What dB SPL do you monitor at?

I'm not really sure exactly what I'm monitoring at, but I'd say it's damn quiet 90% of the time, and 10% of the time might be 85-90.

When I'm doing a lot of my work, I have the monitors quiet enough that if I had a noisy fan in my comp, I'd probably hear it over it.

I really only crank it to check low end, and mid/high mid cohesion when you turn shit up loud.
 
+1 more to the 70-75 range. fuck fletcher-munson, 85db is too much for my old ears to handle for extended periods.
 
Afaik the human hearing is the flattest @ 83 db (not 85).

If anyone cares CLA used to always mention how important it was to listen at low volumes. Ask Brett what he actually mixes at...
 
Yeah, I'm with CLA on that one, too. I SAY I mix at moderate levels but if anyone were to just observe me during a mix it'd get prettty fucking loud for them (based on these standards im reading) for much too long.

It depends on my mood, as well.... and/or how brutal or slammin' the song is =D

P.S. - How loud does CLA really mix at, Brett? Hahaha
 
Mixing usually between 60 and 65 and some checking at 70˜72 TOPS. More than this and my ears get tired quickly.

btw, 85 is too loud for my smallish room.
 
Charles J said:
How loud does CLA really mix at, Brett? Hahaha
Click to expand...
Pretty fucking loud... I would say loud enough for me to have to leave the room and everybody to feel uncomfortable, so I would say probably between 100 and 110db (as loud as a live gig). Not all the time, but a lot. Maybe he was doing it to impress us though, I don't know... When setting up the system for his seminar in La Fabrique he was confortably standing in front the mains while they were blasting full volume (apparently way above 115db-120db). Everybody in the room had to either leave or put their fingers in their ears.
Heard also that Andy Wallace mixes at low volume, this is urband legend too as he mixes fucking loud as well, and so do all the guys I've seen mixing: Sneap, Kramer, Nordström was quite low compared to the above but still louder than I do).
 
How can he sustain that ? I ears start to ring after a while if I mix this loud.
 
I find 85dB far too intense. Man, I've mixed quite a few live gigs that hover around 87dB SPL (A-weighted, slow), since it used to be a limit of sorts at the concert hall in my previous school. IIRC you can take it for about 30 minutes, after that you'll possibly be damaging your hearing. It also makes a live rock band sound so bland that you'll find 30 minutes of it to be quite enough.

I mix really, really quiet. Haven't measured, but I'm betting it's around 60dB max, since it's a little bit quieter than normal conversation. I guess I'm a little bit paranoid that I'd possibly disturb the neighbors if listened louder, and honestly, I'm pretty sure I could crank it up a little bit and it'd be completely fine. That said, I actually got one noise complaint at a previous apartment due to music being too loud, but it had to do with being drunk and was pretty funny.
 
Here's a chart about how long you should expose your ears to what volume at max per week ("Std." stands for hours).

Einwirkzeiten_de.jpg
 
Yeah fuck, I just checked mine and it's around 74 - 79db MAX apparently haha. I don't know how you can listen at 85db... That fucking kills me after a few minutes. So I guess relatively low/ normal for me :)
 
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