Mid, or not to Mid, that's the monitor question...

[LGK_Dude]

Hi, my name is Jonathan, and I have a problem. I love mid-range frequencies. The problem is, it seems most stereo systems today have that dreaded U curve, completely voiding the world of mids. I went car stereo shopping for my fathers B-day and was SHOCKED to hear extremely hyped highs and lows, and no clear, warm mids!

Lack of mids seems to exist in the monitor world as well. Recently I went to the guitar center in LA and again was shocked to hear the lack of clear, present mids. Granted it wasn't the ideal monitoring situation, and I was there with a guy who was monitor shopping and controlled what we listened to, but as we went through the line, I kept thinking to myself "what would I do to change this mix" and 9x's out of 10 it would be to add more mids. The only monitors that I didn't feel I needed to add anything to where the Mackie HR824mk2 and the ADAM Audio P22A. (BTW, the guy I was with bought the adam P22A's, which unfortunately are a little out of my budget)

So, my question is, should I buy monitors that have the mids I crave, or should I go with something like the Event ASP8's and tune in more mids to my liking, which should compensate somewhat for peoples U curves.

I do mainly film scoring but plan on releasing a progressive rock album this year, and thus need to upgrade from my current Alesis M1 passives. I have about $1700 to spend, and was thinking of trying out the Event ASP8s, Mackie HR824mk2 & Adams A7 + Sub 8 in my studio. Any other suggestions/comments?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

[u b k]

you would do well to choose monitors that are voiced to the way you like to hear music. if you like a mid-forward sound, adam s3a's would probably float your boat.

getting scooped monitors and dialing in a mid-heavy mix is a bad idea, the mids will tear your face off when played on a neutral system. people listening on a scooped system want to hear their music scooped; don't try to change the world, you'll only frustrate yourself and, in the process, cheat the people who have their systems set up more linearly. end result: no one likes your mixes.

anyway, aside from the voicing, which is subjective, you need monitors which are 'portable' in the sense that mixes you build on them ought to translate to the outside world with no guesswork or compensation. that's 101 but seems worth mentioning.


gregoire
del
ubk
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[PistolP]

Hi,

If your ears are so good with spectral balance then why bother buying new monitors. hope you get my point :P

peace
P

[Kronos147]

ADAM's.

Or, I invite you out to Burbank to hear some amazing speakers. If you like them, I can get some built for you. They are an unreleased model in the VSI lineup. It consists of (2) 2 way (8") speakers and a "12 subwoofer.

Bring ANYTHING you want to compare. I have some NS-10's here and can get some JBL LSR32's if you need.

Eric