Part of engineering music requires understanding some level of what is happening with sound. Sound waves, sound fields, sound spectrums all play into a successful end result. I have some background in this kind of stuff so it makes sense to me what is happening technically. All the more reason I was pissed that I was turning out crap. So I turned back to my old friend the internet to do some research on where I was going wrong.
I read a lot about properly treating rooms, flat monitors, standing waves, etc. I read up on how commercial studios are constructed. Man there’s a lot of detail people go into! It’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff sometimes, but reference monitors seemed to be a good place to start. I hunted around the web and found some good consensus on KRK RP5′s as a good “rock” monitor. So I bought a pair. And was unimpressed. These things didn’t make my songs sound amazing, they made them sound like crap! Dull, lifeless, uninspiring. I was disappointed that I shelled out $300 for much ado about nothing.
As it turns out, that was more like what it really sounded like. As I worked on my next song, I had to work much harder to get it to sound good. But when I went ’round the circle of devices (2 cars, theater stereo, “Hello Kitty” boombox, shoqbox, TV, a couple pair of headphones, etc.) things were off, but not nearly as bad. I still had to go around the circle a few times but I ended up with a better result in a bit less time.
Point – Reference Monitors are supposed to be reasonably flat, so adding them to the arsenal was a good thing. It took a whole whack of hearing problem (from my regular speakers) off the table.
The results were improved enough that I wanted to learn more. I wasn’t at the “great” level I desired, rather somewhere in the “respectable” range. Respectable enough I started getting comments, and requests for help a lot. Sure there were still a few moles to be whacked behind the curtain and I could make do, but now I wanted to see what else would make it better. Two things seemed to jump out, acoustic treatment, and room setup. Since room setup is free, I decided that was what I would change.
It turns out in your typical room, soundwaves are bouncing all over the place…and bouncing back into your ears from a lot of angles, at a lot of little delays that muck things up. You don’t want to totally eliminate (i.e. deaden) things but rather control it. I was set up with my computer and monitors in a corner, and this turned out to be the absolute worst place to be! Imagine the soundwave from the left speaker bouncing right around the room and coming back in your right ear. It seriously screws up hearing the stereo field. Later we’ll talk about bass, but for now just know that bass really builds up in corners. So I moved things.
Point – Corner desks look nice, but absolutely suck for recording and mixing.
How’s that? Two useful tidbits and I’m “only” 500 or so words into the second part 
I have a vaulted ceiling in my studio room, and also a window. I had to choose between being alongside the window, or what seemed to be preferred which was along the wall that the ceiling vaults up from (symmetry, a la the “corner” problem above). I chose to go along the window, reasoning that I could open the windows and some reflected sound would go out! Amazingly that turned out to work okay! It would have worked better if the window was behind me, but the other side of the room is a closet and I don’t belong in there (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). I did hang a quilt over the closet doors to knock down whatever waves that would. The combo of moving, opening the windows, and the quilt was a good improvement. Good enough that I was able to do work for others (still bouncing around all the players though, just not as many times), and thus Gator-Studios.com was born!
Point – Use a bit of logic and find ways to improve your acoustic setup. Anything is better than nothing, and everything you do incremental will bring an incremental improvement.
Recognizing how far things had come (and having trouble finishing a project due to the neighbors cutting their grass one after another one weekend), I decided I needed to pursue some level of acoustic treatment. Being the frugal booger I am, I spent some time looking for alternatives to the commercial stuff.
(to be continued)
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I'm J.J......and I'm a Gator!