Still waffling over nearfields

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lykwydchykyn
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Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lykwydchykyn »

Don't know if I'm looking for advice or just moaning about my situation. Basically, with a smallish house and 5 kids, my "studio" has been pushed into a small corner of my bedroom. My monitoring solution (altec-lansing power amp and some fancy bookshelf speakers) has been dying for some time so I just use headphones to mix (dragging mixes out to the car to double-check them).

I've been wanting to get a small set of 5" powered monitors, but I even wonder if it's worth it. For one thing, I don't have a lot of chances to crank up speakers and mix, since my mixing is often at night when the kids are awake, or on weekends when they're being noisy. I'm a bit self-conscious about unfinished mixes too. But the real kicker is that I can't put speakers anywhere but up against the wall in a corner, which is going to be horrible for bass response. So I genuinely wonder if it'd just be a waste to have any kind of monitoring at all.

I almost wonder if I should forget about studio monitors and just get a decent soundbar for those times when my head gets tired of the cans.

FWIW, I'm not (and never will be) pro, but I do care about the quality of my mixes for the sake of the art. What would you do in my case?
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by ufug »

I've listened to your mixes in the past and as I recall they sound quite good and that you have a real knack for arranging (which IMHO is 80% of mixing anyway).

Sounds like you are hemmed in with real-world restraints. Since you are already adept at headphone-to-car adjustments, maybe consider a single powered grotbox like the Avantone MixCube (come to think of it, I may have recommended this one to you awhile back, apologies if I'm on repeat). ;)

It's not everybody's thing, but A/Bing headphones with one of these has helped my mixes sooooo much across the board.

Soundbars are great fun for movies and games, but I can't imagine using one to mix on.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by milo »

I've got some 3" Mackie CR series monitors, which are a good budget option. Not too big, not too loud, but loud and clear enough to get a good amateur mix. (https://mackie.com/products/cr-multimedia-monitors)

But I think you are already doing the most important thing, which is to listen to your mix on different speakers. When I am working on a final mix I will listen to my track in the car, on my phone, on laptop speakers, on headphones, on studio monitors, on cheap Bluetooth speakers, etc. Having a set of monitor speakers is just one more place to listen.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lykwydchykyn »

ufug wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 11:32 pm I've listened to your mixes in the past and as I recall they sound quite good and that you have a real knack for arranging (which IMHO is 80% of mixing anyway).
Thanks!
Sounds like you are hemmed in with real-world restraints. Since you are already adept at headphone-to-car adjustments, maybe consider a single powered grotbox like the Avantone MixCube (come to think of it, I may have recommended this one to you awhile back, apologies if I'm on repeat). ;)
You don't have to apologize; with my memory, repeating a recommendation never hurts : ). Having a single mono reference makes sense, I need to ponder that. It's kind of a hard idea to swallow in some ways, though I suppose if I hate it I can just buy a second speaker.
Soundbars are great fun for movies and games, but I can't imagine using one to mix on.
Yeah, it wouldn't be so much for mixing reference as just something to hear on (for jamming, working out parts, playing with patches, collaborating, etc). I would probably be tempted to use it for mixing though, so maybe not a great idea.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by ufug »

milo wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:16 am I've got some 3" Mackie CR series monitors, which are a good budget option. Not too big, not too loud, but loud and clear enough to get a good amateur mix. (https://mackie.com/products/cr-multimedia-monitors)
Milo is spot on about the Mackies! I used these for a couple years as well and they are quality powered monitors at a crazy good price. They might serve as a good sweet spot for you.

They will also beat a soundbar for home entertainment needs (they have a 1/8" input for your phone and a volume control right on the front panel). Just have to put them somewhere where the kids wont poke anything through the cones...
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

Another vote for the Mackies... well sorta... I had a set of the CR3's at my dev box desk (not my main studio setup) and they died after about 18 months. Maybe I had bad luck but they certainly are affordable. I then replaced the Mackies with these: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... ro-monitor

All I can say is WHOA! (I think they have the devil in them), the bass response is mindblowing and these sound phenomenal, I think if you had a desert island scenario you could do some professional work with these in a pinch. I actually like them so much I bought their big brothers for our studio because I definitely had a bass reproduction problem with my former M-Audio monitors.

These are a big price jump but they are very accurate and on top of that they come with microphones to calibrate them to your room!
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... d-mtm-pair
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by merlyn »

If you have your monitors right up against a wall the bass is increased. A lot of monitors have a bass cut switch to compensate for this -- monitor manufacturers must know it's a common scenario. On the other hand if you have your monitors more than 60cm from a wall the bass will start to cancel out because of the wavelemgths involved. So we end up with around 0.5m from the back wall as the optimum.

What headphones do you use at the moment? The money may be better spent on mixing headphones if that is what you use the most like DT 990s. The received wisdom is to use open backed headphones for mixing and mastering although I have heard of some people using closed or semi-open like DT 770s or DT 880s.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lykwydchykyn »

GMaq wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:23 pm Hi,

Another vote for the Mackies... well sorta... I had a set of the CR3's at my dev box desk (not my main studio setup) and they died after about 18 months. Maybe I had bad luck but they certainly are affordable.
Based on the Amazon reviews, you weren't a rare case. Lots of people reporting them dying after 1-2 years due to a faulty selector switch. Mackie claims the newer ones have been updated with a better part, but who knows whether I'll get the fixed version or not.
I then replaced the Mackies with these: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... ro-monitor
Definitely a price jump, but I like the look of them. I'd wanna hear them first, which might be a problem. But I like that someone put a grill over the cone; some of us have kids (not to mention being clumsy and in cramped quarters).
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lykwydchykyn »

merlyn wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 7:32 am What headphones do you use at the moment?
AKG K240. I've had them for decades (literally; got my first pair in 1997, this is my second pair), so to say that I'm accustomed to the sound is an understatement.

I think if I stuck with HP's I'd definitely get a better pair, though. I really need some close backed because I get a lot of headphone bleed when I track.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lilith »

I just bought a pair of iLoud MTMs:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... hp?p=specs

Bass down to 40 Hz which is crazy for that speaker size. You can calibrate them to correct for your room (which yet doesn't work with my pair ... I just contacted the support). They can get really loud, but sound very good at low volume too. I think they would be perfect for bad listening environments.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by GMaq »

lilith wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:52 pm I just bought a pair of iLoud MTMs:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... hp?p=specs

Bass down to 40 Hz which is crazy for that speaker size. You can calibrate them to correct for your room (which yet doesn't work with my pair ... I just contacted the support). They can get really loud, but sound very good at low volume too. I think they would be perfect for bad listening environments.
Agreed, they are awesome!
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lilith »

GMaq wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 11:31 pm
lilith wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:52 pm I just bought a pair of iLoud MTMs:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... hp?p=specs

Bass down to 40 Hz which is crazy for that speaker size. You can calibrate them to correct for your room (which yet doesn't work with my pair ... I just contacted the support). They can get really loud, but sound very good at low volume too. I think they would be perfect for bad listening environments.
Agreed, they are awesome!
Do you have / heard them?
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by GMaq »

Hi lilith!

Yes I mentioned in my first post in this thread, first I bought the iLoud micro monitors for my office/dev computer and I liked them so much I bought the MTM's for the studio.. I haven't gotten around to calibrating them yet though..
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by lilith »

GMaq wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:11 am Hi lilith!

Yes I mentioned in my first post in this thread, first I bought the iLoud micro monitors for my office/dev computer and I liked them so much I bought the MTM's for the studio.. I haven't gotten around to calibrating them yet though..
Didn't see that. These are the MTMs with (blue) and without (red) calibration. Would be great to see if it works for you.

Image

I guess there must be something wrong. It's almost identical.

Another speaker I can totally recommend is the Presonus ERIS 5.
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Re: Still waffling over nearfields

Post by Spanner »

My post of 07-MAR-2020 in this thread may be of interest.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18176&start=15

I hope this helps.
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