[muchachotron]

hello, i want to set up a surround mixing lair in my tiny studio room.

i will probably be getting either the m-audio firewire 410 or the motu 828 mkii as my interface, mixing on a powerbook 17" 1.33 ghz, most likely in dp4 for now. (suggestions for the interface?). i know at least the 410 is supposed to have software-controlled bass management, so it should properly route signals to respective amps.

for monitors, i really can't spend a whole lot (preferably around or under $1000, MUST be under $2000), but (of course) i want the best possible quality for a small budget. this is pretty much for learning and experimentation right now, i'm not getting paid for this, so i don't need anything really professional. however i do want to start out with quality gear w/ a good flat response so i get an accurate idea of how to mix surround properly. i want active monitors since i would prefer not to calibrate/shop around for an external amplifier. also, please keep in mind that my room is pretty small right now. my choice range probably would not be so narrow if more resellers offered monitors in singles, rather than pairs-only, since i need exactly 5 monitors and 1 sub. is it possible to buy monitors as singles if they are not advertised as such?

so far i'm looking at:
[monitors]
- krk v4 (these are $250 each, which is about as high as i can go for monitors, since i need 5 matched).
- event tr6, tr8
- m-audio lx4 w/ expander set (includes the sub - this is a dirt cheap system, but that makes me concerned about the flatness/overall quality... please direct me to any reviews you know of on this system, because if it's good enough for me i'd love to start out with this one).

[subs]
- krk s8
- samson resolv 120a
- event 20/20/s250

thanks, i appreciate anyone helping me out. i want to make some purchases pretty soon, i'm excited to start doing this sort of work.

[buddhabelly]

I saw this post on osxaudio.com as well.

Listen, if your looking for experimentation, then look at the Alesis 5.1 or the Logitech equivalent. If those aren't up to par, then look at the m-audios. In fact, if your room really is that tiny, those subs are so powerful, they are gonna be hell to match to any of those monitors.

I'd by the m-audio set for positioning and the event tr-5 or 6's for stereo monitoring. Right now, I do my main monitor on a pair of even ps-5s and do some experimenting with position with an under $100 logitech 5.1 setup. Gotta start somewhere, right?

[muchachotron]

hey, thanks for the advice, that sounds good. i am a little worried about the sub flooring at 40hz for the subs i mentioned, including the lx4, but it seems to be significantly more to get a studio sub that goes lower. do you use a sub for stereo? what about getting 5 of the tr-6's and the event or samson sub, or would that be hell to match, as you say? is that overkill for a small room? i suppose i could still do stereo mixing that way, and that would give me the same sound quality when i use it for surround.

what interface do you use, 828 or 410 perhaps? what will happen if the crossover is different in the software (say, in dp - i was told it was at 120hz) than the monitors (i think the m-audio lx4 set is 140hz)?

sorry for the rapid questions, i just like narrowing things down and appreciate people's responses.

- d

[buddhabelly]

Originally posted by muchachotron:
hey, thanks for the advice, that sounds good. i am a little worried about the sub flooring at 40hz for the subs i mentioned, including the lx4, but it seems to be significantly more to get a studio sub that goes lower. do you use a sub for stereo? what about getting 5 of the tr-6's and the event or samson sub, or would that be hell to match, as you say? is that overkill for a small room? i suppose i could still do stereo mixing that way, and that would give me the same sound quality when i use it for surround.

what interface do you use, 828 or 410 perhaps? what will happen if the crossover is different in the software (say, in dp - i was told it was at 120hz) than the monitors (i think the m-audio lx4 set is 140hz)?

sorry for the rapid questions, i just like narrowing things down and appreciate people's responses.

- d

I use an 828mkII with logic. For LFE I setup the channel in Logic and usually put an EQ on the channel to cutoff freqs over 80hz. Works for me. In the surround channel strip for the channel, I can adjust how much of the channel I want to send to the LFE.

I can't remember off hand, but I think my Event PS-5s bottom around 50hz or so. They start to fart at much lower.