Monitor balance and tone

[paulisher]

I recently posted a mix and someone asked how are you monitoring?? It got me to research my signal flow and gain staging, by the way I use plugins, analog effects and a summing mixer. I was concerned that the right speaker seamed quieter than the left. So I used pink noise to check the balance and the left side sounds full spectrum while the right side sounds brighter, less lower mids. I'm using an old mackie 1202 as a monitor controler so maybe that's the problem or the power amp?? I have done many cable swaps and cable tests. Any thoughts?

 

[mixsit]

Test w/o the mixer in the chain (carefully- the D/A being connected direct to the amp.
Mackies are good for throwing "interesting" curves like that.
Actually I've not owned a one that didn't..

 

[paulisher]

Thanks mixsit. Sounds a bit scary but good call. I'll look farther into that.

 

[Bobbsy]

Yup. Could be the 1202 or the amp but this would be easy to check by simply swapping the speakers around.

Of course, it could also be a driver of crossover issue in the monitors themselves.