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Are your monitors up against a wall?
Reason I ask is that a couple of times I've had friends ask me to come listen to their stuff and help them figure out why they're having to EQ so much and the first thing I notice is that the monitors are backed up to the wall.
Those HR824's aren't what I use, but there's no reason you can't get a decent result out of them. (I'll venture to say the same thing about the converters.)
First thing I recommend is that you put on some CD's that you're familiar with (make sure they're imported into a session so you're hearing them through the same chain.) Then try moving your monitors around the room. If you have stands, good, but if you don't, try them on a table or desk, and put them on top of some books to get them up just a little (ear level is a good idea!) Try to find a place where the CD sounds like you think it should. If you find a place that sounds quite a bit better, your mixes should improve immediately. Spend some time with the placement thing. Even if the room's not that good, speaker placement can help things quite a bit. Also, consider your monitoring levels (too loud?) Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of how this all works, so chances are you have this under control already.
If your computer monitor is not a flat-panel, it shouldn't be inbetween the speakers. That big ol' mass wreaks havoc with the sound.
This is all probably obvious, but if you can't hear what you're doing, all the rest is unimportant. On the other hand, if you've got the recording/mixing process mostly under control, getting your monitors to better tell you what's going on will do wonders for your tunes.
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