Getting used to new room and monitors

[niccolo gallio]

Hi there,
I'm moving to another studio to work and I'm having trouble adapting to the new listening environment.
I come from my own room which basically is a quite untreated room with lots of furniture and bookcases, listening to a pair of Dynaudio BM6a's (placed far from walls) coming from Metric halo converters.
The room I'm going to move to is a quite dead room, smaller than the one before, with some nice KRK monitors (wall behind them) coming from a MOTU 496 interface.
I have the impression this setup is kinda exuberant in the 200-300 Hz region, mainly I think for the dimensions of the room and the fact the speakers are very near the wall.
I've mixed a couple of things there and they came out, not surprisingly, quite thin when listened somewhere else.
The other guy working there for a couple years now is getting way better results with this setup and he does not think the room is muddy as I do think.
I don't want to start suggesting room treatments which could prove unuseful or even detrimental also because I'm the newcomer and would rather learn to adapt myself to the new situation.
My question is:
When you find yourself using a new listening system what is your strategy to adapt to it the quickest possible?
I've listened to some of my old mixes that I judge ok and that translate well in other systems in that room and still I think it sounds muddy..

thanks

nicco

[JWL]

Room sound is always a function of placement within the room (of both speakers and listening position), and treatment, apart of course from the sound of the speakers themselves.

If you aren't in a position to adjust either of these two parameters, then your only option is to spend time listening to the setup with recordings you are familiar with, and "learn" the sound so you can get your mixes sounding right. You'll also want to check reference tracks while mixing.

[nortstudio]

I agree with JWL. I was fortunate enough to do a gig at Avatar in NYC, and coming from my own space, I found the room (which some would consider one of the best) sounding weird to me. Fact is, it is different, and therefore puts you off from your comfort zone.

When I travel to some new space, I always try to have at least one constant (monitors I am accustomed to is usually easiest). At my own studio, we often replace our monitors with ones clients bring in. Perfectly fair, and keeps outside engineers happy. You may want to bring your dynaudios.

Then like JWL said, you need to listen. If you throw up your old mixes, and they sound muddy, you need to compensate for that in your current overall mix. Realize that your mix from that new room needs to sound a little "muddy" in there, to sound correct to you when you leave.

It's always a bit confusing at first, but the more you work in that room, you will find yourself adjusting more naturally, simply from the growing experience you have in that space.