I have a question. We are mixing down using some Sony headphones, sounds cool. But go to ear buds, different sound, go to speakers with horns hmmmm harsh, etc etc.
Is there a plugin or something in Reaper that will illustrate on the MASTER channel what the graphic freq levels are of our mix across the board 20-20K. This is so that we are not too heavy or light in any one region? I don't even see a graph effect but there is of course the realEQ which you can add many points to, so I guess that is what is used for that.
And why use high-endheadphones if most people - like 90% are gonna listen off buds, or crappy PC audio speakers anyway? Shouldn't we be mixing for that narrower range of response?
thanks for your thoughts
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For what it's worth, Audition 2 and 3 has a phase and analysis feature built into the waveform editor.
I don't think this is the answer. The answer is to get a great pair of monitors and a very good amp to power them-or a very good pair of powered monitors-for your mixing/finalizing position. An flat response very honest dare I say brutal set of nearfields is priceless for getting gold star results. I don't have as good of monitors as I would like but they are honest and tell me what I need to hear rather than what I want to hear.
As to cans, I can track with any can that I've seen/heard. For detail checking of mixes however the cheap or hyped cans are useless. What is good is subjective of course but the consensus comes down to just a few of the possibilities out there. I use the ATH-M50's because of their comfort and clarity without hyping anything. Others use the Sennheiser 280's. Still others like offerings from AKG. None of us mix on cans though as a primary sonic image.
Spectrum analyzers are from no help for fine audio tuning. They
Spectrum analyzers are from no help for fine audio tuning. They can only display obvious problems. The best I know is the free SPAN from VOXENGO.
But keep in mind that your computer display is only refreshed at 60 Hz, and a fine FFT needs more than 32000 samples to be accurate in low frequences. That's simply fare too slow reflect and detect any small problem in your audio. Ears are best!
Its not a narrower range of response, per se, more a difference
Its not a narrower range of response, per se, more a difference in overall frequency response across the standard bands, combined with a lack of performance in the end driver.
At a very simple end, one thing that I actually find very useful in ear-training people on a 2-bus mix basis, is to grab iTunes, and shove up the equalizer presets. If you have some cheap terrible Chinese dock costing $20 to buy and maybe $5 to make, and you can make it sound good using the Lounge, or Jazz presets on iTunes, there is something to be learnt from that.
I don't know about a spectrum analyzer plugin for Reaper having not used it, but if you can get a 10-band graphic plugin and simply copy those presets you should be able to wade through them and find something that will compensate for what is clearly the Sonys being too flattering in an area that your recording space was un-flattering in.