It all started after I moved my desk a bit closer to the wall, just a couple of inches (there's still a good 2 1/2 ft between the back of the monitors and the wall behind) to make room for a bigger MIDI controller. When I sat at my desk afterwards, I noticed things sounded a bit different, but my ear seems to re-adjust rather quickly.
But that got me curious, and I wanted to test things.
For a while now I've been considering getting bigger monitors ( 8" instead of 5") but in such a smaller room, there's always the inevitable potential for boom-iness. At any rate, I'm set on finally starting room treatment asap;
that's the next priority. Particularly if I intend to work on stuff that's a bit heavier on bass.
I
know from experience that acoustics could be a lot better but I'd never really have to deal with any issue so far. As a matter of fact, since I moved into this room, my mixes have gotten relatively better, if only for the fact that they seem to translate better on other systems.
But last night I did something I never do - I pushed the volume higher than I've ever done (which was still pretty reasonable by other people's standards). Things changed a bit but unfortunately, my ear is quick to adapt... Then I rolled my chair back a few feet...
Et voilà!
There was that big muddy mess and all the junk the room could throw in the mix. And that was nasty. I don't want to have to mix through that.
Obviously, I'm left with as many question as to how much of an improvement bass traps will make (I have no doubt that even just "better" always helps), whether or not 8" would be appropriate in this environment. But I guess that working at very reasonable levels probably has a lot to do with my mixes translating relatively well...