COOL EQing/mixdown idea !!

[moonmusic]

Hey I just thought of something tonight that I'm sure someone thought of before now but I've never seen it posted anywhere so here goes...One of my biggest problems when finishing a song at the mixdown stage...OK, it's bounced to two tracks and really kickin through my studio monitors and I'm all excited about the mix so I burn a CD to go listen on my other home/auto systems only to be disappointed by the mix that comes through and is usually too bassy etc...I thought wouldn't it be great if you had a way of NOT burning a CD and take it to audition on different systems besides my ONE set of alesis monitors and could actually eq while monitoring on other systems as well, and then it dawned on me...A laptop running a two track mastering type software with plug ins for eq! Wavelab with the waves eq came to mind personally but you could actually audition on ANY system that way...I even have one of those cassette adapters with a wire coming out of it you plug into the tape deck and instead of plugging the other end into a portable cd player you could plug that directly into the laptop audio card and listen that way too and you could eq right in your vehicle...Save the different eqs from the different systems and see what the most common settings would be...Has anyone done this? It would be great to just hear a rough mix to make sure all the volumes are good let alone work on the final eq without burning a cd...Does anyone know how fast of a laptop you would need to acclomplish this?...I just thought it was a cool idea...I'd really like to hear feedback especially if this is actually a bad idea...

[mjames08]

I have an in-dash monitor in my car that has rca inputs so I can actually plug my roommate's laptop + mbox into it and mix. It works great [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[J. FO]

yeah, you always want to check your mixes on other systems before they are "done." to just record a stereo master, i don't think you need all that powerful of a laptop, but you don't just want to send it into the onboard sound card. get something else. what would be super cool would be sending the master out the spdif out into a soundcard or device (the mbox) that can receive spdif signals. that way you have no extra conversions going on. but when all is said and done, it would suit you better to just get more adjusted to your monitors. if your mixes ALWAYS sound bassy, then next time overcorrect. that is, set the mix where the bass feels a little low. maybe your monitors carry bass a little heavy, or maybe your mixing room is a little out of wack. but whatever it is, mix on your monitors until the end result comes out sounding great on anything. it may not sound completely right on your monitors, but your monitors may be coloring the sound.

[Calvin]

Sounds like a cheesy excuse to get a laptop. But then again, I'm all about any excuse that will get me more gear. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]