Here's a question for those of you with the experience and great ears. What's the best speaker option for a small bedroom-sized studio? I have RCF ART310A's, but I'm wondering if near-field studio monitors would be better. Opinions?
Best Sound In A Bedroom Size Studio
- Zappledan
- Closed
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Others will chime in for sure. As for me, I believe that the room itself is one of the most critical issues for the nature of the final sound.
I'd also advise anyone interested in the quality of sound reproduction to have the room supervised by an expert or, at least, to invest money in a room treatment. This investment can be progressive, and gradually improve the room's sound by basically reducing\eliminating its defects.
If you think of it, a sound reproduction is different from the 'original' listening because of a sum of 'defects'
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room treatment first... The ART's are not for studio use ,you neeed studio monitors
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Agree with Bruno, I had QSC, RCF and the Camper, and all of them where just not the right tool for my home studio. Always preferred my monitors at home.
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AKG 271 MK II
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Lol!
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So you folks believe that near-field monitors will work better even when I jam with a friend and we're each running through a KPA? We just did that today and it sounded pretty damn good. I have both lunchboxes connected to a Mackie mixer, then to the ARTs.
This is not what I'd call a studio situation..if you just want to play/rehearse like this of course the ART are better suited...
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A 12 x 12 x 9 foot cube (typical bedroom) has major acoustic issues. There will be both resonant and dead frequencies (nodes). A real time analyzer will show a visual of this. Its pretty bad...having a room of equal length and width creates strong nodes. I've seen +/- 20db nodes before treatment. Room treatment, especially bass traps, really help. In a small room, some of the worst nodes will occur at frequencies that correspond with lower notes in guitar , bass, and drums. Ouch!
I have found that, in addition to room treatment, a good parametric eq can be used to tame the nodes. The inexpensive Behringer DEQ2496 with the matching calibrated analyzer mic allows you to get things dialed in nicely. You can't eliminate room nodes entirely (unless you want to practice outdoors
) but you can even things out and make a big difference with treatment and eq.bd
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just my thoughts on the original question: i often happen to play in a small untreated room and for guitar playing i prefer the rcf tt25 sma (which is as much overkill as it gets for that purpose) BIG TIME over my genelecs... i'll give the clrs a try some time, but for now my (smaller) vote would be rcf tt08. then again, these are not caxial, so if you find the clr to big for your bedroom and want to shell out some serious money, go l'acoustics 108p.
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Well, I guess my studio is more of a personal practice area and occasional jam area. I don't do very much recording, though I do some.
then stay with the RCF's
BD (the other LOL)
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for guitar playing i prefer the rcf tt25 sma (which is as much overkill as it gets for that purpose) BIG TIME over my genelecs...
....what is the list price of that RCF? 4000$? I bet you prefer it to your monitors....
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I guess a good thing is to list a price range too.
I have Yamaha HS50M monitors, which the KPA sounds kind of boomy out (5" speakers) and Mackie MR8's which the KPA sounds awesome out (8" speakers)
But when I use them for monitors, the Yamaha have more definition of the high end, so I switch them on for more clarity in a mix sometimes. Mostly just go with the MR8's.
Depends on the room size. Mine is about 300 square feet and the MR8's can get LOUD unless I watch it.
10" would make me quite deaf!
Wish I had them! -
The effectiveness of a room treatment really depends on the room's characteristics. For most situations, taming the lows and the mid-lows ( upper and lower corners) gives a better ROI than the high-mids (walls).
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So you folks believe that near-field monitors will work better even when I jam with a friend and we're each running through a KPA? We just did that today and it sounded pretty damn good. I have both lunchboxes connected to a Mackie mixer, then to the ARTs.
How did you connect 2 guitars to kemper playing at the same time ?
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How did you connect 2 guitars to kemper playing at the same time ?
I have two lunchboxes and run them through a mixer.
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I use JBL LSR 4326P studio monitors. They are excellant for mixing and have self calibrating room mode correction. No need for room treatment. All that said , I still don't get the feeling I'm playing through a good tube driven guitar amp when using them for jamming or practice.
My recommendation would be to use the loop in, on a real guitar amp. This is good and from a member here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NFGzxD3OJI It will limit your amp choices, so pick a guitar amp that already gets you in the ball park for the style you play. Then maybe later add a second amp or powered speaker for another style.
In a small room like yours you may be able to custom build something using old hi fi or radio speakers and power amps.
I have an old Hammond organ satelite speaker cab. w a 12" Jensen alnico spkr. I've used it for practice purpose with various heads, usually under 10 watts ( tube ) and have gotten excellant sounds. Havn't tried it w the Kemper yet, I'm waiting to find the right power amp. It's a small cab. open back so will work well with combo profiles.....not sure how it'll sound with closed back cabs., Marshalls and such. -
I use JBL LSR 4326P studio monitors. They are excellant for mixing and have self calibrating room mode correction. No need for room treatment.
Slightly OT, while I see where you come from, the two approaches are quite different fom each other, and do not offer the same results.
While is definitely possible to improve the overall sound with calibration utilities, a time-invariant approach will never be able to really make a "dirty" room clean.
