ATTN: FANU-san

[Macc]

just to play devils advocate, i do agree that theres bigger variety in sound with cans than there is with monitors.

hmmm... maybe. all a matter of price innit :d

if we flip the logic, if you mix through cans and it translates to sounding great on monitors, then it wont be sounding the same (ie it will sound worse?) through cans. so you must learn to mix with it sounding 'different' to what it really actually sounds like when played through a neutral system....what happens when you do mix on monitors then? how quickly can one adjust if you never usually mix on monitors?

first off, i am shocked that you use the phrase 'neutral system'. :d what's that then? do you know anyone that has one? anyone who isn't in a floating room with £20000 monitors and an equal amount of acoustic treatment?

in answer to the rest; money and everything else wise, john/dgohn's monitors are (according to most people) a far superior listening tool than my cans. but why then do the mixes i do at home on my cans sound so much better than those i do on his monitors (not that i have mixed anything there for a while) ? no prizes for getting this answer right: cos i know them better.

im using cans purely as a reference tool, along with car stereo, cheap hifi etc. though i have done solid mixes while on the road (that last d&b tune i posted a couple of weeks back was composed (and inherently mixed through composition) entirely on cans), but most of the time the mixes have been improved when bringing them to the full studio. however i cant attribute that entirely to monitors since when in the main studio i also use a console and an array of outboard.

and nothing at all to do with the fact that you have spent far more time actually mixing on those monitors in that room i spose. all those hours of experience have nothing to do with it.

sooooooooo

let me pose a question.

if its just a case of getting used to whatever you are using, cans, hi-fi speakers, a boombox, a club pa, whatever it may be.....then what is the point of neutral studio monitors?

why do we and pretty much anyone you ask in the know tell you that you should mix on neutral monitors, and to ditch the crappy hifi speakers or whatever ?

why do monitor companies exist even? is it all a big con ? has everyone been duped ?

according to the arguments presented against that article then yes we have all been duped (apart from macc who still has his cans )

i aaaaaalmost agree with this point of view to be honest.

case in point, two of my own tunes that have been released on vinyl, raa raa raa - if... and swallow it.

both those tunes were mixed entirely at work, on 'harman/kardon' ported little rubbish probably 3" cone pc speakers. i've been using these pretty much every day for 2 years.

when i heard swallow it at ichione, it sounded equally as well mixed as anything else i heard that night, with immense quantities of bass (heaviest i'd heard up to that point in the evening - i had to break off conversation to make sure ) and a nice general balance overall. it certainly didn't sound worse than anything else id heard that evening.

as for 'if...' (cue shameless but necessary self-back-patting), zane lowe - who probably hears thouuuuusands of records - played it on radio one - where they play thooouuusands of records - and said it was 'exquisitely produced' (i think they're the actual words).

now of course, hearing them from vinyl some work has been done to them in the mastering, but as we all know you can't polish a turd.


so stick that in your floating room and smoke it



the main reason for buying the best possible (ie affordable) monitors is so that you know that what you are hearing will translate equally well across all systems. you mix at the highest quality level, and then it will translate equally well to all quality levels below that, if you follow me. that's at least a large part of the the idea. another part being that you know what you're hearing is 'teh trooff' and can have faith that what you hear is what is being played.

[aside - that last sentence, reading it back, sounds very idealistic to me]

however, if you go out and about and are fortunate enough to hear your stuff on lots of systems, get lots of feedback, and know how to mix in the first place, you get a much better idea of how whatever you are mixing on translates across all systems. that cuts out a lot of the need for high powered gear (arguably). you are able to translate 'across' the quality levels, rather than just down them (if that makes sense).


thinking about it, the most important mix aid i have (apart from mda limiter ) is nothing more than my sony fontopia earphones and my mp3 player. i fucking know those bastards, believe. i make make more important mix decisions on those than anything else, probably cos i do more listening to all sorts of music on those than anything else.



all very interesting.

when we have time i'd like to discuss exactly why the equilateral triangle speaker positioning thing is so correct too scope. been thinking about that a lot.