Room soaks up reverb

[Enuncia]

I'm currently having a problem with my listening environment. Currently set up (for whatever matters) is a pair of Yamaha HS-80M's in a small room. Due to space restraints, the speakers are quite close together (eyeballing it, I'd say maybe around 3ft).

The problem I'm finding is that I'll get a good reverb sound on a mix, and then go to a good room and everything is EXTREMELY washed out in reverb. I'm a noob when it comes to good room acoustics, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

It's worth noting that I'm unwilling to make any changes to the room itself; I'm moving out of here in about a month, and don't want to do anything drastic right before I move into a new place.

Thanks.

[headspin]

Small rooms are acoustic nightmares, I'm sure one of the experts will soon be along to explain why you have reverb problems...

Since you're moving in a month, the question is what will your next room be like?

Use the "search" function and keywords:
-How to set-up a room
-Bass traps
-Reflection free zone

[johndykstra]

so wait then

[steveschizoid]

Do you hear the excess verb when you return to your mix room having discovered your mistake? It's fairly common (even among very experienced mix engineers) to over mix any element focused on for any length of time, because the ears so quickly adapt. Often after I've done an overdub session, when I return to that project later, I find the overdubbed part(s) were left crushingly loud.

Do you keep handy reference mixes? Being able to instantly compare a volume matched mix (that you know is great) to your mix at any point can be quite educational.

If you had said that you mixed the kick drum to where it sounded good, then went out to your car only to find it was like a sledghammer to the ear drums - then the room would be the obvious culprit, but I don't really see how this problem could be blamed on the room. I guess if the room was really really dead....

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by steveschizoid

but I don't really see how this problem could be blamed on the room. I guess if the room was really really dead....

There are different schools of thought on this:

Mix translation--opposite the room or like it?

[Enuncia]

Originally Posted by steveschizoid

Do you hear the excess verb when you return to your mix room having discovered your mistake? It's fairly common (even among very experienced mix engineers) to over mix any element focused on for any length of time, because the ears so quickly adapt. Often after I've done an overdub session, when I return to that project later, I find the overdubbed part(s) were left crushingly loud.

Do you keep handy reference mixes? Being able to instantly compare a volume matched mix (that you know is great) to your mix at any point can be quite educational.

If you had said that you mixed the kick drum to where it sounded good, then went out to your car only to find it was like a sledghammer to the ear drums - then the room would be the obvious culprit, but I don't really see how this problem could be blamed on the room. I guess if the room was really really dead....

Thanks for the replies. It's definitely a room issue; I'm come back to a project in this one and found problems like you mention (stuff being too hot, eq'd badly, etc.), and reverb does sometimes come up. However this is a consistent problem, even when I do compare it to some reference mixes.

Originally Posted by johndykstra

so wait then

That is my obvious answer. The only reason why I'm looking for a quick/easy solution is that I have a few mix projets due before I get out of here, and it saves me a lot of time and effort to mix here in my space than to constantly try and book time in the good room everytime I need to double check myself (the space is free as it's a college studio, but it's hard to get time in there).

[steveschizoid]

Originally Posted by johndykstra

There are different schools of thought on this:

Mix translation--opposite the room or like it?

Perhaps, but Rod Gervais likely knows what he's talking about, having designed studios and written books and all...

Enuncia, for now I would wait until you are almost done with your mixes, then get your reverb how you want it, then turn the return down until can barely hear it, and maybe a half dB further....

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by steveschizoid

Perhaps, but Rod Gervais likely knows what he's talking about.

I would tend to agree. Just tossing out some food for thought. The premise, while opposite common convention, does make some sense.

[johndykstra]

A way in which this backwards room effect could really make sense, is if the tracks are being tracked in the same room as mixing, and the room is relatively bright/lively. Imagine your raw tracks, monitored through speakers within the same environment. The room artifacts in the recording are not compounded here, and as such, the audio is percieved while in this lively space as being dry. Adding reverb to a track with existing room reverberation will color your mix beyond the livelyness of what is thought to be dry, and now you have a recorded room livelyness compounded with artificial reverb.

I'm not suggesting necessarily that this is what is going on here. I know nothing of the op or his environment. Having said that, this phenomenon that I am suggesting would likely be a result of an inexperienced engineer using theory of applications over what their ears are telling them... and to some degree ignoring aspects of control room acoustics that comes with either study or experience.

Again, I'm not projecting this on to anyone, just throwing the concept out there.

[Rod Gervais]

Originally Posted by johndykstra

I would tend to agree. Just tossing out some food for thought. The premise, while opposite common convention, does make some sense.

I have said on more than one occasions that there are many ways to skin this particular cat.

My approach works (for a wide variety of reasons) - however this approach seems to work as well (if it didn't there would not be anyone who loved it that actually had to do this for a living).

To the OP - you can't just ask a question like that and expect to get a "real answer"........ you have to provide much more information in order for any of us to take a stab at answering this.

Room dimensions and how your room is treated would be a good start....... good pics of the space would probably help as well......

Rod