Monitor Testing

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guitarfreak12

guitarfreak12

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I'm getting a chance to take home some monitors from a friend and hear them before I buy, what are some good mixes to listen to through them and what should I be listening for? I've heard somehthing about Elton Johns stuff, but that's it. Any more suggestions, I'm doing this tonight.

By the way these ar Alesis M1 MKII's.
 
I know a few years back What HiFi magazine done all there listening tests with Ettien d'e cerse's Super Discount.

What are you using for monitors at the moment? The M1s are at the bottom of the monitorig food chain.
 
Right now I don't have anything good at all. Little edirols. But for the price I'm getting these at 250$, it's good. Thanks for the suggestion, what should I look for in the translation of the mix?
 
I use Flim and the BB's Tricycle. It is a very dynamic mix, both loud and soft passages that have not been compressed. I would say you want to listen for:
1. dynamic range - how well does it handle big transitions from soft to loud, does it distort or break up during loud passages
2. Frequency content - how well does it repreduce highs and lows. Does it exaggerated either or is it unable to produce certain ranges.
3. Can it handle the power - how well does it do when you bring the volume up to higher levels
4. Can you distingush each instrument and tell what its range is.

Probably have not hit on all the possibilities but this should get you started thinking about what the intent of the speakers is, to be able to dug into the charcter of each instrument and determine how close the monitors reproduce each instrument compared to the actual live sound. They should allow you to make very small changes and tell if the change is meaningful. If you can not get ahold of the Flim CD, any music that you are VERY familiar with will do.
 
Reference CDs, IMO, should meet the following criteria:

1. They are CDs you are very familiar with (you have listened to them many times, on many systems, in mulitple listening environments). You have a good idea of what the music on these CDs sounds like, or should sound like.

2. They are CDs you feel are well-produced (recorded, mixed, mastered). You listen to these CDs and think, damn, that guitar sounds great, or those drums are just perfect, etc.

3. They are CDs that are stylistically similar to the majority of music you record/mix. If you record metal, using folk CDs as a reference wouldn't make much sense.

If a CD meets all of those criteria, it is probably a good reference CD for you. When listening on monitors, you want to listen for the frequency balance (even, not too little/much bass, nothing missing), stereo image (panning), and detail. On good monitors, you will hear things you've never really noticed on normal stereo speakers/headphones. If you are an experienced listener, try and hear how the reverb tails off and listen for edit points, etc. in the recording.

Some classic reference CDs are Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Steely Dan's Aja.
 
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