About The Author: Rob Mayzes

Over the years, Rob has studied audio production at University, worked in a range of studios around London (from multi-million pound studios to small independent studios), learned from some of the best professionals (who worked with bands like Queen and Motorhead), built several studios and worked with artists around the world.

Most importantly, he has been recording and mixing at home throughout his entire career. He has spent thousands of hours and countless days on the search for better techniques and methods for producing great music at home.

ACOUSTIC TREATMENT HELPS WHEN MIXING – BUT DON’T BECOME OBSESSED

I recently moved to a new home, and until now I’ve been working from a room that had zero acoustic treatment.

At first, my mixes suffered. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the new room, and it took me a week or two to learn it.

After those two weeks, though, I started to learn the room and compensate in my mixes.

There are plenty of ways that you can compensate for having a bad listening environment. You can still create mixes that are clear, powerful and consistent without having an acoustically treated room (more on that in a minute).

You see, acoustic treatment isn’t always 100% essential to getting good recordings and mixes at home. But it helps – a lot.

This isn’t another article about how to build acoustic treatment. There are plenty of those online (this is my favourite). Instead, I want to give you the reasons why you should treat your home studio, and what to do if you can’t.

How Big of a Difference Does Treatment Make?

Last week I decided to treat my new mixing room. I ordered some acoustic insulation material (Rockwool Roxul RW3) and thin fabric (Muslin Cotton) online. I ventured down to my local builders merchant and pick up a load of softwood timber in various sizes.

It cost me less than £100 ($150) to get all of the materials. But it took me the best part of 3 days to plan and build the panels for my room.

It’s not so much of a monetary investment. You could spend $150 on much worse things in your home studio (plugins spring to mind). It’s more of a time investment – half a week in fact!

And here’s the difference that it made:

You can clearly hear the difference. You can see the difference in the charts too.

Bear in mind that I treated my room to be used as a control room for mixing and mastering, not necessarily as a live room for recording. And the room is far from perfect – this is a temporary solution while I save for professional treatment.

Nonetheless, it’s easier to hear subtle EQ changes. The stereo field is clearer. I can no longer hear the reverb of the room more than the reverb on the recording.

If you are in a situation where you have the time, money and opportunity to treat your room: do it.

But you can still get great mixes in an untreated room. You just need to apply a bit more skill and consideration.

The World Won’t End If You Don’t Treat Your Room

Some of the best reggae songs of all time were mixed on crappy computer speakers in an untreated room.

And this doesn’t only apply to reggae. You need to remember why you’re here in the first place – to write and record awesome music.

Don’t become obsessed with making your room acoustically perfect. Chasing that dream can easily distract you from the music. Plus, it would be extremely difficult to make a home or project studio perfect.

Leave that to the professional mixing and mastering engineers.

If you can afford to build a few acoustic panels, go for it. Trust me – it will make a huge difference.

But if you can’t, here are some ways to compensate…

Mix in headphones

Get yourself a nice set headphones. Open back or semi-open are better for mixing.

I have the Samson SR850’s – they were only $45. But they’re absolutely great for getting an idea of how my mix sounds without the room interfering.

I wouldn’t advise mixing on headphones alone. It’s possible, sure. But it will require a lot of skill to create a consistent mix that translates well.

Combine headphone mixing with speaker mixing instead.

Keep switching

After combining headphones with speakers, throw a few more options in there. Mix on crappy computer speakers for a bit. Mix on Apple headphones.

Every time you switch you are refreshing your ears and getting a new perspective on the mix.

Learn the room

Use a free tool like Room EQ Wizard to find out where the prominent frequencies in your room are.

Do a sine sweep of the room and look for any particularly loud frequencies below 400Hz on the chart. If there is a particular build up around 300 Hz, for example, remember this when you are mixing.

If a mix sounds overbearing and muddy in this range, consider that the room might be emphasising these frequencies.

Use a reference track

You should be using reference tracks all the time if you want to get great mixes. Everyone does this, even the pro’s. Mixing without a reference track is like mixing blind!

If there’s something in your mix that sounds off, but you aren’t sure if it’s the mix or your room, a reference track will instantly let you know.

Constantly comparing your mix to a reference helps to prevent your room from affecting your decisions.

Listen back to your track in as many locations as possible

One of the main benefits of having a treated room is knowing that your mix will translate well to other systems.

If you don’t have a treated room, you need to put in a bit more work to achieve the same consistency.

Listen to your mix on as many different speakers in as many different locations as possible. The limiting factor here is your own self-motivation! The more the better. Listen to it in the car. listen to it on your living room hifi. listen to it on different headphones. Listen to it on your phone speakers. Use your imagination!

You will very quickly become aware of any problems in your mix. Remember, though, that no mix is perfect for every speaker and that sometimes you have to make small compromises. The aim isn’t to get your mix to sound perfect on every speaker. Your aim is to get your mix to sound consistently good across all systems.

Where do you think your music will be listened to most? Large clubs, or Apple headphones? Cater your choice of reference speakers to your style of music.

Conclusion

You can clearly hear the difference that acoustic treatment makes. But you also know that you can still achieve great mixes without a perfectly tuned room.

My buddy Stu from DIY Music sums it up perfectly: “You can still do good work without acoustic treatment… Whilst saving up for some”.

The next step is to put these things into practice.

Action Step 1 – Listen to an old mix on a speaker system that you’ve never heard it on before. Listen out for any abnormalities.

Action Step 2 – Compare an old mix to a professional mix in the same genre. Listen out for any striking differences. The sound of your room may have affected your mix.

Action Step 3 – Leave a comment below and let me know what your opinion on acoustic treatment is. Some people are obsessed – others couldn’t care less. Where do you stand? Do you think it’s essential? Or perhaps you’ve had your own experience with acoustic treatment?

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