How can I measure if my monitor section sucks

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andre tchmil

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I'm so in doubt about my monitor section on my console.
I just replaced my Mackie HUI with a Procontrol and from what my ears tell me that it sound different.
I dunno, better or worse.
I do know that it has a recent monitor revison .
Is there way to measure the thing without trusting my ears for once ?
 
If your ears tell you it sounds different, than you are probably right. I believe some critical listening will be more useful than measurements. I have done some ABX ear training (free!)http://www.pcabx.com and have recently been doing the Golden ears training CD's http://www.moultonlabs.com/gold.htm. A major thing that I have observed in all of this is that our "un-trained" ears can hear all of this "golden ear stuff", Its more of training your mind to recognize what the change is, or that a change is even there! Its more mind traing than ear training! Besides answering the question you have right now, you'll be able to mix better if you do some ear, I mean mind training.

The PCABX testing is good, they have A and B samples with varying amounts of change and varying types of changes, after listening to samples A and B, you hit the X button and guess which one it is. The best thing here is that its free.

The Golden ears program will help you alot faster and has alot more training if you can afford it, or even get a hold of it where you live.

Hope this is helpful!
 
I always trust my ears first.

It most likely does sound different. Give yourself some time to get used to it before you make a decision as to whether it's an improvement.

I always try to listen to something I'm really familiar with, like a Led Zeppelin album, which I've heard hundreds of times, through every sound system imaginable. You want something that you know so well, that it something sticks out as different, you know it's not the source material.

Often times the first time I hear a "difference" in sound, my reaction is to not like it. When I switched near field monitors a couple years back, that happened.

It took a week or so of switching back and forth between the old and new for me to realize that what I was hearing in the new monitors was clarity. Go figure :green:

Of course, actual milage may vary, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

ju
 
If you have a dual-trace 'scope you could check everything connected is staying in phase, phase reversal can sound "weird".

Also, you could always try and measure the frequency response with broadband noise and a suitable FFT analyser.

Having said that, if there was a noticeable kink / roll-off in the curve you'd probably notice it blatantly, so a phase test although obvious could possibly identify one channel or so out of phase.

Not sure what else to say, if you don't like the sound take it back whilst it's still under warranty.

Fum's advice is spot on. Listen to a recording you know really well and patch it through all the various inputs and see if any differ noticeably.

Justin
 
Yea,

Fum hit the nail on the head.

Also, if you can, just bypass the monitoring section entirely to see if it colours your signal in any way. We once had a desk go down near the end of a late night mix session, and we had no way of fixing it before morning. So I patched the monitor amps directly into the bantam patchbay bypassing the entire monitor and master section, probably missing out a mile of op-amps/caps/cabling and the difference was noticable!

So hook up a quick A/B box and send a signal straight from the source to the amp, and then from the source, through your monitor section, and to the monitor amp. Flick over from the two paths and listen carefully. Make sure that the volumes of the two paths are matched. And try with different source materials. Your ears will soon tell you what's correct. In an ideal world you'd hear "a piece of wire" and then "a piece of wire with gain"! (I love that expression :grin: )

Mark
 

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