[Al Acuff]

Back on topic, I pulled the trigger yesterday on an Avantone Mix Cube from an internet seller. It should be here in a few days and I'm looking forward to putting it to work in my studio as soon as it arrives.

Until I began reading Mike Senior's mixing book it just never occurred to me to add a low fi mono mix cube to my home studio. I have a feeling that the mono mix cube will either improve my mixes or speed up the mixing process or both.

By the way guys, as an audiophile I have always hated Genelecs, Auratones, NS-10s etc. all of which are recording industry standards. Recently I bought some modestly priced Genelec speakers to use for backup while my more expensive Focal Solo 6 Be monitors were out for repairs. I wound up keeping the M040 monitors and selling the Solo 6's.

I can't say I like the way my Genelecs sound but I do find they speed up the mix process for me. For desktop placement in my spare bedroom studio the Genelecs are the right tool for the job. They have eq switches to tailor the mid bass and low end for desk top use and that helps quite a bit.

The Focal monitors sound nicer than my Genelecs but when I had them on my mix desk their mid bass was tubby in a way that made mixing difficult. In a larger, better room and on real speaker stands I'd prolly stick with the Solo 6 monitors.

A while back I worked at Stereophile magazine and that was an education. I got to experience state of the art analogue and digital playback. It's the kind of equipment you see in mastering facilities but not in recording studios. It comes down to horses for courses. Nearfield monitors for mixing and hifi playback for mastering. I think the mix cube will be a useful addition to my home studio for mixing.

IMHO if you mix on Genelecs you need a hifi playback system too. I couldn't be happy with just Genelecs and horrortones. They are not fun to listen to compared with something like this.