MOTM

From - Eric:
I've tried to gather as much as I can from folks and I have found 
lots of BS. One of the things I found is that most of the 
mathematical solutions don't work unless you can model things to the 
Nth degree. I downloaded a room mode calculator from the web that 
covered the first several room modes. I entered my room dimensions in 
and the modes it came back with didn't match what my ears were 
hearing or what my tests were showing! Once you start loading a room 
with equipment, and modular synths get pretty big, any formulas based 
on just the walls of the room will start to break down.


Eric,

It sounds like you've already realized what I was getting at!  Then 
you're well ahead of the game.  And I didn't mean to imply anything 
less than helpful.  And you are absolutely correct about the math 
formulas, etc...which is one of the biggest reasons (I think) that 
the "acoustical sciences" are rather misunderstood.  Those freakin 
formulas are scary - even if you CAN determine what the coefficients 
are!  And every little stupid mass that gets put in the room, whether 
reflective or absorbent, throws the formulas out the window which is 
why I've never felt the need to really use them! 

Yes I find math to be over-rated! There I said it - and I suffered 
through a LOT of it at engineering school.  Did pretty well with it 
at the time  - but it doesn't really help me do anything artistically 
speaking, yet it does seem to come in handy for some aspects 
of 'synth module design', etc - so you can't escape it!

My studio, though not specifically 'designed' to be a studio 
acoustically speaking, sounds pretty darn good, yet I know that it 
tends to emphasize the bass freqs more and I just have to roll-off 
the lows when 'mastering'- which I am no expert in.  What I've found 
though, and which works quite successfully is the use of 'nearfield 
speakers' - the whole point of which is do not have to worry about 
room acoustics - easy enough!  I've got 2 pairs of DynAudios that I 
bought (when I still had money...), and they are quite heavenly.

Yet as I have only recently (last 2-3 years) gotten 'serious' about 
mixing/producing/mastering and now have the tools to tinker, I'm 
still lightyears away from having the 'Bernie Grundman' magic ears - 
these guys get paid amazingly to do what they do and mastering is 
probably the most 'mystical' of the production phases - yet can turn 
things into gold or better yet platinum!  And that is reason alone to 
dig in and just learn as much as you can from wherever you can!

Its quite an artform I feel - very little science - and the better 
you get at becoming friends with, and can identify, frequencies/or 
freq bands - the closer you get to having magic ears I believe.  I am 
finding this to be true - after banging my head against the walls for 
years wondering what the hells all this 'compression' about, and why 
can't I hear it change when I turn the little knobs!

(note: it is fairly well known and documented that we humans lose 
some degree of freq response with age - what is lesser known, is that 
we also lose our ability to perceive relative loudnesses - hence my 
compression impairment.)

These are only my opinions, however, and I am very lucky, as I have a 
lot of friends in the biz who I talk 'tech' with and am learning 
SOOOOOO much at a mad rate I sometimes think my heads gonna fall off -
 
But these are a few of the pleasures I've found which give me good  
reason to do this "whole music thing" for the rest of eternity!

It's just one huge, endless game - with amazing perks -and the end 
results (most of them) are things that this planet really needs.

And this whole synth DIY thing - is yet another little microcosm 
within - that is an absolute riot too. 

Its funny cause when I was first getting into the whole MIDI thing, 
back at the time whenit was still just a new thing, I used to get 
frustrated and say "Geez you gotta be a freakin engineer to 
understand this stuff!" and oddly enough, I already was!

The point being is that my BSEE didn't really help too much with 
these artistic, yet rather 'technical' things. (I didn't go to get my 
BSEE for musical reasons - at least thats what I told my folks who 
were growing rather thin on patience with my 'musical endeavors')

But every little bit helps - huh?

Onward Acoustic Solder!

Rog