Anyone Here Not Using 'Proper' Monitors?

[travelin travis]

Shit....I just spent some on drums.....and I've never even hit a drum before.....

Drums are a lot of fun man. They're pretty addictive > your wife is probably going to kill you after a while.

 

[EdWonbass]

Shit....I just spent some on drums.....and I've never even hit a drum before.....

So you have hit a hooker?

 

[ecktronic]

I have a pair of JBL car speakers. I love them, but they're probably terrible monitors.

My name is Rami and I'm a dreck-a-holic.

You seem to do very well with your speaker set up Rami.

I tend to use headphones. They are great for editing, but can be hard to judge certain level issues. I think a mix of speakers (that you know very well) and good headphones (that you know really well) is the best way to mix.

Eck

 

[Greg_L]

I use headphones because I have no monitors and theyre way better than computer speakers. I'll buy some soon. My room really sucks right now too, so good monitors probably wont do me any good anyway at this point. So far, mixes have translated pretty well to other stereo systems. The biggest problem I'm having is with reverb. Through the cans, any reverb effect seems lighter than what it actually is, so some aspects of my mixes (like vocals mainly) seemed too wet on other systems. But, I've figured out how to get around that, so my mixes are doing pretty well on other setups while mixing through the headphones.

 

[XLR]

I use a home stereo system with several different sets of speakers. I monitor from about 10 ft away. My favorite and best balanced speakers, believe it or not - a Realistic Minimus 77 pair. It was kind of a struggle though to get used to them enough that mixes would translate OK to other systems, and I'd still like to get some nice nearfields.

I can't mix w/headphones at all. Everything sounds good... then on speakers everything sounds out of balance. I use headphones for editing.

 

[RAMI]

I monitor from about 10 ft away.

Tim, if you're 10 feet from your speakers, don't they have to be 10 feet from each other, ideally? I'm just asking because I'm not sure if that's a hard and fast rule or not. Actually, I don't even know if ot's a rule, because I might have it wrong. Maybe the listener should be twice the distancs that the speakers are from each other???

Maybe someone else knows and I'll just stop guessing.

 

[Mixxit12]

I think a big mistake that a lot of people make is they assume that a 'monitor' doesn't add any colorations like stereo speakers do. The truth is .... monitors are just stereo speakers with the word monitor added to their name.
A good pair of stereo speakers nowadays is likely to be as flat or even flatter than some of the monitors we use.
I'd take a nice pair of Paradigms or Focal or any of a large number of quality speakers for monitors any day.
But ALL speakers have their own colorations ...... there's no such thing as a completely flat speaker no matter what their specs say. Once you put them in a room and push them with different electronics than they were measured with and in a room with it's own interactions with speakers and every single one of them is gonna have some suckouts and some emphasized freqs to some extent.
As Travis and jmorris have already said ...... the most important thing is to really 'know' your speakers and how sound from them translates to other speakers in the wild.

But those "nice" stereo speakers were manufactured with coloration in mind. The designers didn't want them to sound "true" or "flat". They wanted everything to sound GOOD. At least most monitor manufacturers attempt to build a speaker with a flat response, no?

 

[XLR]

Tim, if you're 10 feet from your speakers, don't they have to be 10 feet from each other, ideally?

I have them about 6 ft apart. I've tried them farther apart but the soundstage wasn't as realistic to me.

I've used some good nearfield monitors in other studios, that sounded just right in the "equilateral triange" type setup, so maybe it's just my particular stereo speakers. Dunno about a general rule about differences between placement of stereo spkrs vs nearfields.

 

[gvdv]

I think a big mistake that a lot of people make is they assume that a 'monitor' doesn't add any colorations like stereo speakers do. The truth is .... monitors are just stereo speakers with the word monitor added to their name.
QUOTE]
Lt. Bob - good point, I should have phrased my question differently when I started the thread.

GVDV.

 

[cusebassman]

I was using these bad boys up until a couple weeks ago:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121126

Aaaaah yeah... had my DTRS tape machines and my 24 channel Yamaha runnin out to those things. They actually weren't half bad aside from the fact that they make EVERYTHING 10 times bassier than it actually was to begin with. I learned (to an extent) to overcome this and work around it, but I still had issues with the low end of my mixes.

I recently bought a set of KRK RP-5s, which work wonderfully, and have a nice even bass response (I didn't buy a KRK sub with them). The problem now? They expose far more subtle frequency problems that I didn't see (or hear, as the case may be) before. This is definitely a good thing, but means I have a lot more work to do in the mixing process than I did before...

But hey, we all want to be as close as possible to a decent mix that will translate well to various audio systems

 

[danny.guitar]

Little Creative desktop speakers with a sub.

I've gotten so used to how things sound on these though (over the past 2-3 years) that I don't usually have any problems getting my stuff to sound good on other systems. Maybe it's because my system is a lot like everyone else's so it translates pretty well naturally.

I still hope to get some real monitors soon when I can afford them.

 

[Lt. Bob]

But those "nice" stereo speakers were manufactured with coloration in mind. The designers didn't want them to sound "true" or "flat". They wanted everything to sound GOOD. At least most monitor manufacturers attempt to build a speaker with a flat response, no?

Yes, theoretically that's so with monitors. Where I don't agree is that good stereo speakers are built to have colorations moreso than 'monitors'.
The good stuff is designed to sound as close to the master tapes as possible which is just a different way of saying they're designed to be flat as possible.
When you read reviews of audiophile stuff one of the biggest things that gets complaints is any emphasis of any freq .... once again ... just a different way of saying they get panned for not being flat.
Don't confuse stuff like say, Kenwood or Bose or Technics with the kind of speakers I'm talking about.
If you take the measurements of a nice pair of Focal speakers , you'd find that they are just as flat and often flatter than the relatively cheap monitors that most of us use.
A lot of these measurements are available at Stereophile.com but it's hard to compare 'cause they don't have measurements of the consumer lever 'monitors' so it may not be worth looking at.
Also ..... a nice pair of Focals'll cost 2-4 thousand and even a mid level pair of Paradigms'll set you back $1500 or so; so as a practical matter they aren't gonna be the way many of us go.
But I did want to point out that a manufacturer putting the word 'monitor' in the name doesn't mean squat unless you believe that a manufacturer would never bullshit you.

 

[Nick98338]

Sony Boom Box. Speakers separate from main box. Put speakers on either side of monitor.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

But those "nice" stereo speakers were manufactured with coloration in mind. The designers didn't want them to sound "true" or "flat". They wanted everything to sound GOOD. At least most monitor manufacturers attempt to build a speaker with a flat response, no?

This is The Big Myth about consumer loudspeakers vs. "studio monitors".

Most consumer loudspeakers are NOT designed with a specific coloration in mind There are a few exceptions, like those with 15" woofers desogned to kick out the bass, but those are really the exceptions to the rule. The way it's usually described is that they are designed to "hype" the bass and treble. The irony is if you look at most consumer loudspeaker response charts the opposite is true, most of them tend to be anemic at the ends of the spectrum. And just like in "studio monitors", no two models of consumer loudspeaker sound alike.

And as much as one would like to believe that "studio monitors" are designed to be flat, one visit to your local pro audio showroom to give them a listen will blow that theory right out of the water; there is as much variation in sound between models of "studio monitors" as there is between their consumer cousins.

The closest general statement to the truth is that whether it's a consumer loudspeaker or a "studio monitor", the manufacturer typically tries to build a speaker that is as flat as they can within certain far more practical and logistical constraints such as available component supply, intended resale price point, and marketability.

Dollar for dollar, most inexpensive studio monitors don't necessarily sound any better or any flatter than their consumer cousins. Sometimes they will. Sometimes they won't.

G.

 

[pschmailinglist]

Alesis M1 Active Schematics

Hi,

Does anyone knows where can I download the old Alesis M1 Active (1997) circuit schematics? at least for the power supply?

thanks..

 

[LP2006]

I used to mix on a pair of sansui tower speakers; circa early 90's I think. Maybe earlier... I think they were 3-way, with 2-10" woofers, a midrange driver, and a tweeter. I was listening to some of my older stuff the other day on my blue sky prodesk, and it sounded pretty good.

I was also at a friends house the other day and listened to a mix of mine through his harmon and kardon setup. I had done the mix on some genelec 1032's. Surprisingly, the harmon and kardons sounded similar to me . They did have a quite a bit of artificial low end though.

I'm convinced that as long as the speakers are full range, and you like the sound, you could effectively mix on anything you want. As long as you know how your system translates, you're golden.

So some thought for food: Say you have a decent monitoring system(as defined above), would it be best to stick to that monitoring system even if you can upgrade?

I'm thinking in terms of experience here...as far as i'm concerned, if you have tons of experience with a certain monitoring system, and its working out for you, then why spend an incredible amount of money to switch to something you have less experience with? I mean, look at ns-10's. Yep I've heard em...and no, I don't really like them... but a hell of a lot of people do.

Man, i really don't think the infinity speakers in my mini-van are all that accurate, but I bet I could do a pretty solid mix on them! I've have more listening hours on those things than anything else !

just my 2 cents.

 

[Cyrokk]

I use Tannoy Proto-J's, headphones, mp3 headphones, soundblaster, car stereo, and anything else I can get my hands on to listen to mixes.

Restricting to a single pair of speakers isn't conducive to the best mix.

 

[ofajen]

O.K., fess up, has anyone here 'adapted' to using anything other than 'real' studio monitors for multitracking (either for cost or space reasons)?

I'm wondering whether people have learned to compensate for the biases / sound colorations that things like headphones or hi fi speakers might introduce into the recording or monitoring process.

Curiously,
GVDV

I've used a Hafler DH-200 into Polk RTA-12Bs for, oh, about 26 years now. No small, near field monitors (with no low bass) for me. I tried some, briefly. I prefer a full-range, mid-field setup flanked with ASC studio traps, but, hey, I'm weird.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[treymonfauntre]

thats such a hard thing to understand.

maybe that's what seperates me from you.

i guess i'm learning my monitors. i know that they make everything sound like crap. in the end, it still sounds like crap on them, even though it can sound decent elsewhere.

it that the purpose of NS10's? make everything sound so bad that you have to work really hard and then you get mind boggling mixes in the end, when you are listening on your CD player and iPod? or.. boombox, DAT walkman or 8 track

this is like the corny prelude to any review of the ns10s..

"why yes, you're right! if it sounds good on these it sounds good on anything.."

 

[Snazzy Q]

I use a pair of car speakers in a crappy homemade box. I plug the whole thing into the speaker extension on a Crate bass amp so I can get lows with the bass amp, mids with the car speakers, and highs with the built-in tweeters in the car speakers. No stereo separation at all but at least it sounds kind of like a car which is where I listen to my music anyway. To pan and do stereo stuff I have some cheap audiotechnica headphones.
Nothing at all like real monitors, but it works for me