Recording - March 2015 - 57
handy investment and significantly more accurate) where our
ears would be, fire up the speakers with pink noise, and set
them so the meter reads a steady 85 dBA SPL.
Getting back to that level in the future should be easy to do:
set the monitor level output from your mixer or audio interface
so that the monitors deliver that level, and mark the appropriate knob somehow. A good monitor controller will make levels
reproducible and accurate; you can also do it by gain staging
in your DAW and interface, starting with setting levels to avoid
clipping (see the article on that topic on page 46).
The goal here is to sit down, turn a knob up to a particular level,
and when you've done that, to hear your music at a particular
sound pressure every time. Once you do that, you can be sure that
your miking, tracking, and mixing decisions are being made in a
way that won't fall apart when you play back your final mixes.
The gotcha
Now, there's one thing I must mention as a wrapup, just to
give you all one more thing you'll hate. Because it's almost
impossible to accurately and consistently measure SPL in headphones with routinely available instruments, a perfect application of these principles is almost impossible to perform when
moving from speakers to headphones and back again. You can
set your equipment to deliver a certain level in your phones
that's always consistent, but there's no way to measure that
level in dB SPL vs. where you've set your monitors.
For that reason, it's a much more involved process to find a
truly accurate listening level in your phones that relates to your
room. The best you can do is to use your phones for what
they're best at: detailed listening for fine problems in tracks and
mixes rather than tonal balance. Do that at a consistent listening
level, but don't expect any EQ decisions you make to translate
to your speakers until you've had months of practice with a par-
ticular set of speakers, headphones, and amplification/monitor
control equipment.
Nobody likes to hear that he or she can't just turn it up and feel
the boom whenever the urge strikes, but you can't argue with
Mother Nature or the EQ she gave you when you were born. If
you learn to work with a set listening level, you'll find it a bit frustrating at first, but when your mixes turn out accurate and translatable over a wide range of studio and non-studio listening environments, you'll be glad you took the time to set it and forget it.
http://www.realtraps.com
http://www.realtraps.com
Recording - March 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2015
Contents
Recording - March 2015 - Cover1
Recording - March 2015 - Cover2
Recording - March 2015 - 1
Recording - March 2015 - 2
Recording - March 2015 - 3
Recording - March 2015 - 4
Recording - March 2015 - 5
Recording - March 2015 - Contents
Recording - March 2015 - 7
Recording - March 2015 - 8
Recording - March 2015 - 9
Recording - March 2015 - 10
Recording - March 2015 - 11
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Recording - March 2015 - 69
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Recording - March 2015 - 72
Recording - March 2015 - Cover3
Recording - March 2015 - Cover4
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