Members Bruce Swedien Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 >Room Light Levels During the Recording and Mixing Process_____________________________________________________________ Among the five senses, people depend on vision and hearing to provide the primary cues for conducting the basic activities of daily life.Every moment of our life, we use at least one of our five senses. _Our five senses are: Sight - Hearing - Taste - Touch - Smell...... When it comes to Recording and Mixing, the first thing that comes to my mind is the fact that the human beeing is primarily a visual animal. Keeping that in mind, if we can discipline ourselves to listen to and mix music in a very low light environment, we will tend to react and function more in tune with our very basic instincts. Especially the sense of hearing. This is very important. Personally I favor a quite low Level Of Light during the music recording process in the studio and control room. Have you ever heard someone say.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted January 9, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 Sometimes I'll close my eyes when I mix. I find that helps me hear details better. But I feel more comfortable when I'm not working in the dark. If I'm reaching for a knob I want to be able to see where I'm reaching. And of course if I'm reading a chart or lyrics, I need light for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kendrix Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Isnt that what studio lava lights are for? I've mentioned that, when I am pursuing serious critical listening, i often close my eyes. This allows me to concentrate on just what my ears are hearing. Simply closing my eyes really does bring the sound more into focus in my mind. It's not subtle. On a related point: After listening to a piece many many times during production my mind can fall into a "rut" in terms of what it focuses on at a given point in the piece. It sometimes takes concertred effort to change your minds perspective so that you fully assess all aspects of the mix. Sometimes you need to look at the forest. Sometimes one tree needs attention. Overcoming such "listening ruts" is something that closing my eyes helps to enable. YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted January 9, 2007 Moderators Share Posted January 9, 2007 When I designed my home space I wanted dimmers for this very reason. We all know the problem with dimmers and I couldn't afford the proper setup so... ...I got 2 Ikea halogen lighting tracks. I can easily screw on or off individual light cans in 30 seconds. Moody? I take them all off but 1 single spot hitting my workspace. My living room is my tracking room. That space has all it's lighting on dimmers. I lucked out here as it adds no noise that I can detect. I think any way we can get everyone involved in a music endeavour to forget the internal chatter and let the music happen is a good thing. Lighting is a big help in that direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 One thing I love about control surfaces is that I can -now- close my eyes, grab the faders and knobs of the tracks I'm working on and mix with my ears, not my eyes (seeing the screen and fooling myself)... just as we used to do some years ago, when analog mixers and their knobs and faders were our main axes and computers were used to manage the bills and MIDI sequencing. Regarding the lights level, they are always very low at the studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DigitMus Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Bruce, very good points there! It didn't take me very long (after I started recording - decades ago) to realize that visual distractions take my focus away from the sound. I much prefer little to almost no light when mixing; HOWEVER - I find when tracking, the level of light should be song/situation dependent. Let me explain. I tend to track "band all at once" in the same room, if possible - at least for the basic rhythm tracks (drums, bass, guitar, keys, scratch vox...). If the song is up tempo or "happy" feeling, bright lighting seems to elicit a better performance. Lower lighting for slower /"darker" tunes is helpful, but many musicians (especially if they are an established band) work better if they have good visual contact with the others, so this must also be accommodated. One way to reduce visual distraction that isn't so light level dependent is to make sure the view in the tracking room is not visually exciting. Walls, gobos, etc. should be a consistant neutral color (darkish pastels work best - no bright reds, yellows, deep purples, etc.), no banks of equipment with LEDs, blinky lights and so on (drop cloths of the same general color scheme as the studio can cover these). Not trying to argue with you Bruce, just wanted to state my own personal experience/preference - call it "variation on a theme". With Respect, Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EnemyofSilence Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Originally posted by Gus Lozada One thing I love about control surfaces is that I can -now- close my eyes, grab the faders and knobs of the tracks I'm working on and mix with my ears, not my eyes (seeing the screen and fooling myself)... just as we used to do some years ago, when analog mixers and their knobs and faders were our main axes and computers were used to manage the bills and MIDI sequencing. Regarding the lights level, they are always very low at the studio. Yep, just one of the many things I love about control surfaces! I just moved into a new house that finally has a proper dedicated studio room. The biggest item I need to address asap - lighting! The only light in the room at present is from a damn ceiling fan! Yuck! Thankfully, I have a few small lights in strategic places (such as the little lights under my monitor shelf in the pic above). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 I prefer low lighting in the control room, however when the clients are present it's of course their preferences, however most also prefer the lower lighting. Same in the studio, whatever the artist wants. Again, I like it dim. When mixing, I often turn the video monitors off. I find looking at the wav files is very distracting, and causes me to "hear" {censored} that's not there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphajerk Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 hell, i had to buy a backlit keyboard because i could see the keys for shortcuts and typing... now if they just lit the faders up too... i almost have it to where i need no external lights when working except the glow on the rack from the LCD's to adjsut preamp levels. digitmus! how does light matter when you have been drinking all night and you can barely focus on teh musicians anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DigitMus Posted January 9, 2007 Members Share Posted January 9, 2007 Originally posted by alphajerk digitmus! how does light matter when you have been drinking all night and you can barely focus on teh musicians anyway? AJ!! Where the hell have you been? - Don't you know that's when light is MOST important? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphajerk Posted January 10, 2007 Members Share Posted January 10, 2007 Originally posted by DigitMus AJ!! Where the hell have you been? - Don't you know that's when light is MOST important? hell, the ground is still in the same place light or not man, i have been BUSY. still doing the tuesday night jams? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members russrags Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Hi Bruce, Glad you brought up the importants of studio lighting and especially about all the different senses in our body. I absolutly can not stand overhead lighting, I probably do not even own a bulb over 40 watts and keep everything lower than my shoulders while sitting. When clients are over, I have always tried to touch every sense in their body Sight - Hearing - Taste - Touch - Smell...... it's a secret tool I use to create repeat business. There are plenty of other studios and engineers in town, but I find this kind of personal touch keeps em coming back for more. RussNashville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boosh Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 When clients are over, I have always tried to touch every sense in their body Sight - Hearing - Taste - Touch - Smell...... it's a secret tool I use to create repeat business. Russ Nashville You sound like a working girl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Swedien Posted January 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Hi Bruce, Glad you brought up the importants of studio lighting and especially about all the different senses in our body. I absolutly can not stand overhead lighting, I probably do not even own a bulb over 40 watts and keep everything lower than my shoulders while sitting. When clients are over, I have always tried to touch every sense in their body Sight - Hearing - Taste - Touch - Smell...... it's a secret tool I use to create repeat business. There are plenty of other studios and engineers in town, but I find this kind of personal touch keeps em coming back for more. Russ Nashville Russ...... You're so cute!!! Your statement - "There are plenty of other studios and engineers in town, but I find this kind of personal touch keeps em coming back for more" - Is not true!! The reason that they keep coming back for more is because you are VERY GOOD at what you do. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members meccajay Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Let the low-lights reign! I make sure to use a combo of dim lights, candles, board and aux-gear lighting to do any session. I can alter/use each as neccesary.Most vocalists I work with are partial to candles and incense when there tracking alone. They seem to like it dark, dark, dark! Some even request blue/red light instead of white over the music stand. Most keyboardists or percussionist seem to like brighter lighting so they can see obviously. Guitarists tend to all differ with individual tastes. When alone, I like to set up a mix with brighter lighting.. As I get further into the mix where I'm not tweaking so many knobs and mainly using faders, I go with candles. I saw a pic of someones rig(posted on here I think) that incorporated some real sweet rope-lighting run behind the mixboard and speakers etc.. I think I'd like to try that next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echoshock Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 In keeping with the low light theme, would most of you say you do most of your best work at night? (ok insert joke here) But seriously, it seems rare to hear about a tracking or mixing session that wasn't recording during the late hours of the night. Is it the low light level, or just a more 'intimate' vibe of working with low light (candles etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bruce Swedien Posted January 12, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 In keeping with the low light theme, would most of you say you do most of your best work at night? (ok insert joke here) But seriously, it seems rare to hear about a tracking or mixing session that wasn't recording during the late hours of the night. Is it the low light level, or just a more 'intimate' vibe of working with low light (candles etc) I am most definitely a night person.... And YES I think I do my best work at night.... (No joke intended!) Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members russrags Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 Russ...... You're so cute!!!Your statement - "There are plenty of other studios and engineers in town, but I find this kind of personal touch keeps em coming back for more" - Is not true!!The reason that they keep coming back for more is because you are VERY GOOD at what you do.Bruce HA Ha !!! I'm just the Hearing part. All the other stuff works.I DO have fun though ... it's great to be alive. RussNashville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EccentRick Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 In keeping with the low light theme, would most of you say you do most of your best work at night? Yup. Although I can record/function at any time of day that's required of me, both my body and the urge to create don't really begin to wake up until around 9 PM. It's an innate thang; been that way all my life. "Biorhythms" at work, I guess. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EccentRick Posted January 12, 2007 Members Share Posted January 12, 2007 You sound like a working girl Ha! Keep 'em...er...coming back! A wise move, for sure. "Atmosphere" can definitely make or break a recording space. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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