I did my first monitor analysis: Now what?

Question

Hello everyone,
I'm a student film music composer and still very new to producing music, especially mixing. I'm using my fathers Alesis M1 passives and a QSC USA400 power amp in his studio; a converted garage thats been sound proofed into a very dead room (for pictures see: http://www.shopjt3.com/studiopicts.html). I've been generally unhappy with the way my music translates to other systems/environments, and am unsure how to fix this problem. Is it my monitors? Is it the room? Is it user error? I just dont know! For example, under the advice of a friend, I recently added my cheep home stereo subwoofer to my monitor chain, and was AMAZED at how much better my mixes became! I was no longer flying blind with low end frequencies, which in turn made my whole mixes less muddy! Seeing first hand the improvement this made, I'm wondering if the same thing will happen if I upgrade my monitors to a more "professional" set.
Hoping to gain more insight into my room/sound, I purchased the Alan Parsons monitor analysis package (pink noise test tones with DB monitor) and came up with some interesting results which I graphed here: http://www.shopjt3.com/images/monitor_analysis.jpg Note, there are 3 graphs: Alesis LRSub; Alesis L+R with no sub; and Sub only. My Monitors are 20 inches from walls. Distance between monitors is about 47 inches. Distance from monitor to my working position is about 27 inches.
I have no clue where to go from here. Are the dramatic changes in frequency information due to the monitors, the power amp, or my room? Should I add an EQ to adjust for this when mixing, and then take it off on the burn? Should I use this EQ to make my monitors as flat as possible? Would I be better off ditching the whole system for something like the Adams A7's + a Blue sky sub? I really have no clue what to do...why dont they teach this stuff in school?!
I write music for films as well as progressive rock. My goal is to get my stuff to translate as well as possible to other home stereos / TVs & movie theaters. I hope to eventually hire out my mixing / mastering, but dont have the budget to do so yet. Of course, the catch 22 is your music needs to sound professional in order to get the professional gigs to afford professional mixing help! Here is an example of my most recent film score: http://www.fieldsfaraway.com/final.html (some of you have already heard this). Does this sound professional? How well does it translate on your system? I'm working on another project now, and will post clips for comments soon.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm new to this stuff and really have no clue what to do. However, I am determined and willing to learn, and would appreciate any comments, questions, advice you're willing to share. Sorry this post isnt directly Logic related, but the best information I've found on the net has come from these forums.
Thank you in advance for your help and reply!
-Jonathan

Answer 1

Jonathan Timpe wrote:
I just remember using $99 audio-technica headphones at my dorm to mix, and ALWAYS having my mixes turn out extremely muddy and dead sounding (because I couldn't hear any bass I would boost it up thus muddying my mix). Perhaps a quality headphone would do better? Would headphones be my main monitors, or just to check my mix?
$99 headphones are unlikely to be suitable. Decent (read: expensive!), open-backed cans are the way to go. Find a store that lets you try out the headphones - indeed take your old audio-technicas with your to compare - I think you'll be surprised at the difference.
any other suggestions? I've recently read that should never be perpendicular to a wall (which is where mine are now). Is this true? I've also read its best to have them as far away from wall as possible, yet I dont want my desk to be in the middle of the room (plus I've NEVER seen this in any studio pictures I've ever seen). But the bottom line is the sound, so I'm willing to do whats necessary.
That stuff you've read is not wrong but, as usual for this subject, it always "depends"
What's behind your speakers and how far they are away from the rear surface affects the sound considerably. Bass pretty much radiates in all directions - including to the rear, and it will refelect from the rear wall and back to you. What you hear is the direct sound and the reflected sound combined. This can result in a reduction of bass or an increase. If the distance is big enough your ears/brain are capable of identifying the different componants - or the reflection may be quiet enough not to matter if the distance is very big! In most real rooms this distance will be small and you hear the combined effect. The other walls affect things in the same way but the closer the wall the more serious the effect can be. Having said this the design of many speakers take this rear wall issue into account. There is often advice on speaker placement from the manufacturer for this reason. My Mackie speakers have a switch to set their location to "corner", "near wall" and "far from wall" - its essentially a bass lift eq (yes I know this kind contradicts the EQ advice - lets not go there for now .)
Often you have to experiement to find the best position for the speakers and it entirely depends on the model/make.
In general, with acoustics, anything symetrically shaped is not good. A rectangular room is better than a square for eg and even better is a room with non-parallel walls (like many top studios). Placing speakers non-symmetrically, such as one closer to the corner than the other can help sometimes as it makes the reflection patterns of sound more random. More random is a good thing. Having said this you can end up with one side sounding more bass-heavy than the other for eg and that is not desirable. Guess what?... experiment!
As a start point I'd suggest placing the speakers about 1 to 2 feet from the wall (I'm being realistic in what you can do in a garage, and I'm guessing what your garage is like!). Sit infront of them so that there is fair amount of space behind you but don't sit at the centre of the room - its better to be seated somewhere between the speakers and the centre of room too, rather than the centre of the room inbetween you and the speakers (if you follow me!). Now set the distance between the speakers so that there is roughly the same distance betwen them as there is to your head - so there is a equilateral triangle between your head and each speaker. Play some music, listen and then move yourself and the speakers around a bit and see what difference it makes.
Oh and its usually best to place your speakers on the longest side of a rectangular room, when there is a choice.
As a final comment on mix technique. Never forget that at the first level you are trying to make instruments sound real. There is a tendancy to try and make the instruments sound bass heavy and "full" or "shiny" with extra top-end. Firstly look for truth. Imagine what a real cello sounds like and make your recorded cello sound like this. Indeed its worth trying to mix without any eq or compression to start with. It can surprise folk how well a mix can sound this way. Punch and vibrancy can be added at the mastering stage too.
Indeed when monitoring is less than perfect always be cautious with the eq. The less you tweak the less you can mess things up!
Thanks again for your wonderful post!
I always write long posts when I'm trying to avoide work:-)