Since many of you have home studios how do you make your music when you live in a situation like an apartment. Do you bother your neighbors?
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music production in an apartment
(18 posts)-
Sewn
offlineMemberPosted 2 years ago # -
Generally I work at relatively low volumes. It's only really when I'm coming to the end of a mix that I'll turn it up to get an idea of how it's going to sound at club volumes, but through experience you will develop a better idea of how to balance a mix at various volumes. And of course it's important to A-B mixes against a reference CD...seriously, best piece of advice I can ever give is compile a reference CD (using lossless files from the source CD, not MP3s), pick the best sounding records you can find that you want to sound similar to, esp note the relative levels of bass, mid and treble.
I know a few people working in apartments swear by Sennheiser HD650's http://www.dv247.com/headphones/sennheiser-hd-650-audiophile-open-dynamic-headphones--19557
They are expensive for headphones (unless you get into £10k audiophile territory) but actually fairly cheap for the quality you get if you compare them against similarly priced monitors. In a recent article in Sound on Sound they were voted the best headphones to mix with, but being open back they are useless for tracking...in which case the HD25ii's were rated the best to track with.
The neighbours are generally pretty good tbh but I'm lucky that being a DJ I can work during the day.
Soundproofing might help too. The heavy fibreglass bass traps you can make for the walls should help somewhat ( http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html ). And definitely put your speakers on either heavy stands filled with sand or on something like the Auralex MoPads to decouple them from the desk/worksurface. You would be amazed how much the improve the sound and stop resonances.
Posted 2 years ago # -
wormsoftheearth
offlineMemberyeah, foam pads, bass traps and no sub. to be honest you really shouldn't be mixing at a very high level anyway. it's much easier to discern relative loudness of sounds and so forth at a lower volume. stuff that is too loud will immediately jump out.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Jairus Khan
offlineMemberThat isn't really how soundproofing works. Bass traps, foam, egg cartons, all those things, they're not designed to keep sound from leaving the room, they're designed to modify the properties of the sound within the room. The only effective form of soundproofing is to build a room-within-a-room, which isn't really feasable in an apartment.
wote is right -- what you want is to record/mix at low volume, or on headphones.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Sewn
offlineMemberI thought alot of people might do the headphone thing but I always heard that wasn't a good idea because its not actually how the music sounds. I guess we still have the advantage since our music is electronic. Its not like we have to crank up a guitar amp to get the right tone.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Jairus Khan
offlineMemberIt's not ideal, but it's workable. I wrote my first album almost entirely on headphones. It was mixed and mastered on proper monitors, and it took longer to write than it would have if I had used monitors, but I wasn't really limited by it. It's just not the best situation.
With that said, I'd much rather write on proper monitors at a listening volume than I would headphones at a loud volume.
Posted 2 years ago # -
well...arrangeing und production would work on headphones....yes...but your ears get tired really fast.... I would rather try to rent some cheap space in a basement or so and work there.....
Posted 2 years ago # -
wormsoftheearth
offlineMember"but your ears get tired really fast"
this would depend on the type of headphones...your ears can get fatigued easily/quickly with certain types of monitors/speakers as well (also depending on room treatment etc).
but why would you need to rent another space? just mix at a reasonable level, don't jack your sub way up, get some shit to reduce bass reflections, and don't mix at 3am when people are sleeping...
Posted 2 years ago # -
well because sometimes you should turn up the vol, and also trating a room acoustically rarely looks nice, unless you use these nice wavepanel things...which cost a fucking fortune *G*..
Posted 2 years ago # -
soillodge
offlineTech ModeratorI have always written and recorded on headphones. I only do my mixdown on monitors and at moderate levels.
`michael
Posted 2 years ago # -
Bass traps and other treatments...they are designed to absorb sound energy so they will have an effect on soundproofing. Sure they are not a room within a room but they will make a difference. Egg cartons on the other hand are really only diffusing sound from reflective surfaces, they are limited in terms of absorption. Foam ok, bass traps better, room with a room even better. But these things all work at certain frequencies. Read the link I posted, those bass traps are tuned to certain frequencies and sure we might be going OTT in this case, but they will reduce the sound energy leaving the room.
One thing that might help with headphones is some form of binaural/speaker impulse simulation...this is starting to filter down into prosumer grade kit now like the Focusrite Saffire cards http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/focusrite-saffire-pro-24-dsp-with-vrm-%28virtual-reference-monitoring%29--66141
Posted 2 years ago # -
My first two albums were done entirely on headphones. Like you, I lived in small apartments. Couldn't do any sound treatment, couldn't afford proper monitors.
Having gotten a bigger place and setting up a dedicated studio I can say without a doubt that mixing on monitors is far superior to mixing on headphones. You just can't compensate for the physical difference between the two. A headphone mix sounds very different on monitors.
I always mix at low levels as well. As far as I am concerned, if I can hear everything, it's loud enough. Of course, you need a good set of monitors. Ones large and powerful enough to reproduce the full frequency range. That usually means at least 8" drivers.
If you need a sub, your monitors just aren't big enough. Personally I'd avoid a sub altogether unless you are doing movie soundtracks. With a sub, you are bound to introduce a lopsided frequency gap or shift.
Posted 2 years ago # -
soillodge
offlineTech ModeratorI will comment though, that writing music on headphones has it's own advantages of exploiting more complex ideas that get lost when monitoring a signal out loud at volume. I took my idea originally from COIL and FLA, because they both commented in interviews how they would use headphone writing techniques monitoring different levels of mostly transparent frequencies and sonic ideas involving panning in the stereo field and variations on velocity and desynchronized sequences that really only become apparent when you listen closely to the mixes in a close and isolated environment. This is how they accomplished the feat of the listener absorbing a song multiple times and each time they would decipher another idea buried even further in the mix. I always found this fascinating and an engaging concept. This was explored originally in classical music and it is called synaesthesis.
SO when I absorb a new track I insist that is captures my attention in both formats, which is apparently why I get bored with much of this modern sound that exploits loudness and heavy attack parameters on every value. Also everything tends to swallow up the entire stereo field and there is not much variation to speak of. It is really only effective in one environment.
This is really neither here nor there, but it results in an advantage to writing and recording music in a more introspective and enclosed environment that headphones easily can provide. But in my experience one should always do a final mixdown out loud because some of the more powerful properties of a track can sound totally off after being mixed only on headphones.
Also, personally I would never use a sub woofer as a reference monitor. There are too many variables to consider in the final mix. Instead I get a solid mix in the near-field monitors and then do a stereo test on different systems to see how everything meshes together as a whole composition. A-B referencing and test driving mixes is the best way in my experience to set a template for your mixdown technique. The better you get at this, the smoother the process becomes.
`michael
Posted 2 years ago # -
dr_chop_chop
offlineMembergood monitors, on top of auralex mopads (to prevent sound from conducting through your desk), at low volumes. if it's late, i hit the 75db low cut on my mackie. get a decent pair of sennheiser headphones if you absolutely need to work on club tracks at loud volume, but always double check the mix in monitors at some point.
in general i find if things sound right at low volumes, they generally will be pretty good at high volumes, but not vice versa...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I have to respectfully disagree about the "sub thing".
If you have calibrated your monitors just a little bit right, then a sub will definitely improve your mixes. Rarely any near/mid-field monitor goes below 50-60 hz, if they do, it's probably with a heavy roll-off. So essentially you have no idea what is going on at the low frequencies.
After i added a Airbase12 (http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com/Default.asp?Id=3721) to my setup, i have gotten a significant better lowend on the mixes, it's all much more defined, and it's WAY easier to hear what needs a tiny bit of lo-cut, and what brings mud, and what not.Usually though, the people who have subs, have them just to "shake the house", which is pointless in a studio environment, but good clean fun for the living room..
@ Headphones, i will NEVER write/design sounds/mix music on headphones, there are just too many side-effects. Á good silent, "ambient noise" free studio will give you that "enclosed" feeling too.
@ Apartment, our first 2 albums were written when i lived in a apartment, the result were that i never spoke to the neighbours, and they banged on the floors/walls, and called me 346 times at night in the weekends, to get us to turn down the volume, which just resulted in us turning the volume up higher. So it is possible to be damn noisy in a apartment, if you don't give a shit about your neighbours. (which i didn't)
Posted 1 year ago # -
I am curious and mean no disrespect. Do you find mixing with a sub to make a noticeable difference when listening to the same material without the sub? Or is it only an advantage when listening on a sub equipped system? I assume you are only dealing with those lowest frequencies.
A problem I try to address is making sure my low end has a broad range. I've done many mixes where the kick is such a low frequency that it cannot be heard on headphones or smaller speakers. So I often layer the drums with one being where I like it (nice and deep) and another being a bit higher. Few people I know listen on a proper system, so I try to at least maintain a decent mix for them as well.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Yes, the low-end are much more defined when monitoring on a stereo set. It improves the sound 10 fold, if not more. It's doing good for people without subs aswell.
yep, "deep" kicks, almost always needs some "click" so you can discern it when the music plays, though, a kick that's almost low frequency and hard to hear, is mostly not a good idea, IMO. ?!?
Posted 1 year ago # -
how bad is mixing on a monospeaker like the roland kc-550 amp? sometimes the drums make my head feel likes its being squeezed and about to pop
Posted 1 year ago #
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