STUDIO MONITORS: Your First Time

[Daniel36]

Not me... -_-

All I rock is an i3 laptop, in the living room, with a Beyerdynamix DT 770 Pro... and noisy kids...
But when life gives you noisy kids, let them make noise into a mic and use the recordings for obscure, super underground techno... I suppose...

[Last Alternative]

I only use headphones for recording. See signature.

[LABONERECORDINGS]

We're on Mackie HR824's Mk1, never looked back. We've even got a second pair in reserve for that eventful day....already had a transformer being a dick for some reason, bit of take apart, swap over find the culprit, swear a lot, find a repair centre for spare, find the second pair on eBay, bought 2nd pair, then put faulty one back together and sod us it works again.

We're also using DT880s for closer listening (benefit of being semi-open so get some good stereo separation without bass loss - can wear them for hours!)

Moral to the story? make sure you have cash in reserve (or a good ol' flexible friend at times of need)

[adfielding]

My first mons were a couple of M-Audio DX4s. Not amazing, but I got plenty of use out of them for the 3 years or so I had them before one day they suddenly stopped working and I figured "eh, time to upgrade". Picked up some BX5as afterwards which I really, really liked - again, got about 3 years of use out of them and then switched to a couple of KRK-RP5s coupled with a 5s sub after winning them in a competition. I ended up rehoming my old BX5as and gave them to my housemate (actually, I gave them to my housemate at the time in lieu of bills owed, heheh) who must have really, really liked them - he's been using them for the past 7 or 8 years or so.

To be honest though, I'd say knowing the room is just as important as having a decent monitoring setup. If you're in a fortunate enough position to have your main monitoring setup in a properly treated room then yes, having excellent monitors will make a difference. If you're not, then the fanciest monitors in the world aren't going to compensate for any deficiencies in your room. Most of my music has been written in a variety of ill-suited rooms, but if you're familiar with the space you're in then you can work around it to a certain extent. I still make sure to reference my tunes on a variety of systems anyway, often times I'll get wrapped up in tinkering with a mix only to listen to it on TV speakers or on cans or in a car or something and something will immediately jump out as sounding "off".

[poshook]

I sold my 4k monitors to get money for my wife and children and bought 0.4k monitors - Fluid Audio FX8 - coaxial design. They sounds exceptional. Great bass extension, awesome clarity in mids and trebles, great stereo image, enough power. When I listened them first time, I started laughing as it was unbelievable how they sound for such fraction of money

[Oquasec]

Usin some 598 headphones and ol eris e5's.
Got another 20$ pair for referencing those other types of systems.

[NekujaK]

Blue Sky MediaDesk 2.1 for many years (consists of two satellites and a sub-woofer). Great monitor system, and I like the small size (except for the sub, of course). But the new iLoud Micro Monitors from IK Mutlimedia have got me really interested.

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/iloudmm/

Does anyone have experience with these? Are they as good as everyone says?

[O1B]

UPDATED: Pioneer DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W Active Monitors w/BT
We’ve upgraded our popular 4-inch active desktop monitor speaker, the DM-40, adding Bluetooth® wireless technology to offer versatile connectivity in the DM-40BT (black) and the DM-40BT-W (white). Drawing on our professional speaker technology, we’ve packed the compact speakers with Bluetooth® wireless technology, support for the high-quality Qualcomm® aptX™ audio codec, and AAC support.

146 mm x 223 mm x 227 mm (5.5in x in x ~9 in x ~9 in)
70 Hz – 30 kHz (Good top, I'd love to hear the lows, first)
Bluetooth® Specification Ver. 4.2
Volume control dial is on the front panel for ease of use
RCA x 1, 3.5 mm stereo mini plug x 1
Headphones output
No crossover filters.

Available November 2017, for all those interested in updating/adding Active Monitors.
The DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W active monitor speakers will be available from Nov 2017 at an SRP of $199.00 including VAT..

[Djstarski]

The only pair of monitors i`ve had are the Fostex PM0.5 mkii . 13 years and still counting .

[deepndark]

I started to use my first REAL monitors in 2006, and of course there has been ordinary speakers involved already in the 90s, but my first real monitors I bought in 2006, which were Alesis M1 Mk2 Actives. They sereved me til 2013, before they died. I then went to gearslutz and noticed how JBL LSR 305 have been rated high, so bought them off.
Not sure which pair of these two was better.

[AttenuationHz]

UPDATED: Pioneer DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W Active Monitors w/BT
We’ve upgraded our popular 4-inch active desktop monitor speaker, the DM-40, adding Bluetooth® wireless technology to offer versatile connectivity in the DM-40BT (black) and the DM-40BT-W (white). Drawing on our professional speaker technology, we’ve packed the compact speakers with Bluetooth® wireless technology, support for the high-quality Qualcomm® aptX™ audio codec, and AAC support.

146 mm x 223 mm x 227 mm (5.5in x in x ~9 in x ~9 in)
70 Hz – 30 kHz (Good top, I'd love to hear the lows, first)
Bluetooth® Specification Ver. 4.2
Volume control dial is on the front panel for ease of use
RCA x 1, 3.5 mm stereo mini plug x 1
Headphones output
No crossover filters.

Available November 2017, for all those interested in updating/adding Active Monitors.
The DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W active monitor speakers will be available from Nov 2017 at an SRP of $199.00 including VAT..

Active monitors with only one power input?? How does that work. Looks like ones active ones passive!!



Rocking AdamF5's great investment.

[kuhliloach]

I'm using HS8's in a crappy room, switching to HD598 headphones sometimes. Highs and mids are working well, especially with a good philosophical approach to annoying frequencies. However bass isn't correctly delivered to my ears in the drivers seat. So, to listen to bass levels I must get up and walk around.

[Catblack]

I just bought a pair of JBL LSR305s and I'm pretty happy. I'm going to save up for some Adam A7X monitors next year.

[selig]

UPDATED: Pioneer DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W Active Monitors w/BT
We’ve upgraded our popular 4-inch active desktop monitor speaker, the DM-40, adding Bluetooth[emoji768] wireless technology to offer versatile connectivity in the DM-40BT (black) and the DM-40BT-W (white). Drawing on our professional speaker technology, we’ve packed the compact speakers with Bluetooth[emoji768] wireless technology, support for the high-quality Qualcomm[emoji768] aptX[emoji769] audio codec, and AAC support.

146 mm x 223 mm x 227 mm (5.5in x in x ~9 in x ~9 in)
70 Hz – 30 kHz (Good top, I'd love to hear the lows, first)
Bluetooth[emoji768] Specification Ver. 4.2
Volume control dial is on the front panel for ease of use
RCA x 1, 3.5 mm stereo mini plug x 1
Headphones output
No crossover filters.

Available November 2017, for all those interested in updating/adding Active Monitors.
The DM-40BT/DM-40BT-W active monitor speakers will be available from Nov 2017 at an SRP of $199.00 including VAT..

Active monitors with only one power input?? How does that work. Looks like ones active ones passive!!



Rocking AdamF5's great investment.

I’ve been fooled by this before, but after looking more closely found that the amps are in one speaker (not both). So you power one monitor, then use common speaker wire to get signal to the other. That way only one power supply is needed, one power cord, and one speaker wire.

Clever idea, though I’m sure there are pros AND cons to this approach…


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk

[syncanonymous]

My first near fields? NHT Model 1 angled suggested by an Audio Engineer in Santa Rosa circa 1990. I hardly used them for mixing, back then. My brother still has them in California.



The headphones I loved for many years were Sony MDR-V7860
**EDIT start: nope! IDNRC... MDR-V7509 is the ones I had for ages. Sadly, I binned them after 15 years service (mainly while sanding wood floors as a younger me. In hindsight, I should have held onto them and refurbed them....oh, well) I never liked the coveted 7506s, cans are too small. I LOVE the way these fold up, though.

**EDIT end

Last year I bought a pair of Adam A7x. I do really like the super bright tweeters, they reveal junk and help you get nice control over high end... That said, you really need to learn how to use that high end for translation. After 9 months with Ax7 and a 1 month stint on some Genelec's (8050, I think...which I really didn't like at first), I understand why many A7x users don't like the low end on them. The Genelecs seemed to have way too much low end...but once you get used to it, Genelec does seem a step up.

I ALWAYS double check everything on Avantone Mix Cubes I find that if I only mix on 5in or 7in, the translation isn't as good as when I ensure my mix sounds good on both.

I also use DT770 Pro...but I have 250 ohm version. There are better headphones, for sure, yet the Beyers are extremely comfortable.

For recording film audio or anything in the field I use Beyer DT300:

They don't sound fantastic because the high end is rolled waaaay off, but you get separation in noisy environs which is critical when on location, especially when trying to track down pesky fan noise.

[AttenuationHz]

My first near fields? NHT Model 1 angled suggested by an Audio Engineer in Santa Rosa circa 1990. I hardly used them for mixing, back then. The headphones I loved for many years were Sony MDR-V7860...I think that's the model. I never liked The 7506s, earpads are too small.

Last year I bought a pair of Adam A7x. I do really like the super bright tweeters, they reveal junk and help you get nice control over high end... That said, you really need to learn how to use that high end for translation. After 9 months with Ax7 and a 1 month stint on some Genelec's (which I really didn't like at first), I understand why many A7x users don't like the low end on them. The Genelecs seemed to have way too much low end...but once you get used to it, Genelec does seem a step up for low end.

I ALWAYS double check everything on Avantone Mix Cubes I find that if I only mix on 5in or 7in, the translation isn't as good as when I ensure my mix sounds good on both.

I also use DT770 Pro...but I have 250 ohm version. There are better headphones, for sure, yet the Beyers are extremely comfortable.

Yeah was the same with F5's very piercing highs to get used to took about 2 weeks for me to get used to them.

[jlgrimes]

Not me... -_-

All I rock is an i3 laptop, in the living room, with a Beyerdynamix DT 770 Pro... and noisy kids...
But when life gives you noisy kids, let them make noise into a mic and use the recordings for obscure, super underground techno... I suppose...

I find it a lot more difficult to mix with headphones.


That said probably with Studio Monitors if your room is untreated, one of the hardest things to judge is bass levels. But with headphones it is tricky for me to properly level a vocal, I guess cause everything sounds more clearer in headphones.


My first nearfield were made by Alesis (can't even remember the name, I think Monitor one) in like 1997 or 98. They were passive monitors about the same size as Yamaha NS-10m. They never became as popular as the Yamahas although they seemed to be in almost every small project studio in the late nineties. They were a huge step up from some simple pawn shop stereo speakers I had. My mixes though were horrible in the late 90s. Probably mostly from being in an untreated room (and my lack of skill, and lack of all of the tools we have today), but some of my favorite songs were made using those monitors. I think I used them until about 2002 or so.

[normen]

Thing with headphones, espcially closed ones, is that you can‘t really judge the dynamics, too easy to dial in a limiter that distorts and pumps without you noticing.

[AttenuationHz]

Hmm you mention that. I always wished there was an adapter that would gauge how many dB's were coming from the headphone socket on your interface. Not just for safety reasons but to stop ear fatigue when using headphones.

Also maybe this is the write place to ask now that it is another monitor thread. The mic on my phone is pretty decent low noise and there are lots of SPL apps around. I have on my phone a few but I like one called deciBel. I would love to hear your thought on this.

From reading stuff it is said that when mixing you should monitor at around 80dB but I find that 65 -75dB is a nice level I'm comfortable with. I keep meaning to buy a proper SPL meter but how good are the ones on phones. Obviously it is down to the model of the phone and the quality of the mic. how much of a difference would there be for an SPL meter and the app. I have a Sony xperia btw.

Anyone with an SPL meter and decent phone mic want to test the differences for science!?

[normen]

Hmm you mention that. I always wished there was an adapter that would gauge how many dB's were coming from the headphone socket on your interface. Not just for safety reasons but to stop ear fatigue when using headphones.

Also maybe this is the write place to ask now that it is another monitor thread. The mic on my phone is pretty decent low noise and there are lots of SPL apps around. I have on my phone a few but I like one called deciBel. I would love to hear your thought on this.

From reading stuff it is said that when mixing you should monitor at around 80dB but I find that 65 -75dB is a nice level I'm comfortable with. I keep meaning to buy a proper SPL meter but how good are the ones on phones. Obviously it is down to the model of the phone and the quality of the mic. how much of a difference would there be for an SPL meter and the app. I have a Sony xperia btw.

Anyone with an SPL meter and decent phone mic want to test the differences for science!?

The thing with reference levels is more that you get used to a level. I set up my mixing place accordig to Katz, which is close to the german broadcast standard, 86dB afaicr. When I mix I basically pull up the channels to a level that seems comfortable and without using the meter I usually land in the right area in terms of overall level.

That doesn‘t do so much about hearing the dynamics though, my suspicion is rather that it has to do with the „built in“ limiter of our ears and the brain confusing that and actual compression artifacts (if you‘re using headphones). I have no scientific angle or data on that though, just a hunch.

[syncanonymous]

Hmm you mention that. I always wished there was an adapter that would gauge how many dB's were coming from the headphone socket on your interface. Not just for safety reasons but to stop ear fatigue when using headphones.

Also maybe this is the write place to ask now that it is another monitor thread. The mic on my phone is pretty decent low noise and there are lots of SPL apps around. I have on my phone a few but I like one called deciBel. I would love to hear your thought on this.

From reading stuff it is said that when mixing you should monitor at around 80dB but I find that 65 -75dB is a nice level I'm comfortable with. I keep meaning to buy a proper SPL meter but how good are the ones on phones. Obviously it is down to the model of the phone and the quality of the mic. how much of a difference would there be for an SPL meter and the app. I have a Sony xperia btw.

Anyone with an SPL meter and decent phone mic want to test the differences for science!?

Calibration of your mix environment is room volume dependent is what I understand. I don't know how big your room is. Mine is pretty medium at about 36m2 and high ceilings. I referred to Drawmer MC2.1 manual explaning room size and chose 78 db as right for my room. I CALIBRATE using mono pink noise to 78 dB (A) with a tape measure at about 60 inches to the listening position. I use an ios app called SPLnFFT that I find to be the best one for me. I have an android smartphone (Hauwei Honor 7) and I can't find any android apps that are equivalent to SPLnFFT. I use an ipad mini2 for this. I don't calibrate my ipad mic; it is mainly for reference, I figure if the mic doesn't change so it is an acceptable reference for my application. I make a mental note of where on the big dial of my Drawmer MC2.1 is 78 dB(A). That is about 11 o'clock with my setup. I seldom double check the Calibration...once a quarter, maybe...

If I was mixing at 86-93 db, my mixes would be way too quiet cuz it would be blowing my head off. I don't worry about checking SPL on my mixes after calibration. I change volumes at will while mixing and don't worry about being exact; use my ears. I typically turn down to comfortable listening levels to avoid ear fatigue. When I get to the critical stages of the mix, I turn the Drawmer up to 11 o'clock

I stopped using headphones for mixing music and eq work, I find it a waste of effort. Headphones nust seem to be lying to me IMO. I only use headphones to double check my mix will work on headphones, NR, reverb tails things of that nature. When I mix dialog transitions (50% of my film audio work) I exclusively use headphones to mix crossfades on dialog comps. Then headphones off finish the mix.

I do lean on meters to help me. ToneBoosters Barricade (v1) is my go to meter, I love it; I trust it. I also use Fab Filter Pro Q2 spectrum freeze A LOT, an extremely helpful tool.

[dana]

One way you can stop yourself from turning the volume too high to feel the bass is to get a subpac - i recently purchased a subpac m2 - its a strap-on bass transducer, you actually feel like you are in a club. I make much better judgements on bass now i can feel it, and add volume changes on the bass more often and hit the right frequencies now with no issue i know it will tear a club down there is no guessing any more!

[AttenuationHz]

Hmm you mention that. I always wished there was an adapter that would gauge how many dB's were coming from the headphone socket on your interface. Not just for safety reasons but to stop ear fatigue when using headphones.

Also maybe this is the write place to ask now that it is another monitor thread. The mic on my phone is pretty decent low noise and there are lots of SPL apps around. I have on my phone a few but I like one called deciBel. I would love to hear your thought on this.

From reading stuff it is said that when mixing you should monitor at around 80dB but I find that 65 -75dB is a nice level I'm comfortable with. I keep meaning to buy a proper SPL meter but how good are the ones on phones. Obviously it is down to the model of the phone and the quality of the mic. how much of a difference would there be for an SPL meter and the app. I have a Sony xperia btw.

Anyone with an SPL meter and decent phone mic want to test the differences for science!?

Calibration of your mix environment is room volume dependent is what I understand. I don't know how big your room is. Mine is pretty medium at about 36m2 and high ceilings. I referred to Drawmer MC2.1 manual explaning room size and chose 78 db as right for my room. I CALIBRATE using mono pink noise to 78 dB (A) with a tape measure at about 60 inches to the listening position. I use an ios app called SPLnFFT that I find to be the best one for me. I have an android smartphone (Hauwei Honor 7) and I can't find any android apps that are equivalent to SPLnFFT. I use an ipad mini2 for this. I don't calibrate my ipad mic; it is mainly for reference, I figure if the mic doesn't change so it is an acceptable reference for my application. I make a mental note of where on the big dial of my Drawmer MC2.1 is 78 dB(A). That is about 11 o'clock with my setup. I seldom double check the Calibration...once a quarter, maybe...

If I was mixing at 86-93 db, my mixes would be way too quiet cuz it would be blowing my head off. I don't worry about checking SPL on my mixes after calibration. I change volumes at will while mixing and don't worry about being exact; use my ears. I typically turn down to comfortable listening levels to avoid ear fatigue. When I get to the critical stages of the mix, I turn the Drawmer up to 11 o'clock

I stopped using headphones for mixing music and eq work, I find it a waste of effort. Headphones nust seem to be lying to me IMO. I only use headphones to double check my mix will work on headphones, NR, reverb tails things of that nature. When I mix dialog transitions (50% of my film audio work) I exclusively use headphones to mix crossfades on dialog comps. Then headphones off finish the mix.

I do lean on meters to help me. ToneBoosters Barricade (v1) is my go to meter, I love it; I trust it. I also use Fab Filter Pro Q2 spectrum freeze A LOT, an extremely helpful tool.

Good info there. Think i'm about 40"/100cm from the listening position but probably a smaller room. Front ported monitors which are pretty close to the wall. Recently rearranged the room just furniture, getting a better response from it now.

One way you can stop yourself from turning the volume too high to feel the bass is to get a subpac - i recently purchased a subpac m2 - its a strap-on bass transducer, you actually feel like you are in a club. I make much better judgements on bass now i can feel it, and add volume changes on the bass more often and hit the right frequencies now with no issue i know it will tear a club down there is no guessing any more!

Interesting... Can you hear that at all? or is it just felt. Just wondering also would you have to adjust the low end on your monitors like you would if a sub was attached. The price of that is extortionate, wooo-f. You would get a great sub for that price. I'd value it at around 100-150 nearly 350/380 holy-moly....

[dana]

Interesting... Can you hear that at all? or is it just felt. Just wondering also would you have to adjust the low end on your monitors like you would if a sub was attached. The price of that is extortionate, wooo-f. You would get a great sub for that price. I'd value it at around 100-150 nearly 350/380 holy-moly....

This is not a subwoofer, it is a transducer that goes all the way down to 5hz.

You would need to have a huge 10kw rig to match the same feeling, and standing right next to it.

It has a built-in battery so you can take it with you anywhere.

You don't need to adjust your headphones, this is more about feeling than hearing.

But you do hear the bass better with it on.

It makes a huge difference, its not extortionate for what it does.

I don't know why i bother posting on forums sometimes.

[syncanonymous]

Yeah was the same with F5's very piercing highs to get used to took about 2 weeks for me to get used to them.

I burned my A7x in... 36 or 48 hrs. Just before I did the burn in, I read that burn is laughed at by speaker engineers... I did it anyway... Yeah, getting used to the tweeters took a while...IIRC I had some deadlines, so had to dive right in.

When I decided on the A7x, I also considered A5x ...but I already have Mix Cubes, so I felt I had the 5” covered...adding the 7” was a better choice for sure. There is no way I could cope with the A3x, that little cone woulda driven me nuts. How do you like your F5 ? I didn’t get a chance to demo the F Series.

Good info there. Think i'm about 40"/100cm from the listening position but probably a smaller room. Front ported monitors which are pretty close to the wall. Recently rearranged the room just furniture, getting a better response from it now.

My rooms are pretty bign they are all somewhat like 6m x 6m. I am upstairs with A frame ceiling which is not good acoustically IME and corroborated by reading & I have no treatment yet. My near fields are around 70 cm from the wall behind.

Your set up seems like 75 dB is a touch loud the distance you are, but you might need that extra volume being so close to the back wall. Do you have any diffusion behind or is it flat wall? Space, man, THAT is usually the challenge