how loud do you mix?

[Jaekae]

Im actually meaning how loud your monitors are? , ive read somewhere that alot of ppl try to have between 70-75 dB at their mixingposition, but when i try that i think its hard to hear the changes in the sound :S So i usually have them loud but that give alot of ear fatigue after a while.

Do i have some hearing loss if i find it hard at those levels?

What works best for you guys?

 

[crillemannen]

The ideal level is about 85db to even out the bass vs treble. I usually mix around 70-80db's

 

[Star Ark]

I always change it, soft, loud, medium. Never bothered with finding out the specific db levels but I do know I consider around 85db as my loud, I can't imagine working that loud for very long at all. I think different volumes show you different things:

Ultra quiet shows you things that stick out or are too loud
Fairly quiet sounds boring, which forces you to make the mix exciting.
Medium is the best of both worlds.
Fairly loud shows you what the mix will sound like to the average listener I reckon
Ultra loud shows you whether you have made things too big in the mix, or if certain eqs are too extreme, or how squahed overall the mix is. A squashed mix sounds bad as you turn it up (Death Magnetic) a soft mix just sounds better and better as you turn it up (Tool's Undertow is my fav non squashed album, the drums only sound good when turned up super loud)

So I wil change through all those depending on what I am try to do

 

[Ermz]

I'm all over the place, like Star Ark. You have to hear how it moves the listener on all different levels. I don't know who honestly expects any listener to sit there, calibrate their listening environment for 85dB and only listen like that. I understand that mastering guys may want to work like that for repeatability and utmost balance, but our job isn't to worry about where our hearing 'sweet spot' is... it's to make sure our mix rocks at every volume.

 

[Ola Englund]

I always mix on very low volumes. I really like mixing in my Bose noisecancelling headphones nowadays. It really shuts out everything outside so I can mix with an even lower volume.
But then again I need to check the "rockage" level by turning everything to MAX from time to time!

 

[jipchen]

Pretty low, between 60 and 80dB. If louder, only for a few moments to check the BOOM.

 

[TheDriller]

Most of the time i'm listening at barely above conversation level,
in that two people could comfortably have a conversation without having to raise their voices.

I'll occasionally crank it up just to check how the low end holds together,
or if i'm tracking DI guitars I like to have it a bit louder to mask some of the string-sound.

 

[pipaguapique]

loud loud for Eq'ing

and really really soft for levels

 

[Trevoire520]

I always change it, soft, loud, medium. Never bothered with finding out the specific db levels but I do know I consider around 85db as my loud, I can't imagine working that loud for very long at all. I think different volumes show you different things:

Ultra quiet shows you things that stick out or are too loud
Fairly quiet sounds boring, which forces you to make the mix exciting.
Medium is the best of both worlds.
Fairly loud shows you what the mix will sound like to the average listener I reckon
Ultra loud shows you whether you have made things too big in the mix, or if certain eqs are too extreme, or how squahed overall the mix is. A squashed mix sounds bad as you turn it up (Death Magnetic) a soft mix just sounds better and better as you turn it up (Tool's Undertow is my fav non squashed album, the drums only sound good when turned up super loud)

So I wil change through all those depending on what I am try to do

This.