Part II...
If you watch in Liam's studio [well, I think you already have.. but just in case: www.theprodigy.com ;-)] I think he uses MACKIE HR624 (or maybe HR824, I'm not sure) as near-field monitors Than he has those big Woofers... but one thing i learned on a quick visit at Sae-Institute in Stockholm was: that first of all - the mix must sound *good* on the small monitors.
I don't know if that's just a "mainstream-music way of mixing" but I think it makes sense.
Yeah, it's not a NEED or someting you MUST do. There's never a HAVE TO in creating, producing, mixing or whatever.
Everything is legal, as long as it sounds good and makes you creative.
The thing is, that if you start with the big monitors (large Dynacords with subwoofers, for erxample), you might get used to the sound too early. Because of the higher loudness.
Usually you do it all on the clear-sounding moni's of your choice and then you check back on the large ones.
They produce more bass because of the larger resonance-room.
Better start off with the medium range-frequencys, then add the higher ones and then switch the bass on as well. The bass absorbs the biggest part of the musical energy you have to give away.
I like to look at it this way:
You have an empty pot for your audible energy. You might wanna fill it totally up with sound, but then you would get only 'loud' music with not much dynamics. If you fill too less in it, it sounds weak. Try to go to 4/5, that's the typical Prodigy-ratio, for example. Not much dynamics, but still better mixed and mastered then Korn or any other Nu Metal-band.
(Just loud.)
And the bass 'eats' most of the energy, because of some physial things like length of the waveform and stuff like that.
So room for the bass is spared, until you've got everything above mixed out.
Some engineers do it the other way round, just try it yourself.
Depends on what kind of music you wanna mix, as you assumed.
So...? The woofers is just a nice toy when the mix is ready, to satisfy our needs of booming bass :-)
Am I right??
In relation to what I wrote above...: Yes. :-))
(and of course - by switching the subwoofers on, we get a picture how the complete mix sounds on a Club/big PA)
/ Greetings from Stuff
Mhhhm. I'd say no, because every club has a different pa, beginning with the mixing desks, over the length of the cables, to enhancers, exciters and shit like this and finally the speakers itself. Not to forget the room. Might absorb something, might amplify something, you don't know.
Sure, you might get something like a certain picture of the sound when switching it on, but really, never rely on this.
You wouldn't believe how much things like roomsize, -material and -design matter.
dunno, guys.. first all, i'm not that rich to choose, secondly, i've got little another opinion about monitors. i prefer usual kind of monitor sound, some good mini hi-fi component systems (i like sony stuff here). why? because then i hear the sounds as all usual people hear it. when i'm doing a tune i hear the same that other peeps will hear. but that's my imho of course.
Hehe, no, you don't! ;-P
That's the reason, why there ARE monitors in the first way.
Because every hifi-stereo sounds different. From manufacturer to manufacturer of course.
They all use different IC-elements and so on. It depends on things like size of the condensers, coils etc.
Sony is a good example for a builder of hifi-components that put stuff into their amps and speakers, to alter the sound.
Listen to a cd on the NS10M's and then on some sort of hifi.
It will sound ugly on the NS10M's. Because it's honest!
There's a 'rule' for mixing: If it sounds good on the NS10's, it sounds good on everything. Sort of.
The other way round, it doesn't sound good on everything if it sounds good on your home-stereo.
If you want to make it professional and somewhat uniformly when it comes to mixing-quality, you can't get around a real studio-monitor set up.
Which is mostly the most expensive part of the complete studio set up. Beside the mixing desk, of course.
Cheers dudes,
Ekko