Here is a good example of the beauty of human kind : you've spent many years learning, and doing mistakes on how to choose and use monitoring speakers. And now, we will avoid all the mistakes and research time you did, only by watching a really well explained 30min speech, and begin our journey with better knowledge, so we can go even further on this way🙏🔥🔥🔥 I mean, thank you man, this is helping a lot !

The golden rule of mixing that I often hear is 'reference, reference, reference'. Get a whole bunch of tracks and really listen to them on your monitors and get to know the signature. Then when mixing your own tracks use those references and keep bouncing between them to see if your track sounds close to your references that you are trying to emulate in audio space.

Wow -- cool! Thanks for the shout-out, and the extremely kind words!

While having good room acoustics and some decent monitors is necessary, there's something to be said about chasing the perfect room and priciest, flattest monitors out there. Any pro mixer could get pro results in a less than ideal situation. Practice really makes perfect. I've been there. Thinking the mixcubes were going to give me pro results and translation. They didn't. The problem was me, I didn't know how to use EQ correctly or balance a mix. But once I started really using references and kicked the ego out of the window my mixes made a huge improvement.

Solution, mix in your car. 😅

Man, you did dig deep into what for many of us is just a big question mark and this video turns all the question marks into answers - thank you very much, with each sentence you speak I hear hours of learning and you managed to put it all in one video. I got more from this video about studio monitors than from any other video period. Thank you very much and greetings from Germany :) Dirksón!

I've been through pretty much identical series of unfortunate events trying to get the actual monitor output to be reflected across other audio systems and you are the only one that revealed the sound delay aspect :) ty for this

Awesome video! I'm literally sitting and looking for my first ever monitors and togheter with my friends building a new studio when i found this video. It just helped me realise that i haft to dig deep into all of the diffrent factors that goes into creating the best creative space. I never had the opportunity to have expensive gear because of my age and now that i'm growing up i feel blessed that there are people like you that share their struggles and knowlege so that i can get a headstart in mine. Thank you and i appreciate you!

great book , I bought the kindle version of the book as soon as it was published, finished it a few months ago ...but ill buy the paperback as its a studio bible esp its the 'Cut To The Chase' section. Mikes a great guy. I bought a single active Mixcube to complement my old Tannoy Reveal Actives ( with a pair of rolled up clean socks to seal the portholes) with a TS10 sub,. Thank you for being real and voicing your thoughts on mix translation hurdles. glad I subscribed

Great video! I'm building my studio in a room that is all block so still working on acoustic treatment. I've watched a lot of video on speakers and looking like the hs5s are where I'm going. You really did a great job of breaking down sound dynamics. Thanks for the links as well!

This is probably the most honest advise about monitors I have heard...Thank you !!!

This book was a game changer for me too! Great vid. I'm currently working through Ethan Winer's book, The Audio Expert. Very objective as well. Especially in regards to gear and studio equipment. Highly recommend it.

I went through your whole explanation and I learn a lot about the Monitors and sound, Thanks a lot for sharing the knowlege!

Great video! It was an awesome quick refresher of all the stuff I learned about acoustics, room treatment, speaker placement a long time ago when I formally studied sound. I always recommend if you want to get into sound/music seriously do some type of study first, at the very least learn about room acoustics. Mixing Secrets looks like a great book! It amazes me how many people have 0 room treatment, I mean you might as well mix in the bathroom. If anyone on KZfaq is recommending specific speakers with 0 treatment, I take their opinion with a grain of salt. Another point is room treatment can be much cheaper if you make everything yourself. I mean, even a few old mattress is better than nothing (buy some cheap black/grey material to cover them if you worry about looks).

Brilliant! thanks for taking the time to make this vid.

I have Mike Senior's "Mixing secrets for the small studio". Fantastic book, helped in so many ways!!

Thanks for the information and the way you present it. Most people should be able to understand what you're talking about. Acoustic treatment of the room comes first, then more expensive speakers (if you even need them, depending on what it is you do exactly). Also, don't forget that monitor speakers are unforgiving and put out the sound like it is.

Great video, thank you for this technical knowledge.

30 minutes of pure unadulterated information. Other KZfaqrs should learn from your excellent example. Thank you very much.

I loved this video! This is my first and only comment anywhere. I now have a decent understanding of what seemed out of my range of technical info. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thanks for a great informative video - I stumbled into this video looking for monitors for my beginner home studio setup - as many beginners my main problem has been making a decision from lots of advice from audio experts when in reality I need to probably just get started. I will be buying AKG headphones you mentioned + some cheap but effective monitors as the basement room I am using is an acoustic nightmare and follow your advice at a later date regarding the perfect mixing setup. My main aim is the composition, creation and recording but like most beginners setting up a DAW I am getting lost in the tech/research aspects of midi interfaces, audio interfaces, mics etc . I am just not at the sonic comprehension level or capacity to take in all your great advice.

Great video! Thank you for doing this.

This is the kind of video I'm always trying to find. An experienced speaker with great info material. Big THANKS. I learned a lot! Cya XD

I come here to see the video,and then i finish with the reading of the book. Well done! :))

Since I changed my setup to match "Cardas Option 2" (19:52 / speakercalc, use same length for main and side wall, then scroll down for 5th option) and switched to KSD C88 (extremely tight/hard/fast bass membrane) I don't need to get into the car anymore. The bass sound compresses right at the place where my chair is because the wall is behind me (with a thin carpet and some foam mats, as well as on the ceiling). The subwoofer (7060B) is at the other end of the room at a very low loudness. I correct the time lag between sub and nearfeald with a Behringer Ultracurve and I could correct frequencies with it but I don't need to. Now the bass frequencies are extremely good in my 4x4 meter and (almost) square room, which makes it much easier to determine all other frequencies. Since then my mixes no longer suck. As long as I sat in front of a wall with my speakers like you do, I had no chance. You have to be able to perceive the low frequencies, otherwise your mixes will not work. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

Looking to upgrade my monitoring system, your video came up!! Thank you for all this information

This is Pure gold informative video! Big thanks man

Amazing information as I'm in the process of buying a set of studio monitors. Thank you for taking the time for making this video and sharing this information with us.

Very very helpful vid man. Thank you!

Thanks for all the information!!

Hey Man Nice! A Lot of things to think about ...I moved on from the last home studio...and tried to do my best to the new one...soon you gonna receive new album to mix...i get happy that u improve even more your work!!

Very informative. Thank you 👍🏽

This is great, thanks for making this!

Really good info!! And the way you broke it down, easily understandable!

This is something of great value. Thank you so much for this info. For adding this value. Subscribed🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

I like how you explained this!!!

Excelkent advice, thanks

Thanks for the plug brother. Ill also send some hardware for you to check soon.

I've only got half way through the book! its not light reading, but very informative.

Incredible Video, I learned alot, I will apply this.

Awesome vid, thanks Kevano!

You can't use the auratones as an example for the time decay on the low end. The graph speaks for itself, but it basically doesn't have the low end ringing because it also doesn't produce any audible low end at that frequency range. 😉 In other words, it can't excite frequencies that it doesn't reach. 🙂 Even if Thriller by MJ was really mixed only on auratones (which it wasn't, because all big studios had several monitors, including the huge far field), and that mix would be mastered after that by a different engineer and on a different room, and it would go back to mixing if it couldn't be corrected at the mastering stage. Case in point, the whole Thriller album was longer than the final version, but it sounded like crap when they pressed it on vinyl, so they had to actually reduce the length of some tracks (look for it 🙂). In any case, Bruce Swedian was one of the best at tracking and mixing, and just like any other big engineer of that era, he would spend most of his days doing it, and practice does make a difference. Look at many other big names of audio engineers, and you'll see that they all found what worked best for them, and Andrew Scheps has been mixing mainly with headphones for years, using his long time thrusted Tannoys to check from another perspective. Headphone mixing isn't easy, but he managed to get it right, and I tend to believe someone that mixed the most sold album of the last decades (Adele). He does use _always_ the same make and model of headphones for years (some relatively inexpensive Sony), which give them what he needs the most: - Consistency! 🙂 This is not to say that good monitors, a good room and something like Sonarworks isn't going to help, because it definitely does. But it's not going to solve anything magically, and there's also another fun fact about audio engineering back in those days: - they would often check their mixes in their car! 😃 Those multi-million dollars studios we're not even consistent between them, even when they had the same monitors. The NS-10s have an artificial bump in the high mids, which would act as a magnifying glass for that range (at the expense of the low range). It's easier to focus on the midrange if you have little bass response. Back on the day, they weren't mixing music with the same amount of low end that EDM and other genres use these days. Even in MJ "Earth song", I don't believe that Bruce Swedian could do the whole mix on Auratones or NS-10s, because that song has some bass notes that none of them could reach, and no one can adjust something that is not being reproduced by the monitors. In the end, find what works best for you, bearing in mind that practice is going to solve a lot more issues that constantly replacing monitors. 😉

Man.. THANK YOU for this video. Really glad I watched it. If I haven't watched this video I would waste so much money and time, its crazy. Completely prevented from buying monitors. Will try to mix with headphones only for now.

Thank you, very useful!

Thank you very much. Great work.

NS10s and auratones were reference monitors. I couldn't imagine anyone basing their entire mix on them, but to each their own I guess.

Thank u so much this was really helpful

Great video, if you can keep it in context. Advice is a bit muddy depending on your current level of gear. I would personally mix at low volume on great monitors before spending cash improving a room without speakers.

Thank you for the excellent video

Thanks for the video. Same store, same monitors you ended up with.. Although I work with entirely different genres in a beginner capacity... Here is my two cents: there are other, often not-so-easily measured/charted variables than freq. response, transient response and distortion. That's why there are there are so many completely unaffordable (new luxury car money...), and hundreds of expensive (used car money) hi-fi loudspeakers. Yes, flat freq. response is desirable with monitors - but there is more to the picture. I think I need to agree with all the comments which put a lot of weight in 'getting to know' your tools well... Cheers!

The decay isn’t short because it’s a closed design. The Yamaha ns10 and auratone cannot provide anything below 200Hz. In other words, they lack in sound pressure levels in the low end and low mid range.

Many thanks for doing this. Very helpful. I'm not sure how feasible this is now, but it would be really interesting to hear two mixes - one A mix based on your prior knowledge, setup, lack of damping/absorption, etc, and a B mix, having made all those changes, so that we can compare them.

More than anything you need to be able to hear in your head what you want it to sound like. A few listening options available are handy so that you aren't biased by one listening system.

Almost half way through the book and have learned a lot. My car speakers boost the treble and produce sibilance. So annoying 😂 I mix with MDR7506s and Titan S IEMs. Getting some Sennheiser 560s headphones soon as well as some Presonus 3.5BTs. I feel like mixing is a lot of compromising to get an “average” between all your systems. So I figure just get all of the options (monitors, close back headphones, open back headphone, and in ear monitors) and I can always upgrade later if something seems to work better or if something is lacking.

Kevin holy mackerel buddy this is studio changing info. I’m in the ‘something isn’t working with my KRK’s’ phase and looking at Focal and Adam Audio speakers but your info has halted all that. I ordered the Mixing Secrets book before I buy anything and thank you so much for putting this out there from your own hard earned research. I’ve already recommended to several friends also in the “I need new speakers” phase to watch your info first. Can’t thank you enough brother. This should be required viewing for anyone interested in audio Mixing , Mastering and I’d even say Tracking. Thanks!

Keep up your study great to see you learning. Succinctly, you study room acoustics and room isolation sources so you know that a room made of brick or stone will contain and overly reverberate, A weatherboard house with timber lining will let all the low end thru and if you are on a farm your good. (The open back headphones) The stone wall needs alot of expense to soak up the sound. A car which is a metal shell and glass is not the best place to "approve" a mix and you should listen on a number of environments, like a PA for EDM for eg. Powered speakers, requires understanding the slew rate of it's amp, the speed of the amp is what you also pay for with expansive speakers. The NS10 and Auratones have no bass response and the charts reflect this. So you are passing on miss info here. The speakers need to be flat with fast slew rate, the cones need to be able to match this and the cab resonance needs to aid the flatness in a flatest response room you can make it(no such thing as perfect here) Now hearing is what you get and you listen to a bunch of reference material alot and learn your room and speakers. You want a mix that will translate on a phone to a Club PA and this is always a compromise without wrecking you mix. Auratones are good for a mono mix check. When you are new to mixing you are heavy handed with everythng especially your latest toy so dont change this too often get good with what you have utill you can justify the expense of better and eventually your mindset will be,: what is the least I can do to make it sound good."

Man, you're the inspiration. Thank you for all your videos!

I have to agree with you, for example on the A7V the bass frequencies are over-represented and a bit muddy, the bassreflex probably plays a role in the long decay of low frequencies that is so annoying. With modern DSP it should be possible to create imperceptible crossovers with Q>=100 or so.

borrowed this book from my friend...blew my mind...bought the book myself later...still "looking" for the right monitors. GREAT BOOK!

Love the video. It’s nice to see someone talking about this stuff without all the fluff. I might buy that book but damn it’s expensive! I’ve spent the last week working on my room and I gotta say it’s made a huge difference

Very nice vid buddy ty very much

Even after all of these trouble set up we have to go through and spent all the money there is still NO guarantee your mix will be spot on. It’s all in YOU and your head. Knowing how the room, the speakers, the compressor and EQ work is far more crucial to achieve a pro result. Hell you can mix with Headphone to avoid all these problems. My room acoustic is far from perfect but but I’ve grown to know how they will translate in the real world and it makes my life so much easier. Cheers !

Never watched an honest, detailed video. You explained objectively and professionally without compromise. I love it keep it going and keep being genuine in these videos

Great video. The original Yamaha NS-10s were everywhere back in the 80s - I've mixed on them a bunch of times. It's funny to see the prices on these get so high, because they actually sounded pretty bad. If you could make your mix sound kinda good on them, you were doing well. For budget engineers, it really is about getting used to your speakers and your room, but today's budget monitors are so good compared to what we used to have. I just got a pair of Kali LP-8 V2s and I'm very happy with them - they do a good job with the low end. Meaning if your low end is whack, they'll let you know.

Hi man, great video ! Thanks ! I read this book, not a long time ago, but before seeing this video and I had the same "aHa" moment that you had ! This book worth the money. If you know a website where I can find the waterfalls of every current speakers, I'd like to know ! Mike seniors's book have a quite a few but I'd like to expand my researchs. Have a nice day ! ;-)

Hi! Thanks for the video. Do you think the Focal Shape 40 would be a good alternative with its technology as it does not have a bass reflex, but a kind of passive cone? I await your answer! thank you very much!! 🔥🔥🔥

Solid gold! New sub. I was on my 3rd set of monitors before i realized my room was the culprit. (oddly shaped 40m² room with lots of glass and high ceiling) The best decision i made was buying a pair of DT880s and putting in the hours concentrating on getting better instead of worrying about speakers.

maybe this is the most honest opinion and the best suggestions! Thanks !

Wow. That point about speaker decay was mind-blowing. Thanks so much for sharing and Mike for his wonderful research! I have the Avantone in Mono and always wondered what was so magic about them and it's so cool to get a small insight into why!

Thank you for opening my eyes.

Nice video! This is my journey and was planning on getting me Yamaha HS5 monitors. You have really done lots of research and this is such a great help. You summarized it well!!! Just one question though that I think that you perhaps left out in summarizing it all...does your mixes translate well now on your car system or other playback devices after you mixed it compared to before? And yes I know every little bit of change helps, but I'm not talking about that 2% change...I mean like drastic changes? And if you should percentage-wise rate what you personally think helps your mix translate very well on other devices, what would you say makes the biggest success percentage? Monitors, room acoustics, speaker placements or Reference software?

Thanks for the book recommendation, i had been looking for one for a while now. Any other books you would recommend?

Legend, convinced to invest some money in knowledge and books!

Wow, I have never worked in a treated room. While I expect that it helps, truth is after, getting my Hedd-headphones I was impressed that my mixes sounded pretty much the same as they do in my car, on consumer brand headphones, and even through cellphone speakers. You can clearly hear the lyrics and the lows. I was surprised, but I've been at this for decades and listen over and over and overagain.

I have been a Dj since the early 80's and i have had all kinds of setups and always low class because i could not afford the good stuff. I did have the technics 1200's and a GLI mixer in the 80's but after that, it was always rigged up parts and now finally i was able to afford better things and i will you this that the RK G4's... why did i wait to ever get them. They sound killer and give me clear audio to listen too. I record my mixes and take them with me on the go so i can listed on what improvements i could make and no matter where i take my recordings, they sound awesome. Car audio is very different. If you don't have the proper highs, mids and lows, your music isn't going to sound the same. Back in the 90's i used to have all rockford fosgate system and it was killer. If you want really good sounding sound there is a company called canton and they made the best mids and highs back in the 90's. I had a friend who was becoming a state trooper and he had all cantons put in his car and man i will tell you this... you could hear his music loud and clear a half a block away. His subs would tremble a store window a quarter of a block away. Not sure if canton is in business anymore but i am sure you can still find used stuff. I have a pair of canton home speakers on my home theater system and it sounds great!. Car audio if you don't have the right highs, lows and mids, your audio is not going to sound very good.

It's really weird thing but I worked with professional studios( equipment and room treatments) , the songs sounded way different out of the studio, less excited, as I worked whit a guy whit a basic home studio set up and his mix's are really good and translate better anywhere I play them, I did see some great records was made in non professional environments that makes me wonder a lot, I know a beat maker that produces and mix whit airpods and his beats are really good .... I think the engineer play a big role, there is just some guys out there that will make you a good mix where ever the condition.. Great video, thank you for the advices really appreciated!

Maybe I missed as I was skipping around but were you using reference tracks? This is the key to adapting to any studio monitor, room or seating position. Testing your mix against a professional mix in your space and comparing your work will always be our greatest tool to see if our mix will hold up on other sources. You can mix on almost anything.....If you learn how what your mixing on relates to professional mixes. What also helped my mixes immensely was better sound selection in my production. You don't have to tweak a million things if the sound dit together from the start...gain staging...a little compression here and there... sprinkle some reverb and you are done. Eq the master bus to flatten things out a big and you have a solid mix. Also mix and low volumes...this is the number one key for a good mix. Low volumes. Just my 2 cents.

Goldmine video!!Thank you!!!

I was actual on my way to get the Eris e5 xt changed my mind lol this room acoustic thing would be the first thing to work on

I had all these same issues. I broke the rules and started mixing on home stereo speakers with the exaggerated eq most people use and problem solved. Mixes sounded the same in my car, on my phone, over blutooth speakers..

Great video!

I would like to add that the group delay caused by most reflex port designs (that is presented as low end decay time in thos video) is not as important as this video states. Because room modes and reflections cause much larger deviances and contribute to the much more significant decay times. In a perfect room without low end reflections (outdoors) any if these monitors could provide reliable low end information. So obsessing about anechoic measurements of decay times isn’t nearly as important as this video and book would like to let you know. NS10s and Auratones don’t portray such low LF decay times in an actual room only because they are sealed design, but simply because they are unable to output any serious LF information due to the high roll off. So there is always a trade off question: is it better having low end information which will unfortunately interfere with the midrange clarity in a small lousy room (most home studios with speakers capable of low end information), or not have any real LF information and having midrange clarity (NS10s, Auratones). Since midrange is the key to translation to consumer devices not capable of real LF reproduction, the second option might me better. But in reality it is not, it is just a compromise. So the conclusion is: you have to have good enough room to begin with and need to have acoustics knowledge to treat it well. Than you can obsess less with monitors and any of these will be able to provide reliable translation.

Very nice..so what shield monitors you suggest apart of avantone ? Where can we find data of decay of speakers ?

Mid range mid-range for mixing....Headphones are evolving but mixing on mid-range speakers is most definitely a must. Adam Audio T7V are my go too.

Hi.. How are you... Hope you're healthy and doing fine... Please.. What's the model of your desk? Is it the Fame w201? I remember that i had one without the monitors stands and it was the same... But i don't remember the brand or model... I would try to get one on second hand.. Cause I suppose they're no longer manufactured... Thanks a lot... And keep up the good work. 😁

Stuff foam rubber into your speaker holes. As soon as I purchased my Yamaha 8" speakers, I did this and noticed a better clarity. Use Sonarworks and you're good to go.

Avantone are also great because they require less acoustic treatment. It's better to get a single avantone and run it in mono through a y-cable.

Excellent video

Are you using reference tracks? That help a lot.

Auratone monitors are still in producing, and they have an Auratone amp now, which is powerd by Bettermaker company (Poland). In Europe pair of Auratone monitors is 389€, and the Auratone amp A2-30 cost 343€

I don't know the exact spacing but you SEEM(can't tell by the angle) to have a really wide stereo field with your monitors far apart and the tweeters are directly aimed at your ear not the middle of the speaker.

Port plugs. Diy with foam. Simple solve for decay time. Just have a sealed subwoofer as well.

I am going to subscribe to his channel and thank you for not talking down to us thank you so much

29:38 What’s wrong with colouring the speakers? If it gives me a flat frequency response, why wouldn’t I use it?

Thanks for video, I was about to get a pair of studio monitors! Could you share that pdf file with frequencies decay time for different kinds of monitors?

So, what are the ( 3 ) Best Speaker Monitors ? Thanks

I produce/engineer music ;but bought my pair of KRK Rokit8 monitors (paired with a Denon 10 inch powered sub) more to listen to all music properly, gaming and watching movies with superior sound versus the BS sound bar setups most people use for home entertainment these days. I've never been disappointed with my use case. I also prefer to do a headphone check versus the run to car check myself ;but used to do that a lot too lol.

@4:35 I could not help but laugh, i cannot tell you how many times I’ve run out to my car with the mix 😂