Very well timed video. I am about to buy my first set of monitors. Really appreciate not just the walk-through but acknowledging it is a little personal as well. Thanks!!
What you say about being comfortable around a certain speaker sound is absolutely true. My setup is cheap (expensive for me). And I always had this amazing Logitech set of speakers from the early 90's. They sounded fantastic for the type of music I was doing, and they were even loud enough to gig with in the places I played. So they were perfect for what I was doing with them. They were from that time period when sub-woofers were just starting to come out for computer speakers. Then, a year ago, the electronics just... died. So I had to get something to replace them. I immediately became dissatisfied with every-single speaker system I could find, including the expensive Surround Sound setups. When I was shopping, I noticed something. EVERYTHING seemed to be "BASS!!!!" now with what seemed very little treble, making everything sound deep and muddled. And this was an industry shift that apparently happened, because my father got a new car and the stereo in that was all bass, no treble, and just makes a LOT of stuff, that was recorded back in the day, like crap, no matter what settings you dial in. Playing any of my CD collection, or my father's music in it just causes the bass to erase some of the instruments, or overtones that we used to hear all the time. Now, with speaker systems, they seem to WAY overdo the bass. I have yet to find a system that actually sounds what I consider good any more, like those original speakers I had.
Another great topic!! But I have a question that maybe expands on the topic a bit. When you take a mix that you feel is completely balanced in tone and level into the "real world" environment, what sort of things would send you back into the control room to re-evaluate and perhaps make adjustments versus simply knowing that the limitations of consumer equipment and listening environments are the cause of the problem you hear? Would you ever deliberately have something sound a little off in the control room in order for it to translate better in the real world?
I love using cheap speakers as a reference, but also to mix and do weird feedback experiments in a re-amping way. I’m used to tracking and mixing on Yamahas, but I’m switching to Adams because I’ve researched and found engineers found them less taxing on the ear and more enjoyable to listen to, not to mention how aesthetically pleasing they are for me. I’ve even done decent work just using Beyerdynamic headphones because I’m so accustomed to their sound.
I'm not far away. When it's this cold, the little joey retreats to his pouch if you get my drift. I don't have super expensive monitors or a well-treated room so I use an EDM producer's trick, which is to check the mix with a spectrum analyzer.
If you haven't experienced -40, you haven't lived. I'm in Wisconsin, so we get to -60F sometimes, including windchill (51C). Being the U.S., we do fahrenheit, not celsius. Interestingly, fahrenheit and celsius are exactly the same at -40. Weird, eh? Thanks for another awesome video!
When I stepped outside this morning in Toronto and experienced the awful -13 temperatures, I was pretty miserable. Hearing about your -42 experience makes me feel like a big wimp.
Thanks, good stuff as always! This is the stuff that can REALLY drive you crazy, thinking about the audience's set up vs your monitors, mixing out/down specific frequencies to make room for others on every track, then on the master. Using headphone/car/tv/cellphone references different bounces/compression......mY eaRs cAn'T c0ntaIn tHe miSsiNg FraGmENtS of FreQuEncIeS.
I think the idea of the NS-10s was to sound crappy by default. If you could make your mix sound good on them, chances were high that your mix sounded great on every other system.
Definitely don't buy a monitor based on what's popular at the moment. I was in the upgrade boat recently and was very ready to replace my KRK Rokit 8 Gen II monitors and picked a set of monitors based on many very positive reviews on Reddit, gear review sites, etc. When it came time to purchase I selected a retailer with an awesome return policy (many wont let you return speakers). As Ken put it, speakers are very personal. I also think that with consumer level gear it's impossible to know if the people reviewing have heard exceptionally well balanced, audiophile speaker systems. Maybe they love the speakers simply because they were an upgrade from what they were previously using. However what might have been an upgrade for them might be anything but for you. The nearfield monitors I bought sounded AMAZING for about 5 minutes and then ear fatigue set in, even with the tweeters set to their maximum negative db position. The mix between the woofers and tweeters was also really disconnected. I can still understand how someone could listen to them and be impressed in a retail environment as these would probably "pop" more compared to the competition, but I'm left scratching my head wondering how they continually get good long term reviews. Long story short, listen to Ken's advice and then try to purchase from a retailer that will let you return them after a week or so in case the honeymoon period gets cut short. Also watch his previous video on room treatments, as a poorly treated room could be the reason your monitors don't sound great. Love your videos Ken!!
@@kilroy914 thank you for sharing! was thinking you could have meant adam. what worked for you? i used to want the a7x but now i'm not sure whether it would beat focal 80 or neumann kh-120. my room is 8x9x23 btw
There's just literally not anything unlikable about this guy.
Very well timed video. I am about to buy my first set of monitors. Really appreciate not just the walk-through but acknowledging it is a little personal as well. Thanks!!
What you say about being comfortable around a certain speaker sound is absolutely true. My setup is cheap (expensive for me). And I always had this amazing Logitech set of speakers from the early 90's. They sounded fantastic for the type of music I was doing, and they were even loud enough to gig with in the places I played. So they were perfect for what I was doing with them. They were from that time period when sub-woofers were just starting to come out for computer speakers. Then, a year ago, the electronics just... died. So I had to get something to replace them. I immediately became dissatisfied with every-single speaker system I could find, including the expensive Surround Sound setups. When I was shopping, I noticed something. EVERYTHING seemed to be "BASS!!!!" now with what seemed very little treble, making everything sound deep and muddled. And this was an industry shift that apparently happened, because my father got a new car and the stereo in that was all bass, no treble, and just makes a LOT of stuff, that was recorded back in the day, like crap, no matter what settings you dial in. Playing any of my CD collection, or my father's music in it just causes the bass to erase some of the instruments, or overtones that we used to hear all the time. Now, with speaker systems, they seem to WAY overdo the bass. I have yet to find a system that actually sounds what I consider good any more, like those original speakers I had.
Great content, thank you! And I love that track at the end.
Very informative as always! I like how you approach these things from a very subjective and personalised point of view. Keep up the good work man!
Another great topic!! But I have a question that maybe expands on the topic a bit. When you take a mix that you feel is completely balanced in tone and level into the "real world" environment, what sort of things would send you back into the control room to re-evaluate and perhaps make adjustments versus simply knowing that the limitations of consumer equipment and listening environments are the cause of the problem you hear? Would you ever deliberately have something sound a little off in the control room in order for it to translate better in the real world?
Great outro in 'Rejected', Ken.
I watched a few vids and couldn't agree more re: sub and using your ears. Funny, that? ;)
I love using cheap speakers as a reference, but also to mix and do weird feedback experiments in a re-amping way. I’m used to tracking and mixing on Yamahas, but I’m switching to Adams because I’ve researched and found engineers found them less taxing on the ear and more enjoyable to listen to, not to mention how aesthetically pleasing they are for me. I’ve even done decent work just using Beyerdynamic headphones because I’m so accustomed to their sound.
I'm not far away. When it's this cold, the little joey retreats to his pouch if you get my drift.
I don't have super expensive monitors or a well-treated room so I use an EDM producer's trick, which is to check the mix with a spectrum analyzer.
Dynaudio for about 10 years now. Alesis M1 up until then.
I've been using Dynaudios for pushing 20 years now, love'm
@sean grant MOTU 896HD.
@@WORSAW666 me too. BM6A.
If you haven't experienced -40, you haven't lived.
I'm in Wisconsin, so we get to -60F sometimes, including windchill (51C). Being the U.S., we do fahrenheit, not celsius. Interestingly, fahrenheit and celsius are exactly the same at -40. Weird, eh?
Thanks for another awesome video!
Great vid!
When I stepped outside this morning in Toronto and experienced the awful -13 temperatures, I was pretty miserable.
Hearing about your -42 experience makes me feel like a big wimp.
Thanks, good stuff as always! This is the stuff that can REALLY drive you crazy, thinking about the audience's set up vs your monitors, mixing out/down specific frequencies to make room for others on every track, then on the master. Using headphone/car/tv/cellphone references different bounces/compression......mY eaRs cAn'T c0ntaIn tHe miSsiNg FraGmENtS of FreQuEncIeS.
I always reference in mono
Weren't NS10s to make music sound ok on a crap system?
BTW I got Adam Audio on my mixer and Wilson Watt Puppies (DIY) on my hifi.
I think the idea of the NS-10s was to sound crappy by default. If you could make your mix sound good on them, chances were high that your mix sounded great on every other system.
@@gernotgobel1276 Yes I agree.
Definitely don't buy a monitor based on what's popular at the moment. I was in the upgrade boat recently and was very ready to replace my KRK Rokit 8 Gen II monitors and picked a set of monitors based on many very positive reviews on Reddit, gear review sites, etc. When it came time to purchase I selected a retailer with an awesome return policy (many wont let you return speakers). As Ken put it, speakers are very personal. I also think that with consumer level gear it's impossible to know if the people reviewing have heard exceptionally well balanced, audiophile speaker systems. Maybe they love the speakers simply because they were an upgrade from what they were previously using. However what might have been an upgrade for them might be anything but for you.
The nearfield monitors I bought sounded AMAZING for about 5 minutes and then ear fatigue set in, even with the tweeters set to their maximum negative db position. The mix between the woofers and tweeters was also really disconnected. I can still understand how someone could listen to them and be impressed in a retail environment as these would probably "pop" more compared to the competition, but I'm left scratching my head wondering how they continually get good long term reviews.
Long story short, listen to Ken's advice and then try to purchase from a retailer that will let you return them after a week or so in case the honeymoon period gets cut short. Also watch his previous video on room treatments, as a poorly treated room could be the reason your monitors don't sound great.
Love your videos Ken!!
what did you buy and dislike?
@@darwindeeez ADAM Audio T7V monitors
@@kilroy914 thank you for sharing! was thinking you could have meant adam. what worked for you? i used to want the a7x but now i'm not sure whether it would beat focal 80 or neumann kh-120. my room is 8x9x23 btw
-40 celcius? sjeez I tought -20 was intense haha