tone settings

[del schnell]

I am using a pair of 40w active nearfield monitors for mixing my tracks.
these have separate bass and treble pots on the amp section. by default I have these set at the neutral midpoint, this seemed right to me to allow me to hear the actual sound rather than boosting anything.
is this the right approach, or should I be turning them up and mixing with them at their worst case scenario? ie maxed out

 

[miroslav]

I would leave them at neutral.

They are there to allow you to adjust the monitor bass/treble balance for the room....not for your mixes.

Best thing...play some commercial music that you are familiar with. If the sound from the monitors seems out of balance....+/- bass or +/- treble....add/remove bass and/or add/remove treble.

If it's too much bass...don't try to compensate by boosting the treble...instead cut the bass. Same thing with the treble.
Boost only if you need to.

If you have a manual for the monitors....it probably explains how to use those controls.

 

[Mickster]

You don't mention a brand and model.....not that it matters too much. But if you had, some of us may know some of the characteristics of that model already and you could benefit from our experience. All that being said..........and I'm not sure where you are at with your own experience........I would start by playing some material I was very familiar with through them to see how it sounds. That's your starting point. That could be your own stuff........or CD's you may have heard many times. If they are in the same environment (room) you heard the material in before.........all the better. It's a learning thing. But yes........start with the adjustments as you have them and tweak as you need to.

 

[BroKen_H]

If you have your room acoustics set well, start listening to lots of different tracks of music through the speakers: Songs that you know the sound of and how they should sound. When they sound right to your ears, your speakers are right. Don't sit for hours at a time, as you'll get comfortable with the sound somewhere. Then tweak later, then tweak again, and you'll never get it. Listen to two or three at a pass, then take a break and come back again. Pretty soon you'll start hearing what you need to hear.
If your acoustics are not taken care or, start there. Can't tell you how much time I wasted listening to my speakers with dead spaces all over my room. I'm still getting the acoustics right (building bass traps for the corners), but things have picked up nicely...

 

[BroKen_H]

How about that? Really similar advice from two separate people at the same time!
Good on ya, Mickster!
Whoa! make that three...missed you there Miro!