Calibrating Monitors

sei046

I am using HHB's and they are seriously lacking in low end and are very toppy. SHould it be ok to compensate this with a global eq? Like Eq it trial and error until my mixes start coming out a bit truer?

Doctor J

You're just making things a lot harder for yourself. Have you considered adding a sub?

sei046

But surely thats another untrue reflection on the mix. Thay are better than my old tannoys but still not right. I should be able to compensate via eq surely

Doctor J

Ideally you shouldn't have to, but if you're trying to manipulate frequencies you can't hear you're always going to be guessing. Personally I'd try to get it as neutral as possible even if it meant using a sub rather than trying to second guess everything.

sei046

the bass frequencies are there though. The speaker would just not be giving them enough

Doctor J

Yeah, and you can put them in using the sub. It doesn't have to sound like a drum&bass house party, just subtly introduce the lows from the sub to the point where you've got a fairly neutral frequency representation and leave it at that. If you do it through EQ, where your monitors aren't going to put out low frequencies no matter how high you boost them, you can't accuratley predict what your mixes will sound like on a system with good low frequency representation.

If you spend some time with some good CD's and get a balanced volume level between your existing monitors and a sub it should pay dividends with your mixes.

teamdresch

Just learn how the monitors translate to other systems.
Eventually, you'll get to a point where you learn how much bass you need to hear on your monitors, or at least close enough.

sei046

well ye i am getting close to that stage. Thats what i did with my tannoys. JUst get used to it and compensate

frobisher

sei046 wrote:

I am using HHB's and they are seriously lacking in low end and are very toppy.

Have you double checked that they are not out of phase?