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++ SONG-FINISHING CHECKLIST ++ (Finish more songs, faster!)
https://www.orpheusaudioacademy.com/mixingchecklist/
✏️ SHOW NOTES ✏️
What volume should you be mixing at when listening back to your song?
Does the volume you mix at even matter?
Hint: It matters a TON
And this is because our ears do not hear things "linearly".
This means that we perceive frequencies differently at different volume levels.
Therefore, if you want to mix accurately, you need to understand when to listen back to your song at different volumes.
⛓️ LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO ⛓️
🔗 Free dB meter app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/decibel-db-sound-level-meter/id1227650795
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
How loud should the volume be when you are mixing your song
0:04
In other words, when you are listening back and monitoring your mix
0:08
how loud should you be listening? And does it even matter? Hint, it actually matters a lot
0:20
Hey, I'm Regan Ram with OrpheusAudioAcademy.com helping you make better music and grow your fan base online
0:28
And in this video, like I said, we're going to be covering the volume at which you should be
0:32
listening back to your music while mixing. I know it's a little bit of a mouthful, but this actually
0:38
matters a lot. Now I'll get into that why that matters in a second, but I don't like to keep
0:45
people waiting to the answer for questions in my videos. The volume at which you should be listening
0:51
back to your music should be at a low enough volume that you can still have a regular conversation
0:58
with someone without raising your voice. So an average conversation level is around 60 dB. So
1:05
you'd probably want to be listening back around in the 50, 55 dB-ish range. So not that loud
1:13
but still loud enough that you can still hear everything that's going on. So the reason you want to listen at this lower volume is because it really helps save your ears. So you're not going
1:20
to be getting ear fatigue as quickly. So ear fatigue is when your ears just start to get tired and you can't really
1:28
make objective decisions when it comes to mixing. You just, you can't hear the little nuances as well
1:34
Everything tends to start blending together and getting kind of mushy. And then you start making mixing mistakes So one way to avoid ear fatigue is just to take breaks number one but also just listen at a quieter volume and not get carried away and turning up the music too loud
1:49
And of course, if you're listening to your music too loud all the time, then you can actually have ear damage, which is definitely something you want to avoid. But you don't want to listen at this
1:57
quiet level all the time. There are certain situations where you actually definitely
2:01
it's critical to listen at a louder volume. And this situation is when you are equalizing or
2:07
utilizing EQ on any part of your track. And so when you're using EQ, you actually want to listen
2:14
back to your music at 85 to 90 decibels. Wow. So that's almost double what you normally listen to
2:22
So that's actually pretty loud when you crank that up. So why, why do you want to listen at such a
2:26
louder volume when EQing versus the rest of the time when you are mixing? Well, this is because
2:31
of something called the Fletcher Munson curve. The Fletcher Munson curve is this graph that
2:38
shows the relationship between volume, frequency, and the human hearing perception. So in short
2:46
we want to listen at different levels because the human ear actually doesn't hear linearly
2:51
meaning say 50 decibels at 100 hertz doesn't sound the same as 50 decibels at a thousand hertz
3:04
We hear differently at different frequencies even if the volume is technically at the same level
3:11
So these two guys Fletcher and Munson figured this out and that's why we now get this Fletcher
3:15
Munson curve which through experimentation they were able to actually make this chart
3:19
that shows how well the human ear perceives different frequencies at different volume What they discovered was that we don ever hear linearly but where we hear the most linearly meaning
3:32
everything is mostly straight along the frequency and volume range, is right around the 85 to 90 dB
3:41
range in terms of volume. And they also found, which is not really relevant to this video
3:46
but it's kind of interesting that we hear the 1000 Hertz frequency range the most linearly as
3:54
well. And if you think about it, you know, this to be true, right? You'll be listening to a song
4:01
right? A lower volume, and you can't quite hear the bass very well. So how does the Fletcher
4:06
Munson curve impact your mixing? Well, at low listening volumes, mid range frequencies sound
4:12
more prominent while the low and high frequency ranges seem to fall into the background. So if
4:20
you look at the graph here, you can see that's very obvious here. You can see this, the big
4:24
curve of the bass sweeping away. So you look at, if you're listening at the lower levels here
4:31
say like 20 to 40 dB, there's no bass there when you're listening, you know, around the 50
4:39
hertz range and below. But at high listening volumes, the low and highs sound more prominent
4:46
while the mid range seems comparatively softer. So yeah, again, you can see that at the top of
4:52
the chart, you see the mid, high mid range there tends to dip down, which is really interesting
4:58
And you have to keep that in mind then while mixing because we can only mix what we hear
5:04
but we have to keep in mind that our ears can sometimes trick us So then if you want to mix at 85 to 90 dB while you doing EQ how do you know if you listening in that range Well
5:15
you can actually download a free simple, free app that will monitor what dB level you're listening at
5:22
I use an app that's just called DB meter. And when I'm listening back to my music
5:27
I'll just set it up basically where I'm going to be listening to my music while
5:31
on mixing and it will display what the dB range is. So I can just turn up my volume until I'm at 85 to 90 range
5:40
And then I know I'm good while me queuing. And then when I'm done, I turn the volume back down
5:45
And also just the more you do this, you just start to know intuitively what the dB range is
5:50
Basically you just turn up the music and you know, okay, that sounds about what it's supposed to be
5:54
So in conclusion, yes, listening volume actually matters when you are mixing
6:00
Now, if you want to finish more commercial quality songs faster, then be sure to grab my free rapid song finishing checklist in the
6:06
description below this video. This will give you a simple checklist to follow when you're mixing and
6:11
mastering so that you know where to go in each phase of the process and you
6:15
can know when your song is done and ready to be released. All right. So let me know in the comments below
6:20
what is your biggest struggle when it comes to mixing so that I can be sure to cover it in future tutorials
6:25
Otherwise drop a like if you found this video helpful and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on any new videos
6:30
I release on this channel. Otherwise have an awesome day and I'll see you in a future video
6:38
I am almost done, Nasha. I'm almost done
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