These questions just get weirder and weirder...

 

You're sort of shifting the goalposts, at least in my way of thinking. Can I generate more profit working in my own studio out of my own home? Probably. And sometimes it's more convenient working from home, certainly. But the experience of working on (to follow your analogy) "the nicest yachts in the world" is more enjoyable than working out of a spare room in my home. As a freelancer, I get to set my own schedule either way. And working in a professional studio means showing up with fresh ears and having everything ready for me, without the responsibility for maintaining hardware or keeping software licensed and updated. I had virtually no overhead costs. Just got to show up and use my ears and my creativity.

In short, it's not always about money. I've turned down more lucrative offers to work on projects that were more creatively satisfying. So that gets back to the premise of the original question. Do most mixing engineers really prefer to mix in a bedroom? Being willing to do it, or used to doing it, or good at doing it - or able to make more money doing it - those things aren't necessarily the same as preferring it. I do it, but I certainly don't prefer it.

 

The goalposts are only being shifted by referring to anyone with a Youtube video and a bedroom as "engineers". I added a link to one of the most well-known guys who moved his entire mixing environment to a room exactly like the one in the original question. In the video, he explains exactly why he did so.

When someone buys a house, they do not set up a home office or workspace in their "spare kitchen". They do not set up in the basement where it can flood. They do not need a 100 channel mixer to do post production work. There is no need for a "control room" to mix.

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2024 at 8:03 AM

He actually does not explain why at all in that video. That video is a sales pitch for his "Brauerize" method video classroom series. And Michael Brauer is one of the most successful mixing engineers in the industry. He's a Grammy winner who has worked with many of the most elite acts in the world. In no way is he representative of "most mixing engineers" out there. You're acting like he just plopped his gear in a spare room and started mixing. You're out of your mind if you don't think that room is treated and tuned and tweaked for him to be able to produce world-class mixes. It's rectangular in shape, larger than the average bedroom in an apartment or middle class home, and if you watch extended videos or have seen photos of his setup, it is no longer what most people think of as a "regular room like a bedroom."

The OP's question speaks to the myth that's been created around stories like that of Billie Eilish's brother Finneas - and this is a quote from a popular Reddit thread - "Finneas mixed that shit in a bedroom." It's such a mischaracterization. It makes it sound like there's a bed against this wall, a TV over here, a dresser, some clothes draped over a Peloton, and a desk with a laptop over in the corner where the mixing happens, and it creates the false impression that anybody can do it anywhere. Finneas is a creative force of his own and is a standout talent who deserves a lot of credit, but also her stuff is professionally mixed and mastered by guys like Rob Kinelski and John Greenham. Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey, Adele, Beyonce, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodriguo, Bruno Mars, Leon Bridges - look at who's doing the mixing on those tracks and where they're doing it. It's not in a bedroom.

Granted, the tools are more accessible and affordable than ever to make good music, and a lot of songs now on iTunes and Spotify are legitimately mixed on pretty basic gear, all ITB, maybe on a pair of Steven Slates. Certainly not on a setup like Brauer has the fortune to build. Mastering is an entirely different animal and can cover up a lot of deficiencies.

I could be wrong, but I just don't accept the premise that "most mixing engineers like to mix music in regular rooms like a bedroom." The ones who have a choice are doing it in a high-end professional environment, even if that's at a studio they've constructed and crafted at home. It's the ones who don't have a choice who are literally doing it in a "regular room like a bedroom."

 

It looks to me as though Brauer has figured out that there's more money to be made shilling 'education and training' to the hundreds of thousands of bedroom producers than there is from actually making records these days.

OP is Brauer's potential market.

 

Here's me in my home studio. Let me show you around.

And this is my mate's home studio

 

in my vast experience, basements tend to be too damp and dark, and there's the whole spider, rats, undead thing to deal with.
While Attics tend to be very warm in summer and very cold in winter and you can barely see the wasteland waiting for you out of the tiny window etched yellow with the passing of time.

So bedroom is much more cozy and I can take a nap anytime.

Pro tip ....

If mixing surround, make sure you have a double bed, it helps to spread out the sound equally otherewise the 16khz signals get stuck up in the corners and drip down pulling up the carpet and the missus will complain and life will soon be hell..

thank me later....

 

Probably you mean their own project studios, which are essentially treated to perfection too, just most of them don't record anyone there or have big consoles and etc.

Think Serban's partner expanded on that, it was cheaper and more convenient for them to buy a house, setup a studio in it and operate from there, guess others figured that out too.

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2024 at 7:20 PM

velcro everything then if you change your mind, you can remove and restick it to another wall, the ceiling,really whatever works best for your workflow. I find when working in the evenings if i turn my monitors toward the walls it makes mixing so much more pleasant and easier to drift off to sleep..

 

I once mixed a cake in the kitchen, I think mixing can occur in environmentally friendly space. I would never try it in a train station or the deck of a large ocean liner. I think its a personal thing.

Although if you have a pet you can use them to find bass peaks by putting them close to the woofers (or Voofers as my friend Hanz, calls them) and watching for their hair to stand up or prolonged yapping when the bass gets extreme. Sometimes mixing, just takes an extra pair of ears.....