Sorry, @huphtur I don't have any experience with small or portable monitors.
The only thing I can say on that is, watch out for Blue Tooth Audio - It comes with a grip of latency and is not good for producing, imho. It's not the same as Blue Tooth MIDI which is fine latency-wise I hear.
I got a portable Bose Soundlink Blue Tooth speaker just to have for listening to mp3's around the house, so I tried to plug my iPad into the AUX port with a cable and Blue Tooth turned off on both devices, and I STILL enough got latency that live AUv3 playing or finger drumming are out of the question. Latency even with a cable, direct AUX input... ??
If you do find something sweet, please share that info, Bro! Yeah 🤗😁👊
@huphtur said:
Mr. Dean, could you recommend some small and portable monitor speakers (is there such a thing)?
They are called headphones
But more seriously, if you explain a little more about your situation, and why you need them to be portable, that will help us give you better advice.
In general, there isn't anything much smaller than a pair of mains-powered near field monitors that will be able to give you accurate response across the whole Freq range. An even bigger problem you may have is controlling your environment, and placing the speakers where they'll perform best.
Why do you need them to be portable: are you travelling, or wanting to make music outdoors?
70hz is plenty for that size, expensive yes, the only portable hi grade speakers, yes.
Other than those is multimedia speakers and they all have extended bass due to their over powered subs, and because of the sub they are not very portable.
I really want the genelecs myself, i mix at such a low volume they are perfect for me, bass doesnt interest me until reference.
PS
I split this off because ithink its good enough to warrant its own thread, portable speakers are the holy grail.
Anything under a 5" driver will give you a total garbage freq. response. They're good for referencing what it'll sound like on small home systems, but I would never trust a mix on anything smaller. If your priority is portability, invest in good monitor headphones and then invest in a good set of 8" monitors for a home studio. If that's not an option, rent a local studio for mix-downs. Monitors are your most important tool as a mix engineer or even fledgling producer. Don't skimp on them.
I also mentioned if the priority is portability, then good quality headphones is the route to go. I still stand by anything under 5" is like setting your money on fire.
This is a need of mine as well. The thing is when you are balancing a number of needs you shoot for what can accommodate all of those needs. I am not interested in bluetooth, but I do want a chargeable battery. I have neutral high quality headphones, so I don't want monitors. What I want is heavy hitting ultra high quality speakers that are small, can be charged up and whatnot. Right now I have a JBL Charge 3 because of those needs. I was going to pick up another one so I could hard wire a stereo field; however the ultra loud welcome noise when you fire it up and shut it down really put me off. So now I am considering selling it and looking for something without that annoying sound. Or I may live with it and get that second one. My need theme is off grid hi fidelity, durable, waterproof, small. I would get something better than the JBL's if I knew it existed.
It would be a good idea to clarify what the monitor is for. If you are DJing, the monitor is a track mixing reference. If you are producing, the monitor is a neutral engneering medium. But it can get more complex. Why not use bass heavy speakers for producing, then tune things up on some "monitors" later so it sounds good on laptop speakers. That way you can get creative with bass, then when you play on a serious system you have complex lows. Instead of creating from a flat medium, you work in the optimum frame reference from the get go, then adjust for worse case scenario after.
@tk32 said:
I'm enjoying the healthy debate, but perhaps we should wait for @huphtur to give a better explanation of his requirements.
Guess I should have worded my needs better eh? Small speakers for my office just to listen to things I made on iPad. Portable as in: I can easily move the setup to a different location. No need for bluetooth, good with wires.
imho, if it is just for listening back to music and not making music, pretty much any small bluetooth speaker would suit your needs, and for this same need at home -- I use the Bose Soundlink blue tooth speaker and it sounds FANTASTIC for such a little speaker, and you can take it with you from room to room easily....
@DeanDaughters said:
imho, if it is just for listening back to music and not making music, pretty much any small bluetooth speaker would suit your needs, and for this same need at home -- I use the Bose Soundlink blue tooth speaker and it sounds FANTASTIC for such a little speaker, and you can take it with you from room to room easily....
I use a Bose SoundLink mini with an aux cable. Works great for music making. Strangely I have a Revolve+ that has terrible latency even through the aux cable.
After comparing various BT speakers that are not too big and under $200 (Creative, Anker, Vava, Bose), I've come to stick with the JBL Charge 2+.
I wanted speakers that have both BT and a line input, sound "enjoyable" (hey, I won't do any HQ mastering on the go anyway and have great bass even at low levels. In other words: Fun.
The Charge 3 has a more neutral, less bassy sound and is bigger, so I'm still happy with the 2+.
Two things. 1. Portable could be pocket sized or it could be luggage size. 2. Price. You could spend $100, you could spend $1000.
If you go with small and cheap, people will think your music is "neat." If you pick something up that is very high quality and produce with it, people may walk into your sound field and be astonished. This obsession with sound quality can get beautifully out of hand -- just beautifully.
@futureaztec said:
Two things. 1. Portable could be pocket sized or it could be luggage size. 2. Price. You could spend $100, you could spend $1000.
If you go with small and cheap, people will think your music is "neat." If you pick something up that is very high quality and produce with it, people may walk into your sound field and be astonished. This obsession with sound quality can get beautifully out of hand -- just beautifully.
This could not be more true. I've now been noodling on a small room surround system that uses more/smaller speakers rather than a traditional PA approach. But I keep bumping up against the price tag...
Big fan of your youtube channel. Here's a show idea: I have never been able to get Beatmaker 3 to run efficiently/smoothly/intuitively in scene mode. The idea is you hook up a bunch of instruments and soft synths, then be able to work in such a way that if there were a bunch of people around they would get right into the experience of someone making music from scratch. In order to pull this off you need to be able to stop/launch scenes quickly, but also flip between instruments while creating the scenes. It sounds straightforward, but when you actually try to do this a whole bunch of head scratching ensues, while the audience (who is already suspicious that electronic music is repetitive) looses interest in the looping.
Sounds like you might be talking about live looping?
Live looping isn't really my workflow, and BM3 has more than a few issues which keep me from using it more in this way, the biggest of which is that it often does not record the downbeat note when finger drumming.
The lack of any sort of global midi system also makes it harder to use in this way imho.
I really need my macros (knobs) to to the same thing at all times, no matter what bank is selected...
@DeanDaughters said:
Sounds like you might be talking about live looping?
Live looping isn't really my workflow, and BM3 has more than a few issues which keep me from using it more in this way, the biggest of which is that it often does not record the downbeat note when finger drumming.
The lack of any sort of global midi system also makes it harder to use in this way imho.
I really need my macros (knobs) to to the same thing at all times, no matter what bank is selected...
I wish I knew what magic thing to say next so someone with the keys to the code would perceive these limitations as ridiculous and in need of immediate attention.
Break out your gear in front of friends and loved ones, then delve into the various aspects of music right before their eyes. "Is she DJing?" "No, she's producing!"
Comments
Mr. Dean, could you recommend some small and portable monitor speakers (is there such a thing)?
Sorry, @huphtur I don't have any experience with small or portable monitors.
The only thing I can say on that is, watch out for Blue Tooth Audio - It comes with a grip of latency and is not good for producing, imho. It's not the same as Blue Tooth MIDI which is fine latency-wise I hear.
I got a portable Bose Soundlink Blue Tooth speaker just to have for listening to mp3's around the house, so I tried to plug my iPad into the AUX port with a cable and Blue Tooth turned off on both devices, and I STILL enough got latency that live AUv3 playing or finger drumming are out of the question. Latency even with a cable, direct AUX input... ??
If you do find something sweet, please share that info, Bro! Yeah 🤗😁👊
They are called headphones
But more seriously, if you explain a little more about your situation, and why you need them to be portable, that will help us give you better advice.
In general, there isn't anything much smaller than a pair of mains-powered near field monitors that will be able to give you accurate response across the whole Freq range. An even bigger problem you may have is controlling your environment, and placing the speakers where they'll perform best.
Why do you need them to be portable: are you travelling, or wanting to make music outdoors?
Genelec do the best portable speakers around, thwy are tiny and sound amazing, i think its the 8010a
The Genelecs are nice - but for over £200 each also be aware they only go down to 70Hz
70hz is plenty for that size, expensive yes, the only portable hi grade speakers, yes.
Other than those is multimedia speakers and they all have extended bass due to their over powered subs, and because of the sub they are not very portable.
I really want the genelecs myself, i mix at such a low volume they are perfect for me, bass doesnt interest me until reference.
PS
I split this off because ithink its good enough to warrant its own thread, portable speakers are the holy grail.
Anything under a 5" driver will give you a total garbage freq. response. They're good for referencing what it'll sound like on small home systems, but I would never trust a mix on anything smaller. If your priority is portability, invest in good monitor headphones and then invest in a good set of 8" monitors for a home studio. If that's not an option, rent a local studio for mix-downs. Monitors are your most important tool as a mix engineer or even fledgling producer. Don't skimp on them.
Sorry but 8" in a small room is totally ridiculous and will cause more issues than advantages, and is far far from portable, did you ignore the OP ?
I also mentioned if the priority is portability, then good quality headphones is the route to go. I still stand by anything under 5" is like setting your money on fire.
And i still say that is nonsense
Mix down a track on 3" monitors and then take it to a proper studio. Be my guest. Your low end will be rubbish.
I'm enjoying the healthy debate, but perhaps we should wait for @huphtur to give a better explanation of his requirements.
This is a need of mine as well. The thing is when you are balancing a number of needs you shoot for what can accommodate all of those needs. I am not interested in bluetooth, but I do want a chargeable battery. I have neutral high quality headphones, so I don't want monitors. What I want is heavy hitting ultra high quality speakers that are small, can be charged up and whatnot. Right now I have a JBL Charge 3 because of those needs. I was going to pick up another one so I could hard wire a stereo field; however the ultra loud welcome noise when you fire it up and shut it down really put me off. So now I am considering selling it and looking for something without that annoying sound. Or I may live with it and get that second one. My need theme is off grid hi fidelity, durable, waterproof, small. I would get something better than the JBL's if I knew it existed.
It would be a good idea to clarify what the monitor is for. If you are DJing, the monitor is a track mixing reference. If you are producing, the monitor is a neutral engneering medium. But it can get more complex. Why not use bass heavy speakers for producing, then tune things up on some "monitors" later so it sounds good on laptop speakers. That way you can get creative with bass, then when you play on a serious system you have complex lows. Instead of creating from a flat medium, you work in the optimum frame reference from the get go, then adjust for worse case scenario after.
Make sense?
Gearslutz much ? Haha
Guess I should have worded my needs better eh? Small speakers for my office just to listen to things I made on iPad. Portable as in: I can easily move the setup to a different location. No need for bluetooth, good with wires.
imho, if it is just for listening back to music and not making music, pretty much any small bluetooth speaker would suit your needs, and for this same need at home -- I use the Bose Soundlink blue tooth speaker and it sounds FANTASTIC for such a little speaker, and you can take it with you from room to room easily....
What if I wanted some to make music?
If you want something for making music, then no blue tooth - definitely something tethered with a cable, and NOT the Bose Soundlink.
I use a Bose SoundLink mini with an aux cable. Works great for music making. Strangely I have a Revolve+ that has terrible latency even through the aux cable.
After comparing various BT speakers that are not too big and under $200 (Creative, Anker, Vava, Bose), I've come to stick with the JBL Charge 2+.
and have great bass even at low levels. In other words: Fun.
I wanted speakers that have both BT and a line input, sound "enjoyable" (hey, I won't do any HQ mastering on the go anyway
The Charge 3 has a more neutral, less bassy sound and is bigger, so I'm still happy with the 2+.
Two things. 1. Portable could be pocket sized or it could be luggage size. 2. Price. You could spend $100, you could spend $1000.
If you go with small and cheap, people will think your music is "neat." If you pick something up that is very high quality and produce with it, people may walk into your sound field and be astonished. This obsession with sound quality can get beautifully out of hand -- just beautifully.
This could not be more true. I've now been noodling on a small room surround system that uses more/smaller speakers rather than a traditional PA approach. But I keep bumping up against the price tag...
I love this! 🤗
This is where my obsession with sound quality has led me... 😁🤓👊
Big fan of your youtube channel. Here's a show idea: I have never been able to get Beatmaker 3 to run efficiently/smoothly/intuitively in scene mode. The idea is you hook up a bunch of instruments and soft synths, then be able to work in such a way that if there were a bunch of people around they would get right into the experience of someone making music from scratch. In order to pull this off you need to be able to stop/launch scenes quickly, but also flip between instruments while creating the scenes. It sounds straightforward, but when you actually try to do this a whole bunch of head scratching ensues, while the audience (who is already suspicious that electronic music is repetitive) looses interest in the looping.
Sounds like you might be talking about live looping?
Live looping isn't really my workflow, and BM3 has more than a few issues which keep me from using it more in this way, the biggest of which is that it often does not record the downbeat note when finger drumming.
The lack of any sort of global midi system also makes it harder to use in this way imho.
I really need my macros (knobs) to to the same thing at all times, no matter what bank is selected...
I wish I knew what magic thing to say next so someone with the keys to the code would perceive these limitations as ridiculous and in need of immediate attention.
Break out your gear in front of friends and loved ones, then delve into the various aspects of music right before their eyes. "Is she DJing?" "No, she's producing!"
100% this! ☝️
@DeanDaughters your room looks serious! We need photo upon conclusion.
Sorry to go so OT, Guys - but sound quality is my passion. Here’s the result. Proper Desk for the front of the room coming soon! 😁🤓👊
Too much Bokeh aaaaaaaaah lol