Ableton Forum

I am trying to decide today whether or not I want to get imposcar synth, or a new midi keyboard or some Krk speakers since my mixes do not sound well when I mix them with ableton.

Here's my setup

-Ableton 8 Suite (Boxed)
-Oxygen8v2 25 keys small version
-Trigger Finger
-Av40 pair speakers
-Zebra 2 Vst
-Guitar Rig 2 Vst (I don't like 4 or 3 something about 2 that I love.)
-Reason 4 ( With a lot of refill's that I have bought)
-Torq 1.5 Update & Connective
< this is just my 24" mac
On my pc Desktop>
-Fl Studio 9
-Komplete 5 < I also Have Vokator & Spektral Delay as well.)
-Blue Snowball Mic
-Ederol Pcr-1 Midi Controller
-Dynamo
-Playa synth
-Express Keyboards
< on my Mac Laptop
-Reason 4 again and Torq for DJ sets.
I also Have a beginner dual turntables and a Numark Mixer.
Over the year's I have built up at least 200 Gigs of my own samples. I just wanted to let you know what I have for this question I am having trouble with.

Now to the problem, I am having an issue when I mix my music. When I mix it in live it sounds fab with my HD 250 senheizer headphones. Though when I mix it to my Ipod touch it sounds like rubbish. Meaning that it is either too loud or too soft. I have a limiter on the master control and normalize the audio too. I am wondering if I need to buy some krk speakers to help with this issue? I am also looking to buy some imposcar or even mini Monsta virtual instruments or will the Zebra 2 Vst that I have be better than those two? Is my midi Keyboard all right it seems to go to scales higher I always have to hit the transpose keys to gain that extra key.
Greatly Appreciated
-The Dude

A pair of KRK RP5s would be a great investment. There was a time when I had to mix a lot on HD280 headphones, and wasn't able to crank up the larger monitors, and was having a similar problem with the mixes not translating as well as they could have. I picked up a pair of the KRK RP5s for low level mixing off of headphones, and the sound is very impressive for the price, much better than I was expecting. Now I am able to compensate for things that are missing or slightly off in the HD280s, which I know really well, and the mixes translate to other systems better.

A couple of comments about mixing with headphones... while it is possible to get a good mix even with headphones, the acoustic properties of spatial depth, ambient resonance and sonic pressure do not translate into headphones, so we naturally over/under compensate for this when mixing on them. Also ear fatigue and damage should be an important concern, even if you are young - once the ringing begins it doesn't go away easily.

Namaste

agreed, enjoy the sound that im getting off of my krk's, a great investment made right there for the price.

Yup, get some monitors. Maybe even sell your old speakers and get the sub too. You have more than enough controllers and synths!

If you have a problem with mixing then your obvious answer would be the monitors. How would a synth and a midi keyboard help you with that?