Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Looking for studio speakers for music production

I got into producing music with ableton and now I need some good speakers (comparable to focal) to put on the table what should I be lookin for in the Axiom line.

Thanks

Aldo Nova has M2 and M3.

I have Alesis M1 Active Mk1s in my project studio, and M22s in my living room. Other than room acoustics, I get no surprises when moving between the two. I would guess that the M2s would be excellent in the near field, and plenty flat too.

When it comes to reference monitors isn't really isn't how good they are, it's how well you know them. So when you listen to a track produced by someone else, you can compare your own to make sure you're getting the same type of sound.

That said, I spend a lot of time working with headphones. Open back are great for bass response, but bad for monitoring with vocal recording (too much sound leaks, and will be picked up by the mic). Closed back are a bit weaker for use on the production side, but best for vocal monitoring. Having a limited budget I got a pair of semi-open Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pros. They are a compromise in both cases, but a pretty good one. The Pros are a bit hard to drive (they have an even higher impedance version too), but while they are quiet when plugged into the jack on my mobile, my audio interface drives them to any level I want.

With a good pair of reference headphones you can get the Focusrite VRM Box, that uses speaker and room modeling to give you the ability to preview your mix in a lot of different situations. That's one problem with headphones, the stereo field is greatly exaggerated, so you need to hit speakers sometimes (but if your near fields are very near, as mine are, the same problem exists there), the VRM Box helps judge that too. I drive my Box via the S/PDIF out on my audio interface, it still needs to be plugged in via USB, because the sound passes up the USB cable, the modeling is done in the computer, and then passed back to the box. There is a pretty large latency gain there, so it isn't useful for live recording, just playback.

What style of music are you planning on producing? (I'm into EDM.) Also what else have you picked up hardware and software wise?

If your just interested in the Axiom line there was some talk on here months ago about powered versions of their bookshelf line with built in Class-D amplifiers.

You should inquire about these through email or phone if they are still in the works. I think these might be worth the wait over their current passive line especially if there is going to be changes to the port location and crossover for near field listening applications.

That's a great article. Or, at least, it was until I read where Alan wrote: ("I never understood the reverence for Jimmy Hendrix's playing". Blasphemy! AND, he spelled Jimi's name wrong, too!

Double Blasphemy!

PS- I will never share a reference-level meal at a Swiss Chalet again with you, Alan!

Jimi said himself: He did not play guitar, he played amplifier.

I think Robb Hutzal was pretty happy using M3's, IIRC.

While I dj everything from pop to hip hop to house and trance and everything in between.. Im more into producing EDM - mainly dirty house... I'm just starting out though, so any tips you can give me would be great... I've always had these sick melodies in my head and when I'd "vocalize" them... All my friends and fellow dis would say "you need to create that"... Just never knew how or where to start... So I figure what the heck, why not try. I have a Yamaha midi keyboard but I'm not sure that's gonna last too long may have to go to the akai soon..

Also looking at the Midi fighter (more for dj'ing)

Thanks for all the tips guys. Definitely going to send an email and inquire about those speakers bluejays - thanks for that

Tips, let's see. I've only been at this for a little over a year myself, but some things I've learned in that time:

Work on something every day. I know this from taking time off. I find I get better and better at putting tracks together the more contiguous time I spend at at. But then something else will distract me, and I'll be away from it for a few weeks, and it's almost like starting over. Some advice I need to be better at taking myself. You're just starting out, you won't be making the hottest stuff anyone has ever heard, so don't worry about perfection. That's where I always bog down.

You mentioned "vocalizing" your ideas. I would do the same thing, and then I got the idea to actually record those ideas. I got a voice recorder app for my phone. So now, no matter where I am, when an idea hits me, I just beat box it into my phone. Then I later pull out the wave file, and import it as a base track, so actually build the real parts around.

EDM doesn't have a lot of complicated melodies, so a 3 or 4 octave keyboard is enough. But what you'll really want are lots of controls, knobs, sliders, pads, they'll all be very useful "playing" the progression of a track.

If you're going to be entering remix competitions, which I recommend you do, Melodyne is the software to have. I just discovered its power not long ago, and wish I hadn't shrugged it off as just another autotune program. True, it can tune and adjust vocals, but that's just where it starts. This software is insane. The last compo I was in, I gave up because I hated the condition of the stems provided by the original artist. Many of them had two or more instruments in them, and I only wanted to use one of the parts. I loaded such a track up into Melodyne and was able to actually remove one part completely and cleanly. I didn't know such technology existed. It can also turn an audio file into MIDI, crazy. They have 3 (or 4) different levels of the program, "editor" is where you want to end up, but buying in at a lower level doesn't mean losing any money. Actually, if you buy the lowest, then the middle, and then editor, you save $2 over buying the full version outright.

Don't worry too much about your audio interface, if you haven't picked one up yet, just something with ASIO drivers. You don't need an ultra high-end DAC, because you'll be distributing your output digitally. A good ADC will eventually be useful if you start recording vocals, but don't worry about it until then.

If you haven't read it, check out the Dance Music Manual, by Rick Snoman. So much good info in that book.


That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks for the great tips Chris. I looked into the melodyne.. Looks good. Will definitely pick that up soon.

As for the audio interface, what would you recommend?

I already downloaded the manual, I had seen it before but wasn't sure it was worth it... Guess I just needed someone to promote it. Will start reading it today.

My keyboard is a just a Yamaha psr295 Im not sure but the more I read the more I think I should maybe look for something else, although I do have a yorkville M8, a behringer eurorack ub1202fx, and my newest little toy, a eurodesk sl2442fx Pro, Problem is being a complete noob.. I have to figure what to use and how to hook it all up so I can finally start producing some music! maybe it would be easier to get a midi keyboard with sliders and knobs included?

Unfortunately the gear you have isn't really suited to "in the box" production. You want to to record every input on it's own track, so you can mix at a later stage. All those devices seem to take their multitude of inputs and combine them into a stereo pair. If you're mixing at the time of recording, that's permanent, and can't be adjusted. If you think you'll need 8 inputs (like for miking drums), then get an 8-input audio interface, that returns all 8 as channels to the DAW.

Think about it this way, the Eurodesk is huge, it has 24 channels, right? Well Ableton (or any other DAW) pretty much lets you have unlimited channels. So now that 24 seems pretty restrictive. All the mixing, EQing, filtering, etc. will be done in the DAW, so you don't need outboard gear for any of that.

How many analog inputs do you figure you'll be recording at one time? That'll help you pick the interface that suits you. If it's just doing to be you programming everything in the box, and sometimes recording vocals to go on top, all you need is two input channels. If you think you'll be recording live drums, then eight channels should cover most situations. If you end up needing more channels for some specific task, you can run a mixer before one of the inputs, but by combining those multiple inputs at that point in the signal chain, they'll be cooked together that way from then on (well, you might be able to pull them apart with Melodyne, if they're playing different notes ).

So what audio interface do I recommend? I spent a lot of time on this, and the manufacturer I really like is Focusrite. I mentioned their VRM Box (Virtual Reference Monitor), but their other stuff is great too. The cover just about any level of production you want. But most of their interfaces do require Firewire, so unless you have a port or want to add a card, you'd be limited in selection. There's the Saffire 6 USB that has two physical inputs and four out. Also the versatile Scarlett 18i6. Actually, if you'll need more than 2 inputs, but not 8 or more, this Scarlett is probably what I'd recommend.

If you like the idea of their VRM technology, there's the PRO 24 DSP, but it only has two physical inputs (and 8 outs, so you can send different DAW channels to different speakers, or use it to output surround sound). It does provide virtual channels (as do all of Focusrite's Firewire interfaces), so you can do internal routing/mixing.

I have the Saffire PRO 40, it does have 8 inputs (2 front, 6 back), plus 8 outputs, and tons of internal routing functions (I can easily record the audio playing in another program to my DAW), I can also expand the number of inputs/outputs with their OctoPre devices.

I'll make another post about the MIDI interface.

It's hard to find a good all-around MIDI controller. I'm still searching. I have the portable Akai Pros, and the Line 6 KB37. So far I'm learning what I hate, and will avoid in the future.

I don't like knobs that have start and end points, I guess that goes for sliders too, but especially knobs. I've seen some devices that have what they call "endless" knobs. Basically they have a ring of LEDs around them to indicate the position, but you can turn them as far as you want. What the problem is, I'll move from one synth to another. On the previous one I'll have a cut-off filter all the way open, but he one I'm moving to will have it closed, and I'll want to start opening it. If they are both on the same knob, as soon as I touch it, the second filter jumps all the way to that position. With an endless encoder, when I switch to the second synth, the LEDs around the knob will change to indicate it's current position.

Motorized sliders would be cool (for the same reason as above), but they're so rare to find, I won't make it a requirement. I'll more than likely have the sliders mapped to mixer channel levels, and they're global, don't change from device to device.

For some reason, Akai, pretty much the inventor of the drum pad, has always felt that they really need to be struck with a lot of force. My fingers hurt after just a little playing around on any Akai. So I want pads, but I want them to be a bit more sensitive.

Also I don't want the pitch bend and modulation to be on the same control. The joystick thing is bad, I always end up adjusting one when I'm only trying to do the other. Two separate, please.

I think I've finally found the MIDI controller that will suit me, the Novation Impulse 49, just need some space cash to pick one up.

Space cash!

Awesome typo; I'll leave it!

Ouf... This seems more complicated than I thought. Looks like I need to do more reading on the gear and what everything is used for. Dj'ing is one thing... Production is something else altogether!! Lol... Ugh! I just wanna start creating! The impulse looks nice though. So thanks for that. Off to google I go!

Yeah, with DJing or a band playing live, you want a mixer to gather all the things making sound in one place, and combine them to send to the speakers.

But as I was saying with multi-track recording you don't want the pieces combined until the final mix-down. That's actually the same as live, but then then mix-down is happening "right now", were as with a recording the final mix isn't done until later.

Even if you were to record a DJ set for later release, it would still be advantageous to record each deck and the effects on individual tracks, so you could make tweaks to levels and stuff. So if you took a computer with a multi-channel audio interface instead of a mixer, you could do the mixing live in the box.

long gone are the days of the Teac 8 track reel to reel!
it did a good job for semi-pros, but the noise level...

I remember them well - especially the noise

Chris do you have any of your material available on the web? Like SoundCloud or something like that? I'd love to listen to it. I always had a passing interest in this stuff but never the time to do much more than dabble with some lame PC software.

Nothing finished. That's my biggest problem. I come up with a great sound, or a few nice bars of something, but can't figure out where to go next, so then I make another great sound.

Here's something I did three weeks ago:
http://scuzzyeye.com/samples/building-2.mp3

And then last weekend (this one is not mastered, so it's kinda quiet, but crank it up on some big subs for a surprise):
http://scuzzyeye.com/samples/pulse-drums.mp3

This weekend I'm working on my house (not house music, just a house).

Has anyone heard anything about the studio monitors from axiom? I emailed., but never got a reply.

Thanks for sharing those Chris. They're pretty cool. Just keep at it and I'm sure you'll be able to piece it together into a completed project.

Chris, I do like those two samples. Please keep going with them, don't give up!

Definitely not giving up. I find what I like more is the mixing and mastering part of production (more technical than artistic, like most things I enjoy). But I don't know too many people who have multi-track recording that need finishing. So that's my drive, to get my projects to the point where I can do what I really like to do.

I do have a standing offer. If anyone has or knows a band that is has some tracks recorded, I'll mix and/or master them for free. If they don't like what they hear, the can throw the stuff out, and get someone else to do it. If they do like it, I just ask for a referral to other bands they know (who I'll also do for free, just trying to build a name). Quick turn around too, a week or less, from the day I receive the stems to do a full album.

Excellent offer.
Next Axiom gathering we need to put a band together. We know we have guitarists, banjo players, and drummers at our disposal. I bet there are others I am not thinking of or are out there in hiding. Mark can take our promo pics, Chris can produce, mix and master and Charles can do lyrics based on his dreams. Ummmmm, ya sure why not. Mary, you can be our hot lead singer. Every group needs one.

I wanna be the guy that dances on stage!

Heh. I played the two samples together (pretty much synchronized start) and found the resulting combo pretty interesting.

What do you know? They're both the same tempo and key.

Good job Chris, playing the first one I had some really great ideas to go with it... Keep at it

So nothing new on the monitors from axiom?

Hey, it's been awhile... just an update, I ran into a friend that has a home studio and he swears by Dynaudio Monitors so I'm going to take a look at them - as it is I picked up the novation 49 (thanks for the tip Chris).

it's too bad Axiom isn't into doing some monitors though... i guess they feel taking over the home studio spectrum too would just be greedy. lol

Btw, listened to your music again - I really like it! how's it come along? would love to hear more.

I LOVE my Dynaudio monitors. Feed them with an ancient Aardvark Q10 AE.
Also look at Adams.

Still plunking around with different ideas. Most of my time has been going into synthesizer design though. The music software that I use has opened their program to 3rd party plug-ins, and launched a store to sell them. So I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring. I'm hoping my first synth will be available by the end of the month.

Got some stuff about it here: http://scuzzyeye.com/code/MS-34/

Err...thanks, but I have no hot factor and no singing skills whatsoever!

Modesty is HOT.

This article, albeit older, might explain why Axiom hasn't pursued a self powered speaker.

http://www.axiomaudio.com/reference

A set of Axiom speakers and a 2ch. amp is all you need unless you absolutely must have a self powered design.