On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 06:59 -0500, Dave Phillips wrote: <nod> Yes, it's bass-heavy and "cottony" :-) and obviously has no reverb, etc. Just like a live recording, dry, punchy and in-your-face. I think it's appropriate for this kind of music. Cool anyway! Quite notable, on the Sennheiser cans it actually has quite a bit of breathing room while on the Alesis monitors it's much more closed. This is one of the mixes that sound very different on my two main listening tools. I would suspect that adding just a droplet of reverb (turn the reverb down until you can't hear the tails, then turn it a bit more) would open it up on pretty much any speaker, but that's just a wild guess. Or just leave it as is. :-) Being an electronica fan, i tend to be a reverb freak. -- Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/

On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 00:28 -0800, R Parker wrote: [snip] Ah, yes, makes sense, close-in mics. A real expert could have figured it out immediately, but i'm no expert. :-/ That was actually a good lesson, thank you! W.r.t. the "in your face" keep in mind that i mostly listen to "ethereal" stuff all day long, lots of reverb and so on. By comparison, your dry, close in, honest-to-sound mix is downright aggressive. :-) Personal bias and all that... Hmmm, i thought the Alesis (M1 Active MkII) are actually bass-heavy, while the HD600 are "accurate". :-) Different ears and all that. To my ears, the M1 Active sound louder in the low spectrum, while the HD600, even though a bit more quiet, actually dive deeper. Too bad i can't show you what i hear. It's like there's a lump in your mix's spectrum that sits right on top of the M1 Active's lump, somewhere in the mid-bass. The Senn HD600 are cool with that, there's no (perceivable) lump, albeit bass is still vigorous. As for the high freqs, on the M1 Active the mix sounds "dark", which to me is surprising - these monitors are a bit harsh and, depending on the sound, can be a teeny bit bright. The Seen cans are cool again with it - it sounds spacey and open. It's very weird. I guess the mix is pretty close to the ideal shape, it's just one detail or two to be smoothed out, to make it sound uniform across many different speakers (which, according to the "wise old ones" it can be a chore sometimes). No... yes... um, well... There's that lump in the bass region which the Alesis M1 Active will reveal like a blister on a pretty face on every mix that has strong bass components. But that's not it, i'm used to that, my brain will "EQ" it out automatically. It's what i said above - the mix sounds dark and cottony on the M1 Active, which is very surprising (they're a bit harsh usually), while it sounds open, airy and breathing on the Sennheiser. Well, perhaps it lacks weight in the hi-freqs, but that's more like a hunch. I would try to add more flesh in the high freqs - but please always keep in mind my personal bias that i mentioned. <shrug> I might actually be looking in a very different direction than yourself. I think you're right - it must sound good on speakers first. But anyway, keeping a pair of outstandingly good phones around is wise. Those things reveal minute details that may not be perceivable on speakers (unless you're using monitors the price of a small car). Really good phones will give you that hyper-analytical view that a speaker may simply gloss over. Then you'll be like that clever boss that keeps a nerd around and consults with him before making big decisions, just because nerds are pathologically good at spotting tiny mistakes. Funny, after i posted the message i started to think - "hm, maybe there is a bit of reverb in there, after all". I just couldn't put my finger on it. Again, that's another thing that i learned. This list is awesome! Anyway, overall i think it's an excellent job. It fits the music (it really feels like a club) and that's what's most important. -- Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/