your suggestions on judging bass while mastering in a "bad" room?

[perx]

My new studio is NOT good when it comes to the bass. When it comes to the mastering I find myself spending WAY too much time adjusting things back and forth until im done. And I think its the bass part that creates the problem. I set the bass too high, and end up spending 2-3 days balancing things out. etc...

Anyone have any tips on how to work in a bad room? Any tricks from the pros here?

Thanks in advance!

[atma]

learn to use a good spectrum analyzer with a proper rolloff curve (depending on style of music you're producing). Try Voxengo's Span with the rolloff adjusted to 5 or 4.5 db. compare how your lower end looks compared to that of similar material that's well produced/mastered.

[huejahfink]

I use SPAN, but with the roll off slope set to zero. At this setting you see the true level of each harmonic.
You can zoom to the bass end and see exactly using max or averaging meters which notes are too loud or soft in comparison to the rest.

[CJ Mastering]

Along with an spectrum analyzer, you can A/B a commercially mastered song in the same room through your same monitors
Cj

[perx]

Originally Posted by CJ Mastering

Along with an spectrum analyzer, you can A/B a commercially mastered song in the same room through your same monitors
Cj

this is something I just started doing. Not always easy though since its mastered and my material is in the process of being so. But I do this. ;-)

[Cellotron]

To me the only real way to address this is to make additional treatments for the room. There's a definite big reason why I added 19 bass traps to my own space when I first started working in it.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[tedpenn]

Originally Posted by perx

My new studio is NOT good when it comes to the bass. When it comes to the mastering I find myself spending WAY too much time adjusting things back and forth until im done. And I think its the bass part that creates the problem. I set the bass too high, and end up spending 2-3 days balancing things out. etc...

Anyone have any tips on how to work in a bad room? Any tricks from the pros here?

Thanks in advance!

You refer to your "new studio", which implies that at some point you chose this place to do audio work in. Why was room treatment not in your original plans for the space?

I say this because you haven't described some bedroom home studio that you've been forced into for various other unrelated factors, this is your "new studio". Just finish the job and treat the space. Otherwise you'll spend forever chasing your tail.

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

To me the only real way to address this is to make additional treatments for the room.

You can't master in a bad sounding room. All you can do is make it different, which is not the goal. The most important element of any mastering facility is the monitoring environment. Sell gear and invest in acoustic treatment until you have a room that works so well that you never have to question what you're hearing. Then you can be confident in your work.


GR

[MASSIVE Master]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

To me the only real way to address this is to make additional treatments for the room.

Without question, end of story.

Spectrum analyzer...?

Use the spectrum analyzer to measure the room and fix the problems.

One infected band-aid for this broken leg is to walk the room. The problems aren't going to be static. That said, even taking different points into consideration, it's going to be like shooting a moving target. Listening to a recording you're intimately familiar with (while walking the space) may help quite a bit - But it still isn't going to fix the problem.

[Odeon-Mastering]

You mean you never heard of Harbal?

[edva]

Even in a proper room, most speakers won't be accurate anyway. But, to the OP, it's hard but not impossible. Lots of cross referencing to other material, along with listening on multiple systems in multiple places helps a lot.

[Washington]

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

You can't master in a bad sounding room. All you can do is make it different, which is not the goal. The most important element of any mastering facility is the monitoring environment. Sell gear and invest in acoustic treatment until you have a room that works so well that you never have to question what you're hearing. Then you can be confident in your work.
GR

Righteous. There's no worst enemy as second-guessing, and the purpose of good acoustics is nothing more than getting rid of it. Also, most of the time, mastering is the scientific part of releasing music... a proper lab is no luxury if you're going to learn the craft. Time is the second requisite... other story though.

Good luck!

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by perx

Any tricks from the pros here?
Thanks in advance!

There are no tricks, seriously. Although acoustics is quite a science! You may be interested in this 1974 interview with George Augspurger, who also designed our rooms:
Recording: RE/P Files: Control Room Acoustics With George Augspurger - Pro Sound Web

Originally Posted by Cellotron

To me the only real way to address this is to make additional treatments for the room.

thumbsup

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

You can't master in a bad sounding room. All you can do is make it different, which is not the goal. The most important element of any mastering facility is the monitoring environment

thumbsup

[pronto]

what are the dimension of the room?

[Unclenny]

I've been finishing my stuff for years in a series of substandard rooms.

Once I learned to listen hard to my tracking space I realized that all of this is really all about the room. But I have had to find a sure and steady path to good bass management without an excellent monitoring environment.

So.......I have a good set of headphones that I have used for a very long time. We are good friends and they tell me just what to do to keep the basement in good order.

If you really, really can not make the neccesary changes to your room then you had best get yourself into some good cans and then check those mixes on every medium that you can find until you trust them with your very life........or at least with your music.

[KyleDiSanto]

You cannot master in a bad room. You just wont have a "true" enough picture to judge your moves on. You can judge on 20 different systems, but you are still guessing...which, IMO, proper mastering is about trusting what you hear - not guessing.

You need bass traps to tame the low response of your room.