Interesting survey, happy to participate!

There's no such thing as being "musically inclined" or "creatively inclined". You have drives and you have desires. If you desire something, you'll try to achieve it. If you have drive towards something, you'll do whatever it takes to achieve it, no matter how difficult that thing is to achieve. Everyone desires to be creative, because artistic expression allows us to get out thoughts and emotions we cannot otherwise express. Not everyone has the drive to be creative, because artistic expression is one of the easiest things to start and one of the hardest things to master. If you're not 100% passionate about it, there is no amount of desire that will give you that drive.

I have to agree with this one. I use to get more obsessed with my songs when I'm getting closer to finishing them. I often have this kind of break in the middle of the production phase, where I am just not as stoked about this idea that kept me going anymore. I then often start to either add stuff (which sometimes works) or just don't listen to it for a couple of days and come back to it later - and when I am able to feel it again I finish it!

I usually try to describe the feeling I had while producing, and most of the time it forms while doing this in my head too... And sometimes I'm like "Yeah that'll do" before overthinking the name, after I already overthought the song itself 10 times.

I believe that this could work quite well, if you are really going for the sound of the reference track! If your track has elements that occupy very different frequency ranges than your reference track it won't work though.

Hey Stratos,

I'm not too much into the gear game (like if you buy this plug-in and that synthesizer that'll make you the next best thing) but in this case I actually think a good trustworthy SPL meter or a good omnidirectional mic instead of your phone is the solution. Sometimes hifi stores have these things to rent? I am sure you can find a way to get your hand on something without actually having to buy it just for this purpose!

I recently bought a subwoofer as well that doesn't "fit" in terms of brand to my monitors but I set it up this way (and I am more than happy how it sounds)

First, download the free measuring software called REW (Room Equalizer Wizard) and set it up correctly and feed it with calibration files for your microphone or SPL meter, and audio interface (all explained there)

1. Find the best spot in the room for your sub, there are several methods for this one like putting it in the place where you sit and crawl around and listen for the best response, I think that measuring though is again the most accurate method. Measure just the sub (opened crossover frequency!) and look for the most linear frequency response. Like you did it, place the mic in the sweet spot for measuring - but what I did is to measure some more spots (like at 4 spots around the sweet spot, and then select the 4 graphs and hit average. This gives you more an idea how it actually sounds, because you will probably move your head around a bit while producing)

2. Check phase: just measure both 0° and 180° settings, the one that sounds louder is the right one (level and crossover doesn't matter too much here, I'd set it over 100hz because it might be easier to hear if it gets louder or not. After this set the level that it is about even in the frequency response graph

3. Crossover frequency: again, measure haha! Find out what is most even, although I wouldn't set it too much above 100hz. You probably are going to set it lower anyways since the crossover frequency doesn't affect the output of your sub to the monitors, so therefore is basically just a low pass filter. Just adjust the level while doing this so that the frequency response is as linear as possible.

This is my way of doing it and I hope that it was helpful for you as well!
All the best,
Artless Venture ♢

I'm definitely for a clean master as well.
The worst it can get is when you try to fix a specific problem from two sides, where one side is the specific channel and the other one is the master...Just that with the master you're affecting all the other elements in the mix too. This is my opinion though, after I've run into making this "mistake" myself.

Since I don't wanted to invest too much into acoustic treatment, I set up my monitors and the subwoofer the best way I could in my room, by measuring with a software called Room Equalizer Wizard (REW, freeware) and an omnidirectional mic. I then started to apply equalization to get at least my frequency response as flat as possible.
I know that doesn't help with reflections, delay time (not too much a problem here) and room modes, which are definitely a problem in my room too.
Now the setup sounds quite amazing, and is quite linear as well - I feel like mixing got way easier than ever before. Having a monitor setup that you can fully trust is essential for good mixing/mastering I'd say, and my mixes never sounded as good on other speakers before too.

Is there any major downside to doing room correction by this method? I know that the EQ changes are quite extreme so I'd love to hear your opinion on that.

Here's the correction that I applied:


Would love to hear your opinion on this!
Artless Venture ♢