Monitor Necessity?

J

JayNine07

New member
Hey,
I recently set up my home recording system and have been having good luck so far. My question comes to monitors!
I currently have a speaker/subwoofer set up with a frequency of 30Hz - 20kHz.
Now I know monitors are supposed to have a wide frequency, and the clairity is more important. However, I can't seem to find monitors with a higher frequency that are not fairly high priced.
Do I need to purchase "studio monitors" or is what I have going to be good enough?
 
If your comfortable with your speakers use them but if your recordings sound weird or bad say like in your car etc you'll have to have a new game plan with your monitors.
 
The idea behind studio monitors is that they should have a flat frequency response. Home speakers have the bass and/or treble boosted to make things sound better, but mixing on them will make you add/remove too much and it will translate poorly to other speakers (i.e. car, headphones, etc.). Most monitors won't even have full frequency range, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but they will be flatter across all of the frequencies that they can produce. If you can afford a couple hundred dollars for even some low end monitors I think it will result in better mixes.
 
I probably will end up going that route. I just am not a gear collector, and don't want to buy something unless it is a necessity. Thanks!
 
JayNine07 said:
Hey,
I recently set up my home recording system and have been having good luck so far. My question comes to monitors!
I currently have a speaker/subwoofer set up with a frequency of 30Hz - 20kHz.
Now I know monitors are supposed to have a wide frequency, and the clairity is more important. However, I can't seem to find monitors with a higher frequency that are not fairly high priced.
Do I need to purchase "studio monitors" or is what I have going to be good enough?
Click to expand...

Bubby unless you are recording music for dogs theres no need to go higher than 20khz. Hell I cant here past 17 and I have good hearing.
 
JayNine07 said:
Hey,
I recently set up my home recording system and have been having good luck so far. My question comes to monitors!
I currently have a speaker/subwoofer set up with a frequency of 30Hz - 20kHz.
Now I know monitors are supposed to have a wide frequency, and the clairity is more important. However, I can't seem to find monitors with a higher frequency that are not fairly high priced.
Do I need to purchase "studio monitors" or is what I have going to be good enough?
Click to expand...

A frequency range of 30hz to 20khz is all you need. However, it is not just the range of frequencies that the speakers can churn out that is important, but how well that range is represented. If there are peaks and troughs in the audio spectrum (which often happens with cheaper speakers), you will have difficulty in creating a mix that sounds good on other systems.
 
The REAL problem is that computer speakers/subs LIE to you.

Look at the box and the first thing you'll usually read is they "enhance your experience".
That means they LIE to you.

Studio monitors are designed to NOT enhance sound but give you an ACCURATE representation. 'Cause any adjustments you make to your music will otherwise just be a spitting-in-the-wind guess.

Big studios spend million$ to do it.
 
saustindavis said:
The idea behind studio monitors is that they should have a flat frequency response. Home speakers have the bass and/or treble boosted to make things sound better, but mixing on them will make you add/remove too much and it will translate poorly to other speakers (i.e. car, headphones, etc.). Most monitors won't even have full frequency range, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but they will be flatter across all of the frequencies that they can produce. If you can afford a couple hundred dollars for even some low end monitors I think it will result in better mixes.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
Thank you for the responses. I was especially laughing at the music for the dogs. The best bet would be to test and monitor the frequency range, and go from there.
 
really good advice here...i fall on the side of getting the monitors if your purposes require it. i think they make a big difference as your piecing together a mix. you really want to hear how those frequencies are interacting...but again it would depend on what you're doing--but they're fun :)
 
Frequency response numbers mean absolutely nothing. Don't even look at them. They are 100% meaningless. My ears are the only tool I'd use.

Take a terrible sounding violin, one that is so horrible it can't even be used. Do the specs on it - frequency output and dynamic range both would be 0 to infinite. Looks great on paper but is unusable musically.

It's what's in between 20 and 20KHz that counts. Lots of great gear doesn't even have good specs.

Although we only hear (they say) to 20 KHz, we probably "feel" up to at least 200 KHz. Over 1/2 of a cymbal's energy is above 100 KHz. I'm of the mind that even though we don't hear it, it has a huge effect on how we feel it, so it does matter, very much so. That's partly why cymbals live always sound so different than cymbals recorded.

So far, there is no way to accurately record and play back cymbals.
 
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