Does this sound valid? Gimme so feedback on this one..............

  • Thread starter Thread starter Trumpspade
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Trumpspade

Trumpspade

I'M BLESSED.......
I've been doing music for about two years now. I am still very much in the "Rookie" phase in mastering techniques and such. However, I have received compliments on finished products that I have accomplished, which only makes me hungrier to learn more..... And I owe it ALL to BBS :D (No Joke...........)
ANYWAYS.....................
I overheard a Studio Tech say that STUDIO MONITORS are NOT NEEDED in HOME STUDIOS if you plan to have it MASTERED by a PROFESSIONAL.........Can I get some feedback so that I may address this issue in the future if I hear it again?
Thanks guys


Trizza
 
That's not true. There is only so much a mastering engineer can do to the mix. If you give it to him sounding rubbish don't expect too much.

By having Studio Monitors at home it will give you a more realistic picture of what the mix sounds like, making the mixdown that you'll get mastered sound alot better . Stereo speakers give a hyped sound and headphones are even worse.

Tukkis:)
 
AS far as mixing your project: Is Studio monitors a necessity?
Isn't mastering Mainly (not ONLY) for leveling out the mix?
 
Studio Monitors ARE essential. It's the basic principle of garbage in garbage out. If you are mixing on a set of home theater speakers or worse yet... headphones... then your sound is not going to be very accurate. Granted, headphones can be very accurate, but you want the mix to be accurate in monitors as they are more true to real life. If your mix is compensating for inaccuracies in your monitors, then the mastering house has to compensate. Generally any compensation in a mix is a degradation in quality. If you want a good mastering job, you need to send them the best you can send them. Let's also look at it in a logic sense...

The point of a home studio is to get the best bang for your buck. The point of a pro studio is to get the best sound for your buck. Now you have to ask yourself this. If monitors didn't matter for home studios because they could fix it in the mastering room, then why would pro studios worry about it? Maybe because it does matter? I'd say that studio tech was just trying to act smart.
 
Totally agree with the statements above.

The only way around not having good monitors is to contantly create mixes and listen to them in as many other systems as you have available (e.g. you car, boom box, stereo system, etc). After a while this can get a bit tiresome though. Try to get a system that is as "neutral" as possible. For example if your mix sounds great in your control room, but has too much bass when you try it on other systems, then your control room system is not reproducing low end properly and there may be a tendancy to add more than needed. A neutral system will translate well when a mix is played in a variety of sources.

In addition to good monitoring, room acoustics are VERY important. For low budget studios, a good set of headphones will discount room acoustics but at the expense of getting a feel for a stereo image when played on a regular system.
 
monitors allow you to hear what you're really putting in. other speakers will have some sort of bias. i do all the major mixing and monitoring through the studio monitors, but i use the little pc speakers and my home system as reference mixes. to answer your question, you need a good pair of monitors so you can hear what's really happening in your mix.
 
Yes, but...

I am not an expert and hear what the experts here are saying. However....
If you are used to hearing pro music CDs on your hifi system speakers and know how a good mix should sound on them, then surely it is going to be an advantage when mixing your own stuff? if you never listen to pro music on your expensive Monitors then there's exactly the same danger of having a mix sounding great on your expensive monitors and rubbish on your car stereo. You can't get away from the trial and error approach until you know from expereince what sound to get on your monitors in order for it to sound good on other systems.

I have adopted this approach:
I bought a 4-way speaker switch and have rigged it up to a good set of hifi speakers, a poor set of hifi speakers, a very cheapo pair of PC system speakers and the fourth connection goes out to another room into yet another set of hifi speakers so i can listen to the mix under different room conditions without having to burn a CD. When mixing I switch between all four sets of speakers.

Try this approach, especialy if you're on a limited budget and can't afford a top end set of pro speakers, which you will still have to get used to hearing other music on in order to compare with your own!

Finaly, people when listening to your music will for the most part not be listening on very expensive speakers, but cheap ones in the car, or a boom box, or their home hifi system.
 
That is a good approach for maximizing what you have, but it is not a catch-all for mix problems. I still hold VERY strong to the belief that the more accurate the monitor, the better the mix. Let's not forget that all of the pro CDs that you listen to have already been mastered which is something that absolutely can not be sone on any set of home speakers and have had all SMALL artifacts adjusted out. Even if you know your speakers very well, if they have inacuracies, say a steep dropoff in the upper midrange between your mids and tweeters (very common), you aren't going to tell if you have any artifacts left in that frequency range, and even lower-fi speakers will not tell you that either.
 
Jblount said:
Track with monitors. Mix with stereo!
Click to expand...

With all due respect, I think that you are missing the good point that fierojoe made.

I would say track with with lower end montors in case you are recording something like a spastic drummer who hits mics, and mix with higher end monitors to preserve the speakers and help prevent damage.

Stereo systems will add too much coloration and are a bad choice for mixing for this reason. Some stereo systems add a "loudness" frequency curve that boosts low and high end. While this may sound better for a finished product (don't want to debate this here), it's giving you a skewed perspective on the sound of your mix.
 
(sigh) Why does everyone want to find a way around monitors? It is your microscope into all the sounds you are spending all your time and money trying to acheive.

Get the best monitors you can afford and you will never be sorry.
 
masteringhouse said:
With all due respect, I think that you are missing the good point that fierojoe made.
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Awe, you're making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside... :D Listen to what TexRoadkill says. There is Wisdom in those words...
Originally posted by TexRoadkill
(sigh) Why does everyone want to find a way around monitors? It is your microscope into all the sounds you are spending all your time and money trying to acheive.
Click to expand...
 
Trumpspade said:

I overheard a Studio Tech say that STUDIO MONITORS are NOT NEEDED in HOME STUDIOS if you plan to have it MASTERED by a PROFESSIONAL.........Can I get some feedback so that I may address this issue in the future if I hear it again?
Thanks guys
Trizza
Click to expand...

Studio tech = recording engineer without ears or music knowledge
 
It's a money thing!

TexRoadkill said:
(sigh) Why does everyone want to find a way around monitors? It is your microscope into all the sounds you are spending all your time and money trying to acheive.

Get the best monitors you can afford and you will never be sorry.
Click to expand...
We're not trying to avoid monitors. It's just that many people here are not pros and have a verylimited budget. So we try to find ways of producing a reasonable product at a low cost. Let's face it if we could all afford the best mixing desk, the best monitors, the best effects and compression units the best mastering facility...then heck, we'd be pro's not home recording enthusiasts!

Get the best you can for your budget. If your budget is $1000 then monitors are not the top of the list, when compared with getting good mics, or a decent recording facility (be it a multitracker or PC equipment). If your budget is $10,000 then by all menas look at monitors after you've got all the rest. I think that is why people appear to be trying to avoid buying expensive monitors and make do with hifi speakers IMHO (they have no choice!).
 
Re: It's a money thing!

glynb said:
We're not trying to avoid monitors. It's just that many people here are not pros and have a verylimited budget. So we try to find ways of producing a reasonable product at a low cost. Let's face it if we could all afford the best mixing desk, the best monitors, the best effects and compression units the best mastering facility...then heck, we'd be pro's not home recording enthusiasts!
...
Click to expand...

I don't think that anyone is arguing that issue. We all make do with the resources that we have available or are will to invest in.

It's the original argument:

"I overheard a Studio Tech say that STUDIO MONITORS are NOT NEEDED in HOME STUDIOS if you plan to have it MASTERED by a PROFESSIONAL"

Is what I have problems with, and is total BS.
 
Re: Re: It's a money thing!

masteringhouse said:
I don't think that anyone is arguing that issue. We all make do with the resources that we have available or are will to invest in.

It's the original argument:

"I overheard a Studio Tech say that STUDIO MONITORS are NOT NEEDED in HOME STUDIOS if you plan to have it MASTERED by a PROFESSIONAL"

Is what I have problems with, and is total BS.
Click to expand...

Put like that, I do see your point! The two things don't seem connected.
 
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