Studio monitors?

[West]

Slightly off-topic this one. Sorry about that, but I have a technical question for my fellow composers and I want to make sure they see it

I'm in the market for some good (or at least decent) studio monitors. Right now I'm using a pair of old Phillips home stereo speakers hooked up to a Sony receiver for monitoring, and as you might guess this is not really optimal. The speakers are fine for casual listening, but for mixing and eq'ing they're quite misleading. There's no bottom end to speak of, and I always end up overcompensating. OTOH, listening on my 2.1 computer speakers there's too much bass instead so it's really hard knowing where to aim. I need speakers with a flatter response.

Thus I'm kind of curious what the rest of you Wesnoth composers are using. Rain, Jermey, Aleksi, Timothy, Tyler and everyone else -- what kind of speakers do you have? Pro or cheapo? Could you recommend some particular brand and model?

Of course, cost is a concern as well as sound quality. I really don't have several hundreds of €/$/£ to spend on speakers. Which leads me to a related question: what is best, getting a pair of cheap (and possibly not very good) studio monitors or sticking with the speakers I have and know?

[Rain]

Unfortunately, you usually get what you pay for when it comes to studio monitors. I am in the process of buying a good system myself and I don't have a huge budget but I've heard some great things about this set:

ESI nEar05 - http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mul ... ear05.html

These are relatively inexpensive (you can find a pair cheapo) and have pretty good frequency response from what I understand. (though not quite flat) They also can get fairly loud without distortion. My friend masters mixes with this and he specializes in high quality orchestral music so this might be something advantageous for both of us to check into!

I saw a pair for under 300 Suffice to say that this is probably quite an acceptable system for the money spent. I am going to probably to check them out personally before I comment on their performance further.

[Aleksi]

Hi West,

I am currently using a pair of Solo 6 Be from Focal. Some of the best monitors around. And "cheap" for the quality they deliver.

I used a Yamaha NS-10 pair for ten years and i still have them. You can find them for 200$. They are the most classic monitors and all professional studios have them. Not always easy to use, but they are worth it.

I think it is important to use monitoring speakers. I know it isn't always easy because they come expensive. Make a search in KRK's small monitors. They work very well. M-Audio did a pretty good job with some of their monitors too.

[TimothyP]

I've been using these ever since I started collecting studio gear:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/document ... c=3SOSWXXA

They're great speakers. I still like to listen through headphones and another computer for testing audio though.

--T

[West]

Thanks for the tips guys. I think it might be better to save up some money and buy good monitors instead of going for some low-budget stuff. Now I have at least a fair idea of what to aim for.

[dkaufman]

I use primarily Adam S3-A's, but I also have a Genelec 8020 5.1 system and a pair of KRK Rockits. I got the Rockits for about $300, and they're suprisingly accurate in my opinion. Not a huge amount of low end, but accurate enough for mixing Wesnoth style music I would say. I've mixed a little on the Samson Rubicons at another studio, and they weren't too bad either.
As long as you get speakers that are tuned for mixing, you'll be much better off than you are now.

[West]

Does anyone have an opinion on Behringer monitors? This pair looks interesting. And at $120, they're definitely within my reach.

[Aleksi]

I can't tell until i hear them.

But, in this price range, i had the chance to listen to these, and i was really impressed. If you get a chance, go listen to them in some audio store:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudioPro3.html

By the way, i strongly recommend NOT to buy monitors unless you have heared them at least once, and compared them with others.

[West]

M-Audio makes good stuff but... isn't 10W kind of wimpy? I know, flatness and clarity is more important in a near field monitor than sheer loudness, but 10W -- that's like a standard pair of computer speakers.

And no, I definitely don't intend to buy any monitors without listening to them first. I'm gonna pay a visit to one of the local music stores at the end of the month and do some listening.

[Tyler Johnson]

Another thing to keep in mind BEFORE you buy monitors...ask the sales person if he can do a frequency sweep through the speakers just so you can hear what frequencies are getting dropped off, and listen to white/pink noise through different ones and see which frequency ranges stand out more.

[West]

Another thing to keep in mind BEFORE you buy monitors...ask the sales person if he can do a frequency sweep through the speakers just so you can hear what frequencies are getting dropped off, and listen to white/pink noise through different ones and see which frequency ranges stand out more.

Good idea. In fact, I was thinking of bringing a cd with some tracks I'm familiar with. Might as well add some speaker test file to it.

[West]

Sorry about necroing up an old thread, I just wanted to mention that I actually ended up buying these:

But, in this price range, i had the chance to listen to these, and i was really impressed. If you get a chance, go listen to them in some audio store:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudioPro3.html

A belated thanks for the tip Aleksi. Sweet little monitors, maybe not extremely flat (they're a bit midrangey and the bass response drops off almost entirely below 100Hz or so) but they have great clarity and good stereo image. In fact, they're so revealing compared to my old speakers that I got slightly depressed listening to my mixes on them and hearing all the deficiencies I never knew were there...

[hiro hito]

That's why having at least 2 pairs of monitors is necessary.... 3 is ideal but far more expensive, (and I don't speak about the room size that is needed).

If I can tell you one advice: keep your old monitors! and correct your mixes on both... You could correct more mistakes and be more confident about your result...

I got slightly depressed listening to my mixes on them and hearing all the deficiencies I never knew were there...

Monitors don't change a musician's talent!

[West]

If I can tell you one advice: keep your old monitors! and correct your mixes on both... You could correct more mistakes and be more confident about your result...

I wish I could, but there's no room. My 'studio' is somewhat cramped and having both the old and the new speakers on my desk just isn't possible. But you're absolutely right, it's always wise to check your mixes on as many systems as possible. I still have the old ones though, they reside in the livingroom now, and I can always put my mix on a usb stick and go in there and listen to it. That's probably a better listening environment for those old boxes anyway, as they're hifi speakers, not nearfields.

Monitors don't change a musician's talent!

Sometimes I wish they did!

What I meant was that I got depressed hearing how many flaws were in my old mixes -- flaws that I simply didn't hear before. And I hate redoing things.