Monitors

Jaysplace101 · Post by **Jaysplace101** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:52 am

Brad, how big is your room then, and what sub are you using? Now you have me curious. I'm still having some problems even with the JBLs, and I wonder if your setup might be worth a try for me. I'm scared of the Adams, but maybe there were some other things coming into play.

Thanks for your insight!

j

edwinh · Post by **edwinh** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:42 am

I went through a monitor crisis over the last year or so and settled on Dynaudio BM5as. They have been very nice and translate well.

What has helped even more, though, is putting up bass trapping in my room. Not being someone who is rolling in dough, I decided to make my own. With the help of Bryan Pape of Sensiblesoundsolutions.com, I got some acoustic cotton and made frames from 1x4s (which Home Depot cut for me) and covered them in muslin (99c a yard). It's actually pretty easy. Later I discovered that the cotton, which cost a fortune to ship, was available locally for $50 for 4 sheets of 8'x2'x5.5". It's probably available locally pretty much everywhere. The difference has been huge. The low end is far more present and even around the room and the stereo image has just snapped into place. I would consider this money and effort even more well spent than the new monitors. There are a lot of great resources about building your own bass traps on the web and you can save a lot of money with great results. Don't think you can't afford it, because if you really want to know what's going on with your mixes, you can't afford not to!

Edwin

Jaysplace101 · Post by **Jaysplace101** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:03 am

Hi Edwin.... I'm in Greeley, CO, and got my cotton insulation from that place right on the diagonal there in Boulder! Small world! Mickey at Wind over the earth sent me over there. Yeah, the cotton works great! It's very dense, and so great to work with!

j

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:22 am

TheHopiWay wrote:...

Auditioning speakers at a store is also a bit tricky as in a smaller room reflections and fold-back color the sound greatly and when you bring them home to your space they're sure to sound different coupled with that reality.

He's got to start somewhere, though, and going on recommendations only can be just as tricky. But a combo of recommendations and listening in the store is indeed only the beginning of the auditioning process.

TheHopiWay wrote: If you have any contacts that would be willing to loan you different speakers or a store that will allow you to exchange within a few days for a different set you'd be able to do some comparison mixes that would help you decide.

Exactly! That is the crucial part 2 of the process. Most ideal would be if a tech would make a house call, bringing several pairs of monitors to audition not only in the room, but with the exact same equipment to really zero in on the sonic troubleshooting. This is service is not always available and it comes at a premium when it is, hence the need for the initial in-store initial auditioning with some sort of @home like-kind exchange agreement.

No doubt, the monitor puzzle is a tricky one all the way around. Often, even when you think you've gotten in nailed, time itself will reveal even more pros and cons over several projects.

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:04 pm

Frodo wrote:No doubt, the monitor puzzle is a tricky one all the way around. Often, even when you think you've gotten in nailed, time itself will reveal even more pros and cons over several projects.

Well, that's the key, I think. The most important thing is that you get to know your monitors. You can create good mixes with any of the speakers mentioned so far. You just have to spend enough time with them to learn their benefits and deficits.

In other words, don't sweat the purchase too much.

Jaysplace101 · Post by **Jaysplace101** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:15 pm

chrispick wrote:
Frodo wrote:No doubt, the monitor puzzle is a tricky one all the way around. Often, even when you think you've gotten in nailed, time itself will reveal even more pros and cons over several projects.
Well, that's the key, I think. The most important thing is that you get to know your monitors. You can create good mixes with any of the speakers mentioned so far. You just have to spend enough time with them to learn their benefits and deficits.

In other words, don't sweat the purchase too much.

I agree..... and the only way I've found to "learn" your monitors is to go back and forth on other systems, mainly your car. Make sure to check on more than one system though, cause on one of my car's systems, a volkswagon passat, I can't really get anything to sound good in it, and even a Puig mix sounds pretty squirly

)

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:11 pm

Jay,

Well, it's an acoustics thing....you know that saying every action has a consequence? Well, originally I had my Control24 sitting on a keyboard stand in the midle of my room which is 13'x12'. This allowed me to move farther back in the room. My P33A's were about 3ft off from the wall. When I put the desk in, I had to move it closer to the wall in order to still have walking room in my control room for other things. Otherwise, it was such a tight fit. This meant moving closer to the wall not only for myself, but my monitors. Because the monitors were now only inches off the wall and corner, there was a big bass build-up that I expected. While the monitors sounded fine, they weren't translating because I couldn't hear the real frequencies, imaging, etc. The matter is compounded with such a large desk creating another bass trap, but not a good kind of bass trap. This causes phase, more standing waves, and more adjusting my mixes. That is an ENDLESS trap! Bass frequency moves slower than higher frequencies. Audio is actually a waveform that moves in the air, like the wind you don't see it but it's there. When you have a monitor in front of you, the bass is shooting around you and filling the room. This is one reason why the back of the room has much more low-end.

I love the P33A's, they are amazing! But room acoustics must be considered. Initially, my room was fine but those changes above.... well hopefully it starts to paint a picture now. So with the S1A's sitting on my desk, there are no issues with standing waves because the bass they put out is very little. The ADAM Sub10 is giving me the bass, sitting further back in the room. No matter where I move around, I'm hearing the mix the way I should. I don't have excessive bass on the back-wall, lack of bass in the mix position, etc. I am not dealing with phase as I move around the room, it's constant and wonderful!!

I could post a picture, but I don't have the Control24 in it so it looks cheezy to me

But if you want to see, I'll show you. These things AINT cheap at $3850, but have been worth every penny. Hey, anyone want to buy some P33A's now?

Sorry to hijack the thread here, just wanted to answer a question asked.