Streaming Music

Monitoring in a music studio is, quite simply, the most vital part of the studio performance up. Your studio could contain the most advanced equipment available, but in the absence of accurate monitoring, you’ll never hear an accurate mix, which is kinda pointless, isn’t it?!

Now,what is the difference between a nice pair of hi fi speakers and true studio monitors?

Well. hi fi speakers exaggerate the lows, and regularly the highs, to produce maximum impact. This may be nice to listen to, but it is seldom accurate. Studio monitors are designed to be uncommonly accurate to insure a real reproduction of what’s actually being recorded. They’re also built to much sturdier and exacting standards than hi fi speakers, to cater for the vigourous demands of studio use.

Monitors must be  surprisingly transparent sounding to enable you to mix parts of the music prefer vocals, bass and even reverb trails in the absence of each part colliding into one and other.

To fully understand the concept of monitoring, you must understand that it’s an art. It is more than just conveniently placing a pair of speakers in the room.

We’re all divergent, as are studio monitors, and all of us use the ones with which we’re most comfortable and might perfect judge the mix. I have used Yamaha NS10s, Dyn-Audio and Tannoys over the years, but have  set tled with a pair of Alesis M1 active for near-field monitoring and a pair of Alesis Monitor Two’s for midfield monitoring. They’re my personal like ence and what I’m used to. There are more expensive monitors available on the market, but surp growing ly accurate results may be achieved with less expensive monitors just by following several easy rules.

When monitoring, you’re listening to the placement of sound, dynamics, eq, reverb trails, echoes and delays etc. Correctly placed monitors allow you to do this. Hi fi speakers, however wonderful, do not!

A professional, well recorded mix will sound good on anything, and that’s the single the majority important principle to remember. If you use a pair of hi fi speakers to monitor, your mix could well sound excellent to YOU on THOSE speakers, but I guarantee it won’t sound excellent to others elsewhere!

Now,the 1st rule is, don’t use hi fi speakers to monitor.

Nearfield monitors are intended for mounting close to the listener. The idea is to enhance the direct acoustic path betwixt the speaker and the listener by making it shorter, thereby giving less opportunity for the reflected sounds to get back in and muddle things up. With nearfield monitoring, the surrounding acoustic environment becomes less of a problem. Still, try to optimise the listening environment whenever possible and be aware of the effect that the size of the listening room may have on low frequency response. Usually, the smaller the room, the stronger the bottom end will be.

The ideal placement of speakers is out in the room, away from side and rear walls, and reflective surfaces like tiles, windows or table tops. Unfortunately, and particularly in home studios, this isn’t always possible. So do what is practical with the environment you have.

The physical spacing amidst the speakers is uncommonly important, approximately 3 feet apart. A nice  set of monitors, if positioned correctly in a soundly non-reverberant room, will give accurate results. There ought to be equal distance amidst the listener and either speaker. In other words, the listener and the two speakers are the three corners of a triangle with equal length sides. Both speakers must be turned in accordingly so that from your prime position, you see only the face of both speakers. also, your ears ought to be level with the tweeters, so, if you are placement of the speakers is higher, perhaps on a shelf or wall mounted on brackets, then the speakers must be tilted down accordingly.

Virtually all studios use monitor speakers in the horizontal position. This  set -up will  encourage  a strongly focused center image, ideal for the vocalist, for example. And because the image width is narrower, the sounds can be placed with greater precision than when the speakers are placed vertically. likewise, in the horizontal position, there will be much less opening  of first reflections from the studio environment colouring your mix.

Still, that is not to say that monitors shouldn’t ever be used in the vertical position. Indeed,  some manufacturers recommend that in ‘perfect’ situations, they should be. With vertical placement you hear the mix with the deepest and broad st soundstage possible. But this broad  a dispersion pattern might add strong reflections to the sound you hear, muddying the mix, hence the like ence for the horizontal position.

The rules for midfield monitors are the same as with nearfield, except that the three cornered triangle is much bigger, a lot of the time a minimum of six ft.

So,the second rule is, place the monitors correctly, read the instructions that come with the monitors and attain a better understanding of your listening environment.

When recording for any length of time, you will get listening fatigue, So take regular breaks every few hours. It’s amazing how disparate ly things can sound when you return refreshed.

There’s also an old saying; “If a song sounds wonderful at low volume, it will sound wonderful at any level. But a song that sounds wonderful loud won’t necessarily sound wonderful at a decrease volume”.

Think additionally of the effect on your hearing over time when constant ly listening at loud levels!

So,the third rule is, take regular breakes when recording, make your regular listening level a sensible one and listen at louder levels only opportunity ally, for feel and bass purposes.

There is of course, a place for the car stereo and hi fi in the process. When I am happy with the mix, I listen on my hi fi and car stereo. If it still sounds good, then I may be confident that it’s a good mix.

So,the fourth rule is, a professional, well recorded mix will sound exceptional on any system. So use your car stereo and hi fi to ‘ last check’ your mix.