As promised last week, here’s part 2 of my interview with JOHN DARKO to get his take on high end speakers (think hypercars in the speaker world) and room acoustics.

If you didn’t catch part 1 last week, click here. 

And thanks again to everyone who submitted a question!

No-one I know has heard...

It’s finally here!!

My interview with JOHN DARKO, where he answers all the questions that YOU submitted on speakers, acoustics and all the intricacies and subtleties that only someone with as much listening experience as John can know.

So first of all: Thank you so much to everyone who submitte...

When was the last time you went down the acoustic treatment rabbit hole only to come out hours later with your brain on fire?

(Or just totally numb, followed by a confused nap..?)

I’m sure that’s what happened to our fellow sound nerd Lucas when he decided to shoot over an email.

In a nutshell...

When was the last time you tried a new compressor or EQ plugin?

Did it help to get your mixes to translate better?

It may absolutely have done, this isn’t a trick question.

What about the last time you got some new speakers or invested in some acoustic treatment?

Did that help with mix transl...

I always say: You can improve the sound in ANY room with acoustic treatment.

How FAR you can take things is another question. A lot of it depends on just how much space we are willing to sacrifice.

But the fact is: Some rooms are just more difficult than others.

And the location of doors and w...

I think we’ve all heard the stories of people plastering their rooms with pyramid foam from Amazon. 

Maybe you were even one of the lucky ones to try such a masterpiece yourself..? (high five)

Then you’ll know how bad such a “dead” space can be.

It’s absolutely awful.

It feels awful, it looks...

You might be surprised to hear that I don’t recommend using alternative or eco-friendly insulation materials in your DIY bass traps and absorbers.

Despite the fact that there are plenty of examples out there of non-mineral wool products that are great at absorbing sound!

And especially, if you’...

Do you sometimes wish you could stop the need for referencing your mixes on other systems altogether?

Maybe because whenever you listen to a mix in your car, or your ear buds, you dread the unpredictability of something having gone totally wrong?

Well, rest assured, you’re not the only one.

Bu...

Let me paraphrase an email I get about 3 times a day:

“Jescooooo the low end in my room is messed up, what do I need to do!?!”

“But I can’t move my desk, it’s way too heavy, and the room also doubles as my office, my wife’s hobby room and storage for my pinball machine collection!”

“Basically ...

I recently stumbled across this really small, understated Facebook post by audio interface manufacturer RME that led to an even more understated entry on their company forum.

They were simply announcing another feature update to TotalMix FX, the management software for their interfaces.

But wha...

If you've been down the rabbit hole of treating your studio, then you know:

It's suuuuuper easy to get lost in the process.

Often enough it can lead to just giving up. 

Or maybe even worse: you end up obsessed about details that totally don't matter.

You endlessly turn in circles, trying ever...

Oftentimes the absolute WORST rooms to set up your home studio in are said to be perfect squares.

When the length and width (and sometimes height) of the room are the same, all the room modes pile up at the same frequencies and make getting a balanced low end close to impossible.

Stay away from...