KRK Rokit 6

Studio monitors can be one of the most important pieces of gear in the recording studio. Your speakers are what you will reference everything you hear too, and make judgments on your mix based on what you hear. If you are using monitors that do not represent a flat Eq then you are hearing the sound altered by the speaker and not what it actually sounds like. 

I have had the opportunity to test and experiment with several different studio monitors including the KRK Rokit 6's. At a first listen they sound nice and full with a good presence at the low end. Listening to hip-hop and R&B they sounded great. When I switched to rock and more classical music, the KRK’s seemed to be coloring a large amount of the song. I soon discovered that the Rokits come built in with a frequency curve that is pre determined by the company. This may be good when trying to enjoy some music and just playing it back in your living room, but when mixing in a studio it is far from ideal.

I continued to listen to different genres to see how they would sound out of the KRK’s. It seemed pretty consistent that these speakers favored bass heavy songs. We then played the same songs out of some Yamaha HS80M studio monitors to compare, the difference was night and day. The Rokits lacked the high presence that is required from studio monitors and boosted to much lows which is a unnecessary when properly trying to mix music.

Overall I would say that these are great party speaker. If you are trying to listen to loud music on the couch these are the speakers for you. If you are in the studio trying to accurately mix your music, I would recommend staying away from the KRK’s and find something that represents the sound more accurately.

Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity

When capturing sound there are three main components in your signal chain. Your microphone, the pre amp to boost the microphone signal, and your recording device, weather it be a computer or a tape machine. Each part of the chain plays a vital role in how the real sound will translate into a captured medium. The pre amp is arguably the most important part of your signal when it comes to capturing clean precise sound. A quality microphone is preferred, but you can get a way with a lower end microphone and very high-end pre amp and still get quality sound.

The Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity is one of the best sounding pre amps I have had the pleasure to work with. It features both a solid state and tube amplifier that can be blended together for optimal sound. Like most pre amps it offers 48v phantom power, a pad, and a low cut filter. What separates it from the crowed is the warm and rich sound you can achieve when properly blending the solid state and the tube amplifiers together. 

I had the privilege of recording through a Neumann TLM 49 and converted my audio through RME ADI 8, probably one of the best sound chains you could possibly but together, but nether less adding the universal audio to the chain made a world of a difference. Instantly while recording the same artist, the vocals sounded big, bright and were filled with presence. It returned the traditional analog sound to a digital recording. When recording acoustic guitar it made the highs crisper and the mids and lows have more warmth and presence. Overall it’s not for every recording application, but when used for vocals or acoustic instruments the 710 Twin-Finity is in a league of its own.

I would recommend this pre amp for anyone looking to create professional recordings on a budget. It may have a larger price tag at medium of $800, but for the money spent there are very few pieces of equipment that can dramatically improve the overall timbre of your recordings.