Good to see your progress MeDorian.
Depending on what we're trying to accomplish, it certainly helps to recognise things such as our own preconceptions about what we're 'supposed to do'.
Sometimes things outside the norm will work best for us and often, it takes looking at what 'the norms are' to discover something we think might help our own experience.
In these threads, plenty of people intermix ideas about:
a) piano-in-a-room, in the same way they may simultaneously speak of
b) 'recorded stereo piano' (like on an album)..
2 very different outcomes for the most part.
Without a super-long essay (just typing as I think - so hopefully it doesn't read back as having too much energy put in.. just ideas), I'm just going to post a list of reasons for Why I recommend 8inch monitors - mostly this relates to case 'b' above (recognising others are going to just fine with different speaker types). Just trying to take my own subjectivity out for a spin in this case.. it's not about re-creating a living piano in my space - or saying that's the goal.. it's about helping others who are embarking on a path towards recording and mixing their output for others to listen to on their wide ranges of devices. In a good studio, I still consider 8inch array as "the workhorse".. hopefully the reasons make sense below.
With 8inch monitors (Yamaha HS8 my pref.)
1
I can hear/feel enough bass (I just can't with lower sizes)
2
relating to that, there's less necessity to check mixes against other smaller and larger speakers, as I find from experience, 8inches = a great work-horse size.. what I mix on these I can have firm confidence in the output. I am at sea with smaller speakers, as well as just larger ones.. 8 really is the best for me, to get things right from the bottom to the top (only need to check on large speakers last - instead of piecemeal changing up and down the speaker size all the time - more productive in terms of "reference" therefore, if that's something of concern). You don't mix all day on the large speakers (although many will - I have experienced the down sides to that too - just be sure it's mentioned.. 8inch monitors is not just about being 'better' than smaller speakers, nor 'better' than large - just more efficient, more fully aware of the mix in ways which other sizes are not in my experience). One example: A studio I worked at I think early 80s had only tiny plus huge monitors.. I've seen the same mistake more than a few times.. all their work had midrange holes.. no labels or serious artists booked time.. they went to different studios.. it was YEARS too long before I realised why.. and 8inch monitors = though not a silver bullet, they are a great size for main workflow to take place.
3
less ear fatigue. This matters too, if you're main goal is mixing your recordings of Pianoteq. It's nice to hear everything on great large speakers but, even in a top tier studio setting, I like to hear things mostly on 8s. You can stay aware of all elements of the sound without being overwhelmed at all times with lavish bass and air (8s give this detail but subtly and in a way that you can hear/understand what/which you are pushing or limiting etc.. it's something which cannot be done as "quickly/easily/reliably" on other sizes IMO) - more than if you just used large monitors. I enjoy switching to the bigs for the Champagne experience in short bursts.. it's motivating and keeps the ears in a groove.. everyone is different for sure but I think this is 'sane' for esp. new audio mixers to suss out.
An example: my first engagement with a near top tier studio many decades back and some other lesser follow up studios, were hampered by a lack of mid sized speakers. Strangely their mixes had outrageous holes in the midrange - and likely because they did all mixing and monitoring, from start to finish, on super large speakers only checking momentarily on old transistor radio type speakers, from time to time, to hear what things might sound like on very small systems (yeah, mono AM radio was big back then, when we still wore onions on our belts and all that memery) .. and esp. these days, home stereos are mid to small compared - so these days even a better reason for 8s IMO). In a modern studio today, I think that describes something entirely cowboy and you'd likely find a bunch of different sized monitoring arrays to be able to check with at a switch.. but 8inch would still be my 90% of the time work-horse. In a way I'm happier doing most of this at home on 8s now. A full studio kit is still a whole hell of a thing to run.. compared to a PC and a small spend on our studio environment (competitive too - I'd hate to be on the hook like some of my friends for hundreds of thou just for a big studio 'brand' to sell clients.. but I'm not competing for those). Just to show that even outside a nice studio, I'll pick 8s.
4
from my experience, mixing things nicely in mids to upper (an area which can make or break a nice mix - as problematic as "mud" in most home demo stuff) is easier to just hear once and finally set on 8s.. again, on 5s or 3s or huge speakers, this can be entirely missing data.. just a personal perspective - not sure of what data is available out there but to me, the 8s allow me to hear a full picture and what I mix seems more often right (without fuss) on other systems with much less 'effort'. Think of a photographer, framing a photo on their fav camera.. they 'imagineer' the final framed item perhaps.. it's almost that blocked in for me with 8inch monitors.. I can sense "this is it" or not in a snap.
5
they allow JUST enough immersion, or what I think of relating to suspension of disbelief. (helpful for those "also" liking at least some of case 'a' above) I never hope to suggest 8inch monitors do this best.. of course, we can fill a stadium with audio, and a good front of house system can emulate a thousand pianos (in terms of volume).. but in our own space, we need to consider..
"What is my goal?" as much as "What is my budget?".
6
flat response, which includes most frequencies others will hear. Probably more essays required on this - but researchable online of course for anyone wanting the skinny.. why would a studio want flat response monitoring?
On the other hand, if wanting a sweet fat, full sound, and not concerned with mixing for others, it's probably better budget material to go with some large used stereo equipment with a nice valve amp or just through a nice old stereo set if not interested in tinkering - or a couple of larger speakers with and external audio unit).
For the most part, I'm speaking of home studio setup with most typical things from what we can accomplish with our PC/Pianoteq.
If no budget limits - either a full piano body with transducers - or some FOH (sorry, front of house like P.A. systems in a venue, from small to stadium) system with horns could be appropriate - but of course most users I think will be wanting to record at home and enjoy playing piano in their rooms.
Again, thus my 8inch recommendation - to me, this cuts the mustard here in both scenarios with no more to spend - and the ability to operate smoothly in both worlds - 2 birds with the one stone etc. I'd feel wrong to give people hope in searching for some magic 3inch speaker with hyped tech "bass boost extreme" with "side port" etc.. that is a mix of old and new tech perhaps, but have seen it all before and gave it up in the 80s - seriously nothing has made my ears happy since then, other than when I am sat before a pair of 8s (at least in terms of mixing for long periods or what I'd like at home for a studio in one size).
After so many decades kicking tyres in the audio space, I WISH someone would have given me this info in the 70s.. I did seem to have to work with a lot of horrible setups first, for this to make so much sense though.. so maybe we do all need to clunk around with our own ideas before such a simple thing as 8inch monitoring format finally makes sense to us.. or maybe I'm still subjective and projecting my own goals onto others.. but what else is a forum for, hoping these ideas can save others substantial time and money may mean more and better recordings into the world of music is my only goal here, not self promotion or selling some service.. just relating what I've found to be pretty darn solid over a long enough time-line to seem valid for others - the rest as they say, is up to us - and maybe your experiences will tally differently to mine (there are fewer and yet more rules as the world changes - but I still think 8inch platform is bees knees for the foreseeable
I could likely go on - but in most ways, the 8inch framework is more about being an appropriate budget home studio work horse, than being a piano-in-the-room.. but with smaller sizes, I can't enjoy any of these benefits listed..
Hope that's of further help to readers considering all these things.. it's really easy for me to say "I recommend this" without context - and I feel that maybe I've failed to add context to my recommendation of 8inch near-fields in the past. I guess I felt the need to establish that - not wanting to seem just to blurt out "8inch is best" without some basis to it. And I'm not arguing against anything counter BTW - and maybe I'm a minority in my love of the format for recording/mixing (headphones taking up only 5% for that - but I love those for just listening for enjoyment - to point out another difference which may not be peculiar to others).
None of this post about speakers gets into issues around room acoustics, or which sample rates etc. and how various other things in the chain which we use can make a difference (and if our DAC is killing our detail in various ways etc.)
In some sense, someone at home with Pianoteq and a PC has some choices ahead.. and if the goal is recording, then do consider 8inch near-field monitors as I do believe my own hype above.. but also, look at your room acoustics and you'll certainly have research to do at least online.. and you'll want to try various things to liven or dampen things with baffles or foam or egg cartons or etc.. again though, each to their own.. and sometimes, just a nice pair of near-fields is enough because:
Another nice thing about 8inch near-fields is that you can become rationally accustomed to them fairly close up to our ears (feeling that whole stereo environment fairly closely when working - and sit back further when listening for enjoyment), so as to lessen the problems of your own acoustic space esp. when working.. bada bing, bada boom. I can't experience that same equiv scenario with 5 or 3, therefore cannot recommend that size.
Also, BTW - all this is primarily in terms of 'improving our audio output' (so readers new to 'recording our own music' could be in for some learning curves beyond what speakers might be good to try) - BUT if we stick with Pianoteq defaults, probably not so much of this matters.. again, also just noting (in case skipped up top) I'm talking primarily about reliably outputting our audio with the 'b' case scenario in mind..
Anyone in the 'a' case scenario could find way more room to move in terms of speaker types, arrangement and so on. (not mentioning that transducers in a piano body probably wins this case for now).
And like others say, definitely enjoy reading everyone's ideas and concepts - and agree with others who have said it, what a fabulous community this is.
Best of luck y'all!
Pianoteq Studio Bundle (Pro plus all instruments) - Kawai MP11 digital piano - Yamaha HS8 monitors