On location recording: equalizing the “control room"???

[dietaubenpost]

Hello! Here is my basic query ... I am a musician, not a sound engineer and my question is going to be very elementary. I'll make recordings of classical chamber music repertoire on the premises (church halls, small venues, etc) where I'll have to find control room places (perhaps vestries, small rooms...). I suppose I must equalize (with pink noise, etc) these “control rooms" previously to have a reliable listening, do I suppose right? That is, do not have to equalize the stage ... but only the “control room" since equalization has to do with listening. This sounds very elementary but I would like someone to confirm me or tell me how wrong I am. Greetings! *

[sonare]

While it is possible to equalize the monitors I think it is more practical to tame the reflections in the control room as much as possible. My recording method now consists of tracking rather than mixing to stereo for some of the reasons you raise. Unless you can bring along multiple soundtraps, modifiers, AND full-range monitors you can't really know what you have until you bring it back home and and listen in a controlled and known acoustic.

I do try to get the most suitable room-- medium size and with as few reflections as possible--- and then suspend sound blankets to yield as dry an acoustic as possible because MF and HF reflections. The rest is common sense-- don't put the speakers (or your ears) near corners or walls. The distance from the musicians is usually a factor but the InstaSnake eliminates the concerns of length and expense.

Now there is the question of which monitors? The most accurate you can afford. I use Tannoy 800A which are rather neutral, have excellent imaging, and are quite reasonable (about $700/pair on ebay) but if I had $4k I would get K+H 300. Being self-powered drastically reduces setup time and general hassle, and having the LF start rolling off about 45Hz is helpful in most location acoustics.

Hope this answered most of your questions.

Rich

[DannyL]

You would be better off buying a really good pair of headphones.

Unless the room is properly constructed with full acoustic isolation, bass traps, and various acoustic treatments (absorption, diffusion, non parallel walls, etc) merely eq'ing it would not make it a flat environment that you could trust. EQ only works on one problem: frequency. It does not take into consideration arrival times, space specific room nodes, varying acoustic energy distribution, etc.

You can accomplish a lot with some packing blankets and carefully placed acoustic panels, but you probably won't have the time, or even the permission to install these things. Get a decent pair of speakers for clients, if you must, but headphones are a better option, so is a headphone distro amp. I use a pair of Ultrasone 750 Pro headphones. They cost about $350 USD. That is possibly the bottom end of what you should expect to pay.
I would provide some MDR6 Sonys or similar for clients. My Ultrasones are comfortable, they provide me with decent room isolation and they have very nice velour cups, so my ears don't sweat too much. Audition as many as you can and get something you can trust.

The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of management, unless you happen to work for me

Danny

[sonare]

Headphones are a valuable tool but cannot give an accurate idea of "presence"-- which is the one thing you don't need lots of acoustic treatment to judge with speakers. All other balance questions can be deferred (if you are tracking) but the distance from mains to ensemble (or even piano) is VERY difficult to judge on headphones so that the listener on loudspeakers is musically satisfied.

Presence can be cheated with HF EQ but it is not the same.

Just my opinion, but if heaphones were the answer so many folks wouldn't haul along speakers.

Rich

[TRANQUILO]

PINKNOISE is perfect for balancing any room any size. It will compensate for reflections and standing waves. Only a reference mic with the right real time sound analyzer will work. It must be placed in the peak of the apex of your monitors where your head will be. This is the best method especially when you are limited on time.

[Larry Elliott]

Originally Posted by TRANQUILO

PINKNOISE is perfect for balancing any room any size. It will compensate for reflections and standing waves. Only a reference mic with the right real time sound analyzer will work. It must be placed in the peak of the apex of your monitors where your head will be. This is the best method especially when you are limited on time.

Sadly this does not happen in reality - if it did many of us would be using this method.