Are my MSP5's defective?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kenneth nixon
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kenneth nixon

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When using a (software) multiband compressor/limiter and soloing the low end, I sometimes hear a distinct rattling distortion with moderate strength signals below ~70Hz. The freq range of these monitors is listed as 50Hz - 40kHz. The noise seems to be coming from the back of the box where the amps are located. Please excuse my ignorance as I'm still learning...

1 - Are these monitors garbage?

1.5 - Is 50Hz a low enough range for most rock, blues, country mixes? I haven't heard the distortion with any commercial CDs I've listened to.

2 - Am I clipping the inputs on the low end?

3 - When mixing/mastering, how loud should I have the monitors? The soundcard output?

4 - At what point do most pro mastering engineers start rolling off the low end, and at what point does the low end become "noise" rather than "sound"?

Hate to think I broke my piggy for bank for crappy gear - I prefer to believe the problem is operator error. Any comments greatly appreciated.

kbn
 
well, not an expert, but 50hz is usually too low for regular speakers to handle anyway. With too much (or even a little) boost in this range, rattling and muddiness can appear. Judging only on specs I have seen (not a good analysis, but all I have to go on), these speakers have a similar response curve to the NS10s. If you hear so much bass that stuff is rattling, then you have to much bass running through them. The reason your commercial CDs don't have this problem, is that the 50hz frequency isn't boosted heavily, if at all. So, keep listening to those commercial CDs and learn the monitors. As far as I can tell, they aren't garbage.

Peace and afro grease,
Mike
 
Thanks Mike

The first sentence of your message answers almost all my questions.

I think I just need to shift the EQ in all my mixes a little to the right. Even though everything sounds balanced, I'm sure I'm letting a lot of inaudible junk get through by trying to use the full range of the speakers.

kbn
 
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