I see all these pics of people's home studios and even a couple of semi-pro studios where the monitors are right on the desk or within 1-2 foot away from them. When I try to mix anything with my Event monitors  that close to me, I can't hear the bass response, so the mixes 9 times outta 10 ends up with wayyyy to much bass and the vocals or anything in the 4 to16k range is to low.

Wat I'm saying is they sound good when I'm mixing them, but when when I transfer it to thecar or anything else, the bass response in way to much.

So whats the correct distance is it to have your near fields away from you ?

I dont think it's distance, I think you have some problems with your room that you need to address with treatment of some sort (absorption, dispersion)

Isnt there a required distance for the bass or something ?

I read a artical a while back and it mentioned something like a 6ft by 6ft by 6ft triangle ?

You may have a number of issues at play here.  First question:  which Event monitors are you using, and what is the woofer size and frequency response?  It is possible that you may need to add a subwoofer to your system to get that added oomph at the bottom of the spectrum.  Secondly, you may be working in an environment that needs room treatment.  I'm no expert in room acoustics, but this seems to be a major cause of out-of-balance mixes.  One way to get a handle on this is to play some reference mixes through your system and listen to the response you are getting - pick some CDs that are similar to the sound you are trying to achieve, and see how they sound through your speakers.  By getting to know your speakers, you can often compensate for deficiencies in the speaker and/or room, but that can only take you so far, and then you need to take more drastic measures.

302efi


Isnt there a required distance for the bass or something ?

I read a artical a while back and it mentioned something like a 6ft by 6ft by 6ft triangle ?

Ok...so did you try that?  Did it help?
 
The only "standard" that I'm aware of is that you need to be sure each speaker is equally distant from your head, at ear level, and position yourself directly in between the speakers at the point where they are aimed.  "The sweet spot", we call it.  You'll know you're there when your lead vocal and snare are "dead center".
 
We all work differently.  Some closer, some further.  Some monitor very quietly...some very loudly.
 
But the truth really is....if you're room isn't right, you really have no idea what you're hearing...or missing.
 
To "perceive" a certain level of lower frequencies while mixing, but then finding out that you're WAY OFF on other systems is fairly consistent with a room that's out of whack.
 
 

You monitors should form a triangle w/ your head at the point.  6 foot spread between speakers mean your head should be 6 feet away situated midway between them.  Ideally.  If you are too close you end up having a "hole" in the middle that your mind fills in.  Farther away and you get more of the room rather than direct sound (which is the point of near field speakers).

To truely propagate bass waves you need a big room - take a look at  hammond organ drawbars or a mini-moog which mimics the convention.  32' means a 32 foot pipe producing the sound, ergo a 32 foot room for the wave to fully form.  Again, ideally, and most speakers aren't going to replicate such a low note (or growl).

Your problem could be room, speakers, experience,- and probably some of all three.  An untreated room will sound unbalanced - a lot of high-frequency bouncing around and bass waves rebounding upon themselves and causes peaks and nulls.  If you've ever moved into a new place  or painted an empty room you can hear the reverb and flutter echos, which mess up your montioring.  You notice it mostly in the highs, but it does the same for bass.  There are plenty of threads about room treatment here and elsewhere.

Speakers - get to know them and how they sound.  Listen to different styles of music on them.  Studio monitors shouldn't flatter the sound - they should be flat as widely as possible.  At the studio I frequent they use big genlecs.  They are brutal.  Flabby bass will sound flabby, not rounded off and low freq noise will be heard (and felt) instead rolled off.  And highs will shriek and scratch your eardrums.  They used to have yamas but moved to med adams for the near field.  They are smaller in the bottom and the ribbon tweeter flattens the highs.  If a song sounds good on both of them, it will translate well.  at home I use old yamas and have gotten to know them - stuff I do seems to translate well and if something sounds scratchy on the beryllium tweeters it is too much and the 8 inch woofers let me catch most low noise/misshapes.

Which brings me to experience.  Buy the best speakers you can afford and stick w/ them for a while so you get to know them.  Put some furniture (bed/futon/couch) in the control room to suck up the bass as well as highs if you can't properly treat it.  Book shelves (w/ spaced books, not your wife's nick-nacks) also work well dispersing the sound it doesn't soak up.  Then buy a stack of CDs and burn your mixes.  Test them in the living room w/ bookshelf speakers, headphones and in the car.  Listen carefully to see how the mix performs in different enviorments/systems and use that for feedback.  And roll off the bottom of tracks if you don't have a big system to listen on.  Bottom noise will suck up headroom and you'll never know it using smaller speakers.

It takes an investment of time to learn your system and, as importantly, train your ears.  But the above steps can speed it all up, esp. if you are young and haven't lost your hearing through age.  Start young, and realize most of the mastering engineers are older and have worse hearing than you, but they know "what" to listen for.

If you have the ASP8s from Event, minimum 5 feet because the bass won't even form at the listening position in under that distance. In fact 6-8 Feet is better. An 8 inch woofer/tweeter needs distance to form a good image. Now if you are seeing the smaller 6 inch or even less sized woofer/tweeter combos, those are not pushing all that much bass, mainly for midrange and upper end monitoring, those are fine on a desk.

But, in a small room you will need to bass trap the heck out of your space and put larger speaker monitors as far away as possible. Mine are spread 6 feet back up against the corners which are trapped with 6 inch GIK panels. I still have to push away from the desk about a a foot to get in the sweet spot. This does not preclude me getting up and walking to a back corner to compare my mixes to commercial CDs on the low end. Small rooms are a pain but if that is all you have, you have to learn to work it.

Ok thanks for the replies guys !

I'm using the TR8's : http://www.zzounds.com/item--EVETR8

they sound good if I step back across the room, then they all most have to much bass !

I can really modify the room the room I have my setup in, so I can't treat it or use any bass traps. So what other options does that leave me as far as finding a "sweet spot" to balance our between no bass (2ft from them) and to much bass (across the room...8ft) ?

Well, I can't add a whole lot to what everyone else has already said, but you might try rearranging the room a little, and try sitting in different areas with your speakers placed accordingly to see what works best.  There's not a whole lot you can do at this point except to try some different things and see what works best.  Be sure to move your speakers, too, not just your chair, because you might find a point in the room where they sound better than where you have them now.

The whole point of small near field monitors is that you sit close enough that you don't need a treated room. Amazing how many people don't seem to get that. 
You Events are not really a true near filed monitor, although they are relatively compact, they are more akin to a 'mid size' studio monitor and as you have already experienced they can belt out some bass which you wont hear up close. They really do need a treated room. It's a shame they are not manufactured any more. I once owned the similar 20/20's at one time and they were awesome speakers. 


If you really can't treat this room I would recommend that you get a set of 5" something or others (e.g. KRK's) and a sub woofer that you could switch on and off to keep a check on the bass while you are mixing down.