Hi all,

I am currently building a pair of bi-amped monitors as part of my dissertation.

I have a really short questionnaire on studio monitors if any recording/mix/mastering engineers or general home recordists wouldn't mind lending a helping hand and answering a few short multiple choice questions.

I was wondering how many of you guys use reference tracks to mix to. And if you do, are they mastered tracks?

It's time for me to upgrade my main monitor set-up (actually a pair of KRK RP8) in my control room.
I found my KRKs too much "plastic" and colored on certain frequencies (for example my solo piano recordings are very "unrealistic", hyped on treble and muffled on mid-low), even if they're very detailed.

I seem to recall reading somewhere about reference CD's, perhaps containing certain program material, pure tones, acoustic phenomena, etc., presumably to allow for certain kinds of monitoring calibration or observation.

As is typical, I neglected to make a careful note at the time. I would be grateful if someone could provide some specific information in this regard.

I've been experimenting for several years now, and without making this a thread of "boost this and cut that", "use this not that". I was wondering if there is a useful reference (book, CD, etc) for drum eq/compression/gate/etc available (in addition to my ears and creative experimentation).

Do any studio owners have any process that they use to keep majorly undesirable clients out of thier studios? I'm just wondering as I am planning on opening up my project studio to the public next year. My studio is in my home and therefore, it's that much more important to me to not bring in people that I dont want around.

well first of all this is what I'm using.
New iMac
toneport ux2
at2020 instrument mic
logic pro 8

the problem I'm having is this:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e194/615106951/Picture1.png

It's been on my mind a lot lately that I just don't take advantage of reference material often enough. My mixes are suffering for it too. So I've decided to stockpile a couple of representative tracks across several styles that should serve as fool-proof comparision and ref. mixes when working on projects.

I'm using the Sennheisers 650. I have some fairly high end gear. I live in a condo so I don't enjoy excellent monitoring conditions so I'm looking for the next best thing...an as accurate as possible headphone amp killer headphone amp to at least match the quality of my phones for recording and playback.

I did a search here but no luck.

Is there a CD that gives examples of pre-and-post mastered music one could listen to. Maybe with notes about each example and techniques used to create the final.

Rick