The Studio Monitor Conspiracy.

[trimph1]

It doesn't cost that much to sound proof a room unless it's an abandoned supermarket next to an airport.

Or one of these spaces....

[ford442]

i like my clarity of sound - and i only have budget TRUTH monitors..
recently i moved from using an m-audio Firewire Audiophile to their current and more professional Profire 610 and i am blown away by what i now see in my old mixes - everything is bad because i was using hardware that covered up my mistakes!

[deathwish]

I tested Behringer, Tannoy, KRK, Alesis, and MAudio monitors (the cheap monitors). I found them to be nowhere as good as Dynaudio, Mackie or Genelec which are the only ones really worth buying if you are remotely serious about getting accurate mixes. Of course the studio has to be tuned and setup correctly but that should be obvious.

Have fun throwing your money away on worthless speakers.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Drury is at it again: anther studio monitors blog from the Recording Revolution.

http://forum.recordingreview.com/conten ... n=02-07-12

Haven't digested this one yet.

Como

this is a better article

[macmurphy]

You think that's a conspiracy? Lemme tell you something about bread. Ever since the advent of the internet and the proliferation of nutritional knowledge, people have been gravitating away from your standard cut white bread and more towards the healthy grains. Now, white bread is the de facto standard when it comes to toasters. Everyone has a toaster that can toast white bread. I decided white bread wasn't in my best interests and started to buy whole wheat bread, which is indeed baked wider. Now, I go to put my bread in the toaster, and it doesn't fit right. Either I have to scrunch it in, or nibble off the crust. Now I gotta buy a new toaster, because my bread isn't backwards compatible. But the new toaster, cooks bagel cuts. So I say, why not save some energy, and toast my french rolls and pita bread, in the toaster? I put it in, and one side of the bread is now sticking out, hence untoasted. I try to angle it in, but it fails. Now I am hand over fist with large denominated tender, looking for a thick and deep toaster, asking all the salespeople where it is. Meanwhile, my testosterone levels have decreased and my bread is not toasting correctly. Corporate bigwigs are looking through security cameras, laughing at my plight, while they sell toasters to Wonderbread kids, who think bologna is Russian for mastication. But then I realize that supply and demand is working well, as they supply a toaster that won't toast my bread, while I demand a toaster that will. As I was busy arguing with a salesperson, I saw my wife looking doe-eyed at a vegetable peeler. Do you think she is cheating on me?

This is probably the most fantastic post ever created

i concur.

[macmurphy]

I found them to be nowhere as good as Dynaudio, Mackie or Genelec which are the only ones really worth buying if you are remotely serious about getting accurate mixes.

bunkum.

there are great monitors to cater for all budgets. you have to find the ones that you are most comfortable with within your price range and listen and work with them as much as possible.

i can't stand the attitude of 'oh, if you don't use (brand x) you can't be serious about what you are doing'.

like i said. bunkum.

[tetsuneko]

Nearfield monitors have their uses, but they're not absolutely essential for the bedroom studio. You can use many sorts of speakers to do mixes. Here's what I currently use:

I primarily mix with headphones these days, I only use the 'cube to check overall balances of a mix (as you already guessed, the box is not exactly linear sounding).

I do miss having an acoustically treated room with decent nearfields to mix with however. They do speed up the mixing process (especially in terms of transient "health" analysis and stereo separation), which is why I think most studios use them. But relatively "flat" headphones is how I roll nowadays, fixing domestic acoustics is not my cup of tea.

"neutral" monitors are good for audio forensics, for certain fixative processes they're essential. But for some, mixing on them can kill your vibe in the long run. Ideally it would be good to have many different speaker setups: one for forensics, one for "lowest denominator" analysis, one for vibes etc...

And regarding the topic, there is always marketing agendas with audio equipment. Only trust your ears, the pricetags and brands can give you an idea but never take anything for granted. And treat that room if you rely on speakers!!

[aciddose]

Have fun throwing your money away on worthless speakers.

we're all left to wonder about the motivation for such a post considering who has and who hasn't dealt with any large sums.

[trimph1]

Have fun throwing your money away on worthless speakers.

we're all left to wonder about the motivation for such a post considering who has and who hasn't dealt with any large sums.

mmmmmm...methinks he has been feeling his oats....

I don't know. I've had Genelecs but found that they really were not much different, to my ears, than my EPI Monitor speakers.

And, TBH, I doubt 'seriousness' can be really tied to how much money one has, or has not, as the case may be. If you believe it to be so "deathwish" I have some prime speaker cable you might be interested in...

[moonfiremusic]

I did a bit of research myself (mostly because I'm looking to build some speakers) and yes, it's pretty much marketing nonsense.
There's no "true", "flat", "natural" response in a speaker of any kind. Even the materials that make up the cone colour the sound in some way. But it's true that good transducers are expensive due to the quality of the materials.
Next is the enclosures, which on most monitors are vented. The purpose of vented enclosures is to boost the bass. They also alter the transient response of the midwoofer, no matter how expensive they are.
And there's the room. I think everyone agrees that you can get the most expensive monitors, as long as you put them in a room that colours the sound too much, they're useless. Notice that I said too much, because you don't need a room that's completely soundproofed.