do you ever have a weird hearing day?

sometimes a turn on my rig and i just love the sound i have. maybe once a month i turn it on and i hear everything wrong...like the mids are harsh and the distortion is too grainy. this was my day yesterday and today.

it started when i went back to listen to the last mix test i did (for drums) and i couldn't hear any low mids. i used a reference mic and pink noised my speakers (which most studios never do) and sure enough, there was a natural 5db dip in the low mids...which explains why my drums sounded bad in the low mids. i left everything alone and went inside to watch some football and let my ears rest.

today; i get to church and turn on my rig....which sounds "ok". as the practice goes on i start hearing too much mids and grainy distortion. i didn't adjust anything, i just grinned and played through it.

i'm gonna experiment some more with eqing my studio monitors today just too see what i'm hearing differently on major cd releases. then i'll re-eq my drums and maybe my guitar tone and see what the difference is to you guys.

anyone else ever have a weird hearing day?

I have most certainly experienced this, and there are two factors I take into consideration.

First of all, perception. Some days our moods our just better, which can lead to more confidence in our playing. Conversely, if we are feeling down, we are more apt to be down on ourselves, and our playing.

I've done litmus tests in which I film myself improvising, and then don't watch the clips for several months or even a year. I make a note to say at the end of the clip whether I felt good or bad about the playing.

There have been numerous instances where in hindsight I thought I was playing well, but at the time thought the opposite (and vice versa).

I try to keep this in mind as last night I laid down an acoustic guitar track for a new song I am recording. I didn't have that euphoric feeling after that I sometimes do. But I'm inclined to believe that's mostly perception. Not that what I recorded was great, but if I 'try' again tonight, would the results be noticeably different? I don't think so.

We've probably all had a time or two when we caught lightning in a bottle when the red light was on, but for me at least, those times, are rare.

So for me, I do feel my good days vs. bad days is often a case of perception.

The other thing I am very careful of is my hearing. I live a very clean lifestyle. I joke that I have to keep my hair at least somewhat long, or I would be the world's biggest geek! But - my one vice, used to be (and still occasionally is) cranking up the headphones.

The tones we are able to achieve with our guitars, as well as drum software, loops, etc. are unprecedented. I have been guilty of cranking up my tracks to concert levels and just basking in the quality of sound we can now achieve at home (which we couldn't do with our 4 tracks).

I have tinnitus but it's not nearly as bad as friends of mine. So I just try to be very careful about volume (though sometimes I just can't help it!).

Last week a friend was in town from Canada and we hit a karaoke bar. It was way too loud, and as much flak as I got for being a killjoy, I waited outside. It wasn't worth exposing my hearing to those levels.

You seem to have some scientific basis for your differences, singtall, in that you can see or hear frequency changes. All I can gather from that is, perhaps the acoustics of the room are affecting your tone?

I know when I mix, so many factors can change the balance - speakers, room, volume.

Once I had an experience which freaked me out at the time... For some hours, less than a day, I heard pitches slightly differently in each ear. I have no idea what caused it, nor how it is even possible, but it scared the heck out of me. Had it continued my music career would have been over then and there. Fortunately, some hours later the problem was gone, never to reoccur.

On a more normal note, I have my good and bad hearing days, too. Some days nothing seems to sound right, or good. Most of the time, though, I think I have fairly consistent listening experiences... that is, if I think something sounds good, a listen the following day will confirm that. Of course, it's also true that if I think something sounds like crap, it probably will the following day, week, etc...

i just spent a lot of time researching using an eq for studio monitors and it turns out that many studios pay "room tweakers" to eq their speakers for a certain response curve - but not flat. which leads me into a different direction.

if the goal of the monitor is to provide you with a honest frequency response that you can use to mix with, then i will eq mine to work with my ear instead of against it. why should i spend a million hours listening to other mixes while comparing to my mix because the speakers aren't setup to my ears? i'm going to eq my monitors again, this time with a more natural curve that will hopefully allow me to mix quicker and easier.

news at 11...

Yes....When I take a break for a few days or week, I will turn on rack and patches sound all wrong or patches for one style sound good for another...drives me nuts..i have changed patches only to come back later and they sound wrong...rested ears can play tricks I guess...Oh and once I just started guitar rig by mistake....:)

i think the important thing in studio monitoring is to have a good reference point (being it flat or not) where you can start to add and remove to get a certain sound,the important thing is that u must know how your monitoring refer to a more regular user sistem.
yes i have about 300 bad hearing day in a year ;D

i eq'd my speakers....several times, then came to a place that i felt good about. then i remixed a track just to see what corrections i would do now that i'm hearing it differently.

check out the before and after:

after:
https://soundcloud.com/singtall/fall-away-mix-2

before:
https://soundcloud.com/singtall/fall-away-drum-test

i will have to hear this clip on several speakers to know what's real.

On my small computer monitor speakers, I prefer the first one.

The level seems a little hotter and the drums are more present in the mix.

When I get a chance, I'll sample them on headphones and see what I think.

I find it funny when I record with a tone & then hear it a few days later. It always just sounds a little different that what I felt like it sounded while recording with it.

Sometimes it's for the better....& sometimes....well.......not so much!

X

Back in the day engineers would do a mixes on those horrible sounding Yamaha NS10 near-field monitors. I asked why once and he said If you can get the mix to sound ok on these it will sound good on anything. They had a hard upper midrange lower treble right where most people's hearing is the most sensitive. Some Sony phones have this too. Yeah I've had bad hearing day's. Best not to change anything till it's repeatable.. First clip is dark 2nd is sharp. Like the acoustic on the 2nd, main guitar on 1st. Not sure what your going for...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep08/articles/yamahans10.htm

i'm just trying to find a happy place with my monitors. i went from one extreme to another unfortunately. i did a quick mix and didn't reference a cd, so the mix is what it is....warts and all.

i didn't add in the mastering compressor to the second one because it was pumping too much on the first mix. i added about 5db of high end fizz to my main guitars after because they sounded so dark....i went too far.

oh well, that was only quick mix 2.....more to come as i figure out how to deal with my monitors.

thanks for the feedback guys.

i just edited my post and changed it up to have the newest mix first just to see how it effects everyone's ear. when i listen to the new mix first, the original one seems too fat.

In the updated post, I prefer the 'after.' On my cheap little speakers, I can hear the reverb on the snare better in that mix.

It brings up another interesting question when recording - do you mix/master with the realization most are going to listen on average to less than average equipment, or do you do it hoping your listeners will listen on better gear?

Like that article on the Yamaha NS10's, I've heard of many engineers and producers doing similar. I believe it was Quincy Jones back in the 80's who would dub cassettes and play them in jam boxes and car stereos, since that's how most listeners would hear it.

This happens to me at work every night, the same machine punches and blows air to clear itself and sometimes it seems like super loud like I wasn't expecting it or something even though it does it all night long. I want to say that it's because there's another noise further away I'm honing in on and then I come back.

When I took audio classes, one time we to sit outside with our eyes closed and listened and everyone had to recall what they heard. I heard trucks and low rumbling things. Everyone else heard footsteps, doors opening, a cigarette being lit, etc. I was a truck driver for a few years and naturally hear engines and things over everything else.

You're used to listening to tones, but also noises and things too but may selectively listen and ignore things that are there because that's just the nature of digital sound.

Anyway, I know it's more complex than that as you may not have had the frequencies as accurate with monitors before or something. That's good, I usually listen back on mixes I did in monitors and hear all the noises I couldn't catch and really ruined my faith in monitors. I did however find I could play better with minimal reverbs and things because you can hear that better.

Just listening in Sol Republic "Master Tracks" headphones, and the "before" guitars sound like the Circus Maximus sounds I listen to a lot in these, the after is missing something in the lows or something. The after is airy, but sounds like the noise you were referring to. I thought maybe you mislabeled them, but you were going for the drum sounds but the whole thing is different. So I listened again and the drums are better in the after, yeah. There was a boxy frequency going on or something, but the guitars were nice & thick too so put that back lol They guitars are really sounding great, I'm hoping to get those kind of sounds myself with a similar setup.

yeah, i thinned out the whole mix....including the guitars. i was listening to some cd's right after i did some eqing and it sounded like the guitars were thinner, so i had that in the back of my mind when i finally redid my mix. granted, i didn't spend much time on the remix, but i really should have referenced a cd again.

i'll do a better remix when i get home later. thanks for the feedback guys.

Just curious, since you are comparing your tracks to CD tracks that also have the benefit of being mastered, do you ever put mastering plug-ins in your main bus to simulate a mastering job?

yes, i normally do add izotope ozone to the finished mix and go through the time it takes to set it up correctly. in this case....epic fail!

i will at least put a multiband compressor on the next on.

one thing that i find true is that if my initial mix is right then adding mastering tools only ices the cake. when the mix is off then mastering becomes a chore.

my 3rd try at a quick mix after eqing my reference monitors. i feel a little better about this one.

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/fall-away-test-mix-3

my fourth try at a quick mix. i took all 3 of the master plugins off the 3rd mix and inserted Izotope Ozone instead. i used a 4 band preset with very little tweaking.

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/fall-away-test-mix-4-ozone

turn down your speakers for the first one because it's level is louder than the second one. or turn up the second one, whatever makes them the same volume so that you can hear the difference in the mix without volume being the final factor.

i changed the guitar panning to 80% per another engineer suggestion. added boost 11 for a couple more db volume.

https://soundcloud.com/singtall/fall-away-test-mix-5

I listened, this time on AKG K240 headphones. I really like the stereo clean guitar; it seems to delay to the right?

Drums sound good; you're getting there.

I like where it's going. I sent you a PM with a file & some recommendations I want you to try that could save you some time.

Sounds great! {question: I marked the clip at a point on sound cloud were there is something going on with the heavy guitar [to my ears at least] the way it drops off almost sounds like a limiter on it there is another spot as well but not as noticeable at fist it sounded as if it were peaking and distorting until I listened a few more times or maybe a gate but just on the guitar}

I like this mix.

About your original question: I picked up a Go Pro at GC friday and had to pick it up in the Atlanta store [got a 15% coupon from the manager at the GC I normally go to] it was right at 5 and the traffic was stopped so I spent some time looking at gear saw a digitech "Bad Monkey" in the used display [$29 whats not to like ] so I tried it out and found it has a built in cab model so there's 2 outs 1 marked "mixer" and 1 marked "amp" I thought may be a good one to use for church instead of lugging the 11r, I have been taking the epsi and my MXR "Fullbore Metal" pedal and it sounds great strait to the PA but even when you turn the drive all the way down it still has way to much distortion for bluesy stuff well the Bad Monkey sounded real smooth and last night I got to mess with it for a wile and did some comparisons with and with out the epsi and with it's cab model through 1 of my line 6 L2M set to "Reference/PA" mode so as to see what it would do on the church PA and it was cool [here's the point] but after a good hour or 2 nothing sounded good no matter what setting I used on the pedals and the epsi, it was like just dirty and fizzy and yuck! I even re-firmwared the epsi to get back to the original settings on it to no avail... So I put it down. This happens to me on the 11r too [right out of the gate] and a few times at gigs and that is distracting... but 90% of the time when I turn it on it sounds phenomenal... thought maybe it was just me but maybe its just being tired or something IDK. I too have some ringing in the ears like ADF [probably from a Ted Nugent Concert when I was a teen and my ears bled maybe some other time as well] , but it is only noticeable when its dead quiet for me.

sorry for the long post.

But I will ask what is the start up settings in your epsi? maybe a question for your other thread though. BTW the Bad monkey's cab sim is great and it works even when the pedal is on bypass so you get a good clean amp sound and when run with the MXR it worked well and gave some nice changes with both pedals on at once.. I need to be honest and say that I have not made the time to connect the epsi to my 11r yet...

there is so much compression on the mains to get that volume level, and you will hear the compressor pumping the mix up and down if you listen for it.

this is not a final cd mix by any means. i'm just trying to get my basic tracking tone good enough so that i don't have to do so much work on the back end when i mix it.