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-- Review: Focal Twin 6 Studio Monitors
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knowing focal jmlab hifi from before im surpriced they doesnt cost more.

Just bought me a lightly used pair @ $2,200. Should get here in about a week.... going to pair them with an Apogee Mini-DAC. Upgrading from HR824s as well.

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Originally posted by alanzo Just bought me a lightly used pair @ $2,200. Should get here in about a week.... going to pair them with an Apogee Mini-DAC. Upgrading from HR824s as well.

Hopefully you'll love them as much as I do. Let us know how you like them once you get them.

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Originally posted by alanzo Just bought me a lightly used pair @ $2,200. Should get here in about a week.... going to pair them with an Apogee Mini-DAC. Upgrading from HR824s as well.

didnt u just recently get the mackies? ur upgrading pretty fast man

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Originally posted by palm didnt u just recently get the mackies? ur upgrading pretty fast man

I don't blame him. I just sold my HR824s on Craigslist and was only able to get $550 for the pair but they just never worked right for me personally. I'm excited to be moving on to something better.

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Originally posted by palm didnt u just recently get the mackies? ur upgrading pretty fast man

Personally, I don't blame him one bit. I bought into the hype and saw the Mackies in a lot of producers studios, but as soon as I got them, I was looking for something better. They might work for some people, but they just did not work for me. I see two camps with the Mackies, those who love them, and those who can;t understand why people like them. I guess some of us fell into the latter camp.

I got the HR824s a year ago and did about 3 tracks on them. Overall, I can understand why people like them. The imaging is pretty damn good and they sound very "musical" and "commercial". Like a good pair of audiophile speakers. But I simply had a hard time picking out detail in the mids with them. Transfers to other systems went well. But I sold them today for $200 less than I paid (including all selling / shipping fees).

After seeing the deal for the Focals ($1,000 off retail) I figured, why the hell not just skip a step and get monitors of this quality earlier than I was planning. I highly doubt I'll ever get anything that is higher quality and HOPE I never feel the need to get a different pair of monitors of equal or lower quality as a 2nd reference.

Within my reasonable financial and physical space limitations, I'm never going to get a pair of monitors that are higher quality. And that's a good feeling and I'm very confident it will lead to some very good music.

3 of us right in a row getting rid of the HR824s. Makes me a feel a lot better actually because I felt maybe something was wrong with me because they are hyped up so much.

It seems like the focals, although in a different price bracket, are becoming the new industry standard.....

Alanzo - I thought I saw another forum that you had already bought a miniDAC and were really not happy with the lack of improvement over your existing interface and sent it straight back?

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Originally posted by DJ RANN Alanzo - I thought I saw another forum that you had already bought a miniDAC and were really not happy with the lack of improvement over your existing interface and sent it straight back?

Right. On AudioPioneers and Anjunabeats. I did return the Mini-DAC, but I'm getting another one. Three reasons:

1. On $3,200 monitors, it's definitely a good idea to use a high-quality DAC.

2. I would have to put an unbalanced signal into the Focals from my Audiophile.

3. There definitely is a difference, I heard it even on the HR824s. I'm sure it's even more audible on the Twin6s.

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Originally posted by alanzo Right. On AudioPioneers and Anjunabeats. I did return the Mini-DAC, but I'm getting another one. Three reasons: 1. On $3,200 monitors, it's definitely a good idea to use a high-quality DAC. 2. I would have to put an unbalanced signal into the Focals from my Audiophile. 3. There definitely is a difference, I heard it even on the HR824s. I'm sure it's even more audible on the Twin6s.

Oh.....that's it - I didn't realize you had a 2496 as your soundcard, and yes the will be world of difference on the focals between the miniDAC and the 2496.

Congrats by the way.....now where do I get a couple of grand from...

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Originally posted by alanzo Like a good pair of audiophile speakers. But I simply had a hard time picking out detail in the mids with them.

This is one of the number one reasons I got rid of them, among others.

One thing when doing the upgrade, be careful you don't end up putting too much bass in your mixes on the focals. I was so used to the mids scooped and hyped bass in the HR824's, that when I did my first few mixes on the Focals, I kept trying to push the bass up too high. Listen to a LOT of reference tracks when doing your first few mixdowns, so you can get used to how bass is supposed to sound on these monitors.

I think you'll be impressed by how tonally balanced and detailed well mixed tracks are going to sound on the Focals. I spent a good deal of time just LISTENING to music on them when I first got them, so you may want to do the same thing, especially with music you know really well.

Damn it! Now I want new monitors. Fucking gear acquisition syndrome.

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Originally posted by Zild Damn it! Now I want new monitors. Fucking gear acquisition syndrome.

Get used to it because it never ends. I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use as a gear "wishlist", and keep track of the items and cost of everything I want to get sometime in the future. Last time I checked I think my total was up to about $20,000.

haha i was starting to become a gearjunkie bought alot of shit, but suddenly i got enough and sold everything again, starting all over. but i gotta watch out not getting bitten again. what id like sometime next year is a better soundcard and monitors but i dont know what to get and maybe some sort of apple mac.

I just want something better than entry level monitors/soundcard, one drum machine, one mono synth, and I have the rest. I say that now, but once I have that I know I'll 'need' something else. I'm just tired of mixing and producing in the box. I'm used to playing instruments live not programming them, so I find software very uninspiring. And with so many options (vst, softsynths, samplers) I have a hard time committing to a certain sound because I keep tweaking trying to make it better or moving from one instrument to the next. I work better if I'm limited to just a few instruments.

There's an interesting theory in group management which basically states that after you have a certain amount of people working on a single problem, the more you add, the longer it will take them to solve the problem.

The same goes with studio gear, I feel. Once you hit a certain point, you're spending more time working with and lusting over gear than you are on the music. This is why I refuse to get any new gear without first selling something I already have. In this case, I sold the HR824s to make way for the Twin6s.

In addition, I refuse to get any hardware FX/processors as it would add way too much complication... and because VSTs sound great these days.

Yes the old saying about too many cooks. I think it applies here.

^ Agreed with both you guys.

I have dozens of soft synths and loads of samples, and I'm always tweaking them so I find it hard to "commit" to something I've made. I get bored with one synth or effect, so I start playing with another instead of working on the sounds I've already made on the first.

I bet that if I had just one hardware synth, a sampler, and a few effects units I would have made many more tracks than I have.

I don't necessarily think its a bad thing to have lots of gear, I think where a lot of people fail is buying more stuff before getting to know the stuff they already have. I know I have been guilty of that in the past.

At that point it them becomes a vicious circle, because you already have gear that you KNOW you need to spend time learning, and then you go and compound the problem by buying MORE gear that you need to learn. At some point, you have to start making some music with all of it otherwise what is the point?

However, I still subscribe to the theory that it doesn't really matter what you have. Talent is talent, and the best producers do a whole lot with very little. At the end of the day, it's still all about the song and not about the gear.

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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles ^ Agreed with both you guys. I have dozens of soft synths and loads of samples, and I'm always tweaking them so I find it hard to "commit" to something I've made. I get bored with one synth or effect, so I start playing with another instead of working on the sounds I've already made on the first. I bet that if I had just one hardware synth, a sampler, and a few effects units I would have made many more tracks than I have.

Hm... I feel like it would enhance productivity but hinder creativity.

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Originally posted by pwnage1 Hm... I feel like it would enhance productivity but hinder creativity.

Maybe for some people, but I find that I get most creative when I concentrate on working with just one synth. It forces me to push the equipment to its limits instead of just switching synths when I get bored or frustrated.

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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Maybe for some people, but I find that I get most creative when I concentrate on working with just one synth. It forces me to push the equipment to its limits instead of just switching synths when I get bored or frustrated.

That's a good approach for a lot of people. I think that its actually a better approach for people still in the beginner or intermediate phase. It forces people to not only learn their equipment, but concentrate on other important aspects of producing, such as arrangement and composition. Sometimes I think that one can get too obsessed with gear collection and tech stuff, that they forget one of the most important parts of being a good producer: composition and arrangement.

I'm just now getting to the point where I think I could benefit from some outboard hardware. When I had a bunch of it, I never used it. However, after working in mostly software for a little bit, I'm starting to get to a point where I know what software works best for what. I wasn't up until now that I was able to find a way to incorporate outboard hardware into my work flow and still be comfortable.

Now I'm starting to incorporate more and more from my only 2 outboard synths, a Triton and a JV-1080. They mostly get used for pads and "bread and butter" sounds (pianos, etc.), but I find that working with audio forces you to commit to parts really quickly and that can be a good thing.

Coming from a background of playing drums and guitar. If you can't be creative on a trap set as a drummer or on an acoustic guitar as a guitarist then you just suck. It doesn't have anything to do with being limited to one instrument with a limited range of sounds. I would much rather work hands on with one analog synth than a whole slew of soft synths as I find it more inspiring and therefore I can be more creative. But then again I like to play my instruments not program them.

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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles ^ Agreed with both you guys. I have dozens of soft synths and loads of samples, and I'm always tweaking them so I find it hard to "commit" to something I've made. I get bored with one synth or effect, so I start playing with another instead of working on the sounds I've already made on the first. I bet that if I had just one hardware synth, a sampler, and a few effects units I would have made many more tracks than I have.

completely

that is why i'm dropping all this software bullshit and investing back into some hands-on gear, i'm just so sick of using a mouse. same goes with dj'ing, i'm dropping ableton for general mixing and going back to turntables and cd's. maybe the mixing isn't going to be perfect but at least i know i'll have much more fun playing music than i would by pressing buttons and staring at the computer all day

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