How to mix in an untreated room

Hey there,

The last few weeks, in between my weekly YouTube uploads and prepping for the upcoming term, I have been slowly finalizing a new EP. I'm making good on my intention to have new music out this year. (Total side note but it's funny how even when music is your full-time job, you still have to intentionally make time for music.)

I am mostly at the mixing and mastering stage with the majority of the tracks I plan on releasing and, right now, I feel like I am in a fight to the death with the bass on all of these tracks. My monitors are a pair of Focal EVO 80s. I purchased them last year after my gen 1 Rokit 8s gave out on me after 12 years (RIP). From most reviews and measurements that you'll find online, the EVO line has a pretty flat frequency response, so what gives? The problem is most likely my room.

My home studio, like many of you, is just an extra bedroom. It is not specially designed to be a studio nor do I have that much in the way of room treatment. It's on the list of things to get but that stuff is expensive and, well, so is everything else. A lot of people will say online that you can't mix in an untreated room and, frankly, that's a lie.

The room is context

Your mixing environment is the context that your music is placed within. The job of a good mix is to translate as accurately as possible in as many contexts as possible. Your mixing environment is only one context. It doesn't matter if it's acoustically perfect or not, it just isn't enough on its own.

You have to test your mix in several contexts to really understand it. How does it sound in your home studio? How does it sound over headphones? Earbuds? Your car stereo? Phone speaker? Testing in all of these listening environments will not only teach you things about your mix, you'll also learn "the sound" of each. The more comfortable you are with the idiosyncrasies of different listening environments, the easier time you'll have mixing.

Leave your room to learn your room

This gets to my ultimate point: to really learn the sound of your room, you need to leave your room. When you do, listen critically to how the sound differs. Are there frequencies that are more pronounced when you leave? Understated? What sounds consistent? Most listening environments have blindspots in the frequency spectrum that you can run the risk of overcompensating for.

In my case, I'm learning that with these monitors and the current positioning of my desk (I moved it forward about six inches as many months ago to accommodate some lighting for YouTube) there seems to be a pretty sizable dip between 50 and 80 Hz in the sweet spot. I have been boosting the bass to hot in the mix as a result. I wouldn't have caught on to that if I didn't play the mix in different contexts.

If you're struggling with your mixing, change up the context.

Til next time,

ZW