radio gack....

[Gargamel]

I bought a pair a cheap ass Optimus speakers the other day ($30 a piece)....I like to have a few different speaker setups to run my mixes through. ( I have a pair of HR824's). Supprisingly enough, these speakers actually sound pretty damned good. I'm powering the speakers with a now defunct ra-100 alesis power amp...

Has anyone else out there been surprised by a 'consumer grade' (crap) audio gear?

 

[Seanmorse79]

I just read an article in Electronic Musician about monitors, and there's an old pro that swears by his cheap-ass Optimus speakers. I guess it goes by the philosophy that mixing should be done using consumer-level speakers. (although I'm sure that anything good that came from Radio Schmack was a fluke).

I use a set of cheap-o Roland speakers ($89 at Guitar Center) for my "good" set, and a pair of old Zenith 3-way home stereo speakers I got at a garage sale for 15 bucks. I have them on a Radio Schmack 3-way selector, so I can compare mixes on either set.

It's not the best set-up, but it works, and it's the only option for those of use with a limited budget.

 

[Gargamel]

Thats awesome!! A lot of guys use ghetto blasters as well......I might pick one up this week. What the hell. Either way my mixes are light years away from sounding professional.

 

[Gargamel]

I heard sonusman uses a realistic 15 watt cassette player to test his Burt Bacharach covers on....lol

Its all in jest......

 

[Seanmorse79]

...most people will tell you that the most important thing is to KNOW your monitors. Whatever you end up with, make sure you compare your mixes with CD's of similar music you're familiar with to get the "feel" of them. I'm sure that's what Burt Barcharach's engineer would tell ya.

 

[thornapple]

Hey the studio I currently spend 60 hours a week in has many speaker pairs to listen to. Currently I am preferring Urei 813c far and Tannoy NFM8 near. On the shelf are ns10,Ev508,and a pair of no name generics. I have a 2track 1/2 " with a mono monitor built into the deck. This thing is Great. I can tell what joe public hears in his beat up chevy on the way home from work. I also have an Awai bookshelf stereo for the lobby. And I do listen to them all!!

 

[mikeh]

I got a pair of Optimus 7's after reading about certain "pro level" people using them as reference monitors. They are good little speakers for the price - I find if I get a mix sounding good on them that mix will work on most "consumer systems".

I also like to heave a few different monitor options (including some Aurotone cubes) but - I agree that the key is to "know your speakers". I constantly run commercial CD's as a reference to the material I'm mixing.