Hi y''all, I don't think a question of this specificity like this has been asked recently so here goes.

Essentially I am mastering songs for my album, and I'm working primarily with a pair of Yamaha HS5 monitors, but my room is hardly the best acoustic wise, so rather than spend the funds on trying to fix the room I am assessing the benefits of using some monitor calibration software.

Does anyone else do this, or is it better to just use the standard flat curve and hope for the best?

If anyone has any recommendations for the best software and practices to achieve this sort of calibration I would be grateful.

Thanks

 

I would pass your songs on to someone who is a recording professional; only they can get the most out of your recordings and mix them properly. It's not as expensive as you think. I assume you know your monitors well, so I wouldn't make any changes to the monitors.

You're more likely to damage than fix them; if the room stays bad, it will only get worse. Of course, you can improve a few things with wool blankets, throws, or bookshelves. Curtains in front of windows, blankets in front of glass surfaces, or rugs on tiled floors.

 

That is not a bad idea, I was aiming to reduce outgoing costs as much as humanly possible only because I am expecting to make little from album sales, so I guess it would have to be an expenditure to get the best possible sound from the album.

I would be interested in seeing what the finished product would be like mixed/mastered by someone else though.

 

Another thing you can do is burn a finished recording to a CD or USB stick and then listen to it on multiple sources, such as your car radio, stereo system, at friends' houses, and ask them what they think or what's missing. You can also upload a shortened track to SoundCloud (free account), for example, 1:30, and then post it here. Some people here have the expertise and can usually tell you what's missing or what can be improved.

 

Yes I am a victim of trying to make, mix, master my track in a short space of time so probably allow my ears to become used to what I'm hearing, and I'm not much into asking for mass opinions of my music, I tend to keep things (fairly) close to my chest.

I do try to listen on the monitors/headphones and on a phone speaker, so I think I can get a pretty good idea of different sources from that, but a second (or third) set of independent ears would always be a help