Mixing with Computer Speakers

Magnawolf

Magnawolf

New member
I always mix on my $40 computer speakers. They have a sub-woofer, which is usually at moderate levels and have two stereo speakers that have great clarity. The reason I do this is because I listen to music all day off iTunes through these speakers. I know what mixes sound like coming through these speakers so well. I feel like if I started using studio monitors I would have to learn a completely new set of speakers. Also I wouldn't be able to listen to iTunes through them so I wouldn't have a great reference point. I also mix on my Sennheiser headphones cause I listen to a lot of music off those as well. With the combination of both, I can get some good mixes going.

What do you guys think about this? I know it's generally frowned upon but does anyone do something similar?
 
Even if you do get a set of studio monitors you would still keep the computer speakers. Cheap computer speakers (though usually without the subwoofer) have replace Auratones as the "all mids, no real highs, no lows" speaker. Your mixes need to sound good on limited bandwidth and full range systems.
 
How do your mixes translate from your speakers to your headphones, vice versa and to other systems? That's all that matters, right?
 
No not mixing engineers. Accuracy and frequency range is limited on PC speakers. You don't have full range from 20hz-20khz. You proly have a range of 150hz-12khz you need the rest of the range cause when music is played on larger speakers or venue this information will have not been treated. Plus accuracy if there is a boost or dip in your speakers (cause there not flat like monitors) then you make a cut or a boost in your mix and then when played in the car you loose that boost or cut cause your speakers gave you false info. Or it's to excessive jus not good.
 
Magnawolf said:
The reason I do this is because I listen to music all day off iTunes through these speakers. I know what mixes sound like coming through these speakers so well.
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Good logic. That's a good way to look at it, although there are limits.
Your speakers need to be full range and at least half decent for that to work, IMO.

Magnawolf said:
I feel like if I started using studio monitors I would have to learn a completely new set of speakers.
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Yes, you would. That's key.
No matter what speakers your use you have to learn how they sound.
The best way to do that is to bore yourself to death of music that you already know inside out.


Magnawolf said:
Also I wouldn't be able to listen to iTunes through them so I wouldn't have a great reference point.
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You would.
Usually studio monitors are connected to the outputs of an audio interface of some kind.
Select that interface as your system output and your itunes/youtube etc etc will play through the monitors.
 
jonny deep said:
How do your mixes translate from your speakers to your headphones, vice versa and to other systems? That's all that matters, right?
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^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^

That's all that matters.
IF, for example, your mixes translate great, then you're doing better than some with expensive monitors.
Yes, ANY real monitor is gonna be WAY better than your 'puter speakers in every way.
However, less expensive monitors aren't as flat as some would have you believe and ultimately it's a matter of knowing your monitors and knowing how to get mixes on them that translate well to other systems.

Having said that ...... a decent set of monitors would let you listen deeper into the mix and hear and isolate things that you probably can't with the speakers you're using.
 
I feel like you might have a good familiarity with mixes within the range of your speakers, but you're not hearing the full audible spectrum so you're missing some stuff, whether mixing or listening to other songs/instrumentals. I'd keep them as a reference but also get some monitors when you can.
 
Someone ban this guy^

But yeah, I know there is limited range in computer speakers for sure. I usually do most of my mixing in headphones first then check the mix by playing it through my computer speakers. I actually use pretty flat speakers currently. I went on amazon and looked for the flatest ones. I got computer speakers before these ones that were too bright that I ended up returning. I don't know, I'm just really comfortable mixing on these I guess.

There's a pair of ROKIT 5's going for $200 on craigslist near me. I'm just trying to decide if I should drop the money on them, it's a pretty good deal.
 
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The general word on the ROKIT 5s are that they are not *flat* at all - but I doubt the computer speakers you picked up are flat, either. Until you spend BIG money, no monitors are going to be flat.
 
Magna...What you need to do is road test some speakers, and maybe post some mixes in the mp3 clinic.
People will soon tell you if your mixes are off kilter.

You don't know how much better/worse our monitors are and we don't know how good/bad your computer speakers are.
Let's face it, you can get some incredibly bad computer speakers even these days, but I'm sure you can get some pretty impressive ones too.

You sound like you're thinking and acting along the right lines so don't stop here. Audition some monitors.
The fact that the listening environment will alter 'the truth' has been beaten to death, but it's definitely still worth doing.

PS. Who are we banning?
 
Steenamaroo said:
Magna...What you need to do is road test some speakers, and maybe post some mixes in the mp3 clinic.
People will soon tell you if your mixes are off kilter.

You don't know how much better/worse our monitors are and we don't know how good/bad your computer speakers are.
Let's face it, you can get some incredibly bad computer speakers even these days, but I'm sure you can get some pretty impressive ones too.

You sound like you're thinking and acting along the right lines so don't stop here. Audition some monitors.
The fact that the listening environment will alter 'the truth' has been beaten to death, but it's definitely still worth doing.

PS. Who are we banning?
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I have posted my stuff on the mixing clinic. I never really got any comments regarding my sound being off kilter or anything. You can listen to it to tell me how it sounds if you want.

https://soundcloud.com/betterbest/black-eye

I've also heard my music on a lot of different speakers. If my mixes do sound off, it's more because of lack of experience mixing/mastering than the speakers themselves IMO.
 
The real question here is, do you want to be just another sap contributing to the decline in recording excellence or do you want to be on the cutting edge of restoring it to its former glory? You're always going to find people on forums that say what you're doing is fine and they do it too, but that's because the vast majority participation on anonymous web forums are amateurs.

The right answer to your question is the same as it was in 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003 and now 2013; build your studio from the monitors back. Monitoring should not be an afterthought, but rather the first and one of the most important steps. Get some decent monitors and treat your room so you have a good mixing environment. You can use your computer speakers as secondary references, same as headphones and car speakers.
 
Yeah I'm going to have to get monitors eventually so I might as well pull the trigger on them now. Thanks for the advice guys.
 
Magnawolf said:
I've also heard my music on a lot of different speakers. If my mixes do sound off, it's more because of lack of experience mixing/mastering than the speakers themselves IMO.
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I meant if you're planning to buy new speakers, listen to them first.

Someone could tell your rokits are definitely better than your computer speakers, then you could buy them to find out they aren't.
 
The question about how your mixes translate to other systems is the main one. If you're happy and things sound good on you car stereo or whatever then I wouldn't worry too much.

However, a couple of points.

First, if you replace your computer speakers with Rockits or something, there's no reason you couldn't listen to iTunes via the Rockits. I take my computer along to do live sound and can select whatever I want as the "default". It's quite a lot of fun listening to the stuff on your computer via a 250,000 watt line array in a theatre!

Second, if people are right about the limited frequency response, someday that may come back to bite you. I always try to make sure I can monitor down to 50Hz (60Hz in the USA) because that's the mains electrical frequency. If something goes wrong with your grounding/earthing, the hum produced will likely be at mains frequency. Back in my working days we used to receive a daily satellite feed from a notable American broadcaster and suddenly started to hear LF hum on it every day. When we queried it we got the usual "it's okay here--must be on the satellite". Finally, after a couple of weeks of problems we finally traced it back to their control room (cough ABC New York cough) because they'd replaced their big studio monitors with much smaller ones which, it turned out, couldn't reproduce below about 100Hz. The had an earthing problem but couldn't ever hear it for themselves.
 
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