Stereo vs. Monitor outs.

H

HFFritz

New member
My 8 track cassette portastudio has both stereo and monitor outs. I have connected the stereo outs to the tape in connections on my stereo receiver and I listen to the recordings through my stereo like a regular tape player. I master to CD using a Tascam CD recorder connected to the tape out connections on the receiver, selectable with the tape monitor selector.

Q: What would be the advantage of connecting an amp and studio monitors (like the Alesis RA100 and Monitor 1's) or powered monitors to the monitor outs?

The manual describes a stereo bus and a monitor bus, and how you can select between the two, but I was a bit confused when it got to the pre-fader/post-fader stuff.
 
The monitor outs will allow you to turn the monitors (what your hearing) up and down without effecting what is being recorded (going out the stereo bus). If you use the stereo outs direct into your CD recorder, you wont need the receiver in the record chain. Then you can hook the receiver to the monitor outs just for your listening pleasure.

Also, studio monitors will give you a more acurate representation of what your recording then home stereo speakers.

Hope this helps
Ziller
 
It does help, thanks. Actually, my description was a bit off - the CD is hooked up to the tape ins and outs, and the 8-track is hooked to the aux in. The reason I hooked things up this way is so I can listen to the finished CD's through the stereo after recording them. I try to minimize wear and tear on the cassettes - when I am finished with a recording, I master it to CD and put away the cassette.

If studio monitors will give me more clarity when listening to the tape, in the end will it make any difference when the CD is played through various other systems? It seems to me that when I master a CD on my system, in my room with my speakers, I am tuning it to sound best on this system. If I play one of my CD's through a boombox or car stereo, it sounds horrible. Is there something that can be done about this?
 
Are you recording to cassette first, and then going from cassette to CD? If so, you may want to try mixing right down to CD.

I am still saving up for monitors, so I can't speak from experience. But I've been reading up on them, and this is what I'm hearing. Monitors are specifically designed to reproduce what's on tape without adding or taking anything away. What you hear is what you get. Other speakers generally add to the signal to give it a distinct sound, such as boost the bass. So if you mix on home speakers, you may get the mix to sound great on your system, but on others it wont sound right (unless they have the same speakers).

For instance, if your speakers boost the bass, you may mix it with less bass to sound good, and play it on someones stereo with speakers that don't boost the bass, and the bass will sound way to low. Or visa versa. You get the idea. If you can get it to sound good on monitors, then how it sounds on other systems is dependent on that system, not your recording.

One thing to try, if you don't have monitors, is to listen to some commercial CDs that you like on your system. Then you can use that as a reference and try to get your mix to sound similar. If a commercial CD played on your system (with no EQ) sounds like it has to much bass, mix yours with to much bass. The assumtion is that the commercial CD is mixed on good monitors (flat), so how it sounds on your system is what your speakers are adding. Make Sense?

There's tons of info on monitors here. Do a search and see what comes up.

Ziller
 
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