Monitors

[TeamOmega]

i have some of the KRK rp-8's and i'm pretty happy with em. they definitely don't sound flat, but i've been fairly happy with the mixes i've done. music sounds really good through them actually, so i find myself listening to albums through them a lot.

they're $250 a piece so it would fit your budget perfectly.

 

[ArtGarceau]

I need a couple good quality monitors for listening to recorded stuff, mixing and mastering. I get strange results with my desktop speakers from various CDs. I always master so that there's no "crackling" whatsoever, but some CDs I listen to have crackling and it makes me wonder what more I could actually get out of my music if I had a better set of speakers. These ones are great quality with a beefy subwoofer, but they don't seem consistent enough.

A small local studio uses a couple Mackies... They sounded pretty good to me, and the sound was pretty familiar coming out of them for my stuff. I'm not looking to spend a ton of cash. Maybe $500 total for a couple monitors. I need to upgrade from these desktop speakers, so any recommendations would be appreciated... I have an Alesis io|26 interface, and I'm assuming I would plug each speaker into the back of it... I have no experience with studio monitors.

The $500 is just a reference point but really...... not TOO far off from that please... x_x

The monitors aren't the issue with the crackling, but the processing that you are applying. What is your mix peaking at when you pre-master your songs? (Mastering is done by the replication house and pre-mastering is done by a "mastering engineer"). If it is peaking too loudly you could be getting overs after you dither which is causing distortion.

I'd look at a used pair of B&W 685. They are a great detailed speaker that smoke every speaker that is marketed as a studio monitor under $2k.

 

[Metaltastic]

...But you need a power amp

 

[BrandonS]

I'm not looking into anything extra, I just need some good monitors I can plug right in. There seems to be good support for the Alesis MKII and the BX8As mainly as the majority of the posts here talk about those. Between the two, which would you guys recommend? I really want to make an accurate mix, where I won't go "what the shit?" when I play the songs later on through a TV sound system or the car...

Like I said, I get rid of all the crackling in my songs... I usually crank the song up as loud as I can get it sounding good, and hard limiting to -.1 will get rid of the peaks and does a good job of killing even the smallest notion of a crackle that my diabolical system may think of. Before the hard limiting, it is over 0db a lot with the peaks. But the sound is good. I crank the volume up using a tube modeled compressor but I don't actually compress the mix as a whole. I compress individual instruments that need it.

 

[JBroll]

You really should take care of the stuff that's causing clipping without so much hard limiting... even if it means cranking the whole mix down about 10dB until you can figure out what makes you need a good few games of Whack-A-Mole on the master bus.

Jeff

 

[ArtGarceau]

Like I said, I get rid of all the crackling in my songs... I usually crank the song up as loud as I can get it sounding good, and hard limiting to -.1 will get rid of the peaks and does a good job of killing even the smallest notion of a crackle that my diabolical system may think of. Before the hard limiting, it is over 0db a lot with the peaks. But the sound is good. I crank the volume up using a tube modeled compressor but I don't actually compress the mix as a whole. I compress individual instruments that need it.

That's the problem with the crackling...you're clipping! I'm not a fan of hard limiting but bring your limiter down to -.3 or -.4 db. Being at -.1 after you dither to 16bit you can have overs.

The monitors you are looking at are suitable for mixing, but pre-mastering is a different ball of wax.

 

[BrandonS]

Well I need to do everything until completion, so can we stop beating around the bush here? What would be good for doing all of these things? >.>

 

[JBroll]

I would say to go for monitors that sound like fucking shit. More than a few people have recommended the Yamaha MSP5s; if you can manage to get some NS10s those are what I'd get - although you'll need a separate power amp for those. If you can make something sound good on monitors like those (monitors made to show you how awful everything is) you'll be set.

Also, for loudness and such do a forum search for "Getting your loudness", that might help you with getting volume and eliminating crackling.

Jeff

 

[BrandonS]

Well when you say monitors that sound like fucking shit, are you exaggerating or what? Do you mean monitors that will bring out all of the flaws or monitors that just flat out sound like shit? That seems like a weird idea.

 

[JBroll]

Bringing out all the flaws.

Basically, take a mix of yours to GC or some other place that has that kind of thing, and rule out anything that makes your stuff sound good.

Jeff

 

[Ermz]

Well I need to do everything until completion, so can we stop beating around the bush here? What would be good for doing all of these things? >.>

Nothing in that price range.

The very first thing to do is consider the positioning of the speakers within your environment, and the treatment of the environment itself. These factors commonly cause a bigger impact on the clarity of your monitoring than the speakers themselves.

Secondly, only when you get into brands such as PMC, Klein & Hummel, Barefoot etc. will you actually get something nearing mastering-grade.

Unless you are paying a few thousand, you can bet that, at the very best, you're getting decent hi-fi speakers. In my experience the Dynaudio stuff, particularly the BM6a's, are the only speakers worth a shit in the lower price ranges. Even they have issues recreating the bottom octave as they are only a two-way system with a relatively small low-mid woofer. They'd need to be paired with a good sub to get you low.

If you're going really cheap, just get anything that sounds good to you, as it will all be coloured and have drawbacks in some areas. All you can hope for is a type of speaker color that counter-acts the flaws of your environment and sounds like something you can attune your ears to.

EDIT: I also don't subscribe to the idea that monitors should sound shit for the sake of it. That seems a personal preference thing. I find it terribly uninspiring to work on speakers that sound shit simply on their own account. The ONLY time they should sound shit is if your mix isn't right. If you're crafting a fantastic mix, then they should reflect that. Plus it tends to get a tad fatiguing to work on speakers that pump about 110dB of 2kHz at you, as NS-10s do.