Alternate Speakers for Mixing

[stick]

Ok, I'm totally too late to the discussion here... but I do a lot of mixing for others. I'd love to work for any of you! Almost all the stuff on my website, I mixed. I've got FTP space, and can usually turn stuff around pretty quick. Click here for a lot of rambling on the subject...As far as the speakers, I just bought a killer pair of Focal Twin 6... very honest and flat. I also have the first pair of speakers I ever bought (almost 15 yrs ago!) for my "ugly" reference... the original Alesis Monitor Ones. They sound similar to the dreaded NS-10s. I keep them on a little table off to the side of my desk right next to each other. And, the computer monitors I've got have little speakers in them, and I can run my mix up to my flat screen tv which has typical funky sounding little speakers. Before the Focals, I was running Genelec 1031As, and had recently added a subwoofer. The M-Audio BX10 is pretty cool, as it has a footswitch that disables the crossover and shuts off the sub so you can hear your speakers as usual. I'm probably going to sell it soon... the Focals go down a lot further than the Genelecs did. If you don't have bass trapping going on, you need it. And if you have a little going on, you probably need more. All four corners of my room are cut off as huge fabric covered traps, and the ceiling is covered with "clouds"... fabric covered absorbtion panels. The pics on my site are too dark, or I'd link to it... heh heh. I could go on and on about this stuff... building your own room will do it to you.

[nickbatzdorf]

Weird, my reply to mazz a couple of days ago disappeared into thin air.Well, with the Blue Sky System One the sub is simply the bass that happens to be in a separate enclosure - in other words you don't hear it. That's not always the case with subs, because most of the time they don't integrate well and either the bass just sounds wrong or else you're conscious of the separation (or both).What is important is to have a reference that goes down lower than the typical 60Hz (practical) cutoff for most NFMs. Vocal pops and piano hammer thuds are around 50 or 55 Hz, and you just don't hear them otherwise.

[nickbatzdorf]

I should add that I do sometimes turn off the sub just for another opinion of the sound.

[mazz]

Nick,Thanks for the reply. That's good info. I think before I make any speaker decisions, I need to deal with my room so I can hear what my current speakers are or are not giving me.Mazz

[nickbatzdorf]

Dealing with your room is a good idea - as long as you understand that you can also phooph it up beyond recognition if you put too much of the wrong thing up.

[mazz]

Nick,Stick turned me on to a place that makes nicely priced bass traps and acoustic panels. I'm just now getting around to sending them a drawing of my room with dimensions and what's in it, etc. They should be able to start me in the right direction. I want to take a minimalist approach, just enough, not more. My gut tells me a couple of well placed bass traps and maybe a panel or two on the ceiling to start with will tighten things up a bit. I'll see what the company says when they see the drawing. When I get going, maybe I'll start a thread to follow the progress.I don't have the name of the company at my fingertips but when I find it, I'll add it to this post.Thanks,Mazz

[nickbatzdorf]

Where are you going to put the acoustic panels? Not on the sides, I hope?

[mazz]

Probably not as I have a window on one side already that I can't cover up anyway. I seem to remember you mentioning something about this in another post as well. You seem pretty passionate about it and so I'm all ears! Thanks,Mazz