Additional sub or new monitors?

H

Howitzer

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Derby, UK
Ez all,
Ive been working with a pair of Equator Audio D5's for a while now, therye my first set of serious reference monitors and I love them. Therye all good apart from the low end roll off which keeps me guessing how my bass sits in the mix. Theyre good for around 50hz, anything under that is a mystery, which is a pain in the ass tbh.

So, what are your thoughs on how best to revive those key frequencies in my mix? New monitors, or an additional sub?

Ive got a rough budget of £400, enough to bag a pair of Yam HS80's (they do sound lush!) or RP8's
Or, there are plenty of meaty lookin' studio subs kicking around that come in under my pricepoint.

Does anyone have experience with balancing a studio sub? Is it a pain in the ass?
 
subs are useful, but unless you have decent audio treatment, they may not help your mixdowns, it could make it worse

Theres not allot of point upgrading from D5's to HS80's imo, stick with the monitors you know for now, I'd put that 400 into sound treatment, in particular bass traps, and then think about a sub later on, depending on your room size you can probably get a decent bass trap setup along with a couple of anti-reflection panels, which will vastly improve your mixdowns across the spectrum including the sub end
 
Good point!
I have thought about it, as my production room is a U shape attic room with angled ceilings. Probably the worst room in the house to do it in but it keeps the neighbors off my back.
How's sound treatment stick to walls? I'm in a rented property and could do without a whole repaint when it comes to leave.
 
bass traps dont need to be stuck, just stack them up in the corners of the room and along the edges


wall foam panels are very light, you could get away with stapling them to the wall, then just do a light touch up of the paint when you leave, you will need a couple in front of you and a couple on each side of you, at ear level, and possibly on the wall behind and the ceiling, any more than that would require a pretty in depth understanding of the acoustics of the room

angled ceilings are not as bad as you might imagine, depends on the shape, if you can break the symmetry up then it will improve the response, and avoid placing your monitoring position in a place which is in the middle of lots of symmetrical surfaces, so have it off centre in as many planes as possible....of course this could bring its own issues, it takes some time to get everything nicely balanced


If you have a microphone, I'd suggest downloading an Impluse Response analysis program, it will give you a rough idea of how your studio space is responding to the output of your speakers - dont take the results too literally, there are countless possible causes to the results that require an acoustic technician to properly understand them, but its useful to see before and after treatment and gives you something more solid to monitor the changes in your room as you add/change/remove acoustic treatment
 
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