Is a Subwoofer Necessary?

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I just picked up some new KRK Rockit 8's, and I was wondering if a subwoofer would be helpful. My control room is basically a 12X7' rectangle that I will soon be acoustically treating (bass traps, panels on the wall opposite of the monitors) to some degree. I was checking out a few subwoofers and noticed they aren't cheap, so is one really needed? Thank you for your time.
 
Depends upon the style of music you're creating to some extent.

I've never found a use for one, but I'm not doing anything with extreme bass frequencies... might be useful to help tame bass frequencies that my regular monitors aren't telling me about, but I think you'll find most people here don't have a sub...
 
I record a lot of different styles, but most of the things I do have low end reduced to the pint where there is no rumble, but a great deal of bass (to a reasonable extent), but I can see why they aren't used very much, as it would be a whole lot less expensive to just play a mix off of a bass-heavy stereo system. Thanks for the reply!
 
If you still want bass with KRK' 8s then you seriously want bass. I don;t record hip-hop or techno so not too sure about the monitor methods used by such producers... KCearl makes some music with a lot of low end, maybe he can tell you...
 
You're going to need so much broadband trapping in a 12x7 space just to control the "sort of low" end that I wouldn't even dream of trying to use a sub in there.
 
Yup. What they said.

And, beyond that, I'm generally not a fan of using separate subs as part of a monitor system anyway. Unless specifically designed to work as part of the system (like some very expensive Genelecs for example) there's always the fear that the crossover is going to do unfortunate things to the frequency response anyway.

I'd say mix on the KRKs and have a listen on your bass-heavy stereo occasionally.
 
As above. A subwoofer is going to cause you more problems that it solves if it's not in a tuned room.
 
I doubt you'll need a subwoofer with the KRK 8s, they reproduce the low end quite nicely. You generally need a sub with smaller monitors.
 
It's not a matter of "need" at this point -- The space can't handle the low end from the KRK's at this point. Adding a sub would turn an acoustical nightmare into --- some other acoustical nightmare.
 
Massive Master said:
It's not a matter of "need" at this point -- The space can't handle the low end from the KRK's at this point. Adding a sub would turn an acoustical nightmare into --- some other acoustical nightmare.
Click to expand...

I just noticed he mentioned his space was '12 by 7'. Yeah in that case this is definitely a no brainer.
 
If you think you're lacking bass, make sure your speakers aren't hooked up out of phase with each other.


(or out of polairty....whatever)
 
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