Speakers?

What's everyone using for speakers in their edit bays?

Forum searching found Shane giving a thumbs up to the M-Audio BX-5a speakers with a Berhinger mixer, everyone else seems pretty quiet on the subject. Any other good speakers out there? Or do most of y'all use those ghastly and omnipresent Rolands? And also -- with that Behringer mixer, does the Mac Pro stock audio card interface easily with that (i.e. can you use adapters on the mini-plug output to an RCA input?)

My speakers gave up the ghost just as I was wrapping up my edit today! There's a fair sign that you're done for the day... Or in my case, done for the week, 'cause I'm off on vacation. But when I get back, first stop is an audio store...

i use a mackie 1402 input mixer into a samson servo 240 amp into a pair of tannoy pbm 6.5ll's
good, clean and powerful enough to conjure volume complaint visits from the neighborhood "five-o"

I've been looking at speakers too. The M-Audio BX5a seems to be the best bang for the buck although they might be a little base shy. Genelec 8020a also seem good but even at the lower end of their product line, are expensive compared to M-Audio.

There are certainly speakers in much higher price ranges that are "better" but these seem to be good for those on a budget.

[www.m-audio.com]

[www.genelecusa.com]

Speakers make a huge difference. I'd love to work constantly on Genelecs (the sweet mids from the speakers are lovely). The last pair i worked on was a pair of digital speakers from behringer- i think it's the ms20. Not a favourite, as the SPDIF signal is converted to analog in the right speaker and sent to the left speaker, causing a slight delay in the sound. That is also not to mention a noticeable boost in the lows around 80 hz, and a sudden boost in the highs around 10-12 khz. Reverb in the signal that is noticeable from a pair of Sony closed cans are almost absent in the speakers at times.

A good pair of speakers should provide an "honest" rendition of the audio so that the quality of audio will be fairly consistent from player to player. If you're doing audio mixing, the sound should be clear enough for you to identify noise that could be present in the mix, as well as other potentially disturbing sounds, ensuring a cleaner mix.

Im using two KRK (KROCKS) CE-247. 100watts a piece coming from a crown D-45 amp, mixed by a Mackie 1402. Works great, sounds good!

Mackie 1202VLZ Pro mixer. Mackie HR 824 Speakers on stands; plenty of power, very clean full sound, very fairly priced.

Soundsticks in the offline bay and the graphics workstation. (I know, I know, but for rough cuts, they're fine and also cheap and seem to last forever and look great).

Best advice: good audio gear lasts for many years. Buy the best you can afford, it will be with you for a long time.

> Mackie HR 824 Speakers
> on stands; plenty of power, very clean full sound,
> very fairly priced.

> Best advice: good audio gear lasts for many years.
> Buy the best you can afford, it will be with you
> for a long time.

I second the HR824s; if you're doing sound heavy work, you can turn 'em up loud and listen to them all day without ear strain.

Advice is like he said, too. When I look around my suite, everything that's more than 10 years old is good quality audio gear. It lasts and lasts.

randy

What I like about the BX-5a is that they are SHIELDED...meaning my iPhone (or any AT&T phone) doesn't send that annoying dit-dit-dit-dit-dit buzz to the damn things. My Advents at home suck for that reason.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Well, I can't afford DynAudio right now so believe it or not, these Harmon Kardon "Champagne edition" speakers have delivered my workstation sound for 7 years now. No complaints. I run output through a cheap Behringer MX602A mixbox. Next time I'll go Mackie. Button contacts are loose.

What I do want to be careful about is selection of headphones when I do serious mixing here. Any suggestions in the $50- 100 range?

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Set your customized window layout 1 or 2 by holding Option then click
Window menu>Arrange>and select Set Custom Layout 1 or 2 !

Then use Custom Layout 1 or 2 with Shift-U or Option-U !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro's that I love. The Sony MDR-7506's are de facto standards at many places, but when I demo'd phones I liked the HD 280's better with my test audio.

With that being said, you shouldn't do serious mixing in headphones. The Left and Right channels are heard completely discreetly wearing cans, which means it sounds very different compared to listening with speakers where the channels mix as part of the listening experience. If you are mixing audio for an automated guided tour that's only going to be used w/headphones, for example, then mixing w/headphones is the way to go. But w/the exceptions of those rare types of instances you should only mix w/audio monitors, not phones.


-A

Genelec? Who has that kind of money ($1000.00)?? No...the industry standard for editing has been Roland MA-12C's for 10+ years. You ex-Avid editors will recognize these immediately. Ebay has a bunch under $50.00 a pair (plus shipping) and they ROCK. I have had a pair for 8 years and they still rock. Very clean, powerful sound... and shielded from the cell phone dit-ditdit-dit-ditdit-dit-ditdit-bzzzzzzzzz:

[cgi.ebay.com]



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I also use and like Sennheisers and never do any 'proper' sound work with headphones on. But I recently tested a pair of these Bang and Olufsen headphones and they were very light and comfortable with good sound. Around $200 Australian, so a little more than what you're thinking, but I thought they were worth a look .. umm.. listen.

Thanks, Jude, Adkimery, others! i am looking into Senn cans, and I'll check the 280 specifically. I like Senn; their ENG 100 G2 wireless unit has given me no trouble.)

[With that being said, you shouldn't do serious mixing in headphones.]

Yup, I agree; it's for corp/ed/ngo work and my own documentary productions. Need to isolate myself from local machine noise. One thing you don't often hear on speakers with ambient noise in the room are the pops and hits from a rough cut or sample mismatch. Good cans reveal those instantly and in the past I've regretted not using them during cut or mix.

I am very sensitive to the wisdom of mixing on speakers-- my biggest documentary this year tracks the design and construction of a very beautifully balanced sound recording studio.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Set your customized window layout 1 or 2 by holding Option then click
Window menu>Arrange>and select Set Custom Layout 1 or 2 !

Then use Custom Layout 1 or 2 with Shift-U or Option-U !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I hear good things about the Tapco S5 (Mackie's "budget" line) as budget studio monitors. HR series for poor folks. Anybody have any experience / real world comparisons with these?

re: M-Audio Studiophile BX5a

What do you guys use to come out of the Mac Pro or better yet, the RCA outs on the Matrox MXO. Shane, I know you use the Matrox. How do you connect the BX5a to the MXO? You use a small mixer? (I really don't have the desk space for a big mixer...)

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Quote
grafixjoe
Very clean, powerful sound... and shielded from the cell phone dit-ditdit-dit-ditdit-dit-ditdit-bzzzzzzzzz:

LOL! I was laughing at this ....

Great thread and great suggestions. When I got off the plane today, I stopped at Sam Ash Music on my way home, and as soon as I walked into the pro-audio section, there was a box of M Audio BX-5a speakers that had just been returned open and unused. They let them go for $284 - not much off list, but every little bit helps.

They didn't have any Behringer, but I picked up a wee Samson mixer for $80. Add some cables and a couple of sets of guitar strings (for non-professional use only) and I was set. Best part -- in California this weekend, any purchase over $399, Sam Ash pays the sales tax, so the final bill was a shade over $400.

Haven't fired up FCP with them yet, but the iTunes workout sounded pretty good. Nice, clean, and rich!

(And no offense GFXJOE, but as an old timer with the AVID, I have nightmares about those Rolands! I'm not particularly finicky with my audio mixes, but I always had balancing problems with the Rolands, and they were never warm enough for my tastes. But damn if they aren't near indestructable!)

Jeff

here is my stock spill on speakers since i have had 2x the experience with audio than video.

you can use crappy speakers but you dont have to plop down 400 buck for them either. I currently use 189 dollar speakers with from CA. Yes they are cpu speaker and not pro monitors.

i have 2 speakers that handle mids and highs and 1 sub that handles bass (10inch). to pick a speaker grab a cd with 2-3 song on it that you think has a nice mix to it. Take that with you to Guitar center or Best Buys. Play those songs thru 5 or 6 sets of speakers and which ever one you think sounds the best is the set for you.

EVERY speaker has a different dynamic range.
i.e.
Infinity speakers are known to have the brightest highs so if you get a pair/set that cost $3000 dollars when you mix your highs on other speaker will seem lower than yours.

WHY? because your infinities are bullish on bright highs so in your mix at home you probably compensated for the extra high. So when you play it back thru lets say some Quartz speaker it will sound like you need to up your highs. Playback on jvc will probably be the same or slightly less bright than the infinities, and since jvc is more partial to lo's then your bass response will be more pronounced than the infinities.

No matter what set of speakers you get, it is your ear and the understanding of different play back methods that will make the mix tight and generally good in all speakers.

there are many pro sound engineers that nearly refuse to use a brand outside of what they are use to because they know how to mix best with those. Even if they say that another brand is better.

In most of the studios i go into ( Stankonia, Dallas Austin Studios, Bad Boy North and South, Def Jam) they use 2 - 3 different types on a switcher / mixer because; 1. they want to here the mix thru different formats of speakers or 2. there are multiple engineers / producers and they all have favorite speakers.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Hey J Corbett, dumb question for you - How do you hook up your subwoofer to your mixer?

My wee little mixer just has 1/4" stereo outputs, do you put a splitter on one of the lines and run it to the subwoofer? Or do you have more outputs that you use, and my cute lil' mixer isn't equipped to run a sub?

Thanks -

Jeff

how many speaker outputs do you have on the mixer?

what kind of connection is the sub set up for?

does your mixer have a sub output?

are you going strait from the mixer or are you going from mixer to amp or receiver to the speakers?

if you are going from mixer to receiver to speaker how many speaker outputs does your receiver have?

please include connection types in your response.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

The mixer has two 1/4" outputs running straight to my BX5a speakers.

The subwoofer I have has a stereo mini plug input.

Nope, as far as I know, the mixer doesn't have a subwoofer output, but it does have an RCA stereo output jack. And I'd be running straight out of the mixer to the subwoofer, if I attempt to hook it up.

That's all I've got, pretty straightforward audio setup up... Out of the mac, into the mixer, and out to the speakers. Is it worth trying to hook this little subwoofer up?

use the non sub speakers to come out for left and right. I look the speakers up and saw that they have a 6 or 8 inch sub built in.

for the sub you will need a mono channel to send sound out. a sub is no good if it is playing freqs above 100hz. i would go with the those until i could find a pre-amp or a receiver that has a dedicated sub channel.

if you can put the sub on a channel and remove all the highs and mids it may work well for ya . you will need a converter to to go from rca to mini(1/8) plug.

normally on mixers every channel has a 3band EQ or better.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Since the Samson mixer has XLR inputs - do you use a cable that goes to XLR from a mini-jack out of the Mac? Or do you use RCA - to - XLR from a Matrox MXO audio out? Please elaborate how you get the signal out of the mac. Thanx!