Mackie monitors, a ranting review

overnight · Post by **overnight** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:30 pm

How many good records have been mixed with HR824's? I venture to say a lot over the last decade.

They've fallen out of vogue the last few years and to hear folks talk you just absolutely cannot get a good mix with them. Bullshit. You don't know them and you we're coming from a room you didn't know with monitors you didn't know to a room and monitors you did. Adjustments will have to be made.

They're not ruler flat, they scoop, and they're not as detailed as other top end monitors. They are *pretty* good and can be very good in the hands of an AE who knows them and the room they're in. You might not like them as much as your NS10's but in the room I work out of the NS10's are useless to me. I don't know them and they limit me horribly so I stick with what I know I can get good mixes on... the mackies. Are the NS10's shit? Nope. They're just not mine. I owned Genelecs for a month and couldn't get a mix to sound right out side of the control room. They were too nice, too forgiving and prettifying for me. Are they for shit? Nope. I just didn't know how to compensate for them and didn't have the energy for trying to figure it out.

Paul Fury 161 · Post by **Paul Fury 161** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:58 am

Hi all. I have a quick question for the KRK users - Joel, you say you're using KRK V88 monitors, isn't the V88 just the sub on it's own? I thought the straight active monitors were V8. Had a look on the KRK site, can't find the ones you mention. I'm mixing at home on a little pair of HHB circle 3A's, great for location stuff, but a bit too small for rock stuff i'm finding - thinking of getting a pair of NS10's to tide me over til I can afford the PMC/K&H/Gethaine monitors of my dreams....;-p

Not that I really like Ns10's, but they do what they do and everywhere has them, and I know they'll be ok for a bit.

Which are the good KRK's though? If they're not too dear, might be tempted to check 'em out.

Thnaks yalz,

Paul

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:28 am

overnight wrote:How many good records have been mixed with HR824's? I venture to say a lot over the last decade.

They've fallen out of vogue the last few years and to hear folks talk you just absolutely cannot get a good mix with them. Bullshit. You don't know them and you we're coming from a room you didn't know with monitors you didn't know to a room and monitors you did. Adjustments will have to be made.

They're not ruler flat, they scoop, and they're not as detailed as other top end monitors. They are *pretty* good and can be very good in the hands of an AE who knows them and the room they're in. You might not like them as much as your NS10's but in the room I work out of the NS10's are useless to me. I don't know them and they limit me horribly so I stick with what I know I can get good mixes on... the mackies. Are the NS10's shit? Nope. They're just not mine. I owned Genelecs for a month and couldn't get a mix to sound right out side of the control room. They were too nice, too forgiving and prettifying for me. Are they for shit? Nope. I just didn't know how to compensate for them and didn't have the energy for trying to figure it out.

I DID say that in my original post, along with every single post I have ever made about monitors: Knowing the monitors you are working on is 100% the most important part of the equation. I am not even the kind of person that harsh's the mackie name either. I like recording, and I usually see the good side of any piece of gear... it all has a time and place where it is applicable. That does not mean that certain pieces give me a hard time, or in other words, I , personally have a hard time getting those pieces to do something nice for me.

That is all I am commenting on. I have worked on a bunch of different monitors, in a bunch of different rooms, and the mackies (not only in this room) have consistently baffled me.

river · Post by **river** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:43 am

It's around 3k where all of the sudden any sound turns into little knives that slowly dice open my ear drums. And then it drops off soon after that.

If you check out the frequency response graph for the 824's, there's no hump at 3k. It's gotta be a pileup of early reflections in that range coming from your side walls, or maybe a transfer function peak in your signal chain. I used to use NS10's, and I agree in general with the popular opinion that if you can get a mix sounding good on them, it'll sound good everywhere.......but the listening fatigue from them limited how long I could do any decent work. At any rate, however you find a workable solution is a good thing, good luck with it.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:26 am

Paul Fury 161 wrote:Hi all. I have a quick question for the KRK users - Joel, you say you're using KRK V88 monitors, isn't the V88 just the sub on it's own? I thought the straight active monitors were V8. Had a look on the KRK site, can't find the ones you mention. I'm mixing at home on a little pair of HHB circle 3A's, great for location stuff, but a bit too small for rock stuff i'm finding - thinking of getting a pair of NS10's to tide me over til I can afford the PMC/K&H/Gethaine monitors of my dreams....;-p

Not that I really like Ns10's, but they do what they do and everywhere has them, and I know they'll be ok for a bit.

Which are the good KRK's though? If they're not too dear, might be tempted to check 'em out.

Thnaks yalz,

Paul

nick_a · Post by **nick_a** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:41 am

i refuse to use the 824s where i work. i use the westlake big in-wall monitors and the ns10s (with the matching sub) that are there. the 824s tell me nothing, and i'm sure it's in part an acoustic problem, but i dunno. not my thing.

TapeOpAndy · Post by **TapeOpAndy** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:55 pm

Marcocet wrote:Anyway, after working on the V88's at Studio G and getting over the ridiculously aggresive top end, I found a pair for sale in Philly last weekend and now they're trying to push the mackies off the console... So the story ends well.

There's a big fat clue right there. Placing nearfields on top of a console (meter bridge) will result in drastic comb-filtering due to the first reflection off the console surface, typically resulting in a number of dips (as deep as 10 dB-ish) in the range of 1-5 kHz, depending on the geometry of the situation.

Some Genelec manuals even come with example plots of what happens when you mount your monitors on the meter bridge.

Some nearfields try to compensate for this effect. (For example, Dynaudios have an EQ setting for meter-bridge placement.)

djimbe · Post by **djimbe** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:14 pm

Some nearfields try to compensate for this effect. (For example, Dynaudios have an EQ setting for meter-bridge placement.)

the Mackie's have something similar, i.e. a switch for "whole space" "half space" and "quarter space", depending on where they're set relative to the back and sides of the listening space. Fiddling with this parameter and placement can go a long way to making the 824's useable. And then they still take a while to get used to...

TapeOpAndy · Post by **TapeOpAndy** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:33 pm

djimbe wrote:
the Mackie's have something similar, i.e. a switch for "whole space" "half space" and "quarter space", depending on where they're set relative to the back and sides of the listening space.
That's a woofer level control to compensate for open, against-wall, and corner placement, and it doesn't affect the midrange.

river · Post by **river** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:43 am

They also have low frequency and high frequency compensation switches.

Message Board

Mackie monitors, a ranting review

Who is online