J
Justus Johnston
New member
I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum.
I've been using a pair of Event Tuned Reference 5 near fields for my home recording for about 8 months now, and I recently had an experience that I felt was sort of eye-opening.
I recently did a mix at home of one of my personal compositions, and I thought it was a fairly solid mix. It sounded good through the Events. It sounded GREAT through my large home theatre speakers I keep for reference, so I thought I'd take it up to the studio I'm an assistant at and show off/get critique. Well, I threw it into my car's CD player on the way up, and the saxophone was just way cutting in the high-mids about 3k, and it was really obvious. I started really listening to it, and noticed that quite a few sounds sounded like they had a bit too much 3k. I thought to myself "well my car system is shitty anyways". Then I got to work, and played it in Studio A (NS-10s in a VERY well-tuned room), and..same problem, cutting high-mids everywhere, especially the sax! I ended up mastering the track with a 3K cut to compensate, and eventually got the mix sounding halfway decent everywhere (well, halfway decent for me, I've still got a long ways to go), but it was the first time I'd ever really noticed such a thing. I guess my ears are FINALLY starting to develop and hear some of this detail the pros are always talking about.
So, to make a long story short, I feel like I've just taken an important developmental step in my sound career, and I'd like to step up my personal monitoring at home for more accuracy. My room at home isn't as well-tuned as at work, but I've done some treatment (with the help of my boss' friend, a professional acoustician), so my listening environment shouldn't be coloring my mids that much (I mostly have a few problems with lows at the moment; need to build some bass traps). I think the main component for stepping up my game is to invest in a pair of monitors I can trust more than the Events, though they have served me well enough as entry level monitors.
Of course, I hate to sound like so many other newbs and whine about not having the money for really nice gear (Genelec 1032A, here's looking at you), but I'm just an assistant, run sound for a church, and get gigs, so the money doesn't just flow around here. I'd really like to spend between $400 and $700 on a pair. I'd presume that the best value for that price range would be a pair of active nearfields, am I right? Any passive monitors for sure would have to take the price (and quality) of an amplifier into consideration as well. If the experienced folks here think that I'd be best served (considering the situation I've just described) looking at monitors over $700, then lay it on me so I can start pinching my pennies.
PS - I love the NS-10s at work. Deskspace constraints restrict me from buying any non-magnetically-shielded speakers unfortunately, at least among near-fields. Might have to invest in a larger desk or speaker stands if you guys think such a speaker is the way to go though.
I've been using a pair of Event Tuned Reference 5 near fields for my home recording for about 8 months now, and I recently had an experience that I felt was sort of eye-opening.
I recently did a mix at home of one of my personal compositions, and I thought it was a fairly solid mix. It sounded good through the Events. It sounded GREAT through my large home theatre speakers I keep for reference, so I thought I'd take it up to the studio I'm an assistant at and show off/get critique. Well, I threw it into my car's CD player on the way up, and the saxophone was just way cutting in the high-mids about 3k, and it was really obvious. I started really listening to it, and noticed that quite a few sounds sounded like they had a bit too much 3k. I thought to myself "well my car system is shitty anyways". Then I got to work, and played it in Studio A (NS-10s in a VERY well-tuned room), and..same problem, cutting high-mids everywhere, especially the sax! I ended up mastering the track with a 3K cut to compensate, and eventually got the mix sounding halfway decent everywhere (well, halfway decent for me, I've still got a long ways to go), but it was the first time I'd ever really noticed such a thing. I guess my ears are FINALLY starting to develop and hear some of this detail the pros are always talking about.
So, to make a long story short, I feel like I've just taken an important developmental step in my sound career, and I'd like to step up my personal monitoring at home for more accuracy. My room at home isn't as well-tuned as at work, but I've done some treatment (with the help of my boss' friend, a professional acoustician), so my listening environment shouldn't be coloring my mids that much (I mostly have a few problems with lows at the moment; need to build some bass traps). I think the main component for stepping up my game is to invest in a pair of monitors I can trust more than the Events, though they have served me well enough as entry level monitors.
Of course, I hate to sound like so many other newbs and whine about not having the money for really nice gear (Genelec 1032A, here's looking at you), but I'm just an assistant, run sound for a church, and get gigs, so the money doesn't just flow around here. I'd really like to spend between $400 and $700 on a pair. I'd presume that the best value for that price range would be a pair of active nearfields, am I right? Any passive monitors for sure would have to take the price (and quality) of an amplifier into consideration as well. If the experienced folks here think that I'd be best served (considering the situation I've just described) looking at monitors over $700, then lay it on me so I can start pinching my pennies.
PS - I love the NS-10s at work. Deskspace constraints restrict me from buying any non-magnetically-shielded speakers unfortunately, at least among near-fields. Might have to invest in a larger desk or speaker stands if you guys think such a speaker is the way to go though.
