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…working in concert with my poor room arrangement (which I can’t/won’t really change).

I don’t really do much A/B testing with PRO mixes when working on my own music but I didn’t realize how bad the sound is until I was doing a cheating DJ set with Live through my iMac speakers just to make sure the transitions were smooth, but as soon as I turned on my Rockits there was way too much bass, the mids were almost nonexistent, and the highs were hissy. I didn’t slap EQ or anything on the tracks and Live’s summoning engine is perfection as we all know. No wonder I can’t get a decent mix of my own music.

That was the long way of asking about monitor recommendations given the above problem and a mid range budget.

beats me wrote:Live’s summoning engine is perfection as we all know.

Not jumping the gun here, but that could be your problem, right there...

beats me wrote:there was way too much bass, the mids were almost nonexistent, and the highs were hissy.

Did you listen to the same material on anything else?

In other words are you sure it's the Rokits that are the issue?

I've got Rokit 5s + 10S sub, and stuff I mix/EQ on them sounds fine on other systems.

I am going to be flame grilled for this but...

I just made an astonishing experience with IK Arc in my difficult room equipped with rokits 6. It helped clearing up bass a lot and also did some panning which i would have never done by myself. I know room treatment is actually the first step one should do but my living situation is not that stable that i want to invest in a room or drag bass traps across continents. Arc is kind of the portable solution and for my dilentants demands it works.

Got the old version for cheap shortly before they released the new one. Not regretting a single cent. Only thing is, i keep forgetting to switch it off when i change to headphones.

I’ve listened to the PRO tracks on other sound systems like we all have…car, living room system, portable speakers, etc. I know each set of speakers and room condition emphasizes the sound frequencies differently, but on my Rockits there’s frequencies that are so overwhelming or absent that it’s not just a simple mental compensation when attempting to mix, at least not to my ears or skillset.

Also my “studio” is my bedroom and there’s not a lot of rearranging to play with due to furniture, window, and 3 doors.

By contrast my roommate uses those Harmon Kardon computer speakers that look like jellyfish in a similar room setup to mine and gets way better results. While those speakers aren’t cheap, they also aren’t pimped as music producing speakers.

I have Rokit 5s and moving them from one wall to the corner has dramatically upped the bass response, to the point where it overwhelms right around 140hz

The last room I had them in, they sounded fantastic and I got wonderful balance on all frequencies

I would wager it's the room more than the speakers, and if your friend is using cheapish consumer speakers, he's probably got a better room sound and/or knows the frequency range of his monitors.

agent314 wrote:moving them from one wall to the corner has dramatically upped the bass response

......which is a perfectly normal acoustic result that would happen with any speakers.

agent314 wrote:I would wager it's the room more than the speakers, and if your friend is using cheapish consumer speakers, he's probably got a better room sound and/or knows the frequency range of his monitors.

That’s what I call the stupid luck voodoo of a better room with zero effort.

My speakers used to be on my computer desk but since I got my 27” iMac I can’t fit the speakers next to the large screen on my desk so I put them on stands on either side of the desk at slight inward angles facing me. In theory this should be better than I had them before but it seems to have made it worse.

My other concern with the bass is I don’t want to piss off my neighbors. I often throw an EQ on the master track and bring the bass frequencies down when I’m composing and mixing isn’t all that important.

beats me wrote:I put them on stands on either side of the desk at slight inward angles facing me.

So they're further apart now?

Were they angled in before?

Are they still the same distance from the wall behind them?

I just bought a pair of Mackie MR5's and they sound wayyy better than my RP5's did,especially in the mid range. Try them out if you have time I think you'll be impressed. I have the high frequency setting at +2 which gives me the overall range I expect....

cmreal04 wrote:I just bought a pair of Mackie MR5's and they sound wayyy better than my RP5's did,especially in the mid range. Try them out if you have time I think you'll be impressed. I have the high frequency setting at +2 which gives me the overall range I expect....

Cool. Lots of positive reviews and the price works. I'll have to check them out.

I use Rokit 5s in a small room which is anything but perfect for music production. There are spots within the nearfield where bass frequencies appear boosted or cut, but this could be down to the room or my subjective tastes (I prefer lots more bass than some people). My girlfriend has the Harman Kardon Soundsticks and Sub at her house as mentioned in comparison to the Rokit 5s. We have listened to tracks I've made on the Rokit 5s using her HK set up and the tracks sound fine. I have also listened to these tracks at my partner's house, where we make music. He has some good Mordaunt Short hifi speakers/NAD amp, and again I haven't noticed any big problems.

I would mention this though... I'm not sure what comparison you can make between Rokits and HK soundsticks... the HK sub has a very wide output range - you can turn it almost to zero bass or turn it all the way up to ridiculous booming bass that is beyond pleasant for just about any music.

I like the Rokits, but they do hum a bit, which I don't like.

......which is a perfectly normal acoustic result that would happen with any speakers.

......which is the point that I was making, that it's probably not the speakers but the acoustics of his room.

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Sorry, I'm a dickhead.
I'm in a similar situation. Moved the studio into a different room in our apartment, and now everything sounds different. What's a quick and dirty way to reduce crappy freqs? Maybe some cheap bass traps or anything? At some point I'm gonna mess with an EQ8 on the master channel to at least compensate for some stuff.

It's probably worth pointing out that the HK setup probably has a subwoofer.