The Truth about Studio Monitors

[Tweak]

Finally! Wrote an article on studio-monitors and attempted to uncover the 'truth'.


JBL LSR4326P

Read it here:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/studio_monitors.htm

Excerpt:

Unlike a hi-fi speaker, which is designed, hopefully, to make all audio material sound pleasing to the ear, the studio monitor has as it's main objective to paint an accurate audio image of the material, with no unnatural emphasis or de-emphasis of particular frequencies. This is what it means when a monitor is said to be "flat". and "uncolored" or "transparent". That's the theory at least. Reality sometimes paints a different picture. And this is where the arguing typically begins.

[Harry]

An excellent article. Thanks for writing it. I have suffered from inaccurate mixing in the past and it is a mistake that I genuinely intend to avoid in the future.

Your advice regarding mixing at low volumes is very important I think. I used to mix quite loud. Then I realized that my music sounded muddy at lower volumes. I think this is because higher volumes will lift higher frequencies out from the mix at a faster rate than lower frequencies. In the end, if you mix too loud, you end up with a mix that only sounds good at high volumes.

[Tweak]

Yes, this seems to be true. It also saves the ears which lets you work much longer.

[Carbonboy]

[quote="Tweak"]Finally! Wrote an article on studio-monitors and attempted to uncover the 'truth'.

...and in the process continued a fallacy that I constantly see bandied about in the business...

"Unlike a hi-fi speaker, which is designed, hopefully, to make all audio material sound pleasing to the ear, the studio monitor has as it's main objective to paint an accurate audio image of the material, with no unnatural emphasis or de-emphasis of particular frequencies"

the enormous range of Hi-Fi and 'Monitor" speakers means that the frequency response, mechanical and other design factors that influence the sound varies so much as to render this statement meaningless.

There are Hi-Fi speakers with ideal "monitor" characteristics and monitor speakers that flatter the sound. Indeed the near-field monitor concept started life as a Hi-Fi speaker and another ‘indeed’ is that the frequency response variation between monitors is as great as the variation between Hi-Fi and Monitor.

The speaker is either good or isn't according to whatever criteria you care to use...whether or not it has "Monitor" or "Hi-Fi" on the box is irrelevant.

Regards Scott.

[Tweak]

Of course. Did you read on? Right after that quote, I stated "That's the theory at least. Reality sometimes paints a different picture. And this is where the arguing typically begins. "

So, I agree with you. With one exception:

"Hi-Fi speakers are not made to take abuse above typical programmed material. Sure you can use them, just don't use them as the main monitors."

This refers to a typical hi fi speaker. of course there will always be exceptions. But my own experience bears it out. I have yet to destroy my Alesis Monitor 2s after 8 years. I have gone through many pairs of consumer speakers in this time period.

[Davematthewsfan]

Hi there to everyone. I'm new here but not a newbie to sound and recording so that makes things easier. This forum looks good tweak. I stunbled on your article researching the Alesis M1 active MkII speakers. I'm looking at buying a pair of "mid-range" monitors and it's a choice ber\tween those and the Behringer Truths and the Samson evolves? I've heard the behringers and was surprisingly impressed.

Do the Alesis have an accentuated bass response as I've read in review? I try not to trust everything I read on the net until I hear it myself. I'm gonna do a shootout with another engineer with all three pairs soon.

Cheers,

Darryl

[Tweak]

The Alesis have good bass for such small woofers. I would not call them bass-heavy. They are ported, so that makes for more bass efficiency. There's a big difference between these and other monitors with 6" woofers. On those, there is little bass. Some producers prefer that. I certainly would not argue that the Alesis are flat. I will argue that they are good sounding.

[LiveG]

I'm getting a pair of the Alesis M1 Active MkIIs 2moro morning *praying that they come*

I'll let you guys know what I think of them. I'm no stranger to the world of producing myself, so hopefully you will find my opinions worthy of forum space

[doktorziplok]

*praying that they come*

yeah, kinda hard to download hardware, eh?

http://studio-central.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=5288

[LiveG]

It's impossible to download hardware tut tut

I recommend you actually buy it naughty

[Tiime]

I have a quick question concerning the comment about loud vs. low monitoring.Any of you ever been working on a mix/track whatever,close the project and then go to work on a different project wich you have at a slightly lower level on the master than the previous one?Maybe you noticed how when you flipped back to the first project you worked on you found awfull imperfections and flaws,maybe it sounded too boomy.Ofcourse im not talking about a huge difference between the two that would cause distortion..can anyone relate?I mean im not saying its healthy or a good idea to monitor at a volume that are obviusly too loud,but i once was told that "Yes,the difference in sounds(imperfections in sounds) becomes greater at a louder volume" and also have always thought you can hear more background noice with a tad more "punch". Maybe this just applies to me since i can hardly hear whats going on (mainly bass wise)with these small computer speakers....Anyway thats what most people will do to ur mix anyhow is blast it. you wouldnt want it to sound too "tight". BTW ... Heres a little something for the folks over at Mackie (only because i like the qoute)

As I became comfortable with the HR624s and started to rely on them more, my mixes got better. The trade-off was that I had to work a little longer and harder to get them right, but I never experienced a situation where mixes that sounded good on the HR624s did not sound good on other monitors.

[Tweak]

but I never experienced a situation where mixes that sounded good on the HR624s did not sound good on other monitors.

What were his other monitors? HR824s?

Pure marketing.

It is far easier to make a mix that sounds good loud than it is to make a mix that sounds good loud and soft.

[Tiime]

Everything is marketing these days....I hadnt heard anyone put it like that before though saying that most mixes sounded terrible on the mackies, and that everything made on the mackies sounded even better on anything else.It was pure marketing!

[Ashermusic]

Great article, Rich. When I did my first tv series I bought NS10Ms powered by a Hafler power amp because I was told that was the most common setup for TV. As the years when on and I started to do more and more of my own mixing I found that I constantly mixed in too much bass and the NS 10Ms were so harsh that after mixing for a while everything soubnded awful to me no matter what I did. In short, I had "mix fatigue".

On the advice of a friend who used to design speakers for JBL I looked around for a set of Event Trias, a 3 way system that Event was taking out of production. Unlike their ubiquitous 20/20 speakers, they were very flat and accurate. Since I got them my mixes have improved immeasurably and my ears never get mix fatigue anymore.

Ideally, have 2 sets of speakers: one as flat and as accurate as possible for mixing and a second pleasantly colored for listening and playing back to a client. But if you have only one, go flat IMHO.

[Sapient]

Great read Tweak. I've picked up more and more about monitors and it all hit home last night. I took the headphones off and listened to the mix through my 5.1 Videologic Home Cinema mularky speaker set (I play games OK?). Oh gods was it awful...

I gotta get me some decent speekies...

[jdmwellington]

Nice article!!
I'm about to buy some monitors so this insight has really helped

[esenshyal-E]

My ear is pretty much trained to hear imperfections in sound..Keep in mind that it is trained to my monitors.. I feel that the truth is in a stereo system other than yours..If it sounds good in someone elses,(more that one persons) then its safe to say that the mix is good as well. (I mix best in my car) hehehe

[Tweak]

Agreed, if you can get a mix to sound good in a car, especially my car which has a terrible audio system, it in the can.

But I get so tired of dragging the mixer out there and all those cables...

















Don't try this at home tho.

[esenshyal-E]

Unless they come up with wireless balanced cables...hahaha."cables"

[Blue Bear Sound]

Two thumbs up!

Excellent article, Rich!

[Tweak]

Thanks for the feedback Blue Bear. Appreciated.

[Angelo Clematide]

"Tweak" Finally! Wrote an article on studio-monitors and attempted to uncover the 'truth'.

Dear Tweak,
the most important thing with Speakercabinets are:

1) time coherence and phase coherence. Phase errors are destroing everything. This not only with the speakers but all the way thru from recording, amplification, decimation etc.. This can be very expensive. Coherence see here:
http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Web/Pag ... phase.html

2) linearity (very flat response thru the full range), low distortion, and switchable super-high-frequency are also important. There are speakers who have that all and you can work for hours with no stress.