Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

Hi James,

On 5-Jan-05, at 11:19 PM, james page wrote:

>  <snip>
>  FWIW, based on his advice I purchased a pair of
>  DynAudio BM 15s and could not be happier.  JP

Great!  I nearly bought the BM-15A's myself and they are great 
monitors.  In the end I went with the S-2A's from A.D.A.M.   I felt the 
top end on them a little bit truer.  While the BM-15A's have a smooth 
top end, there were some subtleties that showed better on the S-2A's.  
I could "hear" the drum stick hitting the ride cymbal and the pick 
plucking the strings.  The BM-15A's go down a little bit lower than the 
S2-A's (but not by that much) which is why I nearly went with them but 
the bass was much tighter on the A.D.A.M.'s.   These were the last two 
that I had narrowed it down to at the end.

Anyway, in the end, it all comes down to what works for each 
individual.  I would never attempt to choose a set of speakers for you 
nor anyone else.  I'll give my opinions and preferences in terms of 
what works for me but I would never tell you that these are the only 
ones that work.  Although some people like to subscribe to the theory 
of "if it sounds good on the NS10's, then it will sound good anywhere 
else", I personally think that these people are working too hard and 
guessing too much.  The NS10's don't have very much bass in them at all 
and everything below 60 Hz or so, you're probably just guessing.  Can 
you get a great mix on NS10's?  Yes.  Can you get a great mix on 
<insert brand of speaker here>?  Yes.  When you can't hear something 
though, you are simply guessing.

In my tests of various speakers, there was an interesting result in one 
test.  I had a jazz track where the drummer was using brushes.  On the 
NS10's I could barely hear the "swish" of the brush (it was there but 
just low in the mix).  On some of the higher end monitors such as the 
Genelecs, Dynaudios, and A.D.A.M.s, it was present and at an 
appropriate volume relative to the rest of the mix.  At that point was 
where I nixed the NS10's.  This track had live drums but I thought 
about the scenario where I'm doing a tune with sampled drums and the 
swish is a sample, separate from the other brush snare hits.  On the 
NS10's I'd be mixing the "swish" much higher than I would on more 
accurate monitors.  Or, rather, since I know about this, I'd be mixing 
it lower on purpose to compensate and guess at what level it would be 
right.

Here is where a subtlety between low and high end monitors shows.  That 
"swish" is well within the NS10's specs for frequency response, and 
since they are fairly bright to begin with, you would figure that it 
would have all been there.  The mix sounded fine being played back 
through the NS10's and better on some of the better monitors.  That is 
not how I want to mix though.  I want to "know" that what I am hearing 
is as accurate as it can be so that the translation to other speakers 
will be good too.  I don't expect it to sound the same everywhere - but 
I do want the mix to translate well without having things stick out 
when they're not supposed to.

Oh well, I don't need to preach to you on the benefits of better 
monitors.  I simply wanted to include my thoughts and opinions on 
monitors and to provide some examples so people don't necessarily think 
that I'm talking out of my *ss.  As well, it may provide another 
perspective so that people can at least consider other things that they 
may not have previously.  That's about it.  I don't get too hung up on 
monitors or brands.  The only other thing that I'll include here is 
that, especially as you invest in better monitors, the room that you 
place them in has a certain importance.  At least some acoustical 
treatment is desirable so that you don't have too many "excited" 
frequencies in your room.  That can cause problems while mixing as 
well.  Oh well,

Best regards,
Fernstudio