Smaller monitors ?

I had someone come over to my work space the other day and tell me my monitors we're way too big for the room I had 'em in and I'd get a much cleaner and more accurate sound if I downgraded . He also said front ported monitors are 100% better for smaller spaces / bedroom studios . This is a person who works in professional studios so I trust his opinion . Has anyone else here downgraded and felt more comfortable w/ their mixes ?

Right now I have Yamaha HS80m's in a medium sized room in my house .

And how do you plan on getting detail out of the low end with smaller speakers? Dude sounds like one of those theory cats who has a ton of forum knowledge but not enough actual experience. For the record, the mastering room we use is roughly a 12 x 12 box with 10" monitors (see pic). With little monitors your mixes will be completely off in the low end dept. Keep your 8"s man.

I'd rather be able to hear a full freq spectrum mix quietly, be able to turn it up occasionally (possibly turning down the bass slightly) than be able to play a mix louder all the time and never know what was happening in the sub & bass range.

I would tend to agree with your friend - But without seeing the room you are mixing in - or at best some dimensions of the room - It is impossible for anyone to make an informed judgement on this, without seeing the space in which the speakers will be used, and where the speakers are mounted or placed within that space.

use both if you can afford to, there are advantages and disadvantages to both sizes. You want to make sure you music sounds great on both sets of monitors, not just smaller ones.

If you're using smaller monitors, reference your low end like crazy. I used to mix on NS10s alot and got used to fingering that biatch. You can roughly translate the bass freq by touching the cone while reference is palying and translating it back to your mix.

And if you go the large route, just get to know your monitors. Thats it. REference, reference, reference. But eventually it'd be good to treat your room.

Kno1ills wrote:If you're using smaller monitors, reference your low end like crazy. I used to mix on NS10s alot and got used to fingering that biatch. You can roughly translate the bass freq by touching the cone while reference is palying and translating it back to your mix.

could you elaborate on that?

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how are the dyns? i want some but they're a bit pricey. do you get what you pay for? been lookin at the bm 6a mk2

The smaller ones are cool, the 10's are pretty wicked.

AntonPD wrote:

Kno1ills wrote:If you're using smaller monitors, reference your low end like crazy. I used to mix on NS10s alot and got used to fingering that biatch. You can roughly translate the bass freq by touching the cone while reference is palying and translating it back to your mix.

could you elaborate on that?

Play a song with a similar lowend frequency range and punch as the song you are mixing. Take a few rounds of it and watch the woofer cone movement. Watch how the cone bulges out as the kick engages and watch how the cone has a level vibration, lacking punch but steady amplitude as the bass is triggered. Then do the same again, but put your fingers on the cone to feel how the amplitude of the bass rides and how hard the punch of the kick thumps. Spend time doing this, even if you're just listening to regular music. It'll help you use your other senses to somewhat gauge your bottom end in comparison to properly mixed music.

I agree with major. I've in and out of a larger studio this summer and always use both smaller and larger monitors they have there while referencing. You'd be surprised at the difference in sound when compared side by side. I'm in the opposite position where I need larger monitors to fill a bigger space. The ported aspect of a monitor is nice with the punch. I personally think it favors the drums a little more, so you're friend's got a point there. I say keep one's you got.

anyone here ever use a big knob for switching? if so, what did you think of that unit? was it ... seamless (quiet) when switching?

Kno1ills wrote:

AntonPD wrote:

Kno1ills wrote:If you're using smaller monitors, reference your low end like crazy. I used to mix on NS10s alot and got used to fingering that biatch. You can roughly translate the bass freq by touching the cone while reference is palying and translating it back to your mix.

could you elaborate on that?

Play a song with a similar lowend frequency range and punch as the song you are mixing. Take a few rounds of it and watch the woofer cone movement. Watch how the cone bulges out as the kick engages and watch how the cone has a level vibration, lacking punch but steady amplitude as the bass is triggered. Then do the same again, but put your fingers on the cone to feel how the amplitude of the bass rides and how hard the punch of the kick thumps. Spend time doing this, even if you're just listening to regular music. It'll help you use your other senses to somewhat gauge your bottom end in comparison to properly mixed music.

so basically, you're substituting low end monitoring with feeling/watching the cone?

On small monitors yeah. I wouldn't recommend it unless you absolutely have too. But it's better than guessing.

W. Steele wrote:I had someone come over to my work space the other day and tell me my monitors we're way too big for the room I had 'em in and I'd get a much cleaner and more accurate sound if I downgraded . He also said front ported monitors are 100% better for smaller spaces / bedroom studios . This is a person who works in professional studios so I trust his opinion . Has anyone else here downgraded and felt more comfortable w/ their mixes ?

Right now I have Yamaha HS80m's in a medium sized room in my house .

He is right. Look, if your a Producer then you want your beats to be as flat and nuertal as possible. It should never sound good pre mix down. I hear crazy beats each day that just plain sux. The subs to low or high the kick to soft the mids and high through the roof. Im sure it sounded great at the lab. But the lab most likley is not a flat room not using state of the art boards,compressors,amps,limiters,blah blah blah. So i sit and say ,wow. The serious producers use an engineer first of all. Make a tuning track make slap. Chrip chime tweet a few shakers and a few effects. Stuff that really needs to be right basicly. Take the mpc to the REAL studio and reference your settings. Listen to your mpc on top quality studio gear in a professional enviroment. Then use the same kot at the studio and make another beat. When you get home you can set up your placement and settings to keep you in a tunned range. I use the hs50 myself because they dont exagerate the beat making it sound nice on when in the real world its laking punch. Get a sub. Flatten the room a little and monitor wirh headphones as well . To big and loud and youe ears become numb and stressed so you start to over compensate settings.. i use mpc5000 ,protools,reason,and logic. Axiom 49 pro,minimoog and firewire. I rexomend reading each manual over and over.... good luck bro.. yeeeee