How does this sound for a freelance Sound Editing set up?

I'm thinking of investing in some tech. I currently do my freelance work on a 13inch MBP haha.

I was thinking:

27inch iMac
Pair of KRK Rokit RP5 G2 Monitors and a RCA-3.5mm cable (to plug them into my mbox 2 mini)
G-Tech 750GB G-RAID Mini (as an audio drive keeping the actual Mac drive free of anything other than Apps and social stuff).

Obviously I'm missing a mixing desk (ideally I'd just want 4 faders as that's the most I would mix at any one time any way - but these are hard to find so might wait until I invest even more).

Does that sound decent to anyone?

It all comes to around £1660 (Hard drive £115, Monitors around £250).

paolo- said:

As TMRaven mentioned, room treatment is paramount. Then, I'd consider getting balanced cables from the mbox to the speakers. Lastly, I'd reconsider the raid drive. If you're only mixing 4 tracks at a time, I don't think you'll see the benefit from having a raid array. You don't need raid 0 performance and raid 1 is not a true backup IE if the filesystem corrupts, you accidentally remove something, a piece of software removes something without you wanting it (project consolidation sometimes screws up), you're still screwed. You might as well get a two external drives and have one as a true backup drive.

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Thanks for the tips. Since this is at home would there be any disadvantage (bear in mind my freelance work is mostly shorts) to buying a good pair of studio headphones instead of the two speakers? Would I hear things, that perhaps I'd miss in an untreated room on those monitors that I mentioned (as they are quite budget).

The G-Tech drive was just because it's reasonably affordable, 7200rpm and has a good bit of space to keep a sound library, and then Pro Tools sessions all on the one drive (in seperate folders).

zimv20 said:

you're only mixing, or are you sometimes recording something?

for shorts, i'd make sure you have a way to listen in mono, to ensure you're not doing anything wonky to the dialog. are you always mixing to stereo? ever mono, or ever 5.1?



imho, mixing on headphones is hard. so is mixing on speakers in an untreated room. either way, you'll have to learn your environment and check on different systems (ipod, home stereo, car stereo, boombox, etc).

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Always mix in stereo.

I keep dialogue tracks in mono. Sync and Spot FX along with Atmos are always in stereo though.

ChrisA said:

I like headphones. I use dthe AKG K240 nd yes, I do hear things I miss in the monitors. But when listening to the final result I like to hear it "in the air" with monitors. It sounds different and you will want to know what it sounds like over speakers. You don't have to spend a fortune to get the room "treated". Bookcases filled with books work well. Just don't have any blank walls and put a rug on the floor. You can get 80% there with stuff like that.

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Thanks for this - very good ideas. I always fear having just headphones to mix with as the sound never gets to naturally reverberate off walls so best to get a listen to the natural "in the air" sound as you say - while trying to avoid having too reflective of a mixing room.

Thanks for all the help

I'll wait until Apple update the 27inch iMac and then go ahead with the plans