And I was getting ready to tell him he was nuts until I thought to ask one simple question: “What’s your home stereo system?” That is, what’s the reference system he listens to on a regular basis? He replied that he didn’t have a home system at all, but that his car had a really nice one – including a pair of 18-inch subs in band-pass cabinets in the trunk driven by a few thousand watts of amplification.
Well now, I thought, there’s your problem! This was his mix reference. He’d taught his own mind and ears that all music mixes were supposed to sound like one-note thumps that hurt. And that’s what he was doing in his own church, tuning his praise team mixes so they sounded like an over-amped car stereo with band-passed woofers.
Kids Say The Darndest Things
A few years later my own twin sons came to a realization that, while simple on its face, I thought was profound. I have a quality M&K surround system in my living room, an NHT Pro monitoring system in my home studio, a custom playback system in my vehicle with a 100-watt sub and Alpine 2-way loudspeakers in the dash, and Tannoy Reveal loudspeakers with a Polk subwoofer in the kids’ gaming room.
One day, out of the blue, my sons came to me and said, “Dad, we just realized that that all of your sound systems sound the same. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” And they were right. I’d carefully balanced the sub crossover points and relative levels on all of these listening systems so that they sounded very similar.
Further, I don’t add bass or highs via the various tone controls on a song-by-song basis. That is, no smiley face EQ, no thump at 30 Hz. Nope, I run pink noise through everything and get it as flat as reasonably possible, then stick with it.
My reason is straightforward: I don’t want to un-calibrate my hearing by listening to bass-heavy or high-heavy or whatever-heavy mixes. So when I’m mixing live I now have an internal reference of what things are supposed to sound like. This also means I can balance a live sound system on the fly without having to impose pink noise on a cocktail crowd or congregation. I’ve learned via consistent quality listening what it’s supposed to sound like.
Making Space
Circling back to Peter’s article, louder is not necessarily better. Once stage volume is under control, it’s not brain surgery to mix at a reasonable 90 to 95 dB SPL (A-Slow) and hear every detail. There’s no need to rip peoples’ heads off with the vocals, because the back line is under control, and there’s no need to hurt them with bass because the mids and highs are in balance.
Note that my practice is to utilize a lot of loudspeakers and amplifiers whenever possible (and appropriate to the gig) because I want the one thing that’s missing in so many of the mixes: headroom. Yes, it’s cool to get the impact of the kick, and the crash of a cymbal that’s not hitting the limiters can generate much happiness. And warm and fuzzy bass can make everyone feel, well, warm and fuzzy.
So I encourage you try it. Get thee a decent hi-fi system and buy the box sets of your favorite bands of your youth (as well as the present). Make sure there’s no EQ on the system, then listen to the genius of Hendrix and the musicality of Miles, the vocal control of Norah Jones and Adele (or whoever you like). If you prefer Nine Inch Nails, I’m not judging because I happen to like Nine Inch Nails and think that Trent Reznor is a pretty savvy producer. Pick what moves you and just listen to the balance of the mix.
After getting used to it, mixing at 95 dB in a room is a lot more musical and pleasant than 110 to 115 dB. Done correctly, the band will love it, the audience will love it, and you’ll love it. Plus you won’t go deaf.