Mixing in a small room?

[zosomagik]

Hey dudes, due to the fact that my girlfriend sleeps over at my house quite often, I've had to move things from my bedroom to a spare room I have. The room is quite small, the dimensions are 80" x 72" with 90" ceilings. Can anyone tell me what to expect with my mixes in a room this small? Any good articles would be a help too, I'm gonna' hit up sound on sound right now and see what I can find. But I thought I might as well as my fellow DSF dudes first.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

The quick reflections seem to manifest as distortions to mids and highs in my little bedroom. Its probably about the size of urs. IF u hang curtains around most of ur walls that can fix the high end but will not be so effective on the mids and bass. Realistically the best thing u can do is use phones/small as possible monitors turned down as much as possible.

[fragments]

Make your girlfriend sleep in the small room, tell her you'll make it up to her when you are a rich and famous producer.

But seriously, what Sinestepper said. You should be mixing at low volume anyway IMO. Really helps you notice anything elements dominating the mix or if this are muddy. You can always hear everything when its loud : )

You could also try putting a rug in there if the floor is bare as well. If not curtains heavier blankets or something might work as well. Really anything to absorb some sound...seems like stuff would be bouncing around like mad in there.

[zosomagik]

The quick reflections seem to manifest as distortions to mids and highs in my little bedroom.

I was making a track in there the other day and my ears seemed to be really sensitive to the highs, I just took this as ear fatigue at first but now I think it might be this.

Make your girlfriend sleep in the small room, tell her you'll make it up to her when you are a rich and famous producer.

But seriously, what Sinestepper said. You should be mixing at low volume anyway IMO. Really helps you notice anything elements dominating the mix or if this are muddy. You can always hear everything when its loud : )

You could also try putting a rug in there if the floor is bare as well. If not curtains heavier blankets or something might work as well. Really anything to absorb some sound...seems like stuff would be bouncing around like mad in there.

I'll break the news to her when she gets home. But seriously, I do have carpet in here, and there's like a shitload of stuff in here so I don't know if that helps or makes things worse. But in regards to your opinion on mixing low, I always mix pretty damn loud. Is there any articles or anything to support your opinion on the matter? I'm not arguing your opinion, but if it really is the better way to go I'll have to start.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Having a book case is actually a good cheap diffuser. Can help with achieving a move diffuse field in the room.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

The more stuff in the room the better.

[zosomagik]

There's a good bit of shit in here, I might take a couple snaps of the room for the "take a picture of your setup thread" if I do I'll drop a line in this thread so you guys can check it out. Even though you guys probably already would, because we're all gear-porn addicts.

EDIT: Although my setup isn't really gear-porn, it's like softcore no vagina gear-porn

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Good stuff man. I don't know much about room treatment just the basics cos I just did a module on it last year at uni.

[zosomagik]

Just found out my phone's camera is shit. I know this isn't a feedback section of the forum, but if either of you want to peep the track below that I made and mixed in this room today and let me know if you hear anything off? I've been making shit all day so my ears are pretty shot, but I took a long break before I mixed it. But, if it goes against your moral judgement to click the play button since this is not the feedback section of the forum, I will understand. May god have mercy on your soul if you do though.

Soundcloud

[fragments]

I know because of the fletcher munson curve there is an optimal level to mix at, you can look that up. Personally I like to mix quiet because it works better for me in general. Might not for you. I guess I was describing why I think it works better for me. I actually started doing it because I found my KRK monitors so fatiguing. I'm not saying I don't every crank my monitors to see how things sound "loud". So yea, basically just my experience lead me to prefer mixing quiet.

[cmacoustic]

Having a book case is actually a good cheap diffuser. Can help with achieving a move diffuse field in the room.

It will diffuse, like any solid object would, but as an actual method of diffusion, it may create more problems than it solves. I doubt diffusion would be needed for such a small room, bass trapping/absorption but with an almost but not quite square space...it would require alot of trapping.

[Simulant]

You should really mix at a number of volumes. Mixing too quiet won't help you hear the dynamics and the sub bass. Mixing too loud will fatigue your ears.

It's not easy to get a good mix in a bad room. Sound deadening on the walls will only tame the high end and make your room darker. But it won't do anything for the bass, you need bass traps for that.

It's also a good idea to listen on headphones, as you'll hear things that you didn't pick up on monitors. But mixing solely on headphones isn't great either. It's best to switch between headphones, and monitors both quiet and loud.

Sometimes I like to go into another room with my tune playing loudly, so I can get an idea of how the bass sounds. And remember to try your mix out on other systems to see how it sounds.