Subject:dual monitors or widescreen monitor?

Posted by: toochill

Date:6/27/2006 6:51:34 AM

i'm looking to upgrade my monitor and wanted some suggestions on what size to get. i'm looking at getting a 17" or 19" widescreen or maybe two 17" monitors. what do you guys use to help you create music easier? thanks

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: JohnnyRoy

Date:6/27/2006 7:44:34 AM

I use two 17” LCD’s and I like it a lot. I keep the tracks on one display and all of the VSTi’s, FX dialogs, etc. on the other.

~jr

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: ATP

Date:6/27/2006 10:05:09 AM

whether you're getting 17" or 19", i can recommend getting a pair. 2 monitors just make the workflow in ACID (and many other applications) so much better. it's really worth the investment if you're doing more than just toying around with your music software.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: jumbuk

Date:6/27/2006 4:30:13 PM

Check the maximum resolution before you buy. I went for a 20 inch Benq wide screen. Most of the 19 inch monitors I checked out were no higher resolution than the 17 inch ones - they were just bigger. They were all 1280 by 1024. The wide screen is 1680 by 1050. That extra width is great for apps like acid that use up a lot of space in the track headers (where all the faders etc are kept).

I didn't go for dual monitors, but I guess that is another option.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: toochill

Date:6/30/2006 7:40:53 AM

would a 19" widescreen do the trick?

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: Douglas Clark

Date:6/30/2006 1:44:31 PM

I have 2 x 17" 1280x1024. I wouldn't mind the same resolution in 19", just to get everything a bit bigger for my tired eyes. Timeline on the left, Media Manager full screen on the right, when choosing loops.

If I were buying today, I'd make sure one of 'em was a 1920x1200 widescreen LCD, both for more editing screen space, and for viewing/editing HD/HDV video.

Keep in mind your nearfield monitor speakers have to be positioned at the sides of the screens so the dual screens don't block the sound at all...otherwise you can get reflections etc. that mess up the stereo image.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: ozzborn

Date:6/30/2006 5:46:54 PM

2 monitors are better than one.even if its a widescreen.
id rather have 2 17 in. moitors than 1 21 inch widescreen.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: GASFACE

Date:7/1/2006 2:23:54 AM

I agree 100% with ATP's statements: "2 monitors make the workflow better..." and "it's really worth the investment..." but eventually you will notice the limitations of that pair of monitors no matter what size they are.

My monitor array consists of four 27" widescreen monitors set to 1152x864. After years of being limited by two 17" CRT screens, I upgraded to a pair of 19" LCDs and later added a third LCD at 21". The three worked quite well except they too had limitations which led me to add a fourth LCD at 21".

Four monitors side by side (19"s on the outside and 21"s on the inside proved to be useful yet annoying because: 1. They take up too much space and leave little room for anything else. 2. The difference in size limited which windows and programs I could assign to each screen. 3. I had to scroll up/down to view all of the tracks which is quite tedious when a project has a high track count that doesn't fit on the screen.

Those and a few other hardware issues motivated me to reorganize my workspace. After rearranging the studio furniture, instruments and equipment racks in a way that helps me work comfortably, I realized the best way to arrange the monitors is to mount them on the wall two across and two down sort of like an array you would see at a stock broker's desk.

To solve the screen size issue, I shopped around for a matched set of monitors and found four Nexus 2700 LCD TVs for $600 each at our local Home Theater Store and bought the wall brackets from Home Depot for $25 each. I've since passed the 21" pair on to my wife for her ProTools rig, and each of the 19"s to my children.
$2500 iproved to be an investment that was well worth it. Not just because they impress clients, but because my productivity is up by 20%.

This configuration allows me to view all tracks at once in any audio/midi software because I can span Reason across the screens on the left side while viewing ACID and another program like MidiQuest on the right side. I can also view four or more programs on thier own screen at the same time.

If you can do it, buy four of the same monitor, or two of the same and a larger third. With three you can have a master screen and use the others as satellites for effects or synth windows. I chose to use LCD TVs because they have features like Picture-In-Picture and they have multiple input connections for Analog, Digital, S-Video, Component and Composite Video, and Coax. With one screen I can watch a DVD while working in ACID, while playing a games on XBox and PS2. I liked the 2700 so much that I bought a 3200 for my rec-room.

Another thing to consider is the video card(s). I use a Matrox G450 AGP card and a Matrox G450 PCI card in my main PC. I use ATI Radeon VE AGP and ATI Radeon VE PCI in my other PCs. I've found that using cards with the same chip from the same manufacturer is more stable than mixing cards. Especially when they share a KVM switch.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: ozzborn

Date:7/1/2006 3:45:43 PM

yo rome

do you have any pics of your system. i am curious to see how you did that.
i use three monitors,2 (17) inch dells and 1 (20.1) inch monitor in the middle.
you can see pics of my studio on myspace.i am uprading right now and will post my new pics in 2 weeks when im finished.

www.mypace.com/ozzborn

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: GASFACE

Date:7/5/2006 1:58:49 AM

I'll have some studio pics and audio on myspace soon. I'll keep you posted ozzy.

Subject:RE: need help choosing monitor size

Reply by: GASFACE

Date:7/5/2006 2:12:08 AM

I just remembered there is a video trailer that shows me in front of my desk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geMIoz4z0S4. My interview was shot in November, the day before I rearranged the room, opened the second pair and mounted them all to the wall but you can see two of the 27s.