Removal of computer monitors from mix position...

[tonedef]

Hi everybody ,

A long time lurker here that wanted to get some feedback. I will of course try this myself but wanted to see if anyone else had tried removing their computer monitors from the mix position. Did it help you focus more on the mix? Did you find that the monitors were a distraction once they were located somewhere else?

[KingDaddyO]

Hi,

Even though I mix mostly OTB, I can tell you that monitors are indeed a distraction. People come in the room and, regardless of what is on the screen or it's relevance to the music, their eyes constantly wander to the display while we are talking. And if it's a waveform, all the more so. It's really bizarre.

So yeah, I find anything that removes the focus from the music to be a distraction. Personally, I find that I hear much clearer when I can tune out my other senses.

[Axiomhead]

Monitors have never been a severe distraction... I always just closed my eyes.

However I did notice a huge difference in imaging when I switched from CRT to LCD a few months ago... I guess those huge boxes cause a lot of odd reflections.

[Paul Woodlock]

If you are using windows..............


Assign a deskto pshortcut to this screen saver...C:\WINDOWS\system32\scrnsave.scr


And then assign a key command to the shortcut. It's a black out screen saver. great for listening without visual glare distracting you.

[JonCraig]

on a mac, i press F11.

it's always surprising what i hear.

--jon

[tonedef]

Originally Posted by Paul Woodlock

If you are using windows..............


Assign a deskto pshortcut to this screen saver...C:\WINDOWS\system32\scrnsave.scr


And then assign a key command to the shortcut. It's a black out screen saver. great for listening without visual glare distracting you.

Brilliant Paul!!! I think this will save me the hassle of relocating my monitors.

[Benmrx]

Originally Posted by Axiomhead

Monitors have never been a severe distraction... I always just closed my eyes.

However I did notice a huge difference in imaging when I switched from CRT to LCD a few months ago... I guess those huge boxes cause a lot of odd reflections.

I just made the same upgrade a few days ago. From 2 clunky, big ass CRT monitors to a single 22" LCD, and the difference was pretty obvious. Not to mention my workflow has sped up considerably.

[JonCraig]

speaking of size... 2 years ago i went from a 15" CRT to a 19" LCD. size matters! i couldn't believe how much easier it was to edit with all that real estate. imo, you can't have a big enough display.

--jon

[Bassmankr]

or just press the off button on the moniter(s), that way you won't use computer resources running a screen saver . . . keep the box lean and mean!

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by Axiomhead

However I did notice a huge difference in imaging when I switched from CRT to LCD a few months ago... I guess those huge boxes cause a lot of odd reflections.

HUGE difference.

If you have a CRT between your monitors, you can hear a diff. just by throwing a fuzzy blanket over it; just to see that it affects things.

[limey222]

Originally Posted by Paul Woodlock

If you are using windows..............


Assign a deskto pshortcut to this screen saver...C:\WINDOWS\system32\scrnsave.scr


And then assign a key command to the shortcut. It's a black out screen saver. great for listening without visual glare distracting you.

Dumb question.....how do you assign a key command to a shortcut on a PC?

[KingDaddyO]

Originally Posted by limey222

Dumb question.....how do you assign a key command to a shortcut on a PC?

Nah, not dumb.

Hover over the desktop icon you want to assign a key to, right-click on the icon, and select 'Properties' from the drop down menu (assuming your mouse is configured for left-handed use).

Then click on the 'Shortcut' tab page, and 3rd from the bottom you'll see a field labeled 'Shortcut key:'

Press any key on the keyboard and a key sequence will appear in this field. Keep trying until you get the one you like and click on 'OK'.

Done!

[The dman]

Originally Posted by Paul Woodlock View Post
If you are using windows..............


Assign a deskto pshortcut to this screen saver...C:\WINDOWS\system32\scrnsave.scr


And then assign a key command to the shortcut. It's a black out screen saver. great for listening without visual glare distracting you.

Good one

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by KingDaddyO

Nah, not dumb.

Hover over the desktop icon you want to assign a key to, right-click on the icon, and select 'Properties' from the drop down menu (assuming your mouse is configured for left-handed use).

Then click on the 'Shortcut' tab page, and 3rd from the bottom you'll see a field labeled 'Shortcut key:'

Press any key on the keyboard and a key sequence will appear in this field. Keep trying until you get the one you like and click on 'OK'.

Done!

Arf!

THAT is good to know. I mean, I knew you could do it somehow, somewhere, but I'd never bothered to go find it.

It's funny how many things there are in Windows most folks don't know about.

I remember -- RIGHT at the very last days of Windows 3.x (which I was INSANELY eager to get beyond... there was a REASON that the roll-out of Windows 95 remains the single biggest selling OS debut (yes, even bigger than Vista, Virginia ) ... but, anyhow, right at the end I found all these actually cool little features I never knew about that WOULD have made my life so much easier for the previous 3 or 4 years but that no one seemed to know about.

MS has some good coders in the OS shops (NOT necessarily in the UI shop, mind you!) but the people responsible for the topside, the user interfaces, and -- oh man! -- the system access interfaces are bloody donkeys. EVERY SINGLE TIME I burrow my way down to, say, something like the VM settings (IT'S ELEVEN FREAKIN' STEPS from the Start button, IIRC, magic/disappearing buttons and tabs... argh!) I mean, I go back to DOS 2.1 but, bog me, they NEVER get this stuff right. And I will be absolutely AMAZED if that sorry ass tradition does not continue in Vista.

Oh... and the people at MS who attempt to document it all are illegitimate sons of donkeys. If you think the consumer side of MS is bad you should try to get the straight scoop on some of their dev tools. Their docs are always MISSING or just plain WRONG. And then ALL their documentation is jumbled together. If, say, you are in Access and you want to find out about some aspect of a function and you go to help, before long you will be fighting your way through the documentation for 5 different MS applications/dev tools and seeing how the implementation of a single function is A) significantly different in each and B) the documentation for which is often not even properly labeled for the application it describes. So, for instance, when I look up a function in Access, I will quite likely get the help documentation for a similarly named function in Excel but which works significantly differently -- but it's NOT EVEN LABELED as coming from Excel. WHY are there even Excel help files on my machine?!? I have NEVER owned Excel. Word has NEVER been installed on this machine yet I have to fight my way through completely irrelevant help screens for Word -- even though I'm in stinkin' mudderjumping Access! GRRRRRRRR. (Sorry, I'm just warming up for Vista.)

[KingDaddyO]

Hey theblue1 ...

You sound like you work in my neck of the woods (IT). You have my condolences .

As long as we're moaning on MS ... one of my favorites has to be this scenario:

You've just rebuilt your computer or purchased a new one, and have installed the complete Office Suite. Now remember, Microsoft's marketing is all about 'group collaboration'. So we decide that the next step, is to set our file path default for when we Open or Save a file.

So you open up Office (any recent version will do, although I haven't seen the just released ver. 2007), and launch Word, then go to the 'Tools - Options' pulldown menu.

You see the 'File locations' tab page, and easily locate the 'Documents' field, and point it towards your documents folder. Nothing to it!

Then you open Excel and do the same ... only you can't find the 'File locations' tab page. You click on each of the 12 tabbed pages available, and finally ... you find the 'Default file location' field, listed under the 'General" tab page. Hmmm, they renamed it and placed in under a completely different title page.

Then you open Access. What the bloody hell ... you can't even get to the dropdown menus... Oh, I see. You have to open up a file first. Ok, there are the menus. Ok, there's the 'General' tab page, now where is that 'Default file location' field... eh?... WTF ... now it's called the 'Default database location'.

And on and on and ... the procedure for setting your default file path is different for each office application! Why they couldn't just get everyone together, in the same building, and group all similar menu items underneath a shared menu structure, is beyond me.

But HEY! What do I know? I'm not a software programmer.

[jlotto]

If i'm mixing ITB i need the monitor right in the middle of the mix position.

i just close my eyes every once in a while. i dont wanna move the monitor to the side and have to turn away from the sweet spot to make adjustments.

[slaves666]

I just upgrade to 2 19" LCD's as well. huge improvment, not to mention the clients are impressed.

[limey222]

Originally Posted by KingDaddyO

Nah, not dumb.

Hover over the desktop icon you want to assign a key to, right-click on the icon, and select 'Properties' from the drop down menu (assuming your mouse is configured for left-handed use).

Then click on the 'Shortcut' tab page, and 3rd from the bottom you'll see a field labeled 'Shortcut key:'

Press any key on the keyboard and a key sequence will appear in this field. Keep trying until you get the one you like and click on 'OK'.

Done!

Thanks Thom!

[kdp]

I have three 19" LCD monitors but still like to watch the Studer reels spin.