Your experience with producing at home (volume levels)

[steevio]

brilliant replies thanks guys.

And yes headphones DO take a toll on your ears, after 4+ hours I get this deep peircing feeling from to much bass. its annoying / scary.

i know theres guys on here who use headphones and swear by them,

i swear at them, they will fck your hearing eventually - guaranteed.

ive got tininitus from headphones.

tinnitus is the pits.

[kristofason]

....a bunch of students moved in and complained the very first day and banged on my wall every 5 minutes, till i went round in a rage one night...(i'd been living there for 15 years) they moved out shortly afterwards

That was you?! You were disturbing our scrabble nights!

did they manage to patch up your nose at the hospital alright mate ?

jeez they dont make students like they used to.

hahaha classic!!


mate tinitus is now the bain of my life!!! fuckin shite, I thought i'd got away with it but alas.......beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

[lem]

....a bunch of students moved in and complained the very first day and banged on my wall every 5 minutes, till i went round in a rage one night...(i'd been living there for 15 years) they moved out shortly afterwards

That was you?! You were disturbing our scrabble nights!

did they manage to patch up your nose at the hospital alright mate ?

jeez they dont make students like they used to.

no that was my friend, he had to have it removed.
he needed councelling, he cant sleep as he is still haunted by the sound of 909 kick drums and dreadlocks.

[simonb]

That was you?! You were disturbing our scrabble nights!

I've heard/read a lot of people saying you should do most of your monitoring at a fairly low (the word "conversational" is often used) level.

Seems to work for me... I do a lot of it at fairly low volumes especially at the mixing stage, and crank it up occasionally. I like it to be at a volume that you have to concentrate to hear some of the smaller aspects, that usually gets me in the ballpark for levels and EQ then I'll try a few different volumes, compare speakers and headphones, etc, to home in on it.

(I'm an amateur so take my advice with a pinch of salt but it has helped me improve...)

[lem]

I have been in the studio before where people monitor really loud, I don't understand how they can concentrate at such high levels.

[Barfunkel]

They are probably half-deaf... which means they have to monitor even louder. It's an endless circle.

[Phase Ghost]

I monitor pretty low and crank when I want to see how it sounds loud.

[hydrogen]

It helps to get an SPL meter and check the monitor levels. You can also test the frequency response of your room with one or these because it has a microphone for it.
(I use the radio shack one) roomeqwizard is the frequency response app.

Bob Katz says to set your mix at ~83db(somebody correct me plz? This is at the threshold of hearing compression. It's actually quiet perfect u can hear Everything clearly with the right monitors... I also like my techno a bit louder so I'm usually coming up with ideas at higher levels and then mixing down at that setting.

One thing that helped me a ton that No affiliation recommended was to remember that the monitors are supposed to sound flat! Which means the bass or anything shouldn't really stick out like u would expect it to at a club, if u are looking for a sound like this u might get othèr loudspeakers or try an eq setting to emulate the clubs super low end.