a question for chris about translation

[seb37000]

Originally Posted by Masterer

Again, I think this is a case of familiarity and perception. It's your brain, not the monitors. Most of us have experienced this process many times. Mix on new monitors in a new envoronment and you spend a lot of time guessing. You take it to your car or home or another studio. You determine that there is too much blah, and not enough blah blah and you return to make adjustments. Over time your percetion changes and you no longer need to make those adjustments and mixing on those monitors becomes more "second nature-ish". Obviously during this "getting to know you" phase it's your mind that makes the adjustments, not your ears and certainly not your monitors [that would be cool]. The same exact process takes place with high resolution monitors. The only difference is they sound good [or accurate or whatever]. How that translates to the outside world is up to you, not the monitors.

It's a little like driving. Driving a truck is gonna take some getting used to if you normally drive a Pinto, but after a while you get used to the vehicle itself and your mind is free to concentrate on the trip.

...or something like that.

thank you so much for this post, i've been asking this myself for so long
I did not want to highjack the other thread so I started this one.

So basicly knowing your room and monitors really well even if they are not that great will be better than being in the best room and having the best monitors that you dont know ?

Also it seems that you have in mind more how the music will sound in the outside world than how it sounds in your room ?

Having read that you really like the rooms at sterling does this mean that from the start what you had on your system sounded really good to you and at the same time translated well outside or did you also need to do a lot of testing befor you got it right so that it sounded as good as in your room on other systems ?

Do you think all this can be applied for mixing also or should the translation probleme only be left to mastering and the mixer consantrate only on getting the best mix in his room ?

[AlexLakis]

I'm not Chris, but I think he might share similar views as I on these topics...

Originally Posted by seb37000

So basicly knowing your room and monitors really well even if they are not that great will be better than being in the best room and having the best monitors that you dont know ?

Yes. Famliliarity is everything. As long as you have monitors that are decent that can produce all the frequencies you need to worry about, it really all comes down to how well you know them.

Originally Posted by seb37000

Also it seems that you have in mind more how the music will sound in the outside world than how it sounds in your room ?

Well, there will probably be more people listening to it in the "outside world" than in your studio, right? Unless you invite the whole world over for punch and pie. Or never release the song.

Originally Posted by seb37000

Having read that you really like the rooms at sterling does this mean that from the start what you had on your system sounded really good to you and at the same time translated well outside or did you also need to do a lot of testing befor you got it right so that it sounded as good as in your room on other systems ?

Every room takes some getting used to. Well built rooms take less time than others if you're used to working in well built rooms. But each room is different. Working in any new environment requires mental adjustment. That's why testing your mixes in your car is such a good idea, because the environment is static (you don't have to worry about the interns moving the speakers around so they can "hear the seperation better.")

Originally Posted by seb37000

Do you think all this can be applied for mixing also or should the translation probleme only be left to mastering and the mixer consantrate only on getting the best mix in his room ?

Yes, this is applied to every stage where monitoring is involved; tracking, mixing, and mastering.

Hope this helped! Anything else you can add in regards to this topic, Chris, would be greatly appreciated by all of us here at Gearslutz. Thank you for volunteering your time to our community! thumbsup

[Gie-Sound]

This is why I don't wanne mix in 68726 different studio's.
I stick to a few I really 'know'.... or at least I think I do

[Jose Mrochek]

Mike Shipley if I recall, he said he only mixes on NS-10´s

To me that pretty much answers your question and makes the whole ¨you need 10k$ a pair of speakers to get a mix right¨discussion obsolete.

Now if you have a room that is not well treated will probably cause to much guessing for a long period of time. I would suppose you can get used to a less than perfect room in the long run, but I find that would work against you, even if you do.. eventually get used to it.

[Masterer]

Originally Posted by seb37000

So basicly knowing your room and monitors really well even if they are not that great will be better than being in the best room and having the best monitors that you dont know ?

Yes.

Originally Posted by seb37000

Also it seems that you have in mind more how the music will sound in the outside world than how it sounds in your room ?

No, not really. The "translation" from my room to the outside world happens without much thought at this point. It took a lot of work and some time before I reached that point, but now I just concentrate on what I'm hearing in my room.

Originally Posted by seb37000

Having read that you really like the rooms at sterling does this mean that from the start what you had on your system sounded really good to you and at the same time translated well outside or did you also need to do a lot of testing befor you got it right so that it sounded as good as in your room on other systems ?

Do you think all this can be applied for mixing also or should the translation probleme only be left to mastering and the mixer consantrate only on getting the best mix in his room ?

Well I had a head start on the sound of my room because I had the monitors and amps in my room at Sterlings old facility uptown, so I was very familiar with that aspect. Getting used to the sound of my new room was just a matter of focus and time.
I think translation is a fundamental part of a good mix. A mix that only sounded good in the room it was mixed in wouldn't be very desirable, and mastering such a mix probably wouldn't help much.