Monitoring levels

[staan]

Im a newbie to these forums and i have a few questions.

I have a set of m-audio bx-8's for my main monitors from my roland vm3100 and im using the aux outs to go to an infinity home theatre sub. I like using the sub cause alot of the songs i make have alot of low bass content.

The problem im having is getting my levels right, sometimes I will make a mix on my studio then when I play it in my car, it has way too much bass, and sometimes not enough.

Should I rent or buy a RTA and set my levels using some white noise, or should i just listen to some reference tracks and set my levels that way??


PS. awesome forums, Ive probably learned more in the 4 days ive been lurking here than i have my whole life just figuring things out on my own.

[Gone Fission]

Sounds like issues of bass response in your control room. The cheap fix is to get your frequency content on good headphones and just use stereo monitors to check your stereo field (monitor in mono a pass or two as well to avoid any issues there). The expensive fix is to do your control room acoustics, and there can be quite a sliding scale on what that'll run you. There are a couple of DIY oriented acoustics forums that might be able to give you some affordable fixes, and if you're doing a one room setup with live micing, this can probably help you get better results globally.

Bear

[Jay Kahrs]

Sounds like the sub is setup badly, in a bad part of the room or both. There are a few articles on the web that you can read about setting up a 5.1 system and getting the sub set to the right level with the proper crossover point. I'd suggest reading a few of them. Low end is a hard thing to judge and get right, working in a crappy room doesn't help matters and my room is pretty crappy. Still I know it so it usually comes out OK.