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Nearfield vs Mid Field vs Far Field Monitors and Mixing/Mastering
I’d like to get everyone’s thoughts on when they use certain types of monitoring in their mixing/mastering process. Do you use a certain of monitoring to snuff out and check specific issues when mixing? mastering?
What do you use nearfields/midfields/farfields primarily for? Do you feel it is necessary to have all three types of monitoring systems and with/without a sub? Do they correlate to a specific type of playback system? (For instance, Far Fields can be used to simulate what a mix will sound like in a club)
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3 Replies
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Big C, I live in the box, on AT M70x headphones with Sonarworks software correction, rely on Ozone’s collection of genre specific reference curves and my time in live audio for guidance in tonality. I can’t offer up anything regarding your specific question, but damn, you do ask good questions. PT
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Thank you, my brother! Sorry, I’ve been MIA for the last couple of weeks! It’s nice to know the questions I ask are valuable to the community! I’m really enjoying my time here! Just trying to get better. It’s also helped me realize that I have some great knowledge to offer that I didn’t think about before. It’s an honor to interact with everyone!!
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As @-PT mentioned, excellent questions, sir!
- I tend to stick to one main set of nearfield speakers I really know and trust (my ATC 45’s are large enough to be considered mid-field, tho I position them at near-field range)
- I always have a subwoofer and it is ALWAYS on a separate button on my Avocet monitor controller. It stays off 99.9% of the time but it’s nice to be able to push the “sub” button and hear what might be flopping around down there needing finer tuning. Or sometimes I turn it on and crank the system up super loud for “club mode.”
- I always have (and depend on) a set of crappy Radio Shack Realistic speakers placed way out of the sweet spot on the other side of the room, pushed together so they’re mono. This inexpensive yet essential setup gives me the feeling of “listening from another room” which is always revealing, and it also gives me a sense of what my mix will sound like on laptops and small budget systems.
- Of all the fancy studios around the world I’ve worked in, I have yet to encounter “mains” that I like to listen to. I’m fairly certain their only purpose is to excite label reps who drop by during sessions.
This forum discussion has pix of my Realistic speakers as well as my old beloved 5″ Yamaha nearfields I started my career on (and mixed a #1 album on 😲). It also details my 4-step process to declutter any mix. In fact … I turned that 4-step process into a handy pdf but never shared it … until now! Mua hah ha ha haaaa. I’ll attach it here for the time being as a fun little Easter Egg. Enjoy!
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