Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Lost to the Void »

Críoch wrote:I have a less than ideal room.. a perfect box.. and the one thing that I believe the mopad style foam pads (from thomann) do for me is to make my desk less of a resonator. There's less rattling & buzzing etc.. at certain freqs.
That's the thing though John. They don't, go check the Ethan winner article I linked.
I'm not going in to why's but just read the article.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Plyphon »

I had this mirror wardrobe sliding door once that vibrated at low bass notes with a horrible metallic buzzing sound, can confirm foam pads fixed nothing.

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

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Well, that`s because the speakers are still moving the air, and the air is the thing that moves stuff and causes rumbles.
If the speaker boxes moved then they would be inefficient, as energy would be lost to the drivers moving the speaker box. That`s why monitors are generally pretty heavy, and internally braced.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Mslwte »

Lost to the Void wrote:Well, that`s because the speakers are still moving the air, and the air is the thing that moves stuff and causes rumbles.
If the speaker boxes moved then they would be inefficient, as energy would be lost to the drivers moving the speaker box. That`s why monitors are generally pretty heavy, and internally braced.
There goes my idea of suspending monitors with something like wire from the ceiling. i suppose that's why it isn't the norm.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Lost to the Void »

Mslwte wrote:
Lost to the Void wrote:Well, that`s because the speakers are still moving the air, and the air is the thing that moves stuff and causes rumbles.
If the speaker boxes moved then they would be inefficient, as energy would be lost to the drivers moving the speaker box. That`s why monitors are generally pretty heavy, and internally braced.
There goes my idea of suspending monitors with something like wire from the ceiling. i suppose that's why it isn't the norm.

Well it`s not the norm because it`s a pain to organise. But in fact, it removes any reflective surfaces away from the speakers. Even stands can cause comb filtering from reflections (which is why mastering speakers tend to be tower configuration or sofit mount).
So it`s not a bad idea if you can be assed to deal with the aggravation of doing it.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Mimui »

I totally agree with the fact that they are total bullshit when it comes to making a bad place (bedroom) sound ok 'ish.

It 's till the point that u can call something a real studio, that it 's all bullshit. Use headphones.

But when a room becomes perfectly isolated.
you know, like your textbook studio (verry warm rooms that are really cosy).

At that point, yeah man. I want that stuff.
Add in some sweet monitors and you 're gonna have a really good time producing bcus,
a well treated room.
It might not be essential. But it sure makes everything easy.
Wich at the end improves your final product.
Not to mention how you feel making music in an awesome place :D

It 's basicly a bit like.
vst can do everything.
But a good analog synth has knobs,
is recorded directly to audio.
And it 's already good to start with.

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Lost to the Void »

No. It's always bullshit.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by td3l »

Thanks for providing some empirical evidence.

I have some of the IsoAcoustics monitor stands--bought them as an after thought years ago because the concept seemed reasonable, and because my girlfriend at the time was complaining to me that stacking my monitors on books/towels looked tacky :lol: . I like them if only for the fact that they are sturdy and height-adjustable, so that I can get the tweeters level with my ears.

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Mattias »

td3l wrote:I like them if only for the fact that they are sturdy and height-adjustable, so that I can get the tweeters level with my ears.
Yeah, this is the most valid use of products like these. For any acoustic mojo their not from what we learned here.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

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I would invite you to make a track with my cheapo monitors and 3x4m room.
next to the bussiest point in a city.

A studio with isolation is better.

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Lost to the Void »

Go watch the video, examine the science, then smack yourself in the face with a placebo kipper.
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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by msl »

Pfft... Y'all is all a bunch of butt hurt haters cause you don't got the fucking real audio crystals like I do bitches.

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by tsaro »

Hah you haven't even insulated the crystals to prevent parallel resonance, common mistake though.

I wonder if it's possible to build a synth with crystal oscillators for that ultra pure sound, you'd probably need at least an inverse frequency divider.
how far do you want to go

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Lost to the Void »

None of it will work properly without one of these

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by delphine »

td3l wrote:my girlfriend at the time was complaining to me that stacking my monitors on books/towels looked tacky :lol:
She wasn't lying. :lol:

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Re: Monitors Isolation products are Bullshit

Post by Aureliano »

So where does decoupling stand in all this? Is it bullshit to try and decouple speakers?

I've had a issue for a while with my desk vibrating at a certain low frequency. At first I thought my desk needed more mass, so that the resonant frequency would be pushed into a lower and less audible band. I put some heavy concrete blocks under my monitors but my desk still honked at a certain freq. Then I thought that my monitors need to be decoupled from the desk, but having read that Ethan Winer article and other stuff on the net about monitor placement, I'm wondering if the desk is vibrating due to standing waves rather than any vibrations transmitted by the speaker.

It's clear that I need to experiment with my room and monitor placement; perhaps I'll solve the issue I'm having by doing that. Still, I'm curious about whether decoupling is still something to consider if, as Winer suggests, vibrations from speakers are minimal.

p.s I don't know enough about acoustics to claim anything, I could be getting the wrong end of the stick about everything


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