Dual Monitors or 1 big one????

[rmallam]

Hey Cubasers,

I am interested in everyones experienced opinions.

Should I buy two 22 inch monitors or one big 30 inch?

I use Cubase 6 and Ableton Live everyday and am not a gamer.

Thank you in advanced.

[Split]

Get two.

[DG]

I all depends on how you like to work. The snag with two monitors is that you're always looking down the crack (so to speak ) and if you move them so you have one primary monitor with the other one to the side, you have continually to turn your head, which is bad for your neck.

My solution is to have a 27" on the desk, and a 48" on the wall, both of which I can see without moving my head.

DG

[Lbro44]

I run 3 old 19" monitors or did for a long time. Now I have a 23" in the center and that is fine but it does not play nice resolution wise with the 19" monitors. So I have to pony up for a couple more 23" guys one of these days. I was never bothered much by the cracks in between.

I am not looking at the specs on a 30", but do you not get more vertical room with that setup? If so I might take a hard look at that. If cost has anything to do with it, you might look around and see if you can pick up some cheap 19" monitors second hand and try that. If you do not like it you can crap can them and go for a 30". I will say this, today I would find it really hard to be productive with just one monitor or panel. Just too much gets going on in Cubase and related plugs along with the mix panel and other goodies to have it all fit.

Take care,
LB

[Bredo]

I've asked myself this question too. I'm running two 19" flat screens.

But I've decided to wait and see what Cubase 7/Nuendo 6 brings to the table GUI wise. It's rumoured to be more flexible regarding what to see/hide.

Even though Windows 8 has a "regular" desktop mode they also may have to do some adjustments to make Cubase/Nuendo support it.

Holding back my monitor investment 'til C7 is out .

[Split]

I am not looking at the specs on a 30", but do you not get more vertical room with that setup?

It's all to to with pixels. More pixels more resolution (more cost) a 22" and a 30" could well have the same resolution, so the 30" in that case would just be bigger.

[JMCecil]

30" + 24" for me. I'd not do without two monitors again. I had a 45" LCD as a 3rd monitor on the wall, but didn't use it as much as I thought I would. As Split said, a big TV is still just a big TV .. I want the resolution of a larger monitor for the screen space.

What I find amazing is it's getting really hard to find monitors. They sell "HD Screens" now. Stupid consumers think that's a good thing. F'n marketing *flower* is going to make it dang near impossible to actually get a monitor after a bit.

[Split]

30" + 24" for me. I'd not do without two monitors again. I had a 45" LCD as a 3rd monitor on the wall, but didn't use it as much as I thought I would. As Split said, a big TV is still just a big TV .. I want the resolution of a larger monitor for the screen space.

What I find amazing is it's getting really hard to find monitors. They sell "HD Screens" now. Stupid consumers think that's a good thing. F'n marketing *flower* is going to make it dang near impossible to actually get a monitor after a bit.

+1

Totally annoying that HD resolution is now standard and to go more pixels costs way more than it should. Bstards

[Lbro44]

Too bad you are not in my area (Seattle) as I would sell you 2-3 19" flat screens for a decent price. I really want to go with 3 23" monitors running at 1920x1080 (from memory and that well could be off!). But call it around that res.

One thing I do to help with the crack between the monitors is to try and get thin ones... Then I place the center monitor in front of and overlapping the 2 outboard monitors. This eliminates the crack and half's the bezel(s) width.

I have not shopped monitors in a while but when I was looking the 23-23.5" ones still listed a decent resolution. So I have yet to be put off by the HD BS gimmick! Sounds like a real crock of ....

LB

[Ferruccio]

I would recommend my own current screen setup, which is 1 30" (2560x1600) in the middle and 2 24" (1920x1080) on the sides.

My arrangement window is always on the large screen which really makes a difference because of it's higher resolution. It's amazing how much more tracks can fit on screen without having to zoom out, making everything smaller and losing detail of MIDI notes and audio waves on your parts.

Then I have one mixer on the right screen (instruments, midi and audio tracks) and another on the left screen (send fx, group channels, busses) The difference in resolution of the screens is not annoying in any way, though you might want to consider having 2 27" (2560x1600) on the sides instead of the 24" (1920x1080) ones. This didn't fit in my studio however, because the larger size of the side screens would get in the way of my speakers, which are behind that.

In short, a higher resolution is great for your arrangement window, however having multiple screens to view arrangement + mixer simultaneously is a must and in my opinion you can't do this on one 30" (2560x1600) screen. I tried getting the arrangement and mixer all on the middle screen but it's just too cluttered together and dividing this over two screens is much better.

So if you have to choose and can't do both I'd say multiple screens is better, preferable three, so you have one in the middle. The gaps between the screens won't matter then. They're only annoying if you have two screens and the gap is right in front of you. I even have some space between my center screen and the side screens.

Hope this helps.

[Breeze]

One caveat on the 30" 2560x1600 screen: I work with a single one but I found that I couldn't place it farther than 3 feet from my eyes because small GUI VST plugins and VSTi's were too hard to read. So I had to place my speakers on high stands to have a clear line of sight to them. Of course, everything is relative to the size of your workspace and the priority of your work: for a composer like me, it's less critical but for a full-time tracking and mixing station, I would definitely go with multiple low height screens.

I believe a lot of factors need to be considered in this matter: the priorities of your work, the quality of your eyesight, mounting distance, line of sight to speakers, pixel size vs number, etc... IMO, in the end it's a complex and personal consideration.

[Betamac]

For me if its one big screen (with extra resolution, no point otherwise)

OR

2 screens, say 19" side to side, the classic "crack down the middle approach"

I'd go for one big screen every time, you can see everything, and your plug ins take up less screen space

But I have a 27" High res in front - for arrange page/workspaces - can even bring up the mixer on top and still see what you are doing easily

And a 19" at the side with metering (Voxengo Span) - control room mixer, and any mastering plugs open

Big screens do cost a lot but 'no gap in the middle' .. But check your graphics card can support one or youll need to factor in the cost of a new card too

[ZeroZero]

Just so you know win 8 will not run in resolutions under 1366x768

[andyath]

I use two LG 22.5" monitors and editing wise I cant work with them for much longer I have had them for a couple of months now setup on a dual monitor clamps looks good but I cant get use to the middle crack..so much so im going to get rid of them on eBay and go back to one large monitor.editing time has near doubled I just cant work as fast with them.

[JMCecil]

I use two LG 22.5" monitors and editing wise I cant work with them for much longer I have had them for a couple of months now setup on a dual monitor clamps looks good but I cant get use to the middle crack..so much so im going to get rid of them on eBay and go back to one large monitor.editing time has near doubled I just cant work as fast with them.

This to me is one of the mistakes people make with multiple monitors. IMO to get the best benefit, the 2nd monitor is for utilities, mixers, plug-ins, manuals etc... Keep the project window completely on the main monitor. By keeping the project clutter on a different screen, it will increase your speed.
However, if I had to make my choice between 2 22's and a single 30"... I'd take the 30.

[andyath]

if I had to make my choice between 2 22's and a single 30"... I'd take the 30.

Yep good choice.

I use to use a 32" Sony bravia tv an upgraded to two so use to one screen in the middle I find it weird using one side of the monitors for main project and everything else on the other.My listening position gets messed up as I tend to move over to the main monitor.

[JMCecil]

if I had to make my choice between 2 22's and a single 30"... I'd take the 30.

Yep good choice.

I use to use a 32" Sony bravia tv an upgraded to two so use to one screen in the middle I find it weird using one side of the monitors for main project and everything else on the other.My listening position gets messed up as I tend to move over to the main monitor.

Well quibble with that would be the TV is greatly resolution degraded. The reason I want 30+ is to get the resolution.

[Strophoid]

I'd love a second screen, but I'd never ever split a window up over 2 screens, that looks really odd and is very counterintuitive when doing precise edits on the edge.
1 screen with just project window, other with plugs, mixer etc. But I haven't got enough space for a 2nd screen currently, I'd have to move my speakers off the table to get enough space, so I'd need speaker stands first and I'm not in enough of a hurry to figure out what to get :p

[15thSINE]

I use 2 x 24 inch monitors , I find the workflow much better , having the arrangement on one screen and plugins/vst's on the other or even Reason 6.5 on the second screen when I got programs rewired, just less clutter with 2 screens, that's just my opinion.

[Sean Dockery]

I used to use only one 30" monitor, but now use two 25" monitors and could never go back.

[Steve Fogal]

I started out with my 1st DAW more than a decade ago with 2 17" CRT monitors, a while later I added 3rd identical one. When I built my 2nd DAW more than 5 years ago I didn't have the space, and went back to two monitors.
Now that I have the space again, I'm using 3 monitors again...but, 2 on my one main DAW machine, and 1 on my midi connected VST machine. There the same 3 Sony Trinitron 17" CRT's I bought more than a decade ago.


The only way I would not use multiple monitors is if I had at least one very large wide screen monitor with super high resolution where I could fit all my windows around the screen space. Even a 30" high resolution DELL is around $1,600. You can get 2 24" monitors for around $200 each.

Having that line in the middle is not too much of an issue with multiple monitors, because I have different windows in different monitors mostly.

[ZeroZero]

OK so I took the plunge one big one it is:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/lg-42ls345 ... html#packs

Awaiting delivery

Zero

[Strophoid]

42"!
it's 'just' full HD though, I hope you're not too close to it or you'll see the low pixel density.

[ZeroZero]

Took a look at this in the shops with regular tv going through it, saw some retro resolution 'archive clips' too, from the fifties. Seemed OK but of course the proof of the pudding...

Great price

Will report back

[filterfreak]

2 monitors are a lot better than one especially for having a full blown project page , ive been using 2x 21" monitors for years and now ive just bit the bullet and bought a HD 7850 eyefinity graphics card and 4 full HD 21.5" monitors to easy my work flow (just waiting for the monitors )