(31-07-2017, 02:50 AM)CJ Fuller Wrote: No worries. As far as monitors go, yes, a set of self-amped, flat response near-field studio monitors is of course the gold standard for the home or small professional studio. But if you can't afford that, a set of decent home hi-fi speakers can make perfectly serviceable monitors. It's worth remembering that the original Yamaha NS-10s were actually home hi-fi speakers (and not considered particularly good ones by the audiophile magazines of the day). It was only AFTER they became common in studios that they released the NS10m and started marketing them as "studio monitors".
If you look around for second hand stereos at garage sales, ebay, second hand shops, you can probably pick up something decent but unglamourous for dirt cheap, because there is such a huge supply of old stereos hanging around, and people tend not to value them very highly. Get something with a decent wooden cabinet (not a plastic boom box thing), and if it has removable grilles so much the better - you can instantly look 50% cooler and more professional to the average Joe or Jane ;-) At worst, it gives you an alternative set of speakers to reference your mixes on.
Well written and spoken, i feel like i always learn from you!, I find it pleasing to hear you thoughts about monitor systems because, i have been studying audio engineering in the past and our teachers was ranting a lot about ns10s. It was only the time when i was studying at one of the finest universities in Sweden when the teachers where saying otherwise. I had a teacher called Jens Bogren who where a mix pro. He had years of experience and was mixing top metal bands like Soilwork etc. He said that nothing comes close to analog gear, but we found out that he almost never used them when he was showing his mixing, because "it takes a lot of time patching etc". Jens did use analog gear in mastering and on busses, he said that no digital compressor can match the sound of analog compressors, here is where i actually agree with him. I think that many digital compressors if not almost everyone takes away to much bass and believe it has to do with that the digital algoritm isn't fast enough relative to the release and starts clamping down on slower elements (wich most of the times are the bass), that is what i found out when using the ssl compressors and the la3a's or the other mixerboars eq , think it was a brit board i can't remember the name of (They had 2 expensive mixerboars and all the rest output gear you could imagine). The punch is also much more prominent in expensive analog compressors because as what i believe they take away "non audible" stuff because of the super hard/100% (speed of light) clipping that occurs via the in/output transformers. This is what gets taken back when a digital mix goes thru the headroom increase when the mastering engineers takes the song thru there gear. Any how i think i went a bit of topic, but i do believe the same as you, that its more important to make the mix sound good from where you are listening, like make it sound good on a cheap set of headphones etc because most of the listeners don't own barefoots, which they had in the university. I think i might know the mixes translate well when mixing with ns10's, i think its because it lacks bass wich makes you more keen on keeping the high end smooth and present which everyone likes. I have tried to mix on small studio speakers alot and i find that my mixes instantly where more liked by the listeners. I think this is because if you focus alot on whats most audible which in this case would become the most "upfront" frequencies (around 3k where the ns10s are very prominent) you get a very "loud" mix that doesnt hurt your ears. Bogren ranted alot about the effect the 3k had and as and effect, he showed a graph of how the ear drops perceived db's on overall frequencies when the audio is turned down and it showed that 3k was dropping of the most for the human ear (i believe its because we must spot danger quickly and most of transients on impact lyes around there). Also i think that mix engineers are (atleast the most of them i think) keen on keeping stuff flat, and if you hear alot of dominent frequencies hence the listening environment you will take that down, most likely with a compressor or eq. So if you hear a lot of bass like i did before with my sennheiser 650 hd, you will either make that to loud or to low relative to every other frequencies, you will effect that. What i find is happening when mixing on smaller systems is that you leave a big room for the bass and make the lower bass be more open and clean in the mix. I have seen many mastering engineers that keep a set of 1 small cube to mix on in mono to have the bass in check or as you might hear more of the high mids/highs.