Studio Monitor Suggestions

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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on October 28, 2008 at 2:01pm

My pick are the NHT M-00 nearfield powered speakers. I use these in a very untunes room and they wrok very well especially with a short spatial distance. They are about 3.5 feet to either side of me and 3 feet in front of me with their backs to a padded wall.

here is a link to gearslutz conversations on them

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end/24471-nht-m-00-monitors.html

and they run $400 - $500 a pair.

In this price range and going up to even perhaps $700 or $800 speakers I think they are a great pick.

If you have $750 to spend, here is an incredible dealon a pair of Genelec nearfield speakers with a sub woofer.

http://www.nextag.com/GENELEC-8030A-5-2-65028567/prices-html

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Permalink Reply by Eric Morgan on October 28, 2008 at 2:52pm

Thank you JS. I appreciate it. I will look into those. You wouldn't happen to have any input on KRK stuff would you?

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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on October 28, 2008 at 3:43pm

I've heard lots of krk's. The V8's were pretty good and under $500 per pair and the Rockit's are suppoosed to be pretty good. A lot depends upon the size of your room, reflections, etc. Also, the KRK's to my ears sound much better with music and slightly off when I listen back to v.o. only.

Of course, we're talking nearfield speakers here and there are always tradeoffs in these puppies. A lot of accomplished audio engineers I know seem to think that the minor variations expressed in the speakers running $300 - $600 a pair makes them all fairly interchangable. One is as good as another. I've listend to Mackies that sound good and JBL:'s that were in this price range. Genelecs have the current cache and panache, although the "cheap" ones may not actually be so cheap.

One other thing I should mention is that at AES I had my hearing tested and found that my left ear was okay, but my right ear is really, really, good. We can do a generally decent mix and review and in most cases I tend to think less is more. Less compression, less e.q'ing, etc., but we will all be subjective in what we like to hear. Some want mroe bass and others more dynamics and others super compression. The clients may be listening back on built in computer speakers or may be huge studios with super expensive speakers. Their hearing maybe very different than yours.

I'm not sure if I should listen differently to the speakers or set them up differntly after having discovered my listening skills are unbalanced.

This is one of the parts of our working in a vacuum that poses huge challenges. We want to make sure that what sounds good to us sounds good to others. Working wiht trained experienced engineers helps one develop a sense for what sounds good or not.

Whenever I change gear I tend to drive my engineer friends crazy by firing off samples of my recordings. Does A sound better than B? WHich do you prefer? Does it need more rolloff at 100 hz?

The KRK rockits have some type of treble control for tuning them to your room. I remember Alan Sides microphone cabinet ( book) came with a CD that you could use for mic comparisons and room tuning. There are several of these room tuning CD's and DVD's on the market designed to allow you to better tune your room (bass traps, wall dampeners, etc.) to create a proper listening experince, but does that help if your client is listening to your demo in their car?

Just one more thing I probably overthink that tends to keep me from having a good night's sleep. One might say that for the cost of a couple of speakers I could pay for a couple years worth of happy pills. Hmmmm, maybe we need to extend the defintiion of gear.

Good Luck. I've probably just given you a headache.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Morgan on October 28, 2008 at 5:04pm

Nope, no headace :-) I really do appreciate your input. I have told you before, I have a lot of respect for your opinion, and while hearing may vary person to person, I do appreciate your input. Is there an echo in here, or is that my studio monitors? :-)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Jasper on October 29, 2008 at 7:41pm

The small KRK's problem that I've heard are that they're a little too bright and have a bit of a sizzle in the tweeters, rather than just sounding natural and open like a good Vifa dome or ribbon tweeter. That'll make your EQ too dark.

I use Tannoy PBM-8 II's in the studio, and a pair of JBL 4410A's in the living room. Both have great imaging and a natural high end. I've been especially pleased with the Tannoys, so be sure to check out the Reveal 6's and 8's. If I had no way to listen to monitors before buying, I'd still plunk down the cash for those and be confident I'd receive something good to mix on.

But, like J.S. said, it's a matter of taste too. And you never really know how a speaker's gonna sound until it's in your room. In the first room I had the Tannoy's in, I thought they had no bass. Now, in a different room, they have a little too much. I have a friend who has a pair of Reveal 6's that he never uses. In that room, he prefers his Alesis M1's. His mixes sound great. It's a matter of buying the best tool you can, and learning how to use it.

Plus, it helps to hedge your bets by listening on at least two sets of monitors. I mix at a slightly lower than moderate level on the Tannoys first, then check out the mix on a pair of small Realistic Minimus 7's. On them, I usually find that I can get away with boosting the music a little more. Then I go back to the PBM-8s and see if the mix still holds up. If the music doesn't seem like it's swamping the vocal, I go with that mix, and give it one final check in mono on a single Minimus 7 for that mono television experience. In the old days, I used the cue speaker in a Tascam reel to reel for that. If I have time, I'll also run the playback thru moderate compression and see if it still sounds ok with more compression such as might happen at the station. (Just an FMR RNC, not multiband.) If it still sounds good, the mix goes out.

I EQ very moderately and only my vocals are compressed. They get compressed once, on the way in. No multiband. I like to give everybody's Orban something to munch on. I know a lot of guys like it to leave the studio "sounding like it's already on the air," but IMHO that's too much processing. All that's fine for a demo, but to me it sounds like plastic thru an air chain. But to each his own.

Just some thoughts....

JJ

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Permalink Reply by Mike Elmore on October 28, 2008 at 7:34pm

You should go somewhere and give the M-Audio BX5a a spin.....compact, inexpensive and will blow the windows out if you want to do that....and with clean, clear sound....I added a subwoofer to mine....but turn that off when I am editing and mixing...then turn it on to check the "woof" levels of my imaging and promo stuff....I like em'

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Permalink Reply by Mike Elmore on October 28, 2008 at 7:35pm

http://reviews.cnet.com/separate-speakers/m-audio-studiophile-bx5a/...

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Permalink Reply by Mike Elmore on October 28, 2008 at 7:38pm

Lots of people on here have them and love them.......

165.00 with free shipping right here....

http://cgi.ebay.com/M-AUDIO-BX5A-WARRANTY-BX-5A-BX5-A-Monitor-Speak...

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Permalink Reply by Eric Morgan on October 29, 2008 at 10:00am

Thanks Mike. That was one of the monitors I was thinking about. JS, I have heard that the KRK Rockit is exactly what you said: Sound great with music, but inaccurate with VO, so that is out.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Morgan on October 31, 2008 at 3:07pm

Thanks for the input guys. As soon as I get my Voicemaster Pro sold, it's off to buy new monitors.

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