How I test my mastered / finished tunes for great sound
- Thread starter flwolf
- Start date
milessound
New member
Bose speakers are the very least accurate or flat speakers you could possibly buy. Why would you even consider mixing or checking a mix on them? There is a very diminished high end and the lows are completely hyped. Maybe as the 6th thing you check on down the list if you are familiar with what they do to other recordings you're familiar with. You ever hear or see Bose anywhere near a professional recording studio? I have a wave guide clock radio that was $500 too. Got it free for working sound on a TV show as a wrap gift. It truly is a great product. But it's a clock radio.
Oooh! I didn't capitalize my "I". My bad.
No dickishness on either part. I was just pointing out two things.
1) per previous conversation, you had a brief experience with a speaker that was not the same as the one used in pro studios....and
2) That true professionals have used them for years and many still do
Thats all.
Waltz Mastering
New member
Yes, the components used to be pretty inexpensive. The speakers new, when they came out, I think were $390 a pair.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
I've always been curious about actually mixing substantially with the NS10s. I've heard them, and didn't particularly like their sound. Once I almost bought a pair, back in the early '90s...and the sales guy (who I dealt with before, and new his shit) said not to get them, and he suggested a pair of Tannoys, the small near-field kind (forget the model, to lazy to get up and look)...which I used for awhile, but didn't really love them either, and eventually the speaker surrounds fell apart, I got some different speakers, but with similar specs, and now they're sitting here in my living room, tied to the stereo system.
They sound OK. I took my 3-way Technics off the stereo system and moved them into my studio...just when I want the huge stereo speaker sound. They sit in the back of the studio, not at the mix position.
Anyway...I think you can get use to working with the NS10s...and I think what they are best for, is what Jay said...to bring out the mid-range, which is key area for Rock/Pop music...but in all the big studios, they have at least 1-2 additional sets of bigger/truer monitors, as I doubt you would want to mix more modern exclusively stuff on them....the stuff with the huge low end, and over exaggerated highs. You wouldn't be able to get that low end...and yeah, you would have to break out the tissue paper for the tweeters if you cranked the highs.
Still...I've always been curious about the NS10s....maybe just because they were such a staple for awhile there.
Not sure though if I would want to get anyone's used NS10s...so I may never know their appeal.
It's one of the reasons I also settled on the Mackie 824 monitors...because for awhile there, they were turning up a lot in big studios as a mid-field alternative, and also because they were designed to be super flat (your room permitting).
I liked how they sounded in my space when I first auditioned them, and I figured they were sorta one of the "approved" monitors for studio use...though after 10 years or so...I find myself thinking about something else, something at least one notch above the Mackies....and no, I'm not gear shaming the Mackies or the NS10s.
They sound OK. I took my 3-way Technics off the stereo system and moved them into my studio...just when I want the huge stereo speaker sound. They sit in the back of the studio, not at the mix position.
Anyway...I think you can get use to working with the NS10s...and I think what they are best for, is what Jay said...to bring out the mid-range, which is key area for Rock/Pop music...but in all the big studios, they have at least 1-2 additional sets of bigger/truer monitors, as I doubt you would want to mix more modern exclusively stuff on them....the stuff with the huge low end, and over exaggerated highs. You wouldn't be able to get that low end...and yeah, you would have to break out the tissue paper for the tweeters if you cranked the highs.
Still...I've always been curious about the NS10s....maybe just because they were such a staple for awhile there.
Not sure though if I would want to get anyone's used NS10s...so I may never know their appeal.
It's one of the reasons I also settled on the Mackie 824 monitors...because for awhile there, they were turning up a lot in big studios as a mid-field alternative, and also because they were designed to be super flat (your room permitting).
I liked how they sounded in my space when I first auditioned them, and I figured they were sorta one of the "approved" monitors for studio use...though after 10 years or so...I find myself thinking about something else, something at least one notch above the Mackies....and no, I'm not gear shaming the Mackies or the NS10s.
Waltz Mastering
New member
I think what you are saying about ns10's is pretty much right on for the most part.
I think Bob Clearmountain single-handedly made them a household name over night once there was a pic of him using them.
He was one of the most influential and successful mixers at the time. .. then you started seeing them everywhere..on every console bridge in Mix magazine etc,.. and they were fairly inexpensive... Pretty sure they were/are used as a secondary set more than people want to admit.
and here it is almost 35ish years later and ppl still covet them.
I had a multi-room place and went through a lot of pairs because we had outside engineers coming in plus a few on staff and they were real easy to blow,.. but they sat next to 1031 and Tannoy system 12's or 4310's etc. Now, I just like looking at them.
The near field speakers that I see getting a lot of hype these days and wouldn't mind checking out for smalls are the Amphion One18's,
but the price of 3K a pair seems like a stretch for a speaker with only a 6.5 inch woofer.
I think Bob Clearmountain single-handedly made them a household name over night once there was a pic of him using them.
He was one of the most influential and successful mixers at the time. .. then you started seeing them everywhere..on every console bridge in Mix magazine etc,.. and they were fairly inexpensive... Pretty sure they were/are used as a secondary set more than people want to admit.
and here it is almost 35ish years later and ppl still covet them.
I had a multi-room place and went through a lot of pairs because we had outside engineers coming in plus a few on staff and they were real easy to blow,.. but they sat next to 1031 and Tannoy system 12's or 4310's etc. Now, I just like looking at them.
The near field speakers that I see getting a lot of hype these days and wouldn't mind checking out for smalls are the Amphion One18's,
but the price of 3K a pair seems like a stretch for a speaker with only a 6.5 inch woofer.
I've always been curious about actually mixing substantially with the NS10s. I've heard them, and didn't particularly like their sound. Once I almost bought a pair, back in the early '90s...and the sales guy (who I dealt with before, and new his shit) said not to get them, and he suggested a pair of Tannoys, the small near-field kind (forget the model, to lazy to get up and look)...which I used for awhile, but didn't really love them either, and eventually the speaker surrounds fell apart, I got some different speakers, but with similar specs, and now they're sitting here in my living room, tied to the stereo system.
They sound OK. I took my 3-way Technics off the stereo system and moved them into my studio...just when I want the huge stereo speaker sound. They sit in the back of the studio, not at the mix position.
Anyway...I think you can get use to working with the NS10s...and I think what they are best for, is what Jay said...to bring out the mid-range, which is key area for Rock/Pop music...but in all the big studios, they have at least 1-2 additional sets of bigger/truer monitors, as I doubt you would want to mix more modern exclusively stuff on them....the stuff with the huge low end, and over exaggerated highs. You wouldn't be able to get that low end...and yeah, you would have to break out the tissue paper for the tweeters if you cranked the highs.
Still...I've always been curious about the NS10s....maybe just because they were such a staple for awhile there.
Not sure though if I would want to get anyone's used NS10s...so I may never know their appeal.
It's one of the reasons I also settled on the Mackie 824 monitors...because for awhile there, they were turning up a lot in big studios as a mid-field alternative, and also because they were designed to be super flat (your room permitting).
I liked how they sounded in my space when I first auditioned them, and I figured they were sorta one of the "approved" monitors for studio use...though after 10 years or so...I find myself thinking about something else, something at least one notch above the Mackies....and no, I'm not gear shaming the Mackies or the NS10s.
80s Flashback!
When I started recording , gear was expensive. I had a bit of a mentor in a client who also happened to be Prince's drummer.
I had 1 good mic, a AKG 414. A Tascam 246, the rackmount Rock man modules, and an Alesis tabletop verb, and a Roland drum machine. Fancy, huh?
I was using a 50 dollar set of Sony 2 way bookshelf speakers.
Anyway the drummer told me I should get what the big boys and studios used...NS10s.
So I trotted my ass over to GC and got talked into some KRKs.
(Back then they were really good and using Focal drivers.)
Next time Bobby came by, he just shook his head and we ended up hopping in his car. I protested a bit because the yammis were more money. He fronted me the difference, and lectured me on getting good shit. He told me that I needed to break them in, and to listen to lots of records through them to get used to them.
I mean come on, he was making records. I was learning.
So got em and never looked back.
As time went on and I got to go to all the LA studios, sure enough, they were on every meter bridge.
At this point, I've been using them so long they are like a favorite pair of jeans to me. I've also listened to thousands of hours of records on them.
There was a study done where they came up quite favorably and one of the features is they had a very fast response to transients.
Anyway, I like, and am used to them.
I don't believe there is one single monitor that is accurate. There is no reference standard. If there was we'd only have one 'studio monitor'.
They all have their own 'flavor' and need to be learned.
Thats the key for any speaker. Learning them!
Works for me.
When I started recording , gear was expensive. I had a bit of a mentor in a client who also happened to be Prince's drummer.
I had 1 good mic, a AKG 414. A Tascam 246, the rackmount Rock man modules, and an Alesis tabletop verb, and a Roland drum machine. Fancy, huh?
I was using a 50 dollar set of Sony 2 way bookshelf speakers.
Anyway the drummer told me I should get what the big boys and studios used...NS10s.
So I trotted my ass over to GC and got talked into some KRKs.
(Back then they were really good and using Focal drivers.)
Next time Bobby came by, he just shook his head and we ended up hopping in his car. I protested a bit because the yammis were more money. He fronted me the difference, and lectured me on getting good shit. He told me that I needed to break them in, and to listen to lots of records through them to get used to them.
I mean come on, he was making records. I was learning.
So got em and never looked back.
As time went on and I got to go to all the LA studios, sure enough, they were on every meter bridge.
At this point, I've been using them so long they are like a favorite pair of jeans to me. I've also listened to thousands of hours of records on them.
There was a study done where they came up quite favorably and one of the features is they had a very fast response to transients.
Anyway, I like, and am used to them.
I don't believe there is one single monitor that is accurate. There is no reference standard. If there was we'd only have one 'studio monitor'.
They all have their own 'flavor' and need to be learned.
Thats the key for any speaker. Learning them!
Works for me.