After spending many years in major studios with the finest monitoring situations money can buy, I have found that the easiest way to mix a project on my little Behringer Truth monitors at home is to simply get about 4 or 5 “monster” mixes that I really respect from major-studio projects, and then begin a series of A-B comparisons with my mixes I am trying to do on my speakers.

I can quickly see where my Truths are coloring or missing something and make appropriate adjustments. Then when I play my final mixes on a virety of other speakers and monitors, I find that they sit right in the “pocket.”

Probably not too scientific, but it works for me.

All of the above said, I agree that the room problems need to be eliminated to whatever extent your budget will allow.

By the way, I worked for many years with Gary S. Paxton in Nashville, and you wouldn’t believe some of the crap he mixed his many hit songs on.

But not one of these speakers is anywhere near “ruler flat”.

You didn’t define what “these speakers” are but have you taken a measurement of them in an anechoic chamber? It seems like this is a generalized, blanket statement and I would need further evidence before accepting it as fact.

you need to compensate for what the room and the speakers (and crossovers) are doing to your sound by using maybe a third-octave EQ.

This is bad advice in my opinion. EQ can not solve room mode problem. Let’s just say that we have a dip @ 80Hz. This dip is 15dB. Are you saying that it is wise to boost 15dB? You are sending a tremendous amount of power to your studio monitors.

To make matters worse, this 15dB will only exist in one position. Move over a foot or two and the dip is gone. Then you have a 15dB boost from your EQ.

Room problems should be solved by the room. There appears to be only one professional acoustics big boy who uses EQ on monitors and most of the other big boys think he is crazy.

IK Multimedia’s ARC (Acoustic Room Correction) plugin ($600), which is awesome. (I’m not a dealer.) It very effectively eliminates the unwanted effects of your speakers, your speaker’s crossovers, and the room itself

Again, it is 100% impossible to correct standing waves with a plugin. It can not be done. When physics creates a 5, 10, or 20dB “hole” you can’t just use a plugin to fill it. You either need to address the problem causing the hole your need to use raw power to overcome the hole.

So the plugin may reduce the apparent effect of the room in only one specific location in that room, but there is no way in hell that it does anything to deal with standing waves. That would be like making an anti-gravity plugin that made you float. We aren’t there yet.

Brandon

Personally, I think it’s all a bunch of hooey, Genelecs on down the line. I think we’ve all been duped. These are all supposed to be “reference monitors”, right? Analogous to a calibration microphone, an “acoustical coupling measuring device”, if you like. Supposedly with no coloration, not favoring one frequency over another so one can get at the “unbiased sonic truth” of things. But not one of these speakers is anywhere near “ruler flat”. It’s all semantics and marketing. If they’re not flat, if they’re not sonically accurate, then what makes these so-called reference monitors any different than any other [decent] consumer speaker where subjectivity is the name of the game? (i.e., “I like this one, I like that one. This one seems to translate well.” etc.) Why not just go out and buy whatever you like, then run everything through an EQ to suit your personal subjective taste? I’m sorry, but I don’t see the difference. On top of everything, you throw crossovers and the enormous effects of your room (near-field or not) into the mix, and what semblance could there possibly be of an accurate reference?

One person in this blog/thread pretty much nailed it. First, you need to minimize your room’s standing waves and reflections any way you can (there are easy ways to determine what your standing wave frequencies are based on your room dimensions). Then you need to place a calibration microphone ($50-$100) in the sweet spot and “pink the room” using a pink noise generator and an RTA (Real Time Analyzer). (Allen & Heath sells a simple software third-octave RTA for about $20 that works just fine.) Then you need to compensate for what the room and the speakers (and crossovers) are doing to your sound by using maybe a third-octave EQ. Or, another real simple yet effective way to do this, though not terribly cheap (yet cheaper than some monitors), is by using IK Multimedia’s ARC (Acoustic Room Correction) plugin ($600), which is awesome. (I’m not a dealer.) It very effectively eliminates the unwanted effects of your speakers, your speaker’s crossovers, and the room itself, not to mention correcting for phase distortions.

Until you address these basics, you’ll have to just accept the fact that your sound - your sonic point of reference - is colored, affected, biased, subjective. In other words, certain loud resonant frequencies will be masking their quieter neighboring frequencies and you won’t be getting an accurate representation of what’s going on. It’s already hard enough trying to mix and master knowing what the average person is going to do to your music by playing it on every kind of speaker in every kind of room (or car) imaginable. If you think your “reference monitors” (in your room) are telling you the truth, try measuring them sometime. You’ll be shocked.

I’d say avoid M-Audios. They’re uninspired and uninspiring.

I own a pair of KRK Rokits now, and I’m very happy with them. They’re clear, wide, and a pleasure to listen to. Just wanted to cast my vote. I’ve read that the VXTs are even better.