Hello everybody,
I've been reading on this and many other topics on this site and other boards for general advice and I understand a lot more now than I did before. I'm still not 100% sure I'm doing it right with what I have to work with and I'm needing some help.
I've been turning the 2nd bedroom in my apartment into a home studio for both my podcast and mixing. My landlord forbids me of doing any wall construction or hanging anything, so I painted the sheetrock walls a new color and went with Auralex 1X1 pads spread around my room.
Painting walls
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...49448797_n.jpg
After paint with new furniture (cat approved)
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...53498388_o.jpg
After putting up Auralex pads (sorry for the light adjusting in the shot)
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...57119991_n.jpg
Before the treatment it was roughly 35-40 DB at it's quietest, now it is sitting at an average of 22 DB according to a sound meter I picked up at Radio Shack. I am going to get some thick curtains for the windows to further improve sound absorption. There is almost no echo in my room at all. I also have hardwood floors if that means anything.
I recently purchased a pair of Yamaha HS80ms after listening to them at my local guitar center and endless positive reviews for the price. I love them. I've read endless posts saying that facing a corner is a big no no, unfortunately again my landlord forbids me to nail a single piece of anything to the walls for proper acoustic treatment and my fiance also wants this to be a guest bedroom too, so I can't position the desk in a way we can put an air mattress and still have room for my desk (furniture is extremely light. We'd move them out of the room for guests). I'm in a sort of Kobayashi Maru situation (Star Trek nerd).
My mixing position. Monitors are about 4 feet apart from one another (3 feet, 10 inches to be exact), 4 feet from each wall, 4 feet away from me. I have some Auralex monitor pads under them and my ears are aligned with the center of the speakers.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_GOBokCIAAWRWi.jpg:large
A close up shot of my desk. Sorry for bad quality shot. Cell phone camera.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_LOJmICIAAeHTH.jpg:large
I am moving within a couple of years and I wanted to get a pair of speakers that will last a long time and sound good in almost any room I base my mixing out of. That's another reason I purchased the 80's instead of the smaller 50's. I listened to a lot of commercial masters of various genres and I think the mix of highs, mids and lows sound good and immediately corrected some mistakes on my current sessions.
To sum all of this up into a question: If/What I am doing wrong, and what can I do to fix this?
Also, have about $300 to spend on mics and I've been needing some overhead condensers. I read about Oktava MK 012 and Audio Technica Pro 37. Good choices? Or are there others in my budget that are a better choice? I mainly deal with rock/punk/metal bands that have a Green Day (American Idiot) sound, Rammstein (Mutter) sound and Ramones (Rockets to Russia) sound.
Thanks so much for reading my blabbering and any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Have a safe New Years if I don't log on again until then.
I've been reading on this and many other topics on this site and other boards for general advice and I understand a lot more now than I did before. I'm still not 100% sure I'm doing it right with what I have to work with and I'm needing some help.
I've been turning the 2nd bedroom in my apartment into a home studio for both my podcast and mixing. My landlord forbids me of doing any wall construction or hanging anything, so I painted the sheetrock walls a new color and went with Auralex 1X1 pads spread around my room.
Painting walls
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...49448797_n.jpg
After paint with new furniture (cat approved)
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...53498388_o.jpg
After putting up Auralex pads (sorry for the light adjusting in the shot)
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...57119991_n.jpg
Before the treatment it was roughly 35-40 DB at it's quietest, now it is sitting at an average of 22 DB according to a sound meter I picked up at Radio Shack. I am going to get some thick curtains for the windows to further improve sound absorption. There is almost no echo in my room at all. I also have hardwood floors if that means anything.
I recently purchased a pair of Yamaha HS80ms after listening to them at my local guitar center and endless positive reviews for the price. I love them. I've read endless posts saying that facing a corner is a big no no, unfortunately again my landlord forbids me to nail a single piece of anything to the walls for proper acoustic treatment and my fiance also wants this to be a guest bedroom too, so I can't position the desk in a way we can put an air mattress and still have room for my desk (furniture is extremely light. We'd move them out of the room for guests). I'm in a sort of Kobayashi Maru situation (Star Trek nerd).
My mixing position. Monitors are about 4 feet apart from one another (3 feet, 10 inches to be exact), 4 feet from each wall, 4 feet away from me. I have some Auralex monitor pads under them and my ears are aligned with the center of the speakers.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_GOBokCIAAWRWi.jpg:large
A close up shot of my desk. Sorry for bad quality shot. Cell phone camera.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_LOJmICIAAeHTH.jpg:large
I am moving within a couple of years and I wanted to get a pair of speakers that will last a long time and sound good in almost any room I base my mixing out of. That's another reason I purchased the 80's instead of the smaller 50's. I listened to a lot of commercial masters of various genres and I think the mix of highs, mids and lows sound good and immediately corrected some mistakes on my current sessions.
To sum all of this up into a question: If/What I am doing wrong, and what can I do to fix this?
Also, have about $300 to spend on mics and I've been needing some overhead condensers. I read about Oktava MK 012 and Audio Technica Pro 37. Good choices? Or are there others in my budget that are a better choice? I mainly deal with rock/punk/metal bands that have a Green Day (American Idiot) sound, Rammstein (Mutter) sound and Ramones (Rockets to Russia) sound.
Thanks so much for reading my blabbering and any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Have a safe New Years if I don't log on again until then.