Speakers to monitor edit

Noiz2 said:
Also because small details are so distinct little things can sound very prominent that just aren't in the air.
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I think this is a pretty important thing to keep in mind about headphones. In my experience, they do give you a more detailed representation of what is going on, which might be perfect for some tasks. On the other hand, you could spend 20 mins tweaking a reverb, getting it to sound perfect on phones. When you check it out on monitors, it's completely inaudible. Never mind all the above points about different stereo representation, lack of reference levels, etc.

Also, it's not that phones don't reproduce stereo sound properly -- for some types of recording like binaural it is probably the ideal form of listening. Not that we care about that for video...

I think a good set of phones is a great thing to check a mix on, but not as the only thing.
 
smelni said:
question here - the sound from the monitors sound way more hollow then from the multimedia speakers - that makes sense since the MM speakers boost base and stuff - But what should a premix sound like through the monitors? Am I looking to make it sound as i want it to? that doesnt make sense since a tv will portray the sound differently - so what am I looking to accomplish here
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Sorry for the double post. I always think it's best to make it sound exactly as you want on your monitors assuming your monitors can be trusted. You can't mix just on your tv in the living room, because my tv might have an enormous home theater setup attached to it and the bass you couldn't hear pounds a hole in my floor. On the other hand, I might be watching through a 13" tv with the built in speaker, and the bass that you had pumping on your sub might be completely overdriving my poor little $20 tv.

Learn your speakers a bit. Find out if they downplay or exaggerate a specific range of frequencies. If they do, then adjust accordingly.

Two good exercises to get you started. First, listen to some music and watch some movies that you know really well on the setup. This gives you an idea of how the speakers respond and also gives you some references. You probably don't want to try to achieve everything on a commercial release, but getting in the same ballpark is probably a good goal.

Second, make a video sound like you want it to on your monitors, then check it out on a TV without a big theater setup, a TV with one, and someone's little computer speakers. If it translates well to those systems and sounds good, then you probably have a good mix. If it sounds bad on one or more of those systems, then you need to recognize the problem and fix it. Then check again. At some point, you start to learn what your speakers misrepresent and you start to compensate for that stuff automatically.
 
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