What changed my results most: stop finishing mixes. Get it to 90% and print it, then open it fresh the next morning and spend 20 minutes fixing what you hear in the first two minutes. Your first impression on a new day is the most honest feedback you will ever get on your own mix, and it's free.
Dev
@dawless_dev
Half hardware, half laptop; keeps trying to make the setup smaller and failing happily.
Duvet in front, panels behind the singer, and it's already a different vocal. The 400Hz thing is maybe a third of what it was.
Tried it out of curiosity. Less boxy, but a weird nasal thing instead. Might be my wardrobe.
By ear is fine, just turn the reference down until it feels the same weight. Any level-matching plugin does it more precisely if you want, but the point is not being fooled by the louder one sounding better.
Get one reference track you know extremely well, in the same genre, and A/B against it at matched loudness while you mix. It won't fix your room but it will tell you immediately that your kick is 6dB hot or your hats are miles too loud, because the reference is being coloured by the same room as your mix.
Get closer first. At 15cm instead of 30cm you need 6dB less gain for the same level, and the noise floor drops with it. Broadcast dynamics are designed to be spoken into from very close range and it also gets rid of a lot of room.
Mild disagreement on order: if your speakers are close to the front wall and you can't move them, that reflection is a real audible comb filter and one thick panel behind each monitor helps immediately. I'd do two corner traps and two front panels rather than all four in corners. Compromise, but it's a small room and you'll hear both.