[cruisemates]

I don't know what they put into Real Traps, but if you did know, you could probably build one cheaper. Try a search on Google "building bass traps". I don't think there is a big secret. Reading the RealTraps site gives A FEW TIP OFFS - stops low freq vibration but doesn't affect higher freqs, etc. I think the minimum they recommend is 4 anyway, one in each corner of the ceiling.

I think it is definitely worth it. IMHO, getting the right amount of low freq on your mix is one of the most crucial, and hardest things to do in mixing. But I would add them last - I don't think you are going to know how many you will need until you actually hear your room.

Tuning a room: The MOST frustrating thing about a new studio is playing your mixes on other systems and discovering the mix is nothing like what you heard in your own control room. And in the long run, your client is going to rate your work on that, not on how it sounded on your own monitors.

A great novice misperception is that buying "good" monitors is going to guarantee you good mixes - nothing could be further from the truth. The room affects the sound of the mix as much as your choice of monitors. Plus, you have to learn how to mix on those monitors to make your mixes competitive with other studios.

Think of good monitors like the lens on a camera. If it is tinted or out of focus you are not getting true reproduction. So getting a good lens/monitor system is step 1 for building a control room.

In the same way, once you get a great lens on a camera, you need the right lighting. If you are photographing in a room with red and green lights, you are not going to get good pictures. In the same way that lighting is important to photography, physical acoustics are important to control room monitoring.

A lot of studios shoot the monitors with pink noise using 1/3 octave dual-band passive EQs to tune them. But then you are just using electronics to compensate for the room's short-comings, and the tuned sweet spot is on place behind the console. It is better to try to cure the acoustic ills of the room first and use less processing in your monitoring chain, because any electronic processing will cause some phase anomalies. The ideal control room is so acoustically balanced it doesn't need any EQ.

That is the science of monitors and control rooms. "Theoretically" you can monitor on anything, as long as your ear is tuned in to your monitoring system. The theory being "Okay - say this is a radio station, I just heard three other artist's tunes, and now here comes my mix. How does it compare?" If you can truly apply that process, you could mix on almost any system - but it is hard. Ideally, you want to mix on a system where what sounds good to you then and there is what is going to sound competitive when you take it outside.

If I were building a pro studio, I would try to optimize the acoustics, buy good monitors, and then I would listen to outside music on them and see how they sound. If I thought it was balanced and natural sounding I would then see if I felt comfortable mixing in a way that matches what I am hearing on outside mixes. The better your monitors and acoustics are, the easier it is to mix the way you "want to hear things" and still create competitive mixes for the outside world.

As I got to know my room, if I discovered I was having to mix the bass (or anything) in a way that wasn't natural to my ear, I would start adjusting the room acoustics - adding traps, etc. It is a long trial & error process, but one that a lot of good studios go through.