The Truth about

Studio Monitors
A Common Sense approach to uncovering the
"Truth" about what we hear
So lets talk about studio monitors. A thorny subject to be sure, with as many opinions as is
believable. As with microphones and sequencers, the debate often turns into flame-fests. Yet
there has been some progress in our understanding of monitors. Nearly everyone seems to
agree that one needs a "near field" monitor to accurately assess the music they are creating. A
near field monitor is one that you keep pretty close to you, typically between 3-5 feet. The idea
here is that the music we hear is dramatically altered by room acoustics. Go try a little
experiment. Take any speaker and put it in the corner of a room. You will hear bass resonating
through the room that does not exist when the speaker is in the middle of the room.

Those with big buck studios can afford to treat their room acoustically, with bass traps and other
devices. Perhaps those are the only places where one still sees the mammoth monitors that
create wall sized sound. The near field monitor is the solution to minimize as much as possible
the interaction of sound with the room. Because they are positioned close to you, you hear the
sound directly. Because they are so close you need less volume, so less of the sound travels to
walls and corners and bounces back at you.

Unlike a hi-fi speaker, which is designed, hopefully, to make all audio material sound pleasing to
the ear, the studio monitor has as it's main objective to paint an accurate audio image of the
material, with no unnatural emphasis or de-emphasis of particular frequencies. This is what it
means when a monitor is said to be "flat". and "uncolored" or "transparent". That's the theory at
least. Reality sometimes paints a different picture. And this is where the arguing typically begins.

Should a Monitor be Flat? I want my Bass! The Story of Studio A vs. Studio B

Should a monitor really be flat? Some say no. They say buy a monitor that you like to listen to,
that your favorite music sounds great on, then match your efforts in the mix to produce that sound
you love. Others, however, say if certain frequencies are over represented, you will under-
represent them in your mix. Huh? Ok here we go. Studio Jock A has a bass-shy set of
nearfields. S/he like the bass strong and thumpin' So they make those little 6 inch woofs pop to
the beat. When Jock A goes to Jock B's studio, equipped with subwoofers, Jock A realizes his or
her mix is nothing but one giant wash of low frequency mud. Ah, dude, you lost that one. But
before you go post on my forum "HELP ME!!!!!!!, my mix thounds like thiiiit" keep reading, ok?
Now Jock B in his premium subwoofer enhanced bass studio smiles condescendingly at Jock A,
tweaks a mix to pure sonic bass perfection. The Bass is just blowin' everyone's chest away like a
heart attack, but the rest of the mix appears strong and balanced in all frequency regions. Jock B
smugly walks a CD to Jock A's studio and loads his latest mix. To their astonishment, the bass is
gone, not even present except a little wimpy tap-tap-tap of a cardboard sounding kik drum. Tweak
rolls on the floor, laughing his a** off. Jock B sputters, having lost his composure, "W-w-w.here
did my bass go!??" Ahem, the "truth" is that because Jock B heard the bass so well in his studio,
he did not put enough into the mix, and the little "flat" monitors at studio A didn't give a flying cone
excursion.

This brings us to Tweak's Law, which says, whatever your monitors are good at is exactly what
your mix will be bad at. So then, what is the "Truth" in monitoring? Who has the Truth? Hehe,
how dare they name a monitor after it! Is it just like a war of religions? Nope. The "truth" really
has less to do with the monitor itself and more to do with the experience of the producer. The
truth is that if your music is successful, people will listen to it in the car, on boom boxes, on their
walkman, on mom's kitchen radio with the 3 inch speaker, in living rooms with surround systems,
in listening booths a cd stores, on TV, and every once in a while, maybe 1 out of every 100
listens, someone will hear it on good speakers, and maybe, if you are lucky 1 out of 1000 on
studio monitors. The real truth is in the understanding of how your mix on your monitors
translates to other listening conditions. That is, you have to really "know" your monitors. The
main thing is to get a set you are comfortable with, that you can listen to all day. Your ears will
actually "learn" the monitor. As you check you mix on other systems, you will learn about your
systems deficiencies and compensate. The truth is not a quality of the object, but a quality of ear,
mind and experience. "It's in your head".

So what makes a good Monitor?

So, then, what makes a good monitor, other than the sound it produces? A good monitor is
rugged, and can handle peaks, overloads, feedback mistakes and come back ready for more. It's
funny. I started my sound development business on hi-end 3-way audiophile speakers, which
worked great for a year. But with the constant tweaking of sound experiments in sub bass
regions, the woofers just popped right out of their cones with a 360 degree rip around the cone.
Bummer. Hi-Fi speakers are not made to take abuse above typical programmed material. Sure
you can use them, just don't use them as the main monitors.

A good monitor does not artificially exaggerate frequencies. You do not want a speaker that
sounds like a "disco smile". That's where the bass and the treble are boosted and the mids are
cut. They call it a "smile" because that's how it looks on a graphic equalizer. Lots of people really
like that sound. If you like that sound, mix up a nice smile for your monitors. Then it might
actually translate on other systems. But if you speakers make that automatically, you mix will be
shown lacking in bass and high transients. Using that principle was the secret behind the
Yamaha NS-10s, the most horrible sounding speaker ever made. On an NS10 there was no bass,
no high end, just screeching awful sounding peaky mids. People who referenced on them had to
boost the bass massively and cut the mids. The resultant mix? Yep, the disco smile. It made hit
after hit and people thought they were magic. If you could make the shrill box sound passable, it
would sound great everywhere else.
So now you know my biases. I know you are wondering which monitors I think are "best" over
there on the right. I know you aren't going to let me get away with just saying "the ones your ears
like". So many choices! All the monitors you see are workable solutions. So how do you know if
your ears like them? You have to listen (Doh!) of course, but listen "comparatively". I suggest
taking along your absolute most known CD--a mix you know intimately and have head a few
million times, like "Stairway to Heaven". You "know" how it should sound. It's in your bones. If
you hear stuff you have never heard before, give that monitor a point. Now listen for deficiencies
in the bass. Is the voice coil working really hard to produce very little bass? Is there a certain
bass resonance, a sound of air rushing out the ports? Is the high end smooth? Or is it harsh and
grainy. Is the box squawking at mid range frequencies? These are all "box deficiencies". The
more speakers you listen to, the more you will hear the problems. Then it dawns on you, you can
find a problem with every enclosure and know there is no perfect monitor. So you look at the
higher end and you find that the better priced monitors typically exhibit fewer objectionable
problems. The end is always a compromise with what you like and what you want to spend.

Summing Up

Fortunately, when you get your new monitors home, and set them up, placing them exactly where
your ears want them, the learning process begins. As you gain experience attending to your
audio, you will learn to improve your mixes. You'll know your monitor's "blind spots" and will learn
to check on other systems. The more you do that, the more your monitors become a true
reference. I hope I have shown that reference is not a quality of a box, but a quality of your
attention and experience.
q/a
q: What is the difference between Active Monitors and regular Speakers
Tweak: Active monitors have have a power amp built right into them. Usually, these are mounted
on the back. "Regular speakers" which are also called passive monitors, require an amplifier to
drive them. The idea behind active monitors is to match them to an amp which is ideal to drive
them. This takes some of the guesswork out of buying a monitoring system. Also, since active
monitors are connected directly to your mixing board or audio interface, they eliminate speaker
wires and hence another source of potential trouble

q: OK Tweak, just tell me the most important thing I need to know in One Sentence. Keep
it real simple dude!

Tweak: Hah. Ok, here's one for you. The ideal monitor must deliver sound quality when you
have sound quality and not deliver it when you do not have it.
q: Hey Tweak, I have Passive monitors. How in th' heck do I hook up my sound card to my
home stereo. I can use passive studio monitors with a stereo right?

Tweak: Passive monitors work exactly like any other speaker system, so yes, plug them in like
you would your speakers, observing the proper polarity for positive and negative. You may want
to pay attention to the watts per channel of the amp. You don't want to connect a 35 watt RMS
receiver to some big monitors that are designed to handle 100 watts per channel. And
underpowered amp does more harm than an overpowered amp especially when you crank the
underpowered amp up. I have used receivers of 100-120 watts RMS with passive monitors and
they worked fine.
q: Is it possible to get a flat mix with any monitor, given you do acoustical treatment to the
room and measure the room's response with test equipment?

Tweak: Indeed, bass traps and sound diffusers can dramatically help any monitor deliver its
potential. A bad room can mess with the sound of the best monitors in the world.

KRK RP5G2 Rokit G2 Powered 2-Way Active Monitor

The KRK RP5G2 Rokit G2 Powered Studio Monitor takes this KRK design to new heights. All of
the great stuff that Rokits have been known for including front-firing bass port, soft-domed
tweeter, glass aramid composite yellow cone are still there, but the G2 Rokits feature refined
voicing and a new curved baffle that looks great, reduces diffraction and provides even better
monitoring accuracy.

Why KRK Active Monitor Speakers?

Studio monitors need to present an accurate tonal balance so that you know what your recording
really sounds like, but at the same time they need to be able to focus on subtle details within the
sound. They also need to be able to play adequately loudly without distortion. KRK’s designs
meet these requirements and offer exceptional value. There are three ranges to cover different
budgets and monitoring requirements: KRK Rokit, KRK VXT and KRK Exposé .
What do I lose by buying the inexpensive Rokit G2 models?

All KRK speakers present an accurate tonal balance of your mix where even the less expensive
models are excellent at resolving fine detail within the sound. However, the more sophisticated
VXT range is capable of finer resolution and more accurate stereo imaging while the Exposé is
the result of our engineers designing the very best possible, no compromise system. It's rather
similar to camera lenses — there are some very good budget lenses around that give great
results under typical conditions, but for specialty applications, the more expensive ones deliver a
higher level of quality.
Why Active?

All the KRK speakers are active so you don't need to worry about choosing a matching amplifier
or expensive cabling. KRK Active speakers also have the advantage that protection for both the
amplifiers and speakers is built in.
What Size Monitor?

Once you have worked out your budget, which determines which KRK range you'll be looking at,
the next thing to take into consideration is room size and shape.

For small rooms where the wall length is under three metres, using too large a speaker with an
extended bass response may produce misleading results, as the room will distort the bass
response of the speaker. More accurate results will be obtained using smaller speakers such as
the Rokit 5 G2 or VXT 4. As a rule, small rooms with solid brick or concrete walls are the most
problematic as they reflect all the bass energy back into the room. Plasterboard walls allow some
of the low frequency energy to escape, so whist they’re not as good from the soundproofing point
of view, they can help improve monitoring accuracy.
Notes For Small Rooms

Avoid sitting in the exact centre of a small room, particularly one that is close to being square-
shaped. In this environment, bass reflections tend to cause a dead spot near the centre where
the bass level seems to drop dramatically. This can lead you to compensate and actually add too
much bass to your mixes. The worst possible rooms for acoustics are cube-shaped where the
wall lengths and room height are equal. Here your best bet it to use smaller monitors and work
close to them. Avoid sitting too close to the centre of the room.

ALWAYS set up the speakers so they are directed down the longest wall of a rectangular room as
this produces the most even bass response. Aiming the speakers across a small room invariably
leads to bass accuracy problems.

Check the evenness of the bass response by playing a track with a busy bass line and listen to
see if all the notes are roughly equal in level. If not, try moving the speaker further from, or closer
to the walls. Avoid placing speakers too close to corners as this can also result in unpredictable
bass behavior.

In medium sized rooms measuring around 3 x 4 metres, you can take advantage of a slightly
larger speaker to give you better bass extension and a little more overall level. Here the Rokit 6
G2 or VXT6 will produce good results, and if the room is slightly larger than 3 x 4 metres,
consider a speaker with an eight inch bass driver such as the Rokit 8 G2 and VXT8. If the room is
to be used for serious music projects or commercial work, then the Expose E8Bs would be
perfectly suited.
Basic Room Treatment

In all cases, some basic acoustic treatment will significantly improve the clarity of the monitoring
and also improve the stereo imaging. Fitting acoustic foam panels to either side of the listening
position makes the biggest improvement. As an alternative, you can make your own panels from
high-density rock-wool slab covered with a thin, open-weave fabric.

To find the exact place to hang your panels, get a friend to hold a mirror flat against the wall.
When you can see an image of the speaker from your normal monitoring positions, that's where
you should place the centre of your panel. In small rooms, additional absorbing panels can be
useful directly behind you and also behind the speakers. However, don't cover more than 20% of
the wall area with absorbers, otherwise the room will start to sound boxy. As a rule, the thicker the
absorbing panels, the more effective they are at low frequencies where most are from 50 to
400mm thick.
Subwoofers

Note that all the Rokit G2 and VXT models can be used with a sub-woofer, such as the KRK10S
for the Rokit G2 / VXT range or the V12s for use with the VXT and Expose ranges. So, if you buy
small monitors for a small room and then move into a larger space, you don't have to trade in
your existing monitors. Just add a sub. While subs are not ideally suited to very small rooms, they
work well in medium and larger rooms to extend the bass end of the system and also to increase
the maximum monitoring level of which the system is capable. Those who do a lot of dance-style
mixing may prefer the depth of bass that a sub can provide.
Where To Put The Sub?

Positioning the sub isn't difficult but it should ideally be in front of the listening position and close
to, but not at, the centre of the wall behind the main monitors. If necessary, a sub can be
positioned well off to one side without compromising the stereo image since the human hearing
system is relatively insensitive to positional information at bass frequencies.

A good tip for finding the best sub location is to first stand the sub on the floor where you normally
place your listening chair. Then, with some well-balanced music playing, sit on the floor in all the
different positions where your sub could go. One of those positions should give the most even
bass level (no obviously loud or quiet notes) so that's where you put your sub. Where the sub is
fitted with a phase switch, try both settings to see which sounds most natural. Avoid putting subs
under desks with enclosed sides as the cavity created by the desk may resonate.
Notes On Setting Up

All conventional monitors work best when the tweeter is aimed directly at the head of the listener
so you may need to angle your speakers vertically as well as horizontally to achieve this. Dense
foam wedges are good for this and also help isolate the monitors from desktops or shelves.

Where the monitor speakers are set up on separate stands, ‘Blu Tak’ or non-slip matting is all you
need to support the speaker securely.

Avoid any obstacles between you and the speakers that might reflect the sound and degrade the
stereo imaging. This includes large expanses of desktop, the edges of computer screens,
equipment racks and so on.

All speakers sound slightly different depending on where they are in the room, and on the
acoustic properties of the room. Fortunately, your hearing can compensate providing you play
some commercial mixes over the system to get used to the way they sound in your room.
However, you should endeavor to find the best location for the speakers first, the main priority
being an even bass response. If you have a synth or sampler that can play pure sine wave tones,
you can program a chromatic (semi-tone steps) scale covering the bottom two or three octaves of
the audio spectrum (make sure all the notes are the same level) and then let this sequence
through as you listen. If you detect a hot note or find that some notes sound very dead, move
your monitors forwards or backwards to see if you can make an improvement. Sometimes a
movement of just a few inches can make a huge difference.

You need proper near-field (sometimes called "closefield") studio monitors to do serious mixing.
Before I got good monitor speakers, it took me a long time to figure out how to set EQ for the
mixes so that things would sound good on random cassette players...and it was tons harder when
I attempted to mix with headphones, even good ones.

The purpose of good mixing monitors is not for them to sound good or to make your music sound
good. It's so you can hear what your music really sounds like, so you can make it sound good!

It's not that they're supposed to sound bad, it's that they're not supposed to sound good. They're
not supposed to sound bad either. They're just there to reproduce accurately how the music
sounds, especially at close range (because you normally sit a lot closer to studio monitors than
listening-type speakers).

Most high-end "speaker systems" are set up for theoretical flat response in anechoic chambers
and other details that impress the hi-fi buffs. And in the real world, most people who are listening
(rather than mixing) diddle with their EQ settings to make the music sound the way they want to
hear it. And they rarely sit a meter or so away from both speakers at once as we generally do
when mixing.

Near-field monitors are made to reproduce music in your studio in such a way so that when you
hear it sounding good, it will sound good on boom boxes, stereo systems, and truck radios too.
Buying Monitors

You almost have to use published reviews to narrow things down to 2 or 3 competing systems in
your price range, because experienced reviewers have tried the monitors while mixing, whereas
any Jo Schmoe with a computer can post "these things sound awesome"...oblivious to whether
that sound translates to mixes. Again, the important thing is not do they sound cool, but do they
mix well!

Assuming that you're listening to monitors that have been well-reviewed for mixing, I'd listen for
clarity and shimmer and good bass tones, and I wouldn't want to hear distortion, buzzing, or
excess thumping. Make sure you hear good stereo imaging in more than just one tiny "sweet
spot"...you don't want to have to keep your head still forever while mixing.

Crank it up and turn it down. Good speakers can take the former without flinching (make sure that
nothing rattles or buzzes, even at VERY LOUD VOLUMES) and will sound good (although you
won't hear everything) at lower volumes too.

When you hear good monitors, instruments may jump out at you without warning, you may hear
subtle things you never heard before, or hair may suddenly grow in strange places on your body.
But they won't necessarily make you want to dance, because they don't emphasize frequencies
at either end of the spectrum (or the middle, for that matter) the way "listening speakers" tend to
do.

Monitors for home studios come in two main types: active and passive. The active types have an
integrated power amplifier that has been optimized to work properly with the speakers. Passive
monitors (a.k.a. "speakers" :-) need an external power amp. If you happen to have a good one
laying around, it's generally cheaper to buy passive monitors.

"Digital-Ready Monitors"

...are ordinary monitors with a fancy name and a jacked-up price to deceive the unwary. Speakers
can't tell the difference between analog and digital, other than the fact that loud sounds played
through good digital equipment will be equivalent to playing the original instruments, and will
therefore announce the speakers' poor quality by having the cones rip right out...
another source:

Studio Monitors (Reference Speakers)

When you're going to choose studio monitors for your recording studio it's important to know that
these monitors are not supposed to provide a rich audio experience, as you would expect from a
hi-fi music system.

These studio monitor speakers are designed to provide an accurate image of whatever sound
source you are listening to, so you can hear exactly what is going on in your production. When
you hear the phrases "flat frequency response" or "uncolored sound", this is what they mean. The
speakers tell the "cold hard truth" about your mix.

Studio monitors are also known as reference speakers, as that is exactly what they should
provide. A reference sound. And that might be the most important point in choosing studio
monitors. How they sound in reference to other sound systems.
People will be listening to your music on various sound systems, on small radios, in their car, on
their $1000 hi-fi rig, and you want your music to sound good on all of the above.

This is why an important part of mixing is to test and learn how the sound transfers to other
systems, really get to know your speakers. Believe me, this has great impact on the end result of
your mix.

Near-field studio monitors

Near-field or close-field monitors are the most common types of studio monitors, especially in
home recording studios. They are designed for near field listening (sitting about 3 to 5 feet away).
Listening at this distance will make poor room acoustics less important (as the sound hits your
ears before bouncing off any other surfaces). This is great for a home recording studio since you
probably haven't had an acoustic engineer designing your living room or bedroom.

An expression you may come across related to monitoring sound is "sweet spot". This is the spot
exactly in the middle between the speakers, where you will hear the full stereo image. It might
read in studio monitor descriptions that they have a "large sweet spot". This means that you can
move your head around and still be able to hear the full stereo sound. This is also known as a
"uniform off-axis response".

Close to all studio mixing is done with near-field studio speakers.

Mid and Far-field monitors

These monitors are usually not suitable at all for a home recording studio. These are larger and
more expensive and demand an acoustically treated room to provide the proper reference sound.

Active vs. Passive monitors

You also have to choose between active and passive speakers. Active speakers, a.k.a. powered
or bi-amplified speakers, have a built in power amplifier inside its casing.

Unpowered/passive monitors do not. Active studio monitors have some advantages over passive
ones. They save space, as they don't need that extra amplifier. The amp is matched to the
speaker so you don't have to worry about your external amp not matching your speaker
frequencies.

Just keep in mind that when choosing active monitors, each of them run on AC power.

Studio Speaker placement

This is very important, as it can have great impact on your monitors ability to perform right.

Room placement

The speakers should not be placed directly beside a wall or into a corner, and they should be
placed on stands, separate from your recording desk. The stands should rest on spikes to
prevent vibrations from traveling through the floor.

Listening position

The listener should be placed at the tip of a perfect triangle according to the speakers. Say you
place the speakers 5 feet apart, then there has to be 5 feet from each speaker to your ears. Angle
the studio monitors directly towards the listener. Keep the monitors tweeters (treble part of the
speaker) level with your ears.

I know there are lots and lots of discussions on how to do this. The pros and semi-pros treat this
part as a science. This is just a brief general description of how I do it.

Most Importantly.....

I believe that getting to know your speakers is the best way to be successful. Spend some time
and learn how it sounds in reference to other systems, then you can act accordingly when
changing your mix.

My recommendation in studio monitors:

Behringer B2031A Truth Active Monitors

another source
Monitors

One of the most confusing aspects of audio reproduction involves loudspeakers and their effect
on how we
perceive the sound of our work. Just as microphones each have a characteristic sound, speakers
have distinct
colorations that they impart to the sound we play through them. The similarities are not
coincidental: both microphones and speakers are physical transducers, with mechanical
properties that directly affect how they
perform the task of converting energy to and from mechanical and electronic representations.

Since we cannot hear electronic signals directly, we need some form of transducer to convert
them back to
mechanical vibrations that we may hear. Like microphones, loudspeakers come in a variety of
types; however
the main type is similar to a dynamic microphone in reverse: applying an electronic signal to a coil
attached to a
diaphragm causes the coil and diaphragm to move in a fixed magnetic field. There are also
electrostatic
loudspeakers which may be thought of as more similar to a condensor microphone and even
plasma speakers,
which use high voltage discharges to move the air, but these types are not commonly found in the
studio and will not be discussed further here.

What we need to understand is how the dynamic loudspeaker an

d its enclosure interact with the surrounding environment and convey sound information to our
ears. Not only does this involve the speaker itself, but it also involves the room in which we are
listening and the interaction of the speaker with the room. J
ust as no two pianos or guitars sound exactly alike, so it goes with loudspeakers. So how can we
deal with this dilemma?

In order to understand what we hear from the monitor loudspeaker, we need to appreciate how
the speaker
works and how it interacts with the room in which it is placed. Most loudspeakers are actually
composed of two or three separate elements that divide up the frequency range from 20 to
20,000 Hz. This is because no
single driver is capable of producing precise transduction across that wide a frequency range.
Instead, the monitor divides the signal into separate frequency bands with filters called
crossovers and each frequency band
is fed to the appropriate speaker element. These filters are passive in the case of unpowered
monitors
and active in the case of powered monitors. Powered monitors contain their own power amps
and these may be carefully
tailored to produce controlled sound reproduction with the exact speakers and geometries used.
Unpowered
monitors require external amplification and divide the frequencies after the amplifier output as
opposed to the
active crossovers found before the amplifiers in powered speakers. Powered monitors have the
advantage of
separate amplifiers for each element, which eliminates intermodulatio
n distortion that occurs when high and low frequencies interact in the power amplifier circuitry.
Powered monitors have become very widely used
recently.

In addition to the mechanical and electronic components, the physical enclosure of the monitor
contributes significantly to the sound produced. There are two basic enclosure types: bass reflex,
in which the enclosure is
“ported”, or open to the outside, and acoustic suspension, in which the cabinet is sealed. The
bass reflex type
allows the designer to extend and shape the low frequency performance of the speaker by tuning
the port to
resonate with the speaker components. Acoustic suspension speakers may have less low
frequency output for a
given size, but they have a tight, defined bass sound. Because they are less efficient than bass
reflex speakers, it often takes a significantly larger power amp to properly drive acoustic
suspension speakers. Simple open back
cabinets popular for guitar amps are not found in studio monitoring. They result in dipo
les, with sound radiated out the rear out of phase with the sound from the front, a condition not
desirable when we are trying to generate
the best imaging and clarity from our loudspeakers. They may be more efficient but do not give
the controlled
sound
radiation pattern we want from studio monitors.

In addition to the speakers’ design, their placement in the room will have a profound effect on
what we h
ear.Low frequencies tend to “build up” near walls and especially in corners. Therefore, the
placement of the
speakers should minimize these problems. They should also be positioned so that reflections will
not bounce
back and interfere with the direct sound radiation. People often think they can fix bad room
sound by
equalizing the sound system: this is a mistake. The effects that tend to ruin the sound are time
domain problems, involving sound bouncing off of surfaces and creating interference patter
ns in the room. No amount of equalization will fix this except possibly for a tiny spot in which the
measurement microphone is positioned.Standing waves must be addressed by absorbers and
diffusers built into the room to break up reflections and
absorb unwanted accumulations of bass frequencies.

Speakers are also classified according to the distance at which they are designed to focus their
sound output:
near field, mid field, and far field. These terms refer to the listener’s relative perception of the
direct to reflected sound ratio. Nearfield speakers are designed to be heard in the near field,
where the direct sound far
exceeds the reflected sound intensity. Near field monitors are desirable in part because their
sound is largely
independent of t
he room, hence their popularity for home and project studios where acoustics are often less than
perfect. Mid field monitors are designed to be heard from a longer distance, where the reflected
sound and
direct sound are about equal. Farfield speakers a
re designed to “throw” the sound a longer distance from the
speaker, where the reverberant field may be stronger than the directly radiated sound. Farfield
speakers are
often soffit or wall mounted in large control rooms.

Finally, there are the very nearfield speakers we call headphones. Headphones are small
speakers mounted for
direct to the ear delivery of sound. While they are often used for monitoring during recording, for
overdubbing, for example, they are generally not designed for use in critic
al tasks like mixing. Although some
headphones are designed as free field, they produce effects quite unlike speakers since they are
directly coupled
to our ears with little air to intervene. Headphones are often useful in examining panning (spatial
plac
ement in
a mix) and for hearing effects like reverb which may tend to get lost in a room’s acoustic field, but
they are not
likely to represent the sound any loudspeaker is going to produce very accurately. The center
image created by
loudspeakers for sounds emanating from stereo speakers does not sound the same in
headphones. And a
caution: it is quite easy to deliver dangerously loud sounds via headphones and ear fatigue can
soon be a
problem. It is strongly recommended that prolonged headphone use be
tempered by frequent rest periods.

Just as with microphones, we must practice and experience the results over time in order to fully
appreciate how
the monitors we use affect the sound we produce. Fortunately, CCRMA has several different sets
of monitors
in different studios that can be used to evaluate the contribution of the loudspeaker to the final
sound of our
recordings. While we must mix on a single set (or at most a couple of sets) of monitors, we can
take our mixes
around to the other studios and listen on the other speakers. This often reveals some problems
we might not
have heard on the Westlake BBSM10 monitors that are the main loudspeakers in the control
room. For example, the Genelec 1030A speakers in Studio E are very detailed and
brightsounding and will emphasize problems with high frequency content and imaging. The JBL
LSR28P monitors in Studio C have stronger bass
performance and reveal problems with the low frequencies more easily. Although the BBSM10s
present the
midrange and higher frequency sounds very accurately, we sometimes have trouble adjusting the
low frequency
content using just the Westlakes and have also installed a pair of JBL 4206, which have an
exaggerated, rather
boomy low end. It is possible to create mixes which
sound good on all of these systems after several experiences of listening on the varied systems
we have available and making appropriate adjustments to the mix. You will find that the more time
you devote to evaluating your mixes on the different monitor
systems, the less mastering will be required for your final product.