Standard HI-FI speakers as studio monitors?

[evolutions_end]

SO i have this bizzare question, and i think its in the right forum...

ive just made myself a little demo of the bands ive recorded over the last 6 months, and i felt i really let myself down in the mastering process. i master by going between my Alesis M1 MKII's and my Fostex T20RP mk2 headphones. Both the speakers and cans have their own traits, so i mix accordingly. So after a few hours of tweaking, i manage to make 2 or 3 of my mixes sound good on both the speakers and my cans

then i take the cd into my bedroom

waaaaay too much low end. guitars dont cut through, nor do the kick or the snare. Overheads seem to sit fine, aswell as the vocals, but the entire room is overtaken with low end! but my biggest let down, is that my guitars sound thinner. amazingly thinner. im slowly working on getting a good guitar tone. its by no means my strongest point, but im getting there. anyway the point is, i get my guitars sounding half decent on my cans and speakers, take it into my bedroom and they sound pissy and thin.

then i had a brainwave.
i know the speakers on my stereo in my bedroom arent that good, but if i can take them into my studio, master on them and get it sounding good, that should make a better general mix, correct? i realise that they are pissy $80 speakers with weak weak components, but would mastering on these generic speaker give me a more accurate idea of what my mix will sound like on other systems?

im not sure if all this is making sence. im kinda outta options, ive got my shit sounding as good as i can on my cans and my monitors, but in ANY other medium, im amazingly let down!

any suggestions?

 

[musickey]

Try it man, and then check your mix on a few other systems and if it sounds better kik balls. There is a producer i bow to that uses some very cheaper monitors with a consumer stereo tuner pushing them and he turns out some amazing shit!!!

 

[nwright]

Using additional reference speakers is never a bad idea, IMO. I don't know if I'd use cheap hi-fi speakers alone, but I mix on monitors and master by using my monitors and pair of B&W loudspeakers. The B&W's aren't cheap, but they aren't top of the lines, either. They tend to hype the lows and highs a bit, but otherwise my mixes translate pretty well.

I'm actually looking to get some B&W 603's or better yet 805's to mix and master on.

There's a dude on here who mixes solely on b&w 603's or 602's I believe.

 

[STINNETT]

Th biggest issue may be the room you're mixing in. Maybe you should look into some room treatment, bass traps, etc.?

 

[evolutions_end]

Th biggest issue may be the room you're mixing in. Maybe you should look into some room treatment, bass traps, etc.?

yeah, my speakers are renound for having too much low end, and a perfectly square room with parallel surfaces dont help. what i dont get is how people say my room is bass heavy. if anything its lacking in the low end, because i cant hear uch bass, so i turn it up to compensate, then take it into a normal environment and theres too muh bass. hmm. ill look into some bass traps. are there any 'quick fix' or 'cheap and easy' ways, other than having to pay $120AUD for a little piece of foam to stick in the corner of the room?

 

[Pot]

a perfectly square room with parallel surfaces dont help.

in my opinion this your biggest problem

 

[nwright]

yeah, my speakers are renound for having too much low end, and a perfectly square room with parallel surfaces dont help. what i dont get is how people say my room is bass heavy. if anything its lacking in the low end, because i cant hear uch bass, so i turn it up to compensate, then take it into a normal environment and theres too muh bass. hmm. ill look into some bass traps. are there any 'quick fix' or 'cheap and easy' ways, other than having to pay $120AUD for a little piece of foam to stick in the corner of the room?

Is the bass light in your "mixing sweet spot"? If so, then stand up and walk around the room. You may hear some huge thumping bass when you do that.

Before I had my room treated I felt like I didn't have enough bass in my mixes on my system...Then, I stood up. Bass was overwhelming. After treating my room, I have less reflections and the low end doesn't swallow me or leave me wanting more depending on my position within the room.

 

[RKelly]

That's pretty much the concept behind mixing on Auratones and NS-10's to get a better idea of how your mix will translate onto a consumer stereo. I always check my mixes on the built in speakers of my G4 iBook and a set of NS-10's. Using earbuds isn't abad idea either since they respond a lot differently than headphones...

 

[STINNETT]

A simple solution is to buy some Owens Corning 703 fiberglass panels, 4" thick or stack up 2 2" panels, cover them with some sort of fabric and stick them in the corners of your room, straddling the actual corner. Some people build a wood frame for them but you don't have to.

Rigid fiberglass works much better than any sort of foam for such an application. Foam such as Auralex really only works on upper mid and high frequencies.

 

[colonel kurtz]

if anything its lacking in the low end, because i cant hear uch bass, so i turn it up to compensate, then take it into a normal environment and theres too muh bass

an untreated room w/ hard, parallel valleys will have a lot of "peaks" and "valleys" in the frequency spectrum due to the uncontrolled reflections. you're probably sitting in a position where the bass frequencies are nulled, while other spots in the room will suffer from a build-up of low end.

 

[grywolf627]

an untreated room w/ hard, parallel valleys will have a lot of "peaks" and "valleys" in the frequency spectrum due to the uncontrolled reflections. you're probably sitting in a position where the bass frequencies are nulled, while other spots in the room will suffer from a build-up of low end.

Right. If you listen to your music as you walk around the room, and you notice the bass getting softer or louder in different areas...then you definitely have standing wave issues. Bass traps! As Metalhead28 said...rigid fiberglass covered in cloth (cover in plastic first to hold in any loose fibers, then cover with a breathable cloth). Or do a google search for DIY bass traps.

"bass traps"... our language can be so confusing at times. I pity people having to learn English. lol