two videos on dealing with room sound

[FrankHudson]

I happened to find this pair of videos on a blog I follow which mostly deals with composing and In The Box music production.*

This one of the pair is directly applicable to what most of AGF recordists do (acoustic instruments recorded "live" in a room) and presents a theory and experiment to explain why we start out not appreciating room sound.




The next admits that it's going against the grain of conventional advice, but it's detailed enough to get some sense of why and how they work that way they do, which involves using headphones to mix to much large degree than others.



Both videos emphasize learning to hear things.

*I'm a musical eclectic, and so besides writing and playing things that are just (or mainly) acoustic guitar, or recording instruments in a room, I've done and continue to do some things largely in the box without "real" instruments, which still leaves me with issues when mixing or mastering

[rick-slo]

Liked the headphone video as that is what I do. I do dislike the 7506 headphones though (they are very bright).

[min7b5]

Thanks for sharing. Dan Worrall and Andrew Scheps are for sure two of my favorite people to hear speak about audio.

In my house right now I have some modest treatment in a less than ideal room, but I feel very good about using headphones (HD650’s) for mixing simple acoustic music.

For most things I do, like videos for social media etc, my process is like 85% headphones (HD650’s) and frequently going back-and-forth between my mix reference tracks of things I like for just a minute or so as a pallet cleanser. And then every so often using the monitors I do have in my room (Adam AX5) at a low volume -again darting between reference tracks- to double check.

For something that I’m going to release -like this new record I have coming out in a couple weeks with Jamie Stillway- I take the extra step of booking a two hour session (some places will do a mini-session like this at odd times or days if you ask) at a studio in town that has a great room and monitors, just to listen once or twice through and make any little tweaks I feel needed. As far as mixing anyway, that’s a heck of a lot cheaper and easier than me building out professional sounding space myself..

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Liked the headphone video as that is what I do. I do dislike the 7506 headphones though (they are very bright).

Yeah, I thought that odd too. I have an old pair of Sony 7506 cans and that's my impression of them too. He does say that he knows they aren't flat, but knows (from experience) how they will translate.

[KevWind]

Great Videos Frank so thanks for posting

And I agree the big takeaway is to learn "critical listening" (which is different than simply hearing ) Most musicians mistakenly believe that because they have a lot of experience hearing music and playing music, that they have developed critical listening skill, and that is simply not necessarily or automatically true.
Just because I have driven a car for 50 years does not mean I understand the mechanics involved etc.etc.




Andrew Scheps is also one of favorite people to hear talk about audio.

Haven't ever heard a pair Sony 7506 so can't comment..

My mixing HP's are Senn 600 HD Open Back ......And in deference to my wife I also do about 75 +% of my mixing on HP's

[rick-slo]

Earlier thread I started about headphones in this Record part of the forum:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=445813