I was paid NS 10's for a job

  • Thread starter Thread starter vineband
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vineband

vineband

nothing but a harp
i just recieved a pair of NS-10Ms as a tip for a production job i did. i cant sell them because its a friends gift and i would feel bad trading them in for a modern set of speakers.

what is a great amp match and how do i go about choosing a active? sub to compensate for the low end? can't seem to find the answer to those questions...

thankful for any advice
 
um, I don't wanna rain on yer parade but I'm gonna expose the ns-10 myth.
a lot of people think ns-10's must be these great studio monitors because damn near every studio has a pair. The truth is ns-10's have a horrible frequency response and they are used to listen to what the recording will sound like on an average crappy home speaker system.
 
vineband said:
i just recieved a pair of NS-10Ms as a tip for a production job i did.
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Next time, do a better job.

Bwah ha ha! That was a good one... :D

Seriously though - Any old amp and any old sub will probably be fine. Hafler TA perhaps...
 
freak1c said:
um, I don't wanna rain on yer parade but I'm gonna expose the ns-10 myth.
a lot of people think ns-10's must be these great studio monitors because damn near every studio has a pair. The truth is ns-10's have a horrible frequency response and they are used to listen to what the recording will sound like on an average crappy home speaker system.
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Yeah, that'd be true except almost every hit you can name up till 1990 was mixed on em.

They are a great tool, tiring to the ears but very good for sorting out midrange issues.
 
Hey, for free, you should feel lucky. I would go for the Hafler's too. Now get on ebay and pick up some spare tweeters and woofers so you have parts when they blow out.
 
Do you already have monitors you like and trust? If so, I would definitely say use them as references and screw getting a sub.
 
jake-owa said:
Yeah, that'd be true except almost every hit you can name up till 1990 was mixed on em.
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no...that would be the JBL 4310/11/12....
 
And I think saying that lots of hits were "listened to through them at one point or another" would be more accurate. I know of only very few engineers that actually mixed through those horrific little boxes. Everyone had them, almost everyone A/B'd with them. No one (well, almost no one) used them as their mains.
 
Massive Master said:
And I think saying that lots of hits were "listened to through them at one point or another" would be more accurate. I know of only very few engineers that actually mixed through those horrific little boxes. Everyone had them, almost everyone A/B'd with them. No one (well, almost no one) used them as their mains.
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No disrespect, and I know you said 'almost no one', but I just finished reading an interview with Jack Joseph Puig whom I respect immensely, and he say's the opposite-

Q- What do you monitor on?

A- Primarily NS10s. Why? Because I can get off the plane in New York, France, Egypt, Japan or Mississippi, and they're everywhere. I've learned to make them work. They have become a monitor standard. JJP

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_jack_joseph_puig/

Like I said, no disrespect, I'm just showing the other side of the coin. Personally, I'd agree that they are 'horrific little boxes', but some great mixes have come from them.
 
Yeah, many an album was MIXED through Yamaha NS-10's. Not necessarily because those were the best monitors that the studio had available, but more of a convenience and familiarity thing. I am sure no one looks forward to it, but it's kind of a fact of life for a lot of people.
 
i was afraid i would be opening up this same old tired issue. i know they sound like crap. The fact remains that many guys still use them and they all say the same thing - if you can add some low end and put some good power to them thay will do the job. i plan on using them as a reference when i get a better pair of monitors, but for now I'm going to suffer through them myself so i can come to my own opinions.

thanks for the power amp and sub advice.
 
take a look at the frequency response graph on the back of em.
 
a pair of NS-10s in good condition is worth about $800 these days.

I dont work with either of these guys do I cant vouch personally but I understand that Jack Joseph Puig and Tom Lorde Alge mix on them, that would acount for about half the new hit rock songs on the radio right there.
 
I suppose it's always opening a can of worms when talking about subjective topics like these, I'm just a humble student and certainly don't know it all.
One thing that struck me as funny the first couple months of school was how one teacher would contradict another teacher when talking about some things.I suppose it's inevitable when involved in such a wonderful profession that is a blend of art and science, the subjective application of objective and not so objective scientific and technological principles.
I love this board and am learning a lot here,thank you.
 
I actually hate the hyped midrange on the NS-10's, and I mixed on them for years. And this is the thing that annoys me the most - I spent ages learning how to listen to the NS-10's so as to make a decent mix when better monitors could have saved me a lot of time. However, having to adapt my ears and mixing texhniques to those monitors taught me a lot about what works and what doesn't. Sort of a double edged sword.
 
Ronan said:
a pair of NS-10s in good condition is worth about $800 these days.

I dont work with either of these guys do I cant vouch personally but I understand that Jack Joseph Puig and Tom Lorde Alge mix on them, that would acount for about half the new hit rock songs on the radio right there.
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Charles Dye does too. Dave Pensado uses them too i'm not sure if those are his mains or just reference speakers though
 
vineband said:
i just recieved a pair of NS-10Ms as a tip for a production job i did. i cant sell them because its a friends gift and i would feel bad trading them in for a modern set of speakers.

what is a great amp match and how do i go about choosing a active? sub to compensate for the low end? can't seem to find the answer to those questions...

thankful for any advice
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My 3 cents: A "true" friend who also respects your recording/engineering/etc. career/hobby would understand if you sold/traded those for something.
 
flipmedia

NS-10's are crude sounding critters gauranteed. I agree they should be used only as an alternate monitoring source for mixing. But some of us tend to forget that once our CD's are mixed and mastered through our flat speakers, in our flat rooms they enter a very coloured world caked in bass boost and nasty EQ presets. So it seems to me whatever anyone can make translate well to all the other mediums out there should be respected. No matter what you got in your studio it still comes down to the ears. You simply can't beat auditioning your mix through a ghetto blaster and thats why the NS-10's are in so many studios around the world.
 
As long as you can get used to them, and learn how to mix on them, NS 10s can do a lot for you.

By no means would I think of them as "miracle" speakers though.
 
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