What's a good monitor to B my mix on?

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:49 am

Sooner or later, for my mixing studio, I'll be buying a pair of Adam A7 Monitors but I was wondering two things:

1. To have both a nice, clear, and intimate mixing session with your high pumping bassy mixes (possibly your club bangers), is it necessary to have large mains (though I'm only able to afford your common near field sets presently) or will just 2 near fields work just fine? I also heard that it's not good to get a sub woofer.

2. What's a good pair of monitors to B off of? Though their sh*t, I always hear that the standard B mix monitors are the NS-10's . I wounder if that fact still holds true now that the HS-50's are out.

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:09 pm

I don't have nor have used or will ever have a pair of NS-10's. Can't stand them. Hate them. Not necessary.

If you have a small pair of monitors and want that super low-end bass? Then you should absolutely get yourself a subwoofer. Of which there are many. Many self powered subwoofers have an internal crossover. This allows you to plug your speakers into the subwoofer which will filter out the extreme low-end from going to your smaller monitors. This improves their efficiency and clarity while the subwoofer gives you the guts you're looking for. I think it all depends on the kind of material you record and produce most? I don't like working with the subwoofer as I use larger full range control room monitors along with the smaller reference B monitors, which don't have a subwoofer. But if I wanted to come I could purchase the KRK subwoofer to go with my RP-5's if I wanted that but I don't.

You need the reference speakers that you like to listen to not what everybody tells you to get. Your car is another good reference for your mixes since most people will likely be listening to your work that way. And it certainly impractical to set your car up indoors for monitoring purposes. Although I know folks who have virtually built an automobile interior environment for that reason. I just wonder if there is still room for the kids in the backseat??

Backseat recording engineer
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:17 pm

...so do you think would be optimal in the mixing area in your opinion (considering I don't have enough for mains and not considering a subwoofer at the moment)?

1. Sticking with just 2 nearfields (both of em will be Adam A7's)

2. Get 4 nearfields even though I'm mixing in stereo?
I've heard that more is better. I dont know how true this is. Even though it's stereo, I guess you could set each speaker to a certain pan distance via output buses on interface...

Though I wont be buying the extra speakers for the second option, I'd probably move a set of speakers from my other area to the mixing area. So you're basically looking at (in the mix area (which I'm thinking may not be a good idea):
A: 2 Adam A7's / 2 Event Tune Reference 5's
or
B: 2 Adam A7's / 2 KRK Rokit 5's

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