Untreated Room: Skill Wins or No Way?
Question: Mixing in untreated rooms is 90% knowing the room and 10% the room itself. Facts or strongly disagree?

🎚️ Some producers swear that if you truly know your room, you can mix anywhere, even without treatment. Others say an untreated room will lie to you no matter how well you “learn” it.

Where do you stand? Facts or hard disagree?

Let the SoundGym debate begin.
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Socky ‎
Dec 12
Skrillex mixed a lot of his early work on Sony MDR 7506s and then *verified* on monitors before release. Same with Tame Impala's album Currents and Porter Robinson with his Worlds album (Sea of Voices is one of the best mixes I've ever heard as far as electronic music goes) I think what matters most is just references tracks.
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Darren Boling
Dec 13, 15:27
It should also be noted that there's a range of untreated rooms, same as there's a range of treated rooms. The best room I've been in, a Northward room, just let you hear the music, no mental calculations to correct things (sadly I was just a visitor and don't get to work in that room all the time). I've been in some studios where they were treated but in a way that lead to poor translation. Some untreated domestic rooms are actually quite good, some not as much. Like Kevin says above, you got to have some references. Know those references inside out. How does the bass sound, is it as tight in this room as usual or is it ringing at 160? How do the mids sound, are they blurry in this room and you're not able to hear that tiny bit of slap delay panned 5% right at :36? Having a playlist of songs like this is the best way to cut to the chase and know what you're dealing with. These days there's also great solutions like VSX that give a level of performance I would've killed for 25 years ago.

When you do treat your room a bit of research will help to put your resources to the best use. For domestic treatment Gerhard Westphalen has great info as well as SDP*LA.
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MrCello Music
Dec 13, 19:53
It is about knowing your listening environment: monitors/room and/or headphones. There are big name folks who mix in untreated rooms or with headphones, and some with questionable monitors or consumer grade headphones
Jedi Master Lio Skyshooter has done it again!
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Stelios Mavroyiannis (author)
Dec 13, 13:56
It's amazing how you consistently score such high numbers! If you didn't do it, I wouldn't think it was possibe.
Let's get 'em aliens!
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Lio LM
Dec 13, 17:16
I used to feel the same way. I looked at the top players as a huge mountain to climb, and I was inspired by their scores. And yes, it is possible =) However with this game Sometimes I feel like I won't make it (like yesterday) Fortunately with persistence, it still works out well =D Okayy Yess let's go!
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Stelios Mavroyiannis (author)
Dec 13, 18:56
Lio, what do you mean? There is/was someone better than you on SpacePan? :P
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Antwan Jardiem
Dec 13, 12:26 in SoundGym Cafe
I'm so genuinely confused by this
Congrats @Bill Radovich for winning the Golden Ears Award!
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Lio LM
Dec 12
Congrats Bill! ⭐⭐⭐
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Colin Aiken
Dec 13, 04:33
Fantastic!
Congrats @Zé Fratoni for winning the Golden Ears Award!
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Lio LM
Dec 13, 01:37
Very nice! ⭐⭐⭐
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Colin Aiken
Dec 13, 04:32
Bravo!
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Doctor MojoTrip
Dec 13, 00:01 in SoundGym Cafe
Hi psychedelic electronic fans, I just put out a new track today. I made the music in Bitwig and the visuals in Touchdesigner (YouTube video). Thanks for listening, and have a beautiful day!



https://soundcloud.com/doctor-mojotrip/procyon-lotor?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing&si=d2a058c8fd674f9b98a44df56f8109f0

hi everyone :)) this is my first full track ive made, so im still working on the progression from verse to chorus to bridge to outro etc. but if theres any feedback on absolutely anything that would be so helpful :)

https://soundcloud.com/musicartist2002/dec-8
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Hi Rachel, congratulations on your first track! This a great first track, and you'll learn so much along the way. I have found getting feedback from others to be such a great way to learn! I think you've done a really nice job with the melodic and harmonic elements in terms of creating a mood.

I agree with others about the drums. I think the kick is loud and boomy, and that by and large they don't quite feel right in the track. It's very cool to do things differently, but I would say that since you are just getting started, it might be really helpful to just use some really standard beats. Depending how I'm counting, the snare is either landing on the one every two bars, or it's landing on the three. A typical drum beat will have the snare either on the two and four, or on the three if you are in half time, but this track isn't in half time.

Looking at the waveform, something is peaking way higher than the rest of the track--I can't tell what it is, but whatever it is is eating up a lot of headroom in your mix, so this would be an issue with gain staging. You probably don't need to worry about this too much at this time, but as you progress, it'll be worth learning more about that!

Lastly, I think there is a lot going on in the low frequency range, so it may help you to high pass some elements. Some people high bass everything that's not the kick or bass. Sometimes this is a good choice, and sometimes it's not. In this case, I think it would be worth it to try that out. Just high pass everything that isn't a kick or bass and you will notice that your track has more clarity, and that the low end instruments have more of their own space. Over time, you'll know when it's a good idea to do this, and when it isn't. For the time being, I think it can be helpful just as a listening exercise.

Thanks so much for sharing your track, it was cool to listen to, and I'm excited to hear your progress as you keep moving forward!
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Rachel Tirta (author)
Dec 12, 23:23
hi everyone :)) thank you all so much for your generous feedback. ive taken into account a lot of feedback about the drums and i tend to struggle with them because im using the presets given to me in logic, and theres so many of them that im not really sure what im looking for in drums. i also have no experience with drums, since i primarily play piano, guitar, violin and bass as well as vocals, so its hard for me to pick out which type of drum makes the right sound for my track. are there any pointers you guys could give me? or if theres any sample packs that you think are worth investing in that would be amazing too :))
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Doctor MojoTrip
Dec 12, 23:58
Hi Rachel, this is such a big one. I'm sure logic has lots of great samples already, but finding more is one of the joys and curses of producing music. Same goes for choosing the right sounds.

It just so happens that lots of companies are giving away free sample packs for the upcoming holidays, so try a google search for free sample packs and see what you find. I wouldn't recommend spending any money on it just yet.

The answer to making better beats is to make lots of beats, so I'd suggest just making a ton of them, seeing what you like, and what you don't. It's also worth checking out some youtube tutorials about it to help get the basics down. You can probably be really specific in terms of choosing a genre, or even an artist that inspires you. Same with sound selection, it just helps to set up a basic beat and spend some time scrolling through your samples and see what sounds cool and what doesn't.

Another great thing to do is to copy beats by ear from tracks that you like. Logic has a stem splitter, so you can put a track in that you like, isolate the drums and then copy them.

Also, while it is totally unnecessary to learn how to synthesize drums, I do think that it can really help to train your ear, so I'd recommend looking into some of those tutorials as well. And, who knows, maybe you'll really enjoy it! It might be smart to download vital if you don't have it already. It's a free synth that is way more user friendly than the ones that come native on Logic, and you'll be able to find lots of drum synthesis tutorials for it.

Good luck, and happy producing!
Mixing feedback
Hey folks, hope this is the right place for advice and feedback on my mix. It's my first one in over a decade—I'm recommitting to the industry professionally now, with ear training, certifications, and the resources/time I lacked as a youngster.

Back then, I learned more by doing and made some decent Hip Hop instrumentals, mixes, and recordings, but never felt like I truly knew what I was doing. Now I want to go pro, so I'm seeking genuine tips from the pros here.

This is my entry for the HOFA mixing contest—NOT asking for votes, just honest critique to level it up.

https://hofa-contest.com/song/21671/
Congrats @Ian Malcolm for winning the Golden Ears Award!
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Lio LM
Dec 12
Congrats Ian! ⭐⭐⭐

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