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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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When you finally learn how to mix properly, the mixes you produce will sound reasonably good on every system they are played on. It's the amateurs who mix to their "studio" speakers and then play it in a car and are disappointed by the unbalanced mix.
Do you seriously think the big mixing studios have the time to model every single environment where a song might be played? Absolutely not. They know what they are doing and they use one set of monitors consistently. Some of them may take the time to "check the mix" (probably spot checking) on a mono rig. I'm sure some do, but most of them know what they're doing and don't need to, or have the time, to check their work on a dozen different speakers or environments. but most of the people on this forum aren't big-time full-time recording engineers who have the time or experience to attain that mastery. Forum discussion, by its very nature, is about exchanging ideas, techniques and product information to help one another improve.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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post removed because upon further reading I conclude that it was probably wrong wrong all wrong. 
Last edited by Pat Marr; 07/13/14 03:10 PM. Reason: unwillingness to spread misconceptions
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Josie, and Critter,
...
But, one of the biggest issues that we have as a small company is that people don't really know what they are listening to. I could record a Steinway Grand Piano in a concert hall with two mics, and the present it to you in three forms, a.) unaltered, b.) with a small amount of harmonic distortion, and c.) louder, and you would probably pick 'B' or 'C' as the better sounding. Why? Because most people do not know what a properly mic'd piano in a concert hall really sounds like.
...
Gary Just for fun a good experiment would be to have a 100 listeners (50 musicians and 50 music lovers but non-musicians), one at a time, sit blindfolded in the same concert hall at a to be defined "optimum" listening position (whatever that means, but they must sit way off stage in the audience seating area, not on or near stage) with a that SAME recorded piano: 1) live or actual and we'll call that option a.) true 2- though "top 'o the line" monitors, and clearly best uncolored power amps money can buy, positioned at same location as piano (listener should not be able to tell acoustically that anything has moved or is "different") using your b.) unaltered, c.) with a small amount of harmonic distortion, and d.) louder. Then get them to pick BEST - overall (one out of four) and also - A versus B (true versus unaltered) - actually can they tell true from sampled???? I wonder what sampling results would look like? And what would conclusion be if a statistically significant number of musicians do NOT PICK the actual live piano (they pick options b, c, or d at alpha of say .1 (please note: this is a fast and badly defined, and designed, experiment by me; therefore, the beta is uncontrolled, which is a very bad way to put together a statistical test experiment but hey, I'm retired and not being paid to do this anymore either <G>)
Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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"Or if you are recording backing tracks for use on gigs, you could model your PA speakers actual frequency response, then model various sized rooms."
I have found that I get much better results by actually doing final mix EQ tweaks through the mixer/amp/PA speakers. With my large rig, that usually requires pulling out some low-mids.
The frequency response difference between phones, near fields and PA enclosures is huge, and when you factor in the coloring of the board and amp, it's virtually impossible to simulate that combination.
While it's true that a well-mixed song should sound good on most systems, PA's are another matter.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Larry, your fun experiment brought back some fond memories! I few years ago we had two singers who would argue day and night about vocal reverb, one said spring reverb was the best and the other said digital reverb was the best. They both said that they could tell the difference! Each had their reverb units with them.
So we, the other members in the band, made them leave the room. We told them we would take one mic and one time plug it into a both reverbs. They left and I plugged the mic into the digital reverb, note the PA settings were identical for both tests. They both sang accapella, then left the room. I did nothing. They came back, sang again and proceeded to argue with was better. Of course one took the first variation and the other the second!
Of course they were mad at me and the band broke up a short while later.
I arrived early to a restaurant.
The manager asks, "do you mind waiting a bit?"
I said no.
"Good", he said. "Take these drinks to table 3"
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 681
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OP
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Joined: Feb 2010
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Too end this thread, let me just see what you all are using and let's go from there. If I don't have to I don't want to spend over $500.00 a pair. My Sweetwater rep says I should go for the Focal Alpha 50 and or the Yamaha MSP 7, both with the front bass ports which I want, the Yamahas are $399.00 each and the Focal Alpha 50 are $299.00 each. To me it's a lot of money. The Presonus Eris series, sound ok, but reviews with failing monitors, also the Behringer Truth 3030a sounds good but then the reviews with failing monitors. Let's here what you guys have and the good and the bad of the monitors.........Thanks
Critter
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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When you finally learn how to mix properly, the mixes you produce will sound reasonably good on every system they are played on. It's the amateurs who mix to their "studio" speakers and then play it in a car and are disappointed by the unbalanced mix.
Do you seriously think the big mixing studios have the time to model every single environment where a song might be played? Absolutely not. They know what they are doing and they use one set of monitors consistently. Some of them may take the time to "check the mix" (probably spot checking) on a mono rig. I'm sure some do, but most of them know what they're doing and don't need to, or have the time, to check their work on a dozen different speakers or environments. but most of the people on this forum aren't big-time full-time recording engineers who have the time or experience to attain that mastery. Forum discussion, by its very nature, is about exchanging ideas, techniques and product information to help one another improve. Yep.... most here are "Amateurs". That term is often used in a derogatory manner by those who consider themselves to be "professionals". However, it comes from the root word Amore (in one language or another)...it means LOVE. Amateurs do what they do because of the LOVE of what they do.... in our case... that love is MUSIC. Yeah we don't do it for a profession, or fame or money..... we do it because we love doing it. That reason, however, isn't an excuse to be mediocre in our efforts. We should always strive to be the best we can be, learning and improving constantly. While we probably will not attain the skill set of the masters of the mixing world and set at the desk mixing a Streisand, Adele or Dion, we can, nonetheless, attain the level where we are producing top quality music mixes that sound good and work well across many listening environments.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 681
Journeyman
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So in the end I got the KRK VXT6 monitors, and I can say holy crap what was I mixing, what a difference it makes. I didn't want to go this high end but I did get a deal thru Sweetwater, the monitors go for $449.99 each and I got the pair for $718.00, can't beat that. Sweetwater always does me right. All my songs are way out of where they should be. Lesson here, never use home type speakers as I did. Again I can't believe the difference...................
Critter
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 64
Enthusiast
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Newbie here of about 3 weeks. I have a Korg SV 1. Use a Roland amp speaker no mixer. Just bought a JBL LSR 305 5" as a practice amp. I would like to run the audio from my Dell Inspiron 1464 where BIAB lives to these speakers. In the BIAB MIDI/Audio Drivers setup window I currently have no MIDI input driver chosen. MIDI output is set to Microsoft GS wavetable Synth. Synthesizer/Sound Card is set to General MIDI instrument Misc. I have have not altered any settings....all are factory default/ recommended.
Thanks,
Bud
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 4
Newbie
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i use a pair of 30 year old studiosonics *they were created by PHILIPS but a diffrend brand for east european countrys. i bought them off a friend for 100 euros a couple of years ago and have been using them sinds. i only found one other pair on ebay a year ago for 300 dollars from a studio in usa. you dont need verry expensive speakers , but dont go for the cheepest to , use a good nearfield speaker and most importend realy get to know your speakers as if you get to know a real friend. listen to them a lot with a lot of differend music styles.... best way to get to know your studio monitors ,
Last edited by LeoVB; 08/24/14 05:57 AM.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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I may be late to this dance but, upon Mac's recommendation, I bought a pair of Barry MS-40 Near-Field Monitors and I haven't looked back. In my room (16' x 16'), 40W is paint/wallpaper pealing power.
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