KingAenarion
Resident Studio Nerd
I agree with B, but I disagree with A. I've spent lots of time with g2 Rokit 8s, and as long as your room isn't horrible, they're perfectly usable. They get a lot of hate for being "budget" items, but it's like any other piece of recording equipment - past a certain point, it's less about the quality of the gear, and more about learning to work with what you've got.
It's not the budget end of things, it's just the design and response of them.
They're SUPER low end heavy, so people tend to over compensate on them, and the tweeter design is pretty average, as is the baffling.
The new Scepter and Eris Monitors from Presonus actually put them and the Yamahas to complete shame.
Thanks man! I think where I'm struggling the most is on the stereo out/mastering channel. I get all the levels set for each track, and am happy with the overall balance of the instruments. Then I go to the master bus and add some light compression for glue, and ozone 5 for the multi-band and limiter. When I add ozone, it throws everything out of whack. All of a sudden the subtle parts that I wanted to be subtle are now exaggerated to sh*t, and the low end is flabby (hence why I back it off). I want the overall volume to be loud and whatnot, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm at a point where I'm starting to get frustrated. I'm happy with the mix prior to it going to mastering, but just can't seem to get it right.
This is why you always mix into your master chain.
I found years ago that everything did sounded better when I steered clear of Ozone.
My current Master Bus channel setup is:
Pre-Fader
- Slate VMR (VCC Mixbus on SSL 4KG, Neve EQ 1dB of high shelf, Custom Series EQ 1dB of High Shelf)
- Fabfilter Pro-Q2 in Linear Phase Best setting in Mid Side mode Highest mode taking out everything in the sides below about 60Hz so the low end is all mono mid.
- Slate VBC everything on but not acting. Once the mix is done I set the Grey to take off about 2dB with slow attack and fast release. Red takes off 1dB of the absolute loudest parts. MU taking off about 2dB on the loudest parts, not stereo linked, adding as much makeup gain as i need to bring it up to about 14dB RMS.
- Slate VTM in 2 Track, FG9, Noise reduction all the way to -80dB, about .6dB bass added.
Post Fader
- Fabfilter Pro L set at -0.3dB fastest attack fastest release, transparent, transient priority dependent on the song.
When I export for Mastering, I only compress on Slate FG-Grey, the other two compressors just go back to default settings with no makeup gain (allowing the mastering Engineer to do what he needs to)