Blue Sky Prodesk 2.1 opinion

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jgohman

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I was planning on getting HR824's, but decided to take a risk and ordered the Blue Sky Prodesk 2.1 system. The megamusicdealer (Sam Ash) I ordered them from has a 45 day return policy, so I took the chance- especially since there are no reviews out there for this system (at least that I could find). I was tempted to buy the flagship Blue Sky 2.1's, but I liked the smaller footprint of the Prodesk.

I love them. They are smooth, sensitive, and the imaging has a clarity that really impresses me. The subwoofer has really opened up my world. I could try for a better description, but words are useless unless there is something bad that stands out and there isn't.

Now I know that it's all relative to what I was using before. For my home studio I had a pair of JBL S38BE's (passive). These clearly blow those away (I disliked the JBL's and now hate them), but I should mention that "in a former life" (aka prior to marriage, family) I was a mastering engineer for Sony Music and we had some *pretty nice* systems and I know what accurate sound can be. The Prodesk system competes. Now they could never match what I worked with, but this system is perfect what what I do, which is run a DAW in my basement.

I now have to remix everything I've done down here. They sound like kr@p to me through the Blue Sky's. Well known, well engineered cd's sound just beautiful though.

Just thought somebody might want an opinion on them. (btw, I don't work for Blue Sky- I work 40 hour weeks now (wow) for an insurance company (not so wow).

I'm so happy I don't have to box these suckers back up and ship them back.:)
 
Blue Sky

I'm planning to buy a Sky System One, for the same reasons! These speakers a clear, precise, present....I loved them!!! My 2020bas sounds like pure crap now. :|
 
One day I might look into the Sky's, I have heard quite a lot about them from other people, but I love my 824's hehe.
 
How much thump do you get from the sub? I wouldn't mind having a second set of monitors with some serious bass. Does it just fill in the lows or does it hit you in the chest?
 
yah what is the sub, a 10 or a 8 or sumin? How hard does it knock
 
Tex, EAR has a set of blue sky's, they are AWESOME! Almost bought them instead of 824's but subs scare me. They just barely reach into the " thump" area, but they are SOOOOO clean and nice
 
Thanks Aaron. I'll check them out next time I'm over there. I don't want them for mixing or tracking but I'd like a nice main system that's tighter than my JBL PA speakers so clients can get some wow factor.
 
TexRoadkill said:
How much thump do you get from the sub? I wouldn't mind having a second set of monitors with some serious bass. Does it just fill in the lows or does it hit you in the chest?
Click to expand...
fluxburn,its a 12inch sub..
it has a clean responce..it all depends on the room how the sub performs.. but in most room.. its hard clean hitting bass.. yes you can fill it in your chest...35hz and under... i was very impressed with the sub.. a lot of my songs peak around 25-33hz..and the sub has the studio about to fall apart.. it can handle anything you through to it...i played test tones to it and it took them no problem.. it does have a filter at 15hz also..not to many ppl have songs that have a bass responce under 20hz(i do ;) )
the blue sky system is just like having a great 3 way setup...
the sub has a frequency response or 20hz to about 180
 
Keep in mind that the ProDesk has an 8" sub and the System One has the 12" sub. I have the 8" and it reaches deep enough for me.
 
Subwoofer Response

Both the SUB 12 (Sky System One) and SUB 8 (ProDesk) have the exact same frequency response. However, there is one compromise and that is maximum output. The output limitation is due to the excursion limitations of the 8" driver. It would take 2 SUB 8s to play as loud as one SUB 12.

Frequency response of the SUB 8 and SUB 12 are -3dB at around 30Hz, however because they are not ported and they don't use a passive radiator, the roll-off is much more gentle. Additionally, because most studios acoustically have a 12 dB per octave gain below Aprox. 30Hz, we have seen many rooms with solid response to below 15Hz. No sub-sonic filter is employed, however due to amplifier design nothing below 3Hz is reproduced. As a side note, this 12 dB per octave LF gain phenomenon has been extensively documented by Louis D. Fielder of Dolby Labs (I believe the title of the AES Paper is - "Subwoofer performance for accurate reproduction of music", JAES, Vol. 36, Number 6, pp. 443 (1988)).

On the High-end, the SUBs response will go out to around 200Hz when feeding the "Direct" input. However, when feeding the bass-management section of the SUB, the response is only out to 80Hz to match the SAT and reproduce a perfectly flat summed response.
 
about the sub

Hi Bluesky,

I noticed, at the store, a gain pot on the sub. How do you set it? I mean, what will tell me (if I buy them :)) how to set the level of the sub?

The sub in the store was set to -9, ...so what determine this? you just listen to it and set it like you "think" it should be?
 
The manual that comes with the systems details 3 methods for setting SUB/SAT level.

1 Method one, is using your ears.
2 Method two, is using an SPL meter.
3 Method three, is using a Real Time Analyzer.

The manuals are available online and can be downloaded in .pdf format at http://www.abluesky.com/p/p5.html

Soon, users will also be able to download test signals from our website, including bandwidth limited files. Bandwidth limited test files help improve the accuracy of SPL meter measurements. Although in our experience, as long as you are familiar with the musical material you are playing, using your ears can be just as accurate as using a RTA or SPL Meter.

One last comment about level; the reason sub the level needs to be changed is because when a sub is placed closer to a boundary its efficiency increases. For example, when placed in a corner, the efficiency of a subwoofer can increase by as much as 9 to 12 dB, requiring the level of the sub to be lowered.

Hope that helps explain...
 
Just a quick question. I know that monitors aren't suppose to sound "good", but could these be used for listening? Like just chilling and listening to music for enjoyment? Or say if i decided to dj at a friends house party, and i brought the blue sky's over, i'm guessing they could thump pretty good, and would not distort at high levels like home theatre setups, but would they sound good?

Or would people at the party be going "aawee man, those vocals are really overcompressed and the reverb tails are much too long! Jesus where did they get that stuff mastered?", haha, well ok not unless it's a home recording party, but seriously...

Also How would you recomend controlling the volume on these suckers. If i had them hooked up to turntables i could just use the output control on the mixer "duh", but what about going out of a computer?

Man if i could get them for 1000 US i'd buy them without a doubt.
 
ambi said:
Just a quick question. I know that monitors aren't suppose to sound "good", but could these be used for listening? Like just chilling and listening to music for enjoyment? Or say if i decided to dj at a friends house party, and i brought the blue sky's over, i'm guessing they could thump pretty good, and would not distort at high levels like home theatre setups, but would they sound good?

Or would people at the party be going "aawee man, those vocals are really overcompressed and the reverb tails are much too long! Jesus where did they get that stuff mastered?", haha, well ok not unless it's a home recording party, but seriously...

Also How would you recomend controlling the volume on these suckers. If i had them hooked up to turntables i could just use the output control on the mixer "duh", but what about going out of a computer?

Man if i could get them for 1000 US i'd buy them without a doubt.
Click to expand...

Of course "studio monitors" can sound good, even great! However they should be accurate, and what you mix on them should translate to other environments...

So...
Good in = Good out
Great in = Great out
Crap in = Crap out

The better the source material, the better an accurate studio monitoring system will sound. This is of course the goal when designing a studio monitoring system. The goal when designing a consumer system may be very similar, however compromises are often made so that a given speaker is a little more "flattering".

So, will people complain about the reverb, vocals and who mastered it? It depends on how good the source material is and how much alcohol everyone has had to drink. Even a bad mix can sound good, when your drunk...

;-)
 
Hey Blue Sky I am about to either buy the System One or a pair of Mackie HR824's to use with my Yamaha AW4416. Would love to here your comparison of the two options.

Also would love to hear how well you think the System One will translate what sounds great in the mix on the AW4416 to Car and other Stereo system that don't have SUBs. I heard the System One recently, and they Blew me away when I heard them, I was just about to buy the 824's when I heard the System one and stopped dead in my tracks and have been debating it which way to go ever since. System One sounds great but how well do they translate.
 
iwanarock said:
Hey Blue Sky I am about to either buy the System One or a pair of Mackie HR824's to use with my Yamaha AW4416. Would love to here your comparison of the two options.

Also would love to hear how well you think the System One will translate what sounds great in the mix on the AW4416 to Car and other Stereo system that don't have SUBs. I heard the System One recently, and they Blew me away when I heard them, I was just about to buy the 824's when I heard the System one and stopped dead in my tracks and have been debating it which way to go ever since. System One sounds great but how well do they translate.
Click to expand...

Well, of course my opinion is heavily biased and I don't want to come across as posting spam. However, you did ask and here are three short user overviews and this may answer your questions...

One of our biggest supporters is a studio here in LA called Larson Post (Sky System One & ProDesk), they do many different types of work, Post Production for Film, TV and also music. From what they say the systems work flawlessly. One of the editors made a comment to me a few weeks ago, saying that he found the system really useful when it comes to prepping tracks for mixes. He said in the past they would catch rumble or other artifacts, such as people kicking mics, only once they brought the tracks into to the final mix on the dub stage or studio. Then they would have to spend a lot of time fixing tracks and redoing work. He mentioned that everything now translates very well from pre-mix, to the final mix and then to Film, DVD, CD or TV.

One of the engineers that worked there on a Marilyn Manson DVD, Rogers Masson, has since purchased his own system (Sky System One) and has been using them on many different types of music projects in both professional studios and home studio setups. He has had great success with them as well and says they really speed up his work and make him more confident. He is currently working with a band called The Cribb and a behind the scenes documentary of this project will be on a VH1. The show is about private residences being turned into recording environments and should be very interesting...

Lastly, our biggest user, Skywalker Sound (47 Systems - Sky System One), has been using our system for about a year now. Although mostly known as a Post house, they also do lot of music and commercial work. They have been very satisfied and use them on almost all of their projects.

More information is available, about all these users and many more, on our website.

Larson Post Information - http://www.abluesky.com/p/p2s6ad11.html
Roggers Masson Information - http://www.abluesky.com/p/p2s5.html
Skywalker Sound Information - http://www.abluesky.com/p/p2s2.html

Please forgive me if I have Spammed...
 
you should ask some one outside of their company to get a more accurate "opinion" of the two speakers. What you're asking for is a bias answer for the skyblue.
 
Hey Blue Sky thanks for the response, I asked the question, you just answered what I asked. I realized when I asked, you might be a little bias, but you gave some insight into who is using them professionally and I will go take a look at that the Web site you posted, I heard somewhere about Skywalker using them but didn't know much about them. Personally I like it when people who work for the companies, are posting and answering questions about their products, when they are upfront about who they are (which your userid makes clear). Having the ability to communicate with people who work for manufacturers of the products I buy on Web site like this one, weigh on my decision making process. I have found it extremely useful and beneficial in the past with other products when I needed help. By the way if you don't mind me asking what do you do for Blue Sky?

Zallen I already replied to another post from a user who just bought System One, asking anyone with experience with either product to comment or give their opinion, so I didn't want to be redundant here. I am interested in all feedback. But lets be fair, EVERYONE is a little BIAS, Look all the post on the Yamamie NS10's and it is pretty easy sometimes to tell who owns a pair and who doesn't. I am not knocking anyone or the NS10's cause I don't have a pair and have no idea if I would like them or not. But I do own a ton of other musical equipment that I like a lot, and I am probably a little BIAS towards them when comparing for an example a Mic I own versus one I don't, but I try to be as honest as possible about strengths and weaknesses.
 
Thx Iwannarock :)

I didnt know what "being BIAS" ment... well, I imagine it right, but you just confirm it to me. hehe thx ;)
 
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