Monitors

[mazz]

Yeah Stick, I'm into broadband absorption and bass trapping. I decided against foam a long time ago. But that's as far as I got! The Real Traps were a bit too expensive and I couldn't find the Owens Corning 703 (or whatever number is the good stuff) to make my own (I suck at woodworking anyway!).I'm going to send those guys at GIK a drawing when I get back from my vacation and take it from there. I have a few spots on the floor that I could put a bass trap laying on it's side so that's an option as well.Take it easy. Bet it's hot up in the Sierras!Mazz

[hikikomori]

Hey there Dave. I started off with the behringer truth which I realize now are pretty much crap. My left monitor blew a few months after the warranty ran out completely so I had to get a new set of monitors. I decided to go above and beyond and go ahead and spend 1500. I spent some time in GC testing things out. I brought in some Cd's of mixes I made at home, a mudhoney CD, a Perfect Circle Cd, and a few other random Cd's that I have listened to numerous times. On the JBL LSR 4326 I felt it was missing the low end I needed to really give my mixes the right amount of energy. I then Tried the 4328's and was immediately impressed. It has a very nice smooth response range and it showed me all kinds of underlying hiss and clicks and pops that I'd never heard before. I also liked how I could start high and just focus down the whole frequency spectrum and it really felt like everything was there like it needed to be. I tried the HR824's and they were decent monitors but I still felt they were lacking in the low mids and were trying to hard to make the low end sound tight at the cost of other areas of the frequency spectrum. I also spent about an hour going through various other monitors of different levels only to work my way back to the 4328's. Another thing I like about the JBL's is the high end is so nice and smooth which takes some getting used to. My mixes with the Truth Monitors often ended up lacking that nice brightness and clarity because the treble always seemed harsh so I'd keep cutting it. It took a bit of time to get used to these JBL's so my mixes were coming out too bright at first but now I've adjusted my ears properly and my mixes sound at least a good 10 times better on anything I play them on. The RMC is a great feature as well but it should not be used as an alternative to proper room treatment. I spent about 350 bucks at foambymail.com and I got some nice bass traps for the corners which makes a big difference and like someone else said in your setup the corners probably were trapping the bass and masking the treble. I have my room fairly nicely covered with not too much reflection and not too little either but that's just my preference it helps keep me from overdoing reverb and other effects. Upon purchasing the JBL's I did the RMC correction and even with my accoustic foam all over the walls and in the corners I still had standing waves at 144L and 150R which it Eq'd out nicely. Placement is equally important make sure you have the proper distance from your ears on both sides. You should definately spend some time with your eyes closed visualizing where the instruments appear to be relative to where they actually are in the mix cause sometimes you need to move one a few inches away or closer depending on if everything seems further left or right. And as for your last post yes if you really know a set of speakers then you will do fine. Just as important as having a good room setup, placement, and monitors is spending the time listening to lot's of well produced music and tuning your ears. You should also spend time listening to that same music on cheaper speakers and boom boxes and in your car to see what translates across them all. It doesn't matter how good your setup is if you don't spend the training to tell the differences from system to system then you won't know what to mix for. Unless you have the ears and experience of Bob Ludwig(which I don't think any of us do or we probably wouldn't be working through TAXI) then you want to try to have the best you can get of everything(IE. Accurate monitors so you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to remember frequency responses, good room setup to get the most accurate sound possible without room coloration, then you can spend a little less time on training. Try to make it to a GC sometime if possible and spend a couple hours just playing CD's through the different setups. And once again I recommend the JBL's.Jeremiah

[nickbatzdorf]

"What's your take on esoteric 300.00 power cables? I'm not talking about power conditioning or balanced power, I'm talking about a plain old IEC 3 conductor power cable."I'm skeptical and it makes no sense to me, but I've also heard people who are not at all eccentric say it really does make a difference. So who knows."Do you recommend any good books and/or websites that we could get some fairly good info on DIY studio treatments? For me, I need to improve my mixing station since I do all my work "in the box" but others may want to know about a recording room as well."www.moultonlabs.comThe main thing is to deaden the front but *not* the sides (contrary to conventional wisdom).I have ASC absorption on the sides at the front of my room (because I don't want to cover the window at the front), but my speakers are angled in toward me so the muffling is behind them.This is also in another thread, but what the hell. It's old - I now have a single 30" computer monitor. But you'll get the idea: the ASC panels on the sides are behind the speaker plane (which is not what ASC has in mind). I also have Helmholz resonator bass traps at the front of the room.Oh, and this pic was taken right after I painted. The baffle on the right isn't quite put together fully - it's missing the black things you see on the left.

[jeffe]

Quote:"What's your take on esoteric 300.00 power cables? I'm not talking about power conditioning or balanced power, I'm talking about a plain old IEC 3 conductor power cable."I'm skeptical and it makes no sense to me, but I've also heard people who are not at all eccentric say it really does make a difference. So who knows."Do you recommend any good books and/or websites that we could get some fairly good info on DIY studio treatments? For me, I need to improve my mixing station since I do all my work "in the box" but others may want to know about a recording room as well."www.moultonlabs.comThe main thing is to deaden the front but *not* the sides (contrary to conventional wisdom).I have ASC absorption on the sides at the front of my room (because I don't want to cover the window at the front), but my speakers are angled in toward me so the muffling is behind them.This is also in another thread, but what the hell. It's old - I now have a single 30" computer monitor. But you'll get the idea: the ASC panels on the sides are behind the speaker plane (which is not what ASC has in mind). I also have Helmholz resonator bass traps at the front of the room.Oh, and this pic was taken right after I painted. The baffle on the right isn't quite put together fully - it's missing the black things you see on the left.Far too tidy

[nickbatzdorf]

Hah. You should see the room right now!

[sgs4u]

Hey Nick, I'm not sure if this is possible, but it seems that your studio picture is causing me to have to scroll side to side just to read posts. Only threads where your pic appears, do this. Could you resize your pic, a little smaller? steve

[nickbatzdorf]

It isn't really, Steve. Sorry about that.

[sgs4u]

thx for checking, it doesn't seem to happen on threads without that particular pic. Must be how important you are! Computers just know things, ya know!

[johnnydean1]

Quote:Hey Nick, I'm not sure if this is possible, but it seems that your studio picture is causing me to have to scroll side to side just to read posts. Only threads where your pic appears, do this. Could you resize your pic, a little smaller? steveI agree all this extra mouse work is making me sweat.!!!!

[grandmatarkin]

You need one of those nice widescreen monitors that I have. The only time I've ever had to scroll to the side was looking at a picture of Ted Kennedy's head. (Ed McMahon in the background: Yes!)