Originally Posted By: 90 dB
Russ,

As for “Mixing” - I would mix through your PA, just as if you were playing live. A mix done on stereo speakers or even good monitors is not going to sound the same through a PA, for a variety of reasons.


I would not advise mixing that way at all. A solid studio mix, properly executed and EQ'd will sound good with most systems without a need to create a custom mix. If you take the time to get the mix right with some quality flat response monitors, it will sound good on everything you play it on.

Trying to custom mix like this misses the biggest variable in the equation. The room. Live gigs can be in small rooms or large room, outside in a field or in an amphitheater, the rooms can be carpeted and have sound treatment on the walls or be bare concrete floors and cinder block walls. There's simply no way to cover all the bases with a custom mix. In addition, the mix would be playing to the biases of the sound system rather than having a neutral bias from the studio mix. This would make some rooms damn near impossible to get sounding right.

It's best to simply nail a good studio mix in a room and with monitors that let you hear all aspects of the mix and use that for all the places.

If you take the time to get the mix right with some quality flat response monitors, it will do what it's supposed to do.

Only under ONE condition would I even consider doing a mix like that. IF,and only if, I had a house gig, with the same room, the same PA, and never needed to play anywhere else, to take the time to do the mix specifically for that room would not be a totally bad idea, but still IMHO, a waste of time, since the studio mix can easily be EQ'd as needed to any given room. Mix once, EQ as needed.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 02/21/14 12:50 PM.
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