outgrown my studio monitors?

[Ploki]

Frankly, since i invested 4x the cost of my monitors into room acoustics, i don't have issues with translation on other systems - at all. I can comfortably and confidently finish a mix and send it into the world without checking it on various mixing systems.

Frankly, I have done almost nothing for room acoustics, I don't have issues with translation on other systems - at all. I can comfortably and confidently finish a mix and send it into the world without checking it on various mixing systems.

Nothing against people who do treat rooms*. If I were earning enough to buy wall-padding I'd maybe have some. Maybe, perhaps**. It is not the most important thing to me (or I think listeners) at all. I'd rather learn how things sound and have my brain do the adjusting as it is 80% more effective** at this than software or wall-padding.



*or you, in particular, Ploki - it just amused me to subvert your words.
**ok, probably not, I'd get a room with a window onto a garden or the sea.
***this stat must be true because I made it up.

thanks for the disclaimers

you might be lucky with your room, sometimes weird things happen in acoustics. or you might have a particular brand of music that translates well

in most cases that's not the case
It affects listeners on a level. They don't know why it doesn't sound good, but it just doesn't. So the music can in fact get lost in translation

[Passing Bye]

Great points raised by others, especially first few posts, you really need to get to know your room and how your speakers behave in it, than when you sort that out, you need to get to know how your speakers translate to outside world.

Getting to know all that may take some time, than when you already learn your room and how your speakers behave in it and outside world, changing anything isn't beneficial at all.

So having said all that, my point is than to get best speakers you can and just stick to them, Eris are solid speakers, but do you really want them to stick to them all the way?

Personally, I would get best ones I can get for my money and do all that learning labor on them, than just stick to them till the point where I could use them in any room, that's the point, to really learn those boxes and trust them.

If you want some recommendations that will bring something more to the table, do check out (in your room if you can) Presonus Sceptre S8, EVE Audio SC307 and Dynaudio LYD48, they aren't cheap, but much cheaper than competition and worth every penny.

You can always add something like NS10's, Avantone's (or Behringer C5A's) and etc, but those ones ain't gonna replace good set of trusty workhorses, but just give you another instant perspective on your mix, but again, if you really get to know your speakers and room that well, there's no need for any of them, but until than, why not.

Just my 2 cents

[Ploki]

I recently changed my room, i use the same monitoring. The previous one had 50% less volume and DIY treatment, nothing particular in the low end.
The new one is bigger, but also has custom tuned limp membrane absorbers all around.
I expect bass and sub to be better - what i didn't expect was how different midrange will sound due to low-end being under control.

[perfumer]

I play it through my iPhone, car speakers, M-Audio crappy speakers and portable speaker and I hear some frequencies standing out.

You're doing it wrong. Anything played through bad speakers will sound bad.

I wish I had a source of truth that highlighted frequencies without me having to resort to listening through all of these other smaller speakers.

Just find someone with better monitors/room than yours, go and listen there. Does it sound ok?
Buy great headphones for the price of half a monitor. Does it sound ok?
If both times the answer is 'yes' - that's it.

[Monkey Man]

you probably outgrown your room tho.

SonarWorks and all other "room correction" softwares correct SPEAKERS, not ROOMS. you cannot correct phase response, standing waves and rooms waterfall with an EQ. it just doesn't work that way.

The various non-linear responses of the other speakers you're checking the mix on are causing some things to poke out of the mix, and others to be lost, I'm betting.

This is normal and the very reason why mixes are checked through multiple monitors / systems.

The idea is to compensate for the anomalies by finding some middle ground whilst mixing. I use a pen and paper, and under the heading of each system tested, I write things such as Snare +2dB, Lead Vox -1dB and so on.

Sometimes the notes are instructions to boost / cut, other times they're a reflection of the perceived level relative to where it should be. Which descriptive method you choose is up to you; whichever feels more-comfortable.

Once you've taken notes from 2 or more systems, calculate an average boost-or-cut figure for each mix element noted and apply the changes to your next mix version.

This is what I do and it works for me. I came up with this back in the early '90s when there was no internet advice available; it just seemed logical 'cause I soon realised I couldn't remember all the changes I needed to make and therefore needed to jot things down, so I honestly don't know what others do, but it makes sense to and works for me.

Lastly, yes of course better monitors would help, but you're always gonna run into this varied-response issue across systems you test on, which is why I suggest you start here.

Frankly, since i invested 4x the cost of my monitors into room acoustics, i don't have issues with translation on other systems - at all. I can comfortably and confidently finish a mix and send it into the world without checking it on various mixing systems.
Mastering engineers don't have 6 speaker systems. Nor do good mixing facilities.

Agreed, mate.

I was simply offering some tips as a starting point to help the OP get by without having to spend a cent.

I have great monitors, but a weirdly-shaped room I've had little success taming, so I plan to use MixChecker to at least get some sort of a handle on how things might translate as I only have the one pair.

Obviously a neutral room with fantastic monitors should theoretically get you to what is effectively the ultimate middle-ground, but alas, some of us just have to make do with substandard systems.

[rasmus_b]

Unless you have a huge space (think 50 m2 or above), the room will have a much greater impact on the sound than the speakers. Unfortunately, effective treatment of small rooms (which is what most of us have to make do with) is difficult, costly and/or labour intensive, and you pretty much have to dedicate the room to music production.

As an alternative, you might consider getting a pair of calibrated headphones from Sonarworks and use them with their software. This takes the room out of the equation so to speak, and the results are very, very good in my opinion. I'm lucky enough to have a professionally treated room with great speakers, and I still use my headphones to check mixes regularly.