why are studio monitors used to record?

[ujamaa7]

I currently use my sony stereo to monitor my recordings....I only do music not vocals....Why should i invest in some good studio monitors? what are some of the advantages?

 

[LCD]

In a nutshell, studio monitors have a very flat response, giving you the TRUE sound of your recordings. This allows you to make better mixes that will sound good on ALL systems, not just the one at your home.

 

[FALKEN]

that's basically it. stereo systems do not give a flat response. without a doubt you could mix on what you have but it might require burning like a million test CD's before you get it right...been there, done that, etc. etc....never want to go back.

 

[flatfinger]

yup,

more "flat" (though not perfectly) and less embellished. Mind you lots of folks consider the venerable ( or infamous, depending on yer bias) yamaha NS-10 to be very weak in the bass yet many great mixes have been done with them. It's knowing them (whatever you monitor with) and how what you mix will translate that is important.

 

[turtlishous]

I currently use my sony stereo to monitor my recordings....I only do music not vocals....Why should i invest in some good studio monitors? what are some of the advantages?

i'll probably get chewed for sayin' this, but....you don't HAVE to spend a small fortune on monitors...i bought the truth2030a pair from behringer and they didn't kill my bank roll.

all my mixes were in my headphones befor that and i was always runnin down to my roomates car to test the tracks........bummer!

spend a little dough...upgrade later..is my philosophy.

 

[TexRoadkill]

spend a little dough...upgrade later..is my philosophy.

Otherwise known as buy cheap buy twice.

 

[CoolCat]

I currently use my sony stereo to monitor my recordings....I only do music not vocals....Why should i invest in some good studio monitors? what are some of the advantages?

the whole idea is when your done you can hand your mix to anyone and they can play it back anywhere, on any playback system without making the listener puke and even better yet they might like it.


but as far as Advantage of "Studio" Monitors and Hifi speakers and REFERENCE and other labels glued to the front of a cabinet....your ears should be able to tell your mix translates.

as far as studio monitors, any monitor put in your studio is a studio monitor...even NS10's which where HiFi stereo speakers.

There used to be a design goal in general, that "Studio" speakers were flat freq response from 20-20K and were made especially for Recording Engineers, and Home HIFI speakers were known as "scooped mids" to sound good for the average Joe listener (in addition to the loudness button).

But now there is such a massive puking of "STUDIO" monitors, almost all of them sounding different, though they all are supposedly FLAT REFERENCE SPEC'D Monitors...it is often believed many are just trying to make them sound good so people will buy them in Guitar Center.

so my 2 cents is buy some Yorkville YSM1p's and if you can afford it some DYNAUDIO's. If you can Barefoots Monitors or how about some B&W mains...

 

[turtlishous]

Otherwise known as buy cheap buy twice.

ohhhh!!! that's harsh....but true

i hate bein' po'

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The only GUARANTEED difference between "studio monitors" and "hi-fi speakers" is what it says on the nameplate. Everything else is bullshit.

That said, real studios have monitoring systems that'll blow away anything but the highest-end audiophile speakers.

G.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

And the 30-odd-rep power mullethead (I'm pretty sure I know who you are)who gave me negative rep and called me all sorts of four-letter vile names anonymously for telling the absolute truth in the last post has to grow up and learn about what they're talking about before they make such judgemnts and berate someone like me for something like that.

I stand by that post as being 100% truth based upon almost thirty years of experinece building, selling, buying, and using "hi fi", "audiophile" and "studio" loudspeakers.

The fact is there are plenty of "hi fi" loudspeakers out there that work a hell of a lot better for studio work than many of the econo "studio monitors" being sold today, *and* vice versa.

The whole thing about "hi fi" speakers purposely "scooping" the mids or "boosting" the lows and his is, on balance, pure myth. An equal myth is that "studio montor" automatically means flat response. If studio monitors were so damn flat, why does everyone always argue that KRK is better than Tannoy (or equally vice versa) or that Mackie is better than Event (or equally vice versa)? If they were all so damn flat or so damn good sounding, there'd be no such heated arguments.

Are many "studio monitors" flatter and better than many "hi fi" loudspeakers? Of course. But many "hi fi" loudspeakers are just as good if not better than many of the crapola loudspeakers that have the title "studio monitor" slapped upon them also.

So the punk kid who's using foul, angry language that their mothers should wash their mouths out with soap for using to berate me anonymously in private should step forward here and now and humbly apologize for being such a jackass.

G.

 

[turtlishous]

god...i hope you don't think thats me?>(bad rep guy).......your right on everthing except one thing i might have to argue with is...

if you don't have any money , should you give up on recording your ideas the best you can afford?

not everyone can afford to be a gearhead, i currently have to settle with the cheap stuff to get down what i need to.

this home recording hobbiest craze is still a new concept, with everything you can do now as apposed to 20 years ago.

hell, 20 years ago,tascam portastudio was the top of the line for budget home recording. things are much different now, everyday they're are huge leaps in tech. science.

i really don't need to point this out to a pro................

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

if you don't have any money , should you give up on recording your ideas the best you can afford?

Not necessarily. But shopping around before buying is something I'd definitely recommend. There are some jewels to be found in the economy range, but there's also a lot of drek.

Would I recommend in general that someone use a pairl of hi fi bookshelf speakers to engineer upon? Nope. But that doesn't mean that great ones can't be found. Back in the early '80s, beofre nearfields became the rage I had a pair of pre-Japan Infinity RS 10 6" 2-ways. They had a standard street price of $99 each, but they had an incredibly good sound with very easy translation. If I still had them today (and the surrounds did not give way after 15 years of daily use), I'd put them and a $20 bill up against any comparable "studio monitor" that cost 50 percent more. Supposedly those new Swan compact speakers are of a similar ilk. Not designed to be "studio monitors", but dollar for dollar, work better than most alleged "studio monitors" for actual studio monitoring.

On the other side of the coin, can decent nearfield "studio monitors" be found on the cheap? Yeah, there are surely a few out there. But there are also many that frankly aren't any flatter or more accurate than your average bookshelf loudspeaker, and there is nothing really any more special in their internal or external design than what goes into a decent-quality "hi fi" loudspeaker design.

Just because something says "studio monitor" on the box does not automatically mean that it is any good - let alone better - than something that is not so labeled. It may very well be, but it also may not. And just because something is labeled as a "hi fi" speaker does not mean that it has an artificial response curve designed into it. It may very well be a crap loudspeaker, but it also may very well be a good design with good extended response and great translation.

So whether one is spending $200 or $20,000 for their studio monitors, there is only one answer. Listen for yourself and ignore what it says on the box.

G.

 

[mshilarious]

There used to be a design goal in general, that "Studio" speakers were flat freq response from 20-20K and were made especially for Recording Engineers, and Home HIFI speakers were known as "scooped mids" to sound good for the average Joe listener (in addition to the loudness button).

But now there is such a massive puking of "STUDIO" monitors, almost all of them sounding different, though they all are supposedly FLAT REFERENCE SPEC'D Monitors...it is often believed many are just trying to make them sound good so people will buy them in Guitar Center.

20-20 is a nearly impossible spec for any monitor in the budget range. Flat response at 20Hz requires a pretty good sized woofer. I use a very good quality 10", and that is still not flat down to 20Hz--more like 40Hz. A 6.5" is going to drop off below 100Hz and probably higher.

On the high end, many cheap tweeters will drop after 16kHz. That isn't too critical though, there isn't a lot of info up there to mess with anyway. However, cheap tweeters fuzz up the highs a lot, even if they measure flat.

 

[Raydio]

I currently use my sony stereo to monitor my recordings....I only do music not vocals....Why should i invest in some good studio monitors? what are some of the advantages?

Just think, if you're sony stereo monitors were SOOOOOoo good; you wouldnt be on this forum considering buying another source for listening. Not trying to be an asshole but just think about it! I once asked this same question my friend.


Now... if this post helped you out, please be sure to listen to my music @ http://www.soundclick.com/raydio

 

[reyvee61]

I agree with much that has been written here and I wanted to expand a bit on what SS Glen wrote about the difference of hi-fi sytems and studio monitors.

I agree whole heartedly about the difference being a crock, there are plenty of systems I have heard in my thirty years as a listener and performer that are unbelievably flat in freq response. Many of these systems where behemoth monsters from the likes of Infinity, Polk Audio and other high end products that cost an arm and two legs. Others where impressively large in sound and small in size.

My piont being, there are other factors for us home recorders to consider buying a good pair of monitors.

Space

Nearfields (optimal listening distance= the distance from the end of your desk/console to the surface of the drivers) where created to assist in studios for the porpose mentioned in the brackets.

Accuracy

Are all of the frequncies properly aligned? Flat from 20 to 20khz or as close to flat as possible.

Footprint

This ties back into the amount of space you have to work with.

Imaging

This is related to frequency response but is also factored by alignment of drivers as well as the actual position of the enclosures themselves.

Price

While most decent monitors are pricey they are still far less costly than high end audiophile drivers.

With thses factors in mind I highly reccomend the Dynaudio BM5A's. I have owned these monitors for nearly a year now and for just under 1000 US dollars they are well worth every penny.

I mulled over this issue and what to spend my hard earned dollars on but I believe TexasRoadkill summed it up nicely

Otherwise known as buy cheap buy twice.

Another good point was made by flatfinger:

more "flat" (though not perfectly) and less embellished. Mind you lots of folks consider the venerable ( or infamous, depending on yer bias) yamaha NS-10 to be very weak in the bass yet many great mixes have been done with them. It's knowing them (whatever you monitor with) and how what you mix will translate that is important.

I decided to take a different approach though since prior to purchasing monitors I too mixed using only the cans. (me bad)

Intersting thread indeed.

 

[turtlishous]

if you don't have any money , should you give up on recording your ideas the best you can afford?

...

that was meant to be a retohrical(spell check)question.

 

[EDAN]

I agree whole heartedly about the difference being a crock, there are plenty of systems I have heard in my thirty years as a listener and performer that are unbelievably flat in freq response. Many of these systems where behemoth monsters from the likes of Infinity, Polk Audio and other high end products that cost an arm and two legs

Sorry, but Polk aren't really considered a high end speakers. Don't know much about Infinity.

 

[reyvee61]

That can be argued, perhaps there are other nameplates out there these days that I am not keeping track of but back in the days Polk Audio was highly touted among high end dealers and audiophiles alike.

At any rate any company like Dynaudio (Polk Audio included) who has complete control over their product from R & D to manufacture has the upper edge considering many nameplates do not make their own drivers, which goes back to SS Glen's statement about the farce of monitors vs audiophile systems.

 

[xstatic]

Flat shmat. No opne wants to hear flat monitors anyhow. What makes a monitor good is how well it translates, the detail, the depth, the extension... both high and low and throughout different output volumes... and how accurately it reproduces what it is fed. If flat monitors were all we needed, all of them would sound the same. As far as hi fi goes, who cares? Like Glen said earlier.... There plenty of "hi fi" speakers that are excellent speakers for tracking, mixing, or mastering. There are also plenty of "studio monitors" that are horrid for those same chores.

 

[reyvee61]

Flat Shmat! I like that!

Definitely a topic of opinions/preferences as well as facts and science isn't it?