next reason I'm making the video

is because me and others like me share

loads of mixing tips and tricks online

but without understanding this core

concept of how sound works in your room

all of these mixing tips and tricks just

they don't really work in the way that

they should and you can apply them all

and your mix can sound great in your

room but then we all know it can just

fall to pieces elsewhere when you listen

and it's really there's not an enjoyable

part of making music and what this video

is about is trying to help you enjoy

making music and not make it stressful

so the core concept of this video is use

the equipment you've currently got but

use a calibration software to calibrate

the output and create a perfect response

for your room so that where you're

listening is basically an ideal flat

response from your studio monitors

specifically the software I'm using to

record measure and correct my studio

sound is called soon our works but

they'll be more about that later it's

the software that I've been using for

about eight or nine months to do this

really really put it through its paces

however let's start by just talking

about professional studios so the ideal

place to create music usually a

multi-million pound facility tens or

hundreds of thousands of pounds have

gone into the design the layout the

acoustic treatment and these spaces

typically sound very balanced and if

you've ever had the privilege of being

in one of these spaces I've been so

lucky to get into a handful of these all

of the mixing tips and tricks you know

the reference tracks mono using certain

you know compression techniques EQ

everything just fits into place the

tracks seem to almost mix themselves

because you hear every single frequency

you can hear everything in the mix no

matter which speaker you use in the room

everything just sounds balanced now

there is a certain coloration to a room

different rooms of course have different

tonal balances but but typically in some

of the best rooms in the world they just

sound balanced and if you can create a

mix that sounds stunning in there when

you can hear all the frequencies

typically if you listen to it somewhere

else in the car in the club in your own

home studio it typically sounds really

good it translates well that's the

language that people use it translates

well to the real world so it sounds good

in your studio good everywhere else

however if I apply the same principle to

a smaller room like I'm in a small room

here or even a medium-sized room maybe a

bedroom a spare room that you're using

is your home studio what tends to happen

and it's just a consequence of being in

a small room is that the sound leaving

the speaker's hits the wall the ceiling

the corner the floor and all of these

sound waves add up multiply and subtract

in different not complimentary ways so

at certain freak

you'll have big dips so potentially at

82 Hertz you'll have a big dip big 5 10

DB dip in your room and then at 125

Hertz you'll have a big 6 or 7 DB spike

and while using acoustic treatment to

help prevent some echo e reflections is

a fantastic idea you know if you can get

more soft stuff in that room if you can

leave a bed a bookcase some acoustic

treatment that helps soak up all the

sort of echo and reverb which is great

it does almost nothing to deal with

these big peaks and dips and spikes all

the way across the spectrum and

especially in the low end these

beautiful acoustic panels that I made

myself very expensively on my bass traps

they help deal with the reverb in the

reflections so that I have quite a nice

stereo image but they do almost nothing

to deal with the dips peaks and troughs

across the frequency spectrum in my room

I want to quickly say that I'm not

trying to stress anyone out or say that

you can't make music in your own room of

course you can but what I want to say is

that if you can't hear your music

properly the way it's supposed to come

out of your speakers at the end of the

day you you can't mix what you can't

hear and that's just a basic principle

if you don't have a subwoofer for

instance and you can't hear below 50

Hertz then you can't mix below 50 Hertz

it really is as simple as that and it's

the same you know if you've got a big

dip at 200 Hertz and you can't hear it

then you're not going to be able to mix

what isn't there what you can't hear and

this is in my opinion the number one

reason why the music that you mix in

your studio your bedroom can sound good

in your studio and maybe it doesn't

sound quite as good as you want but it

can sound good and well balanced in your

studio but then if you listen in the car

in a different studio or in a club or

whatever it just doesn't sound the way

you meant it to sound it is because if

in your room you heard a big dip at 80

Hertz then you're naturally going to

boost that frequency until you can hear

it in the mix and then when you listen

to it in a different room that doesn't

have that 80 Hertz dip there's going to

be loads and loads of 80 Hertz in your

mix and it's gonna sound really like

muddy and awful and this happens all

over the frequency spectrum they will be

there whether you are using a hundred

dollar pair of speaker

or a $5,000 pair of speakers and if you

don't deal with all of these peaks and

dips and problems in the frequency

spectrum then it doesn't really matter

how many

you know peril how much parallel

compression you do how much how many

times you listen to reference tracks or

mix in mono if you can't hear it you're

not going to be able to mix it and that

is the fundamental concept but all hope

is not lost there's a really simple way

to fix this problem but instead of me

just talking through this whole video

I've set up an experiment in my room to

show what I'm trying to say what I have

done is set up a tone generator just

playing about 30 notes across various

octaves in the low end it just plays the

note and a short gap then the next note

and it just keeps increasing in pitch

and all of them are at exactly the same

velocity they should have the same

amplitude and when I record the signal

inside my door inside the software so

not out of my speakers the result is

that every single note is the same

amplitude the same energy even though

they increase in pitch now in an

absolutely ideal studio so it's never

going to be quite possible this ideal

response would be what you actually hear

out of your speakers so every single

know if it's supposed to be the same

volume you'll hear it as the same volume

in the studio but this is not at all

what happens in almost any room in the

world so as a little proof-of-concept

I've setup the best microphone I have

this is the most sort of detailed one

I've got the lct 540 set it up exactly

am i listening spot between the two

speakers and this is by no means a

scientific test but it is sort of a

proof of concept and you can see the

result here as we go from lower

frequencies up to around the low mids

each note is at a completely different

volume some hugely different some a lot

smaller

this result is slightly exaggerated

because the audio recorder uses a sort

of logarithmic scale so it looks further

apart than it is but you can still see

there's dramatic differences and

variation compared to the ideal response

versus what happens in my room and this

is where that software and microphone

sonar works comes in which is what I was

talking about just earlier what it is is

a reference microphone and software the

pair together

microphones calibrated and it walks you

through really simply walks you through

measuring your studio monitors responses

in your listening spot and then what it

does is it creates a profile it plays

lots of test tones and runs measurements

and creates a profile for what your room

sounds like at your listening spot and

you can create multiple profiles no

matter how many pairs of studio monitors

you have if you move them you can create

another profile of course and what this

does is it looks at how the frequency

response reacts in your listening spot

so where are those Peaks one of those

dips in the spectrum and then it applies

incredibly precise filtering each used

various different sonic processors to

even out this response make it

completely flat really give you a very

true and accurate stereo image and

really extend the bass response and let

you hear what's going on with it and if

I refer back to my test again this was

the response without sonar works so none

of this calibration was applied these

notes were all over the place

immediately after conducting that test

without moving anything changing the

volumes

I turned sonar works on and I ran the

test again and this is the result

although this is not a scientific test

you can clearly see compared to that

sort of baseline of what my room sounded

like this is so much closer to the ideal

response and this is a test you can do

at home if you take a synthesizer that's

like a SAP velocity or a tone generator

and you just play from low octaves and

just keep playing up if any of the keys

randomly sound really loud or really

quiet then you know where the problem

area is in your room and I have quite a

few of these in the low end and the low

mids of my room but now when I turn

sooner works on all of these problems

are levelled out then what I do is that

I leave sonar works on it applies this

correction to the output of my system so

I leave it on whilst I'm mixing and I

mix through it okay so I can hear this

balanced response and I can actually

apply all these tips mixing in mono

using reference tracks doing your

parallel compression your EQ I can apply

all these tips and tricks' the song

feels like it's almost mixing itself

because I feel like I'm in a good

balanced room and then before I export

you turn sonar works off because you

don't want that crack ssin being applied

all the time this correction is just to

cracked your room not your mix if I

export the mix with the sonar works

turned off now and then I go take it to

a different system it just translates

better it's more likely to sound good in

lots of different places and this is

what I've experienced when I've been

doing mixes for clients is that if I

don't use the sonar works they tend to

just keep asking me they're like what

the bass feels a little bit off could

you raise the kick because you can raise

it again because you turn this down and

I can narrate it seems to be quite a

process backwards and forwards however

when I use sonar works in the mixing

process and then just turn it off to

export and then send that file to the

client and they are much more likely to

be happy with it this is just my

personal experience and I know that many

other well-known mixing engineers trust

in your sonar works every single day to

try and conclude this video the most

important thing or the biggest piece of

knowledge I guess that I'm trying to

pass on in this video is not just about

the room correction but it's really

about understanding how your room sounds

with the equipment you have

understanding that different speakers

are going to sound completely different

in different rooms putting your speakers

in a different place in your own room

it's going to make a huge difference and

really taking a little bit of time to

understand that your room isn't balanced

at all to be honest like there'll be all

these issues all over the place in your

room understanding this concept goes a

really long way and letting you

implement all the other tips and tricks

and techniques you have and just

understanding that in your mixing room

whether it's bedroom studio or a home

studio if you can't hear something you

can't mix it and whether that means

getting a sub so that you can hear more

of the low-end or ideally doing

something like using correctional

software so that you can really be

mixing in a flat environment it just

allows you to actually hear what's

coming out of your computer and speakers

the way that you're supposed to hear it

so that you can actually just enjoy the

mixing process and not get so stressed

out and not have to drag it out over

days and days and many many weeks and I

also see so many people chasing gear to

try and improve their their

they're in a room whether they've got

acoustic treatment or not and they're

just upgrading thousands of pounds worth

of speakers ad converters all new

interfaces buying super expensive cables

and this is all stuff that you're

perfectly entitled to do but some of

these people are spending so much money

on this stuff where they seem to be

missing like a critical step which is

dealing with the size and shape of their

room very very few of us can change the

size and shape of our room but you

absolutely can change the sound that's

coming out of your speakers so that it

sounds balanced so I hope this has been

useful to some people I hope you enjoyed

the testing I know it's been a little

bit longer than a usual video but this

really was something important that I

really wanted tsch to share with you so

anyway I hope you have a really great

week and I hope to see you in the next

video - bye for now