http://bruceamiller.us/bamaudioschool/audio_course/02_monitors.html

Share your monitor experiences here.

Hi.
I remember when I first bought my active monitors (Samson Resolv65a). Up until this point I didn't know what to expect as I've had to read my way through my progression!
They sounded ok I guess, a far world from my coloured hifi setup.
At first, I was running everything through this cheap Behringer mixer. But the day came when I decided to go the Protools route and bought a digi002 rack. Connected it all up, and listened to a track that I've heard hundreds of times, and WOOOAAH it slapped me in the face. I can't believe I had lost so much detail (and power) by running through this life-sucking piece of hardware. So in the bin it went.
Hopefully there might be a lesson in there.

I monitor on two sets of stereo speakers... Realistic Minimus 77 and Yamaha NS-A636, which give pretty contrasting responses. Kenwood 100w amp. Room is16'x12'x11', peaked ceiling. It's an imperfect system for sure but I've gotten used to it and it works OK for me. I rarely monitor at high levels, in fact usually just at the level an unamplified gtr would be live in the room.

I also check files on systems in our two cars, my clock radio-CD player, a boom box, computer desktop speakers, a home stereo that's piped to Boston Acoustic speakers in different rooms and an iPod.

My biggest monitoring challenge was with nylon str gtr - how to balance richness in the 300 Hz range and articulation in the 3 kHz range, and also getting a feel for the right balance between direct and room sound. Keeping a number of reference recordings handy helped a lot.

Tim

On my monitors there is a bass rolloff switch that you can use to emulate a small speaker system. Is there any logic to using that when searching for the right balance?

Everything I monitor on is obsolete...

A '73 Pioneer SA9100 amp and a pair of Yamaha NS-A638 speakers. Once I got to where I knew how they'd translate, I'm gettin pretty good mixes.

I stand teachable.............Kel

before i could afford my 1st set of monitors, i used my home system.

it's a yamaha natural sound stereo amp, and a pair of older Infinity Research Standard speakers.

i would a/b my mixes through those, against pro mixes.

almost without fail, when i would take my mixes (that sounded great on my home system) anywhere else, they would sound of shite.

i purchased a pair of KRK Rokits (5" drivers)(with a hafler power amp) and though they are small, are much more accurate than my home system was.
without a doubt.

even though they do not have an extended low end (i think they bottom out at 50hz) they're still more accurate than the infinity's.

my room, is the biggest problem.

i solve part of the problem, with spot sound treatment on the walls. The recorder is on a so when i am mixing, i pull the whole recording setup away from the walls, more towards the center of the room, and that seems to help with bass and reflections.

not perfect, but it's what i've got right now.

oh yea, forgot to mention...

i DID add that 'craptacular' speaker setup to the mixdown setup....

a pair of panasonic boombox speaker boxes that used to slide onto the side of the boombox....

they are my 'horror-tones'

If it's got a speaker, it should be part of your 'test bed' for final mixes! I have four sets of monitors I use while mixing - Mackie HDR824s, NS10s, Auratone C5s and JBL 4311s. But I still rely on my funk boom box, my auto stereo, my home hi-fi, my iPod with earbuds and my home theatre system to insure the transportability of a mix.

And don't forget that no matter how good your monitor speakers are, if the room is out of sonic balance, your mix will be also. Diffusion and absorption are vital to a flat, balanced listening environment...

Well, now that I finally have some decent studio monitors, I don't feel ashamed posting in this thread.

I've got Yorkville YSM1p monitors and I have also hear the Event 20/20's at my church. I wasn't to impressed with them for mixing though as the made the stuff sound too "good". When I heard a mix the guy was working on there, everything sounded great, the drums were punching and everything seemed well balanced. But when I got the CD and played it on the couple speaker setups I had here, it lost a lot of the magic that it had before. The drums seemed much quiter, and overall didn't sound as good.

I've also heard the Alesis M1 monitors and for the short time I heard them, I wasn't highly impressed with what I heard. I didn't have anything to compare them to at the time, and it could have even just been the mix in general.... So it's hard to actually judge them.

That's really all of the "real" studio monitors that I've heard.

-tkr

As long as you know the sound of your monitors (and feel you have enough low end to hear what is going on down there) you should be fine no matter what you have.

How many of you take CDs of your mixes to your friend's house (or car) to listen?

I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

quote:

Originally posted by BruceAMiller:
I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

Great idea...thanks. I'm going to do that.

Tim

quote:

Originally posted by BruceAMiller:
I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

Yeah, but you're playing great music on their systems. I play a few of the tunes from my CDs, and I'm banned from the store for life.

Just like (most of) the others out there, I started with a monitor substitute - a Yamaha Natural Sound amp with Magnat speakers. I did most of my mixing on headphones however and still do for the initial mix. Afterwards I turn to my Wharfedale 8.1 Pro's - these have made a tremendous difference helping to create a full roomy sound. I hear things on the Wharfedale's that I just couldn't hear on my previous setup.

it would probably be worth noting that all i have is a Boston Acoustics 2.1 digital computer setup. The monitors are a little bright for my tastes, but when mixing, i've learned to not take out too much of the high end. Now when we take our mixes out to the car, (where you know whether it sucks or not), the mixes sound more balanced than before. We're recording at home, so it's not quite the same as what we'd get out of a real studio, but we're remarkably closer. It has taken many hours of listening and comparing to get to where we are, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Harvey Gerst:

quote:

Originally posted by BruceAMiller:
I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

Yeah, but you're playing great music on their systems. I play a few of the tunes from my CDs, and I'm banned from the store for life.

LOL! Guess you gotta be careful! ...or find lots of Best Buys to go to!

quote:

Originally posted by BruceAMiller:
As long as you know the sound of your monitors (and feel you have enough low end to hear what is going on down there) you should be fine no matter what you have.

How many of you take CDs of your mixes to your friend's house (or car) to listen?

I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

I am using headphones most of the time. I have a pair of AKG K270's. I like them very much but it does limit what I can do as far as mixing. I am very much a novice when it comes to mixing and am looking at KRK as a choice for near field monitors.

When working I often switch between different pairs of speakers and note what instruments seem to jump out.

Although I have never tried it I suppose that would work with different pairs of headphones as well.

quote:

Originally posted by BruceAMiller:
As long as you know the sound of your monitors (and feel you have enough low end to hear what is going on down there) you should be fine no matter what you have.

How many of you take CDs of your mixes to your friend's house (or car) to listen?

I often go to Price Club, Target, Best Buy and any other place with lotsa stereos on display.

I do. I try to get as much listens on various types of systems.

I sadly do not have any monitors i do most of my monitoring on a pretty good set of akg headphones, and my pc speakers. as you can imagine i do a lot of cd burning and listening to on different sources such as ipod, dvd player\home theater speakers, my car , wifes car... you get the point. i am holding out as i want to buy a good set the first time out , not just the first thing i can afford, suggestions are welcome,(i record rock and some hip hop\rock.) anyway i am still learning for the most part and having great fun in the process.

I was monitoring on a pair of Event TR6's. I would then take mixes into a very dead room with a pair of tuned genelecs at the pyramind studios

http://www.pyramind.com/production/studios/images/vault_large.jpg

That's Greg Gordon on the board and Matt Donner in the vocal booth. Most everything sounds good in the vault.

That process worked well for me up to a point. This track was mixed going back and forth between the two rooms:

http://www.basswaves.com/audio/thomasb_coracao_mixdown_24.mp3

When I purchased my new Tascam audio interface, they shipped me a pair of Tascam VLX5s which I have now switched to.

I like the definition of the tascams better than the events. Also, they do not pick up RFI/EMI like the events do.

I am in the process of building monitor stands which will allow me to position them better - off the desk and back from the mixing position.

I have listened to mixes on my sony headphones off a burned CD and heard things that I did not hear in the room with the Events and have heard things over a PA system that I did not hear in the room either.

So I can see definite value in trying a mix out on as many different systems as possible.

Thanks for the very cool audio course - lots to soak in...