After excepting the job to design sound, to mix the score, and to prepare the final stem for a film. I knew I have to choose the right monitors to keep me closest to the truth and as consistence as possible. I have to design the sound fx's and Foley at one studio, work and mix the music with Victor, the composer, at his studio, receiving the ADR from another, and finally mix the final stem at my studio. I knew this will be challenge due to the fact that I have to keep all the audio in consistence for this film at the final stage. What worse is that the director is short on time, he just told me that I am going to also handle mastering the final stem for the theater, DVD,...and yes 'third world' television speakers.
Yes it is a challenge but it would not be fun not to try to keep up with the deadline. I knew I can do all this but in one studio? My issue was the monitors. I had always love the Adam SA3's I in my studio for mixing music, but for the mastering part. I don't want to run to B&W Nautilus setup back and forth from my studio, it will take too much time and energy. So I call my buddy Scott for help. He told me what I'd already suspected, "...Duy, why don't you go Barefoot?"
Scott assure me that going with the Barefoot M27 will get me thru the recording, mixing, and mastering process for this film. With some pull, Scott manage to talked Vintage King Audio to lend me a pair to try out for 2 weeks but I have to wait almost 2 months for my turn.
The first thing I did was to 'pre-master' a new track for Sean Kenner Trio which I was mixing for. One of the thing I do after the first few passes of mastering is to burn into a CD then I would take it to my car and listen to it for a week while driving around. To my surprise, the mastering came out so dam close to what I am hearing in my studio. I sent Sean the CD and he played it on his system and gave me a thumb up. Dam! I knew all this mean is it will get expensive on me.
I called up Vintage King to see if I can order a pair of Barefoot to handle this film. The answer came back, "get in line dude!", pre-paid (at $6700.00) for the pairs, and the minimum wait for the monitors is 5 months....So I handed over the credit card, what a sucker.
Mind you, this all happen last October and I had been sleeping with my Barefoot for awhile now. So my baby is being ask to get me thru this film and so far...f*ck'n awsome.
The dam thing come with its own sub mounted side wayhere the spec, read them and weep:
| Description | 3-way active monitor with integral subs |
| Controls | Input level attenuator, amplifier mutes, 115V/230V AC power select |
| Frequency Response | 38 Hz - 20 kHz (+/- 1.5 dB) |
| Bass Response | -3 dB @ 33 Hz Q = 0.707 Slope: 12 dB/octave |
| Cabinet | 32 liters total internal volume, Sealed sub enclosure, Individual sealed midbass enclosures, Machined aluminum baffle plate |
| Crossover Frequencies | 110/2500 Hz |
| Tweeter | 1" soft dome, Magnetic shielding, Rear waveguide chamber Power: 60 W |
| Dual Midbasses | 5" poly cones, Magnetic shielding, Rear waveguide chambers Power: 250 W |
| Dual Subwoofers | 10" aluminum cones, Magnetic shielding Power: 500 W |
| Weight | 71 lbs each (32 kg) |
| Dimensions HxWxD | 20.5 x 9.5 x 15.25 inches (521 x 241 x 387 mm) |
Although Barefoot claim that it still be flat around 25hz, I put the pair thru its pace with SIM3 (www.meyersound.com/products/sim/sim3/) and found even at 20hz only +/- 0.7dB flux. Now that impressive. Mixing the lo-end with this pair was an ease for me, different than the Adam, I don't have to calibrate for the sub, it has its own sub. The cross over point for the Barefoot is at 110hz for lo/mid and 2.5khz for mid/hi.
My lo-end issues are now no issue!
I am still not selling my Adam!
Tran Duy
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