Auralex Mopad

I don't own a set of Auralex Mopads as I currently mix on headphones. However, I made my way over to a friend's home studio (he studies music production) where he owns a pair of KRK Rokit8's. This was before I even understood the concept of proper acoustic treatment for anything at all, so when I saw those brilliant yellow monitors sitting on four pieces of foam, I only had a vague idea of what it was supposed to be for. So he showed me.

He was working on a project that I had come over to listen to. When I asked about the silly pieces of foam his monitors were sitting on, he just had to prove it to me. We listened to his mix (it was a heavy rock mix) originally with the KRK's sitting on the Mopads and I, not understanding the difference, didn't really get what was so special about it.

Then, he removed the Mopads and we listened to it again. WOW. I was blown away at how spoiled the Mopads made me. The mix sounded comparatively terrible! It wasn't that they were actually bad, but the difference was noticeable.

If I recall correctly, his desk was made of a cheap wood, so perhaps this further exacerbated the comparatively poor sound that resulted.

The clear result of using the Mopads was clearly an increase in precision, an unmuddying, and unrattling of the sound. It made the sound a lot more crisp and clean, and it prevented the distracting and metallic rings that plagued the mix without them. If I ever make the switch the using monitors (when I find a permanent room to treat; I'm always moving around), I will certainly invest in the Auralex Mopads!

They may not appear to be cheap, but I assure you, they are well worth it, as I learned that day.

I bought my set of Auralex Mopads about three years ago. I bought them because I bring my recording set up around to a lot of different places and thought that these would help me to isolate my monitors no matter what my setting was. To a degree this works, but I don't rely of them to do more than what they are made to do - if a room isn't treated properly there is a chance you could still have issues. Overall, I like having these lift my monitors, which are a pair of Yamaha NS-10Ms, off whatever surface, usually wood and prevents it rumbling and isolates the sound. This is a cheap option when it comes to trying to help project the accurate sound you can possible get from your monitors. This of course is ideal when mixing as you want to be able to have an unbiased sound that will portray what it really sounds like without an external factors. The cheap price and the fact that this does help quite a bit make it an attractive option for all who are mixing in a home studio environment and beyond. I've never seen any other company make a product similar to the Auralex Mopads so I don't know how good these are compared to another product like it. At this price, it is worth the risk to try them out and see if they will help your situation as they can do a world of good, as they have done for me. I love having these, but there is only so much that they can do, so don't expect the world from them. This being said, I would definitley recommend home studio owners to check these out as they are a cheap option to isolate your monitors and will help your mixes in the end.