Audient NERO
Monitor Controller
Reference your mixes on different speakers effectively
The Translation conundrum
So you’ve finished your mix after grueling hours
of hard work. But when you take your song out in
to the world, something’s not right. This is called
‘Translation Error’. How consistent your mix sounds
on a variety of speakers is called ‘Mix Translation’
How does one ensure good translation? What can a
small or medium scale studio do to ensure they get
good translation on their mixes fast enough and more
effectively? Going back and forth from your studio to
your car and then to your living room just to make
tiny adjustments is plain tedious and ineffective.
46
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
A good set of monitors is one way to increase that efficiency
in achieving good translation, but with just one set of
speakers in the studio, the mix engineer’s ear will get
saturated after four to five hours of mixing. Ear fatigue
and judgment of good sound begins to fade the longer you
sit in for the mix. To hear it on another set of speakers is
a good idea to refresh your judgment and keep yourself
from going overboard with fancy effects and plug ins.
So what is the best way one can set up more speakers in
the studio? You can’t just use the available outputs on
the audio interface for another pair, what if you need
them to send signals elsewhere, crouching behind the
desk to keep changing cables is also not efficient. And
different speakers will also playback at different levels.