Calibrating my studio monitors for lower volume

[verstft]

I'm trying to calibrate my monitors lower than 80db (c weighted slow response pink noise).
They are currently calibrated at 70db and it's still insanely loud.

My apartment has paper-thin walls and there's an insane bass and low-mid build up.
Could I calibrate any lower, or am I really starting to compromise the monitoring ability?

My monitors are near field pointed at my ears and propped on ISO Acoustic stands which definitely helps a ton.

 

[Wood and Wire]

I'm trying to calibrate my monitors lower than 80db (c weighted slow response pink noise).
They are currently calibrated at 70db and it's still insanely loud.

My apartment has paper-thin walls and there's an insane bass and low-mid build up.
Could I calibrate any lower, or am I really starting to compromise the monitoring ability?

My monitors are near field pointed at my ears and propped on ISO Acoustic stands which definitely helps a ton.

If they're calibrated at an SPL of 70dB, they're already considerably quieter than at 80dB.

If you're mixing films for theatrical release, you want to be calibrated for about 83dB (for a large mixing theatre), but an a SPL of about 78/79 dB is more practical for smaller rooms.

Music mixing has nothing like the dynamics of a film mix, so even 78dB can be utterly deafening.

I do a mixture of the two, so system is set up so that with the monitor control at it's maximum, it's putting out 77/78 dB SPL.

When I'm tracking, or mixing music, the monitor control stays at it's maximum (likewise for all aspects of mixing to picture).

When I'm mastering, or referencing a pre-existing master, the monitor controller gets dropped to below 50%.

It sounds like you might have your monitors too close to a wall (increasing the perceived bass), exacerbated by being too loud for that room.

Given the limited dynamic range of most modern music, you could probably calibrate your monitors to 65dB SPL, for tracking & mixing. That's still going to be loud when it comes to making a competitive master.

 

[verstft]

Thank you for the invaluable information.

When I'm tracking, or mixing music, the monitor control stays at it's maximum (likewise for all aspects of mixing to picture).
When I'm mastering, or referencing a pre-existing master, the monitor controller gets dropped to below 50%.

That makes perfect sense. The volume would be manageable during mixing since I leave about 9-5db of headroom.
When listening to a mastered reference, it's getting pretty loud, especially with contemporary music.

I mostly just concerned with mixing kick and bass guitar. It definitely needs to be loud enough to really get a sense of what's going on but the room is definitely playing tricks on me.

 

[silky smoove]

It sounds like you might have your monitors too close to a wall (increasing the perceived bass), exacerbated by being too loud for that room.

Given that the OP is in an apartment the ideal placement of monitors relative to the front wall is likely with the backs of the monitors as close to the wall as possible without touching. You'll incur some added low frequency content due to boundary reinforcement, but you'll shift phase cancellation at the mix position up to a range that's more easily treated acoustically. More on that and a very handy calculator can be found here: Invalid Link Removed