Читать книгу Home Recording For Dummies - Jeff Strong - Страница 94

You also need to consider standing waves when mixing. Standing waves are created when bass tones begin reflecting around your room and bounce into each other. Standing waves can either over-accentuate the bass from your speakers (resulting in mixes that are short on bass) or cancel out some or all of the bass coming out of your speakers (resulting in mixes with too much bass). One problem with standing waves is that they can really mess up your mixes, and you may not know that they’re there.

To find out whether you have a problem with standing waves in your studio, sit in front of your monitors and carefully listen to one of your favorite CDs. Okay, now lean forward and backward a bit. Does the amount of bass that you hear change as you move? Next, get up and walk around the room. Listen for places within the room where the bass seems to be louder or softer. You may find places where the bass drops out almost completely. If either inspection proves to be true, you’re the proud owner of standing waves. Don’t worry, though. You can tame that standing-wave monster with a pair of bass traps.

Bass traps absorb the energy in the lower frequencies so that they don’t bounce all over your room and throw off your mixes. You can buy bass traps made of foam from some music stores or (yep, you guessed it) you can make your own out of wood or metal and insulation.

Here are two great video tutorials for building bass traps of your own:

 Lonely Rocker: DIY Bass Traps and Acoustic Panels (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHnFYFZc-w8)

 Spectre Sound Studios: DIY Acoustic Panels — How To Make Your Own Cheap and Awesome Panels (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLk6fQVcoSw)

The most common placement for bass traps is in the corners behind you when you’re sitting at your mixer (see Figure 3-18). Placing a set of bass traps in the other corners of the room can help even more.

FIGURE 3-18: Put bass traps in the corners behind you to eliminate standing waves.

After you place the bass traps, do the listening test again. If you notice areas where the bass seems to get louder or softer, try moving the bass traps around a little. With trial and error, you can find a place where they work best.

Try not to stress out about the sound of your room. As important as your room’s sound may be, it has a lot less impact on the quality of your recordings than good, solid engineering practices. I know, I keep saying this, but it’s important to remember. So, do what you can and then work with what you have.