How do you tell your wife you just spent 7000 dollars on monitors?

[Monkey Man]

More power to ya bro'.

Been isolated through long-term-health challenges for quite a while so I've forgotten what it's like to get intimate.

 

[DanTravis62]

Well I meant unmarried lol, it’s tough to get lonely with three or four girlfriends

I love being single and no kids

Same here man.

Loneliness is a bitch but at least there are perks.

I honestly am happier sans significant other OR having a harem.
I used to be one of those people that was in super long term relationships, and then when it eventually imploded, I spent way too much time and effort getting laid. Probably best for me to remain in monk mode.

To relate this to the original post, every single wife/long term girlfriend/etc would have probably murdered me if I made a purchase like that; as long as i could keep it under a few grand it wouldnt raise too much hell. Being able to do literally whatever I want has definitely led to bigger purchases. Not worrying about the money from that Mark III being used for purses or a new Ipad every year or something led me to downsize and streamline my gear; I have a much smaller collection of much cooler stuff.

I love what ive heard about the genelecs proprietary room correction too. Big respect to medic for making a very wise investment in his mixes.

 

[Monkey Man]

True dat.

@DanTravis62 I can really relate to what you said brother.

Oh, and yes, 'medic's purchase wasn't something his mixes will regret, for-sure. I did a similar thing when I bought my Opals. Saved for 5 years beginning the day they were announced and it's hands-down the best purchase I've ever made along with my Kemper. Punching well above my weight and budget with both items.

As you implied, at least we get to make these sorts of decisions for art's sake.

 

[DanTravis62]

True dat.

@DanTravis62 I can really relate to what you said brother.

Oh, and yes, 'medic's purchase wasn't something his mixes will regret, for-sure. I did a similar thing when I bought my Opals. Saved for 5 years beginning the day they were announced and it's hands-down the best purchase I've ever made along with my Kemper. Punching well above my weight and budget with both items.

As you implied, at least we get to make these sorts of decisions for art's sake.

That's something that needs to improve vastly in my recording setup, much jealousy for you and medic

I have a heavily "white trash treated" room (complete with home made bass traps etc) but unfortunately use very inexpensive m-audio monitors ABed with a moderate hifi system to track most of my mixes - Especially after I get the basic stuff done, I prefer to check my mixes really quick with a relatively normal stereo (NAD 7125 and early 80s sony bookshelves) to make sure it sounds how I think it sounds. I am nothing if not thorough with my recordings though, as someone else mentioned before in the post, I reference my mixes in cars, laptops, ghetto blasters, and school auditoriums if I get the chance. Nice monitors is something I've been putting off for way too long - nice monitors makes it where you don't have to cross reference it with a million different systems.

Also, since don't have to worry about spending the money whenever I want in the future, I can live with myself for buying Racers 1960b with the vented 75s before upgrading my monitors

 

[Monkey Man]

Indeed, brother.

 

[inyarak74]

This is great fellas!! I’m rolling over here !! oh my god.. hell hath no fury…

 

[inyarak74]

That's Female Logic. That's exactly what my Ex-Wife would say all the time & then would scream at me for buying $25.00 flip flops. Hence the title Ex-Wife.

Word

dont' tell her. When she sees it, tell her it was an error with the cc company, and you will get it fixed tomorrow. Women cannot remember anything for longer than 7 seconds. If they do, Clap really loud a couple times.. Hard reset

 

[Exo-metal]

Or she’ll marvel at how amazing they sound and reward his wise gear choice with a hummer.

Not likely but that sounds ideal to me.

 

[errrrrl]

I don't understand... what's with all this tell your wife non sense?

 

[Monkey Man]

Gold mate.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Same here man.

Loneliness is a bitch but at least there are perks.

For sure. Kids are amazing but so much work and you get zero time for yourself really or your significant other which means you end up annoyed at the other person and them at you at times. This is probably why divorce rates are higher and extra marital affairs happen. But if purchasing gear keeps me happy then I guess my significant other has found a way to keep us going strong through the tough times!

Physically though? Ha! no question the grass can be greener on the other side and us married guys often live through our fantasy files of tales of old. My younger cousin showed me all the girls he met on Tinder at the time he was using it. Geez, like shopping on amazon. Ridiculously easy when you are decent looking and can hold a conversation.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I guess the only thing I would say once again is, if you blow that cash on monitors, blow 5 k on your room so that you give yourself the advantage of those speakers.

I mentioned the reference cheap speaker mixing and reference track mixing because it will keep you honest. Also, I was listening to some euro producer who is known for his electronica mixes talk about how he invested in soundproofing to keep the sound in but NOT treatment. His take was that nobody was ever going to be listening to his mixes in a treated room with perfected acoustic conditions. They were going to listen to his tunes in clubs, cars, and shitty house party speakers. So for him, he wanted all the phase cancellation, bass build up, and high end smacking his ears when he mixed. Something to be said for that as well. In that case, maybe you would want the most detail you can get from your speakers because there will be so much other fuckery coming at your ears, you need any advantage you can get.

Right now I have my old console in an untreated/unfinished basement. So I have budget Yamaha HS series speakers but also the Sony MDR 7506 speakers to listen through. They really do have clarity and I get why they have been used for decades in studios for musicians and even producers like Scheps. They aren't neutral but the detail allows you to pinpoint where you are at. I figure between those, the yamaha's and computer/car speakers, I will at least get something I am happy with. One thing though, mixing on a console is so much better. Set the eq more to cut what you don't like and adjust the faders. Everything in front of you. It's awesome. No pissing around with the DAW other than routing the audio and using advantages like groups for a mono drum group so I can free up channels on the mixer. That's what you should get next...drop 5-7 k and pickup someone's old console. Some great deals to be had.

 

[VESmedic]

I guess the only thing I would say once again is, if you blow that cash on monitors, blow 5 k on your room so that you give yourself the advantage of those speakers.

I mentioned the reference cheap speaker mixing and reference track mixing because it will keep you honest. Also, I was listening to some euro producer who is known for his electronica mixes talk about how he invested in soundproofing to keep the sound in but NOT treatment. His take was that nobody was ever going to be listening to his mixes in a treated room with perfected acoustic conditions. They were going to listen to his tunes in clubs, cars, and shitty house party speakers. So for him, he wanted all the phase cancellation, bass build up, and high end smacking his ears when he mixed. Something to be said for that as well. In that case, maybe you would want the most detail you can get from your speakers because there will be so much other fuckery coming at your ears, you need any advantage you can get.

Right now I have my old console in an untreated/unfinished basement. So I have budget Yamaha HS series speakers but also the Sony MDR 7506 speakers to listen through. They really do have clarity and I get why they have been used for decades in studios for musicians and even producers like Scheps. They aren't neutral but the detail allows you to pinpoint where you are at. I figure between those, the yamaha's and computer/car speakers, I will at least get something I am happy with. One thing though, mixing on a console is so much better. Set the eq more to cut what you don't like and adjust the faders. Everything in front of you. It's awesome. No pissing around with the DAW other than routing the audio and using advantages like groups for a mono drum group so I can free up channels on the mixer. That's what you should get next...drop 5-7 k and pickup someone's old console. Some great deals to be had.

Definitely. Even 5k to treat a room isn’t really going to touch the surface on a typical modern house hold style room, and that’s what sucks! You REALLY have to have the cash and understand the physics when you want to nail down problem areas. I thought the guitar world was full of misinformation; pro audio, and specifically acoustics in general, is a world full of lies for sure. “Bass traps”, and “ controlling low end below 80hz”… it’s just not a thing. You physically can not do that in normal bedroom style rooms with 2-4 inch foam or roxul. You can only simply hope to control everything down to 100hz: hopefully.

On that note, I’m actually going to have a consult with reknowned studio designer Roger D’arcy. He’s arguably the best in the world, or one of them. designs at abbey road, Andy sneaps studio, Lenny kravitz, etc. I just want to hear what he has to say, I figure if you spend this much money on monitoring, you might as well be able to hear it right.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Definitely. Even 5k to treat a room isn’t really going to touch the surface on a typical modern house hold style room, and that’s what sucks! You REALLY have to have the cash and understand the physics when you want to nail down problem areas. I thought the guitar world was full of misinformation; pro audio, and specifically acoustics in general, is a world full of lies for sure. “Bass traps”, and “ controlling low end below 80hz”… it’s just not a thing. You physically can not do that in normal bedroom style rooms with 2-4 inch foam or roxul. You can only simply hope to control everything down to 100hz: hopefully.

On that note, I’m actually going to have a consult with reknowned studio designer Roger D’arcy. He’s arguably the best in the world, or one of them. designs at abbey road, Andy sneaps studio, Lenny kravitz, etc. I just want to hear what he has to say, I figure if you spend this much money on monitoring, you might as well be able to hear it right.

Glad you posted that. Throwing a bit of cash at a room has spawned a whole industry of youtubers who think they are an authority. You can def. get some good results in a treated space, but is it going to compete with a space that cost 50K+ to treat and design? Probably not. Now old school recordings, a lot of them were mixed with tons of bleed and not necessarily the most ideal places but their mixing was less complicated then what we try to do now with 40+ tracks. This is also part of the reason I enjoy my console. I only have 20 channels. So I need to figure it out and I need to commit to putting a few mics together out of the gates and bounced down to one track so I don't have 3 channels for one guitar. But that said, all I am ever aspiring to is doing mixes for highschool bands for free or hopefully so my daughters can learn a bit about music making. I am sinking a bit of cash into the gear though but that's because I just love buying stuff .. just listening to the raw SD3 samples, they sound incredible already thanks to the room, mics, and tuning. Almost nothing needs to be done to these things which largely in part is thanks to these incredible spaces they have designed. Will be interesting to see what they suggest you do. How big is the space you are going to be using?

 

[RaceU4her]

I’m not sure what to think about guys going crazy treating their rooms, I see plenty of big name guys who prefer mixing in their less than ideal home studios than the real deal they have access to.

 

[Nigel]

If I ever have to fear a woman over using my own money, it’s a sign I need to reconsider everything.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I’m not sure what to think about guys going crazy treating their rooms, I see plenty of big name guys who prefer mixing in their less than ideal home studios than the real deal they have access to.

I think these would be the mix in headphone guys though isn't it? Like Scheps who I mentioned.

 

[Monkey Man]

I guess the only thing I would say once again is, if you blow that cash on monitors, blow 5 k on your room so that you give yourself the advantage of those speakers.

You could go down that rabbit hole, sure but there's an alternative:

Sit closer to and lower the volume of the monitors. The further you take this, the more you take the room's characteristics out of the equation.

I mentioned the reference cheap speaker mixing and reference track mixing because it will keep you honest. Also, I was listening to some euro producer who is known for his electronica mixes talk about how he invested in soundproofing to keep the sound in but NOT treatment. His take was that nobody was ever going to be listening to his mixes in a treated room with perfected acoustic conditions. They were going to listen to his tunes in clubs, cars, and shitty house party speakers. So for him, he wanted all the phase cancellation, bass build up, and high end smacking his ears when he mixed. Something to be said for that as well. In that case, maybe you would want the most detail you can get from your speakers because there will be so much other fuckery coming at your ears, you need any advantage you can get.

There's a problem with this approach:

The idea of "perfect" monitors in "perfect" rooms is all about flat responses and minimising unnecessary reflections and room modes, with good reason.

Any non-linearities that force you to deviate from what would otherwise be a "perfect" mix limit the range of rooms it'll sound good in. So, if this dude's making this and that adjustment due to the shortcomings, of which there are many (he's even boasting about it), it'll only sound anywhere-near right in rooms with similar problems. He used a broad brush when describing the average listener's room, but as you'd know, the overall shape, surface material and furniture vary heaps from one person's house to another's.

So, that "good reason" I spoke of comes down to a best-for-most philosophy. That plethora of listening environments is going to deviate from neutrality in countless ways, hence the need to strive for perfect balance in the first place, ensuring that anomalies of these rooms are imposed on an already-perfect product. If said product already has bumps and troughs in its response, they're going to combine with room modes in some environments (double-up) and be cancelled by others. See the problem?

All this is why I suggest what I like to think of as the "sensible" middle ground:
Sit close, lower the volume and you now have the flatness of the monitors combined with just a hint of the room's influence. Being just a hint means that only a "typical" HF ambience will enter the picture, something that will aid in judging reverb levels (easy to overdo, especially with headphones).

HTH

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

You could go down that rabbit hole, sure but there's an alternative:

Sit closer to and lower the volume of the monitors. The further you take this, the more you take the room's characteristics out of the equation.


There's a problem with this approach:

The idea of "perfect" monitors in "perfect" rooms is all about flat responses and minimising unnecessary reflections and room modes, with good reason.

Any non-linearities that force you to deviate from what would otherwise be a "perfect" mix limit the range of rooms it'll sound good in. So, if this dude's making this and that adjustment due to the shortcomings, of which there are many (he's even boasting about it), it'll only sound anywhere-near right in rooms with similar problems. He used a broad brush when describing the average listener's room, but as you'd know, the overall shape, surface material and furniture vary heaps from one person's house to another's.

So, that "good reason" I spoke of comes down to a best-for-most philosophy. That plethora of listening environments is going to deviate from neutrality in countless ways, hence the need to strive for perfect balance in the first place, ensuring that anomalies of these rooms are imposed on an already-perfect product. If said product already has bumps and troughs in its response, they're going to combine with room modes in some environments (double-up) and be cancelled by others. See the problem?

All this is why I suggest what I like to think of as the "sensible" middle ground:
Sit close, lower the volume and you now have the flatness of the monitors combined with just a hint of the room's influence. Being just a hint means that only a "typical" HF ambience will enter the picture, something that will aid in judging reverb levels (easy to overdo, especially with headphones).

HTH

Listen I'm with you on this. It is also the cheaper solution lol. I do think there is some benefit to acoustic panels in a cloud overhead and on reflection points but ultimately lowering the volume and especially seeing how the mix translates on various sources should result in a decent mix. This euro producer definitely was doing that as well..his point was just that there is no point in mixing for the perfect room because everything changes once you are in a diff room. It is interesting though when you listen to rock mixes. What do you hear the most? Bass. It sounds huge and makes all the classics sound so big.

It's all about the bass! I also hate this trend now to distort the bass. Sounds like shit and doesn't cut. Anyway.

 

[Monkey Man]

I'm with you brother.

I'm a bassist first (first instrument) and am appalled by how the welly is removed these days by distortion.

You can have both, of course, but many seem to overlook this.