Buying monitors

[deadly_habit]

the rp6 g1 are the only ones from the krk rokit range i would ever touch
if i had the cash i'd rather get proper adam or event setups

[burning prophet]

hi thor beatz

i got a degree in media production and sound engineering is part of it. how ever i dont in anyway want to say i know anything about it in profesional means, since i work in music-production. i merelly aply my knowledge to my own productions for pleasure.

Right, so you master your tracks for people with subwoofers?
It's a contradiction to say good bass response unless you never heard it with a subwoofer. More bass does not mean good/flat bass response.

interesting question, but yeah i dont at all have in mind how a track will sound on a phone, specially considering they cant reproduce low bass. its no point to modify the bass content of a track to the extent of killing it imho. but as far as i know i think it is a good point to atleast to do a normal hp at 30-35hz.

in general i dont think its a question of mastering for "ppl with subwoofers", but to make sure its there if the listener has a nice soundsystem. the four most common types of subwoofers all work and sound very different. now the good thing is most people will have a comercial soundsetup, and that most of the time includes a bass reflex subwoofer. i DONT recomend anyone to use bass reflex subs for musical production and mastering.

sealed boxes are the way to go. they have no scetchy peaks in the hyped areas.

to think a sub woofer needs to produce "more bass" is a typìcal asumption. i beg to differ. its a question of beeing able to produce it well down to the hz wanted for the aplication.

Well that's my last comment on KRK's... Just A/B them with entry level monitors from more expensive brands.(ADAM, Dynaudio, Focal etc) It's really worth saving that extra buck for.

obviously doshing out more money will give better monitors no doubt at all about that. complettelly agree on that. but for the price range the krk's are in i think they sound quite ok, and far more honest sounding than other brands i tried.

anyway, since there is more different types of rooms, than there is monitors, my best advice to anyone is to a good soundproofing.

anyway, im stoned. dunno if i answered your question.

peace

[decklyn]

KRK's Rokit series aren't that bad. They're a little hyped but I think they're still reliable. It's more of a tiring than mix ruining hype too.
I would suggest:
used mackie HR series
or Samson's
in that price range.
www.decklyn.com I wrote a little article on entry level bass capable monitors.

[thor_beatz]

H0wdy,

I'm a about to get stoned so i'll keep it short

In general mastering tunes for any system will produce good results on both bass heavy and and non bass heavy systems. You'll want to balance your mix as good as possible. A sub-woofer produces slow waves, a tweeter fast waves. This means that a bigger cabinet will be better equipped to produce bass. Lower frequencies are handled by the sub if it is there.

I generally do a lowcut on the audio for I-phone/android games because there is an obvious limitation, but other than that and vinyl you don't need to produce for anything special. You can test how it sounds on a phone via a impulse response.

A good mastered piece of audio will sound good on simple speakers and on big sound systems in clubs and theatres alike.

That being said I guess we agree on most points, but I always get itchy fingers when reading the KRK fanboyism on DSF (not implying you are one). It's a shame people think they are getting some trustworthy speaker only to notice later that things sound very different on other systems.

[thor_beatz]

the rp6 g1 are the only ones from the krk rokit range i would ever touch
if i had the cash i'd rather get proper adam or event setups

Yes ADAM's A7's are great. I ended up buying the Focal CMS 50's after A/B ing them with the ADAMS. I was really blown away by them, for that price (only 800e)

[decklyn]

You get what you pay for. If you buy the Rockit series you're getting the lowest end KRK. Try the vxt8 if you want a good quality speaker but you're going to need to pay for it. It's not KRK it's just the compromise and marketing at the pricepoitn. At the price point the RP6/RP8 are about the best you're going to get. I like the Samson Rubicon series a bit more - they're more spacious and not as hyped at that pricepoint. But not as durable either. I would recommend you buy a used pair of Mackie HR824s if you want a more reliable monitor for less than $1000. They need to be away from walls with the radiator design tho.

[burning prophet]

fun you talk about cabinets i build sub woofers... nothing new under the sky in questions about that.... my point is at the moment i dont do final masterings for any particular purpose, besides when i sell dancehall beats, i do them a bit bass heavy so the vocalists find them more "banging" later their mastering session will adapt it to the vocals.

as long as the levels of a mastered track are good i dont think its a mayor dificulty for sound engineer to do what they want, but as i said, i leave it for them most of the time. although for obvious reasons before i send away a highquality wav to a buyer, i do a EQ session on it.

i havent heard my music on that many different systems to say with ease if it sounds differnt or not, but as far as i know, the big problem many see with the krk is the bass, and i let the bass be handled by my subwoofer setup that is very flat down to 20hz. the krk subwoofers dont go down as far at all, and have a large peak at the kick range. that is true.

now, my sound system is really big, all in all around 2000W. i like to play loud as hell, and part of the money i saved on using krk 8's i invested in 5 huge sealed custom made subwoofers with 12" cones. of course i can switch it off when i master to see how it sounds on a system with no bass..

the midrange is a bit on the strong side on the krks, but thats easy to adjust with a EQ and a test tone session. honestly i do pass the sound to my krk 8's first thru EQ to adjust for my super damped room.

well talking about what is a shame.. is people who dosh out several K on BW speakers and think that is sounding real...

atleast in studio monitors the higher the price the more honest is the sound reproduction.

if i was making more dosh on the music id be looking at other things, but right now thats what there is hehehe

peace!

[deadly_habit]

i wish this kind of discussion would go into even basic room treatment which makes the difference

[decklyn]

fun you talk about cabinets i build sub woofers... nothing new under the sky in questions about that.... my point is at the moment i dont do final masterings for any particular purpose, besides when i sell dancehall beats, i do them a bit bass heavy so the vocalists find them more "banging" later their mastering session will adapt it to the vocals.

as long as the levels of a mastered track are good i dont think its a mayor dificulty for sound engineer to do what they want, but as i said, i leave it for them most of the time. although for obvious reasons before i send away a highquality wav to a buyer, i do a EQ session on it.

i havent heard my music on that many different systems to say with ease if it sounds differnt or not, but as far as i know, the big problem many see with the krk is the bass, and i let the bass be handled by my subwoofer setup that is very flat down to 20hz. the krk subwoofers dont go down as far at all, and have a large peak at the kick range. that is true.

now, my sound system is really big, all in all around 2000W. i like to play loud as hell, and part of the money i saved on using krk 8's i invested in 5 huge sealed custom made subwoofers with 12" cones. of course i can switch it off when i master to see how it sounds on a system with no bass..

the midrange is a bit on the strong side on the krks, but thats easy to adjust with a EQ and a test tone session. honestly i do pass the sound to my krk 8's first thru EQ to adjust for my super damped room.

well talking about what is a shame.. is people who dosh out several K on BW speakers and think that is sounding real...

atleast in studio monitors the higher the price the more honest is the sound reproduction.

if i was making more dosh on the music id be looking at other things, but right now thats what there is hehehe

peace!

Well defo when you're talking about adding a sub you NEED to talk about room treatment. The placement of nearfields is more beneficial than room treatment but if you buy a sub then you really need to talk about bass traps and placement. This discussion is far above what the thread starter is asking tho, ya? For nearfields merely pulling your monitor a good couple feet out from the walls will do you most of the good but a sub you need bass traps and then sit in your chair and move the subwoofer around while you're sitting in your monitoring position until it sounds about in between the softest and loudest point (some may argue it should sound loudest but this is where standing waves are accentuating the tone produced by the sub). Better to get a pair of hr824s used and just pull them out from the walls again tho - cheaper and you still get the bass.

[thor_beatz]

Yes things have been moving off topic indeed. Hence Room treatment was not really on my mind. But yes, the money you spend on monitors can be easily spent on treating your room. DIY built traps and stands do a great job and save you money tho.

I personally want to mix my tunes myself, so that the mastering engineer just has to level it with the rest of the record, and with vinyl releases let the engineer do his thing all together (no clue or desire to know how to master for vinyl).
Since I am a sound designer (not a mastering engineer which are two very different things) I do have to master my work or work together with engineers to make it sound good when it's implemented in a game or film. It's really an interesting aspect and can help your tunes sound the way you want in the end product, espacially with music that's built up from many layers. Flylo is a good example of someone who uses (extreme) mixing techniques to create his own sound (tea bag dancers being a great example with extreme NY/sidechain compression).

And, yes I would too rather buy 2nd hand stuff than relatively expensive rokits.

[Aez]

Well, I'm going for the RP6 G1 anyways. Just wonder what I should buy with them.

[decklyn]

Get an alpaca. They go great with the yellow kevlar.

[Sharmaji]

i wish this kind of discussion would go into even basic room treatment which makes the difference

some absorbtion behind you, 4" thick basstraps in your corners and some alternating absorbtion/diffusion above your listening area. an extremely worthwhile $200-300 investment.

[burning prophet]

auralex i think its called the stuff i use. for really nice sound proofing i recomend about 50cm of rockwool compressed into the walls. it makes a great difference not to hear the outside at all, even if u dont record things. mostly since a silent room means u can use lower volume of listening, wich in the long run really saves ur ears.