PA system for monitors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mitchellfwx
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Mitchellfwx

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Hey guys. So instead of spending a few hundred bucks now on a nice set of monitors, can I just use my PA system? Its got a built in mixer and everything. Will there be a real difference in this and say some KRK speakers?
 
I wouldn't mix on them but I might check mixes on them. Of course "PA system" covers a gigantic range. If it's spectacularly good sounding for a PA it might be fine, but if you're worrying about the cost of a pair of KRKs then I doubt you've spent enough on your PA for it to be near good enough.
 
The specific model I have is the yamaha stagepas 300. Its a 600 dollar pair of speakers. And the only reason I have it is because I recieved a music room which included these speakers, as a Christmas gift. However, this new equipment that I am buying, I have to pay for it. That is why I would love to just use them for my control room speakers. I also have a pair of beats studios, which could be used for mixing and such.
 
I'd say try them out but they're almost certainally going to be far from anywhere near 'flat, and likely low end shy.
Do you have a way to hear some decent speakers to hear how these are in comparison?
 
Not really. However, I do have a set of speakers in the home theater that are very high end speakers that just arent needed really, so I could snag them. They are wall mounted. I will go look at them and see if those will work. I am sure they will be better for mixing than the pa will be.
 
PA speakers and home theater speakers are anything but flat response. I suggest you do what those of us without high end studio monitors (or a well treated mixing room) do - mix to the best of your ability, then burn a disc, listen to it in every possible place you can - your car, home living room system, a boombox, a friend's house, etc. Make note of of what sounds good and most important - what sounds bad. Remix based on the notes you made, and do it all again.
Learn to use the speakers/listening environment you have
A 'reference disc' will also help - a CD form someone that you know well and think is mixed perfectly. What's it sound like in your mixing place? Go for the same overall sound and feel, to start with, at least.
 
Frowned on by many ... you could always mix with headphones.
 
I used my pa speakers to mix when I first started 15 years ago and man when I listen to those mixes I cry. I think monitors are the most critical part of mixing with any type of consistency or decent "travel ability". Having to take your mix to other places to a-b makes mixing so slow that it takes all the fun out of it.
 
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