Using my big PA speakers as monitors?

C

clntgn

New member
I recently purchased two large speakers and a very old yamaha mixer from a band I used to be in. The speaker cab is about 2ft 3.5in and then there are two actual speakers on each cab. A large one (15in) and a small one (8in) (the names for both of these is on the tip of my tongue.)

I don't really have any studio monitors or whatever, so I was wondering if it would be advisable to use these for mixing.

Also, the way I have it currently set up to get into my computer is:

Speakers connected to the mixer. Line out from the mixer goes to my "balanced outputs 1-2" on my m-audio firewire solo) and then obviously the interface goes to the computer.
 
This is about the worst monitoring chain imaginable.
You can certainly mix with them. As to whether or not those mixes will sound good on anything else, is very doubtful. I would mix on almost anything else than PA gear.
 
Ok, but can you tell me why this is the worst chain imaginable? I figured it wouldn't be that great.
 
clntgn said:
Ok, but can you tell me why this is the worst chain imaginable? I figured it wouldn't be that great.
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PA speakers, even those that claim to be full range are not designed to be anything approaching accurate. At normal volume levels, their inaccuracy will likely be magnified. They are designed to reproduce souind at very high SPL levels, but even though they are loud, there will be considerable loss of detail...you cannot mix what you cannot hear.
 
clntgn said:
Ok, thank you. I just like to know the why or why not behind doing something. I figure I gotta learn all this stuff at some point.
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Yeah...I've been there. You would be better off monitoring with some decent home gear than PA.:cool:
 
if you have even a modest home stereo of some kind it would certainly be preferable for the reasons Teysha mentioned. The very biggest is that PA's are designed to be loud and they're not really gonna 'wake up' with the 4 or 5 watts that you might end up using at near feild listening levels. That 15, for example, is gonna want to see 50 or 100 watts to really get it going and you're not gonna get anywhere near that at home levels.
 
The mixer might be ok for starters.

Ideally you'll want some studio monitors. I'd check out Goodwill for some speakers if you are in the $20 speaker range. For $20 ones I'd see if there's something small but heavy from Sony or some other good company.

I'd probably use your big speakers on a switch so that I could play band level when my friends come over and jam.

Also, I'd try everything like your big speakers. The reason all us "senior" members "know" (we don't really) they'd suck is because we all did stuff like that 25+ years ago. That's how you learn.

I'll tell an ear-opener: one time I took a tiny Radio Shack AM transistor radio, maybe 1/4W output and hooked it up to my JBL 3 way (15"/8"/horn) 4828B cabinet, a pro level keyboard/pa speaker that is rated for 400W, weighs 110 lb.
result: it sounded like a JBL and it wasn't that soft. It wasn't fucked. It was fine for background in a room. What that told me was that the most important part of a playback system is the speaker. That's the transducer and that's what vibrates the air.
 
dintymoore said:
one time I took a tiny Radio Shack AM transistor radio, maybe 1/4W output and hooked it up to my JBL 3 way (15"/8"/horn) 4828B cabinet, a pro level keyboard/pa speaker that is rated for 400W, weighs 110 lb.
result: it sounded like a JBL and it wasn't that soft.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean by, "not soft"!!

During a power outage I hooked up a SONY Walkman to the 2 12" full range drivers in my Bassman Cabinet (Altec-Lansings) rated for 300W and it
thumped! :D
 
And on the other side....Back in the early 70's I hooked up 2 PA columns ( the 4 10' speaker kind) up to my van radio/tape player and you just couldn't stand the volume ......until about 1/2 an hour went by and my battery died.:eek::mad::(:mad::eek:....massive power draw.





:cool:
 
On the other hand, small PA speakers or wedge monitors really aren't that bad in a pinch. There you're starting with something that wants less than 80 watts, and 5-10 watts can drive it sufficiently. Wedge monitors are often closer to full spectrum than mains, also.-Richie
 
And on yet another hand.
I recently purchased four pairs of speakers.
One pair used... garbage.
Three pairs new. 12" 3 ways, Dual 10" 3ways, and a nice pair of 8" 2ways.
The new speakers all make excellent studio monitors.
Things are changing.
 
Well, thank you for all the tips everyone! The reason I'm afraid of the guess and test method is because I've heard about connecting things together that shouldn't be connected that could cause damage to my devices, and at the moment I don't really have the budget for that.

I have a boss GS-10 that I was hoping to not have to use as much since it was mostly just my midi interface (I now have a separate one because using the boss for midi was just annoying). But it has two speakers at the top that according to the manual are "Studio Quality". I highly doubt that's true, but I think that might work to at least start my mixes on. I've heard the method of trying it in as many sources as possible, but even before then when I'd just started getting into recording, I learned fairly fast that things sounded different at home then when I played them through my friend's fairly nice car stereo.
 
Just keep trying stuff. The #1 way I've learned is by making mistakes.
 
Use the P.A. speakers as one of your several test systems. If it sounds good on those and in the car and on the iPod and on your computer and on the best home system you can get your hands on then your mix may be a winner.
 
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