Hey guys and girls, I recently visited Guitar Center and had occasion to audition all of their small format near-field studio speakers. It was a weekday and there was almost nobody in the store, so it was an ideal time to spend some time listening.
Now I have spent most of the last 30 years listening to music for a living, and I never get tired of it. I am always on the lookout for good sounding speakers. The set-up that I have had for the last 20 years is still awesome, but you can't help wondering if something out there is going to pass you by.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to spend several days with Vlado Meller in his mastering studio.
He has PMC speakers and each driver has its own Bryston amp. I was very happy to hear that what I hear in my (Bryston and Paradigm, $5,000) system is the same thing I heard in his (Bryston and PMC, $200,000) system. (not counting bass to vibrate your lower intestine) Anyway, as a result of that experience, I am not in the market for anything.
But I still was curious as to how the small studio speaker market was sounding and how close it was to my own incredibly flat system. We went through KRK, Alesis, JBL, Presonus, M-Audio, Tannoy, Yamaha, Mackie, and a few others I don't remember. The sizes were from 4" woofers to 8" woofers. (the same size range as mine)
I was especially interested in hearing the JBLs as they have gotten a bunch of accolades recently.
Well, they were all pretty good little speakers, but I am sad to say that they were not even in the ballpark with what I have. Of course my system costs over 10 times as much, and so I think that for the price, they are all quite remarkable.
The last and largest of the collection that they had was the Mackie MR8mk3. I spent quite a bit of time going between the JBL LSR308 and the Mackie MR8mk3. They are virtually identical in size and target market. But the sound was so different, I was just amazed. It would have been nice to be able to spend all day comparing and measuring speakers, but I did not have that luxury.
The JBLs had a very bright high end that was just plain way brighter than it should have been. Now it may have been set wrong on the back panel, but I did not bother the sales guy with a barrage of questions. The bottom end was weak and next to the Mackies, which have a big bottom end, they sounded rather thin.
The Mackies have a very smooth, laid back treble region that many would call weak. But I prefer that, especially when working for 8 to 12 hours at a time. The bass response has a hump around 100 Hz, just like a lot of big speakers in the 70s and 80s had. This is supposedly to make up for the fact that speakers this size do not do well in the lowest octave. (30 to 60 Hz)
So, in a result I would not have guessed in a million years, The JBL speakers have to have a large sub-woofer to make them effective, and the Mackies have to have the treble switch in the full on position, and the bass switch in the '0 db boost' position. And you have to ignore that 100 Hz bass boost.
So if you are in the market for the JBLs, absolutely get the sub. As for the Mackies, they were on sale at such a good price that I took two home and have them hooked to my Cambridge Audio D-A converter and I have my Paradigm speakers sitting on top of them.
It is nice to have another speaker to listen through as a final check, but they will never replace the Bryston Paradigm setup for Mastering. I had been wanting to raise the Paradigms for some time and this is a very effective way to do it. I can stand up and the sound is the same. Also it makes me have to sit up straight to be high enough for the speakers.
The Mackies can play very loud, (good for clients to listen to) and really are beautifully crafted.
And of course they have their own internal amps. (true for most of the small format studio speakers these days) The Mackies are loud enough to serve as the 'big studio soffit-mounted speaker' that the clients listen to for a final check. I sit less than 4 feet from the drivers which are pointed at my ears. Needless to say, they can play way louder than I will ever call on them to play.
So the question now is, if I am 90% of the small studios in the world and I have one of these speaker configurations, how do I know what the final result is going to be? And if I don't have expensive and sophisticated gear, and I have not been doing this for 30 years, how will I know? Well, the simple answer is have it mastered by someone who has a record (no pun intended) of putting out good sounding albums.
Okay, that costs more than you want to spend, no problem, lets see what you can do. Take a song or album of the last 50 years that is similar in instrumentation to yours, and see how close you can get to it. Keep working on it, play it on different systems, note the weak points and try to adjust them.
You do not need expensive gear at all, but you do have to know how to use what you have. I have a lot of toys in the thousand dollar range, but I know I can out-do guys who have million dollar mastering studios. It is knowing what to do that is your challenge.
To try and get your song or album ready for production, divide it into several areas. For instance, 1-Bass 2-Midrange 3-High-end 4-Level 5-Length 6-Pace 7-Mix Clarity 8-Breathing Room 9-Believability 10-Translatablity to different places (homes, cars, Ipods, etc.)
If your song is funky, how does it stack up to Bruno Mars' 'Uptown Funk'? If it is classic rock sounding, how does it stand up to Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Steely Dan. If it is Muscle Shoals, how does it sound next to Bob Dylan's 'Slow Train Coming'? If it is a female vocalist, how does it sound next to Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Amanda Mcbroom? If it is instrumental, how does it sound next to 'Winelight' by Grover Washington Jr.? Jazz Guitar...George Benson...etc, etc., You get the idea.
Speakers are only approximations of the sound and you have to realize that it is not going to sound like it sounds in your bedroom or basement. Use them as general indicators but not as absolute arbiters of the final result. Listen to the great albums and you will eventually get a lot better at mixing, no matter what your speakers sound like.
Until next time...
Now I have spent most of the last 30 years listening to music for a living, and I never get tired of it. I am always on the lookout for good sounding speakers. The set-up that I have had for the last 20 years is still awesome, but you can't help wondering if something out there is going to pass you by.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to spend several days with Vlado Meller in his mastering studio.
He has PMC speakers and each driver has its own Bryston amp. I was very happy to hear that what I hear in my (Bryston and Paradigm, $5,000) system is the same thing I heard in his (Bryston and PMC, $200,000) system. (not counting bass to vibrate your lower intestine) Anyway, as a result of that experience, I am not in the market for anything.
But I still was curious as to how the small studio speaker market was sounding and how close it was to my own incredibly flat system. We went through KRK, Alesis, JBL, Presonus, M-Audio, Tannoy, Yamaha, Mackie, and a few others I don't remember. The sizes were from 4" woofers to 8" woofers. (the same size range as mine)
I was especially interested in hearing the JBLs as they have gotten a bunch of accolades recently.
Well, they were all pretty good little speakers, but I am sad to say that they were not even in the ballpark with what I have. Of course my system costs over 10 times as much, and so I think that for the price, they are all quite remarkable.
The last and largest of the collection that they had was the Mackie MR8mk3. I spent quite a bit of time going between the JBL LSR308 and the Mackie MR8mk3. They are virtually identical in size and target market. But the sound was so different, I was just amazed. It would have been nice to be able to spend all day comparing and measuring speakers, but I did not have that luxury.
The JBLs had a very bright high end that was just plain way brighter than it should have been. Now it may have been set wrong on the back panel, but I did not bother the sales guy with a barrage of questions. The bottom end was weak and next to the Mackies, which have a big bottom end, they sounded rather thin.
The Mackies have a very smooth, laid back treble region that many would call weak. But I prefer that, especially when working for 8 to 12 hours at a time. The bass response has a hump around 100 Hz, just like a lot of big speakers in the 70s and 80s had. This is supposedly to make up for the fact that speakers this size do not do well in the lowest octave. (30 to 60 Hz)
So, in a result I would not have guessed in a million years, The JBL speakers have to have a large sub-woofer to make them effective, and the Mackies have to have the treble switch in the full on position, and the bass switch in the '0 db boost' position. And you have to ignore that 100 Hz bass boost.
So if you are in the market for the JBLs, absolutely get the sub. As for the Mackies, they were on sale at such a good price that I took two home and have them hooked to my Cambridge Audio D-A converter and I have my Paradigm speakers sitting on top of them.
It is nice to have another speaker to listen through as a final check, but they will never replace the Bryston Paradigm setup for Mastering. I had been wanting to raise the Paradigms for some time and this is a very effective way to do it. I can stand up and the sound is the same. Also it makes me have to sit up straight to be high enough for the speakers.
The Mackies can play very loud, (good for clients to listen to) and really are beautifully crafted.
And of course they have their own internal amps. (true for most of the small format studio speakers these days) The Mackies are loud enough to serve as the 'big studio soffit-mounted speaker' that the clients listen to for a final check. I sit less than 4 feet from the drivers which are pointed at my ears. Needless to say, they can play way louder than I will ever call on them to play.
So the question now is, if I am 90% of the small studios in the world and I have one of these speaker configurations, how do I know what the final result is going to be? And if I don't have expensive and sophisticated gear, and I have not been doing this for 30 years, how will I know? Well, the simple answer is have it mastered by someone who has a record (no pun intended) of putting out good sounding albums.
Okay, that costs more than you want to spend, no problem, lets see what you can do. Take a song or album of the last 50 years that is similar in instrumentation to yours, and see how close you can get to it. Keep working on it, play it on different systems, note the weak points and try to adjust them.
You do not need expensive gear at all, but you do have to know how to use what you have. I have a lot of toys in the thousand dollar range, but I know I can out-do guys who have million dollar mastering studios. It is knowing what to do that is your challenge.
To try and get your song or album ready for production, divide it into several areas. For instance, 1-Bass 2-Midrange 3-High-end 4-Level 5-Length 6-Pace 7-Mix Clarity 8-Breathing Room 9-Believability 10-Translatablity to different places (homes, cars, Ipods, etc.)
If your song is funky, how does it stack up to Bruno Mars' 'Uptown Funk'? If it is classic rock sounding, how does it stand up to Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Steely Dan. If it is Muscle Shoals, how does it sound next to Bob Dylan's 'Slow Train Coming'? If it is a female vocalist, how does it sound next to Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Amanda Mcbroom? If it is instrumental, how does it sound next to 'Winelight' by Grover Washington Jr.? Jazz Guitar...George Benson...etc, etc., You get the idea.
Speakers are only approximations of the sound and you have to realize that it is not going to sound like it sounds in your bedroom or basement. Use them as general indicators but not as absolute arbiters of the final result. Listen to the great albums and you will eventually get a lot better at mixing, no matter what your speakers sound like.
Until next time...
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