Studio Speakers

[MrBump]

I do a lot of recording and mixing through Cakewalk Home Studio using headphones - got a wife and 2 kids, so it's more environmentally friendly, if you know what I mean.

However, mixing tracks using headphones is naff for a good quality end result.

I think that I need a decent set of speakers to plug into my US122L, but I'm no audiophile and don't really know where to start - I don't want to be playing a grand for speakers for a home set up, but then it's pointless getting £20 speakers from PC World...

Any words of wisdom?

Mark.

[MDV]

Words of wisdom?

Where you place the the speakers is more important than the speakers (up to a certain point). There are lots of sites online that can help you out with that (general gist - equilateral triangle with your head, right up against the wall or more than 12 inches from it depending on the room, equidistant from walls, same height, tweeters aimed at your ears...the list goes on and changes from room to room).

Knowing what the speakers sound like (their signature sound, and what they sound like in that place in that room) is more important than the speakers themselves as well.

Some acoustic treatment of a listening position is very important, and can make a huge difference. I think that absorbtion at the main reflection points is a minimum, plus bass traps depending how linear a low end youre getting.

As far as particular speakers - I stopped looking when I got my Adam A7s. Bit pricey though.

[tomjackson]

Mark,

You'll be fine woth Tapco, Alesis, Samson or even M-audio.  The acoustic side does matter but less so if you are listening fairly close, i.e. near field - sat at a desk with them on the desk.  Any of the above will be a major step up from headfones, it just depends how far you wish to take it.  You can get acoustic isolation pads for the speakers to sit on your desk but they are very expensive. 

In fact you may find out that the acoustics of the room just happen to be good anyway!

[MDV]

Last I checked event also made some decent budget monitors, too. 

Proximity doesnt affect quality of listening position or eliminate the effects of room acoustics, however. Standing modes can and do happen anywhere in the room, including right infront of the speakers.

[Oli]

In my experience, the KRK Rokit series are great for the money (£200-£375 depending on new/used, and whether it's the 5" or 6" size). As MDV said, positioning is critical, so check out some bits on acoustics, so you get the best from whichever monitor you choose.

[tomjackson]

Last I checked event also made some decent budget monitors, too. 

Proximity doesnt affect quality of listening position or eliminate the effects of room acoustics, however. Standing modes can and do happen anywhere in the room, including right infront of the speakers.

Well yeah, it's a complicated science alright.  I've always tried not to worry too much though for the home stuff, I think if you can't control the acoustics much the best bet is to listen to your mixes on as many systems as possible and understand how they transfer.  Other than moving the position of the speakers around a little there's not much you can do without it costing, I've seen a studio designed and built from scratch and it is mind blowing.  The guy apparently went round tapping a record stylus against the wall when he'd finished, this was conncted to a laptop and produced some kind of resonance graph.  He wasn't happy so some materials had to be changed.

The video looks pretty interesting at the bottom here:-

https://bbamusic.wikispaces.com/Audio+Standing+Waves+-+Room+Modes

[jibidy]

I think studio spare sn10's are good for firsts.

Or some really ns10's if you can get them.

[HTH AMPS]

Knowing what the speakers sound like (their signature sound, and what they sound like in that place in that room) is more important than the speakers themselves as well.

^ +1, when I was mixing on a daily basis (post Uni) and had my own studio, I used my B&W shelf speakers as I knew their tonal traits.  Always managed to get good results with them.  The best monitors are quite flat (uncoloured) across the frequency range, so you might bear that in mind.

Some acoustic treatment of a listening position is very important, and can make a huge difference. I think that absorbtion at the main reflection points is a minimum, plus bass traps depending how linear a low end youre getting.

one of the side-effects of mixing in a residential environment is that you typically have many soft surfaces and general 'things' in the room to break up the reflections.  Unless the room is perfectly square, you shouldn't have any problems.

[MDV]

Absolutely, tom - reference sytems are a must. The point of (good) mixing being to have the sound translate well to any other environment, and still sound within the (subjective) tolerances of how it 'should'. You cant possibly have too many other systems to do that with (other speakers, headphones, stereos in other rooms, your car, mp3 player, mates setups, anything you can get your hands on). Accurate headphones you know the sound of should be on hand at all times, regardless of how meticulously you'd set up your listening position, IMO (if nothing else, for accurate panning)

On the residential environment - I dont think so, so much. You'd think my lounge would have a linear sound, because there are couches on two walls and a big bookshelf on another; not so, its one of the least linear places I've heard. Symmetry is a huge problem for standing waves, though - the less even your rooms shape the better, as a rule (mine aint so good - its quite symmetrical with a really strong mode at 130 and an 80hz is almost eliminated in it, all things being equal - it was hard work getting it to be (nearly) linear!).

But yeah, as a rule sticking a couch opposite your speakers cant hurt, and will probably help, and the more corners are filled in with sound-deadening things (of any sort you can get) the better.

[MrBump]

... so if all that's the case, why wouldn't everyone just mix tracks down with headphones?  Surely that would reduce room variables?

Seriously - I know nothing about this stuff, it's just the realisation that all the stuff that I've recorded and mixed using just headphones sounds absolutely terrible when played through speakers!!!

[MDV]

Because headphones dont have the same spatial representation as speakers. They're binaural, not stereo (no matter what they say on the packet).

[ash96]

As for most things in music, you really do get what you pay for, more so with studio monitors in my opinion.

I have some yamaha MSP 5 studio's and they're great. Very true representation with them.

also a flat EQ which is good for mixing. Not the cheapest in the world (about £300-£350 for the pair) but not tooooo expensive either!

Also, +1 to the bit about where you put them making a huge difference, i moved my desk to somewhere else in the room and there's huge amounts more bass now!

[MDV]

More bass =/= better bass!

Use this.

http://www.realtraps.com/info.htm

"Virtual minirator".

Its not complete, but its hits a load of important frequencies and you can tune your listening position pretty well with it.

[ToneMonkey]

Sod the science, one day I'll have these for the computer (purely because they're super cool):

http://www.fergusonhill.co.uk/product_details.php?id=7

And then these for the stereo:

http://www.fergusonhill.co.uk/product_details.php?id=3

So they're not reference speakers, but who cares when they look like that.  :lol: