Studio Monitors

Well, there's that guy looking for small footprint monitors for his 6 x 8 foot studio. Ya do what you have to do !

Right...and that too is a different thing, and has little to do with personal preference and everything to do with a type of limiting situation.

Point being...if people listened to a lot of monitors, their preference might be one thing...and what their budget or other limiting factor allowed, another thing. ;)
 
There may be other points. Hearing people ragging on small boxes won't have any bass, or, you totally f'd in a 6x8 room. I don't think that stuff really gets in the way, myself. While I might not want to mix on a old radio speaker, many of us know what they are doing and could probably work it out.
 
Miro made some valid points on the preference thing. It really doesn't apply.

My preference in many things is so high above what I can get. As an example, how many men on this forum have a "preference" for a sports illustrated model as a spouse? And then you look at the wife you actually have. :D

Preference is controlled by ability to obtain.

Then we have familiarity.
I like using NS10s. The debate over the years that they're great /they're crap has been hotly raging.

Why did I get them? A pro with lots of studio experience said I should. He happened to work with Prince, so who was I to Aurgue. They were also in every 'real' studio. So, with an endorsement like that and evidence in the real world of them being 'The' nearfeild monitors, I got em and learned them.

Do I prefer them??? I don't know. I know that I'm familiar with them.

So in the ongoing monitoring discussion, it is a very confusing time.
1) so many choices
2) so much hype
3) so much fashionable thinking as in this is the new 'hot' monitor
3) so much snobbery on other forums like gearslutz. The attitude of "you couldn't possibly make good mixes if you didn't have a set of (insert current trendy, super expensive speaker)

Yet for years, great, and great sounding, records were made with NS10s in the monitoring chain.

How could this be if they are such shitty speakers?

Talent. That and all the other factors involved.
You had a great room, great mics, great instruments, great players, seasoned engineers, arrangers, producers etc.

Also you had something that the average home studio doesn't have.

Expensive soffit mounted tracking monitors..
When an expert mics up a drum kit with good mics, the kit is tuned, and you have a great player, it's borderline a religious experience.
In that control room listening on the big boys, it sound like real life.

Most of the basic mixing stuff is done in the tracking stage.

You're not gonna get the same vision on a set of 5 inch krks

So in a home recording environment the mixing monitors do double duty as tracking monitors.

So get the best you can afford and learn them.


And like Miro did with his focal upgrade,
when you outgrow your current monitors, get better ones.

Sorry for the longer than usual post from me. :)
 
You're not gonna get the same vision on a set of 5 inch krks

So in a home recording environment the mixing monitors do double duty as tracking monitors.

So get the best you can afford and learn them.


And like Miro did with his focal upgrade,
when you outgrow your current monitors, get better ones.

Sorry for the longer than usual post from me. :)

Well said.
 
ns10 are regular bookshelf speakers that got some "studio" spiff from Yamaha. The Natural Sound stuff did good for Yamaha, but the star is still probably the ns1000
 
So in a home recording environment the mixing monitors do double duty as tracking monitors.

I was checking out a YT monitor shootout by a "name" engineer (though TBH, I can't remember now who it was, but I can find it)...and they had like 10 sets of monitors...all top-shelf stuff. I think the "lower end" was still at like $3k per moniotor... :D....

....anyway, the funny thing was that he was saying how "Ilke these for tracking, but not so much for mixing (talking about a set of PCM monitors), while prefer these for mixing, but I wouldn't like to track on them (set of those smaller Barefoot monitors).

So when you sometimes see multiple sets in the big studios...it's not always for doing A-B-C checks of the mixes. Some of these guys have very defined tastes and personal preference for which monitors they use for tracking and which for mixing.

It appears in general, that for tracking, the monitors that have a big, full sound...maybe almost more a "listening" monitor...is the preference, and then for mixing, the very flat, surgical/detailed monitors are the choice...at least that's what I got from listening to this one guy.
I may try using my Mackie 824s for the tracking playback...and the Focals for mixing...but I'll see if it makes much difference to me.
Heck...at leats then it will "justify" me keeping the Mackies too instead of selling them! :p
 
Well, there's that guy looking for small footprint monitors for his 6 x 8 foot studio. Ya do what you have to do !

Agreed! But experience can allow one to work with crap. Someone without experience will be more likely to allow the room/monitors to incorrectly direct their decisions. Without knowing what things should sound like, well, one is on his own because there is no shortcut for ability to hear or having a clue as to what they are hearing.

That being said, there is no personal preference for someone new to recording. They can listen all day to whatever monitors and not see a difference. Not until they figure out what their particular space and monitors are telling them.

Miro and I both recently upgraded our monitor speakers substantially. We know from our experiences in our rooms mixing with lesser monitors what the advantage is. Selling that to a noob is not what is needed. It is just what we understand because we know how it worked for us personally in our spaces.

I do however wish I would have purchased a better pair of monitors from the beginning, but it was a learning stage. Hindsight is always....blah blah.
 
I used to have a pair of Urei 813s for mains and the NS10s and some bigger JBls for near and midfield monitoring.

Man, I miss those Urei big boys!
 
I was checking out a YT monitor shootout by a "name" engineer (though TBH, I can't remember now who it was, but I can find it)...and they had like 10 sets of monitors...all top-shelf stuff. I think the "lower end" was still at like $3k per moniotor... :D

That was Warren Huart at Vintage king audio.
Next he's gonna do a "high end" shoot out.

Its funny cause his 'lower end' and 'mid level' is still out of reach to most. :D

Now a record production deal where you get 30k on the front end, makes that stuff obtainable, but don't think I'll fall into that anytime soon. Lol :D
 
Yeah...that's the one.

Right, his "low-end" is more pricier than my current high-end. :p

I'm sure he's paid well for his projects and can afford that upper-end without busting his budget.
 
In theory, a new recordist could buy new monitors equalized for the ears inability to hear bass correctly at 80SPL, and maybe some equalized to hear bass accurately at 90SPL, etc..
 
In theory, a new recordist could buy new monitors equalized for the ears inability to hear bass correctly at 80SPL, and maybe some equalized to hear bass accurately at 90SPL, etc..

Yeah, I suppose - but what about the fact he has no clue or experience to make judgement upon what he is hearing? Not that that theory has any relevance to begin with... IMO.

Sorry, but I haven't a clue where you are trying to take this man.
 
"Well, we could go back to full range Drivers ? I've been toying with the idea of bolting a 3, or, 4-inch into the hole of a cinder block for many years. This 4-inch looks to have pretty smooth midrange. Not much for Alnico in the small sizes : )

No- x-over distortions and a inert container "

Yes an inert CONTAINER G but a resonant cavity. I have built more speakers over the years than I care to remember but these days it is a very precise science (and really good monitors are not THAT expensive) How do you dampen the cavity and by how much? I doubt you have the gear to test it.

"No crossover (network!) distortion" Well they don't anyway if done right but you need big mother foil caps and Fe free inductors. Maybe you are going for line level filters? What filter rate? They have to compliment the driver and again need specialized measuring kit and room to test in.

Ok playing with speakers for a bit of fun but it has been a long, hard road to get to the performance of modern speakers, especially low colouration mid range speakers! I would rather trust to the expertise of Tannoy, Focal, Adam et al.... (even if some seem to come half born in the box!)


Dave.
 
None of my built boxes have been ported, and they've been stuffed. I'm just talking a better made speaker than the types I'm up to my belly button in. no way I could buy Lowther drivers. hhhah. I'm interested in the free air sound of the radio speaker
 
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