Recording - March 2014 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: Mike Metlay
SENIOR EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner
TECHNICAL CONSULTANT: Paul Vnuk Jr.
EDITOR AT LARGE: Beto Hale
MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

CONTRIBUTORS
Paul Vnuk Jr., Eleanor Goldfield,
Darwin Grosse, Paul J. Stamler,
Bruce Black, Marty Peters

Got your ears on?
Some demonstrations of the value of reliable hearing are more dramatic than others.
I had spent much of November and December doing critical listening tests of the
speakers, headphones, and in-ear monitors reviewed in this issue, taking notes all the
while. No sooner had I finished the bulk of my work in early January than I caught...
well, it was either a mild case of the flu or the great-grandmother of all colds, but either
way, it flattened me... and as many of you will probably know from firsthand experience, the congestion wrecked my ability to hear with anything like accuracy.
Lying in bed, I had a lot of time to think about how important our hearing is, and how
much we rely on being able to hear accurately in the pursuit of creating great music. If
you were suddenly unable to be sure of what you were hearing in the studio, unable to
know whether it was true to the music you were trying to record and present to others,
what would you do?
In this issue, we take a detailed look at the science and practice of monitoring, and
we tackle hard issues that every recording musician needs to deal with... not "sooner
rather than later", but right now.
No fewer than four of our authors-including Marty Peters in a rare guest editorial away
from his Readers' Tapes column-lay out a fundamental truth about building a usable studio, one that nobody wants to hear: namely, that you have to worry about your room and
your speakers first, and everything else second. Monitors are not always sexy, and neither
is room treatment. But without them, the coolest new microphone or plug-in is worthless.
So you need monitors and a good room... now what? That's what this special issue is for.
Paul J. Stamler returns to our pages with the first of a 2-part article on building a studio "from the outside in." In it, he explains the basics of room treatment and gets us
ready to set up our speakers... and then to do the rest of what we need to make music.
Paul Vnuk Jr. tackles the difficult problem of translation: how to be sure that your mixes
sound great, not only on your great speakers in your treated room, but also in the many
places where they will be listened to. From the car to the Bluetooth speaker system to the
laptop to the smartphone, Paul explains how to make your mixes work in the 21st Century.
If all this seems a bit intimidating for you, start with Eleanor Goldfield's article, in
which she lays out the basics of choosing and setting up monitors in terms anyone can
understand. Once you have your monitors in hand, follow along as Bruce Black teaches you how to isolate them for better sound... and how to control the low end in your
control room quickly and easily. And for those situations (and we know they're out there)
where no monitoring solution will be perfect, I discuss the ups and downs of doing critical studio work on headphones. Yes, it can be done...
The flip side of any good Special Issue is a bunch of appropriate reviews, and we have
over a dozen for you. We look at new monitors from Genelec and JBL, the former incorporating "green" construction and a fascinating new porting system and the latter leveraging the technologies developed for a $20,000 mastering monitor. And then there's the
Fender Passport Studio, with Focal drivers on board to help realize the ultimate mobile
monitoring solution. And if that's not enough, I review 8 sets of headphones, 3 sets of inear monitors, and Grace Design's incredible m905 monitor controller.... phew!
I'd like to close by returning to my sickbed story with a word of caution for all our
readers. Monitors and headphones aren't the last stage of the audio chain; your ears
are. All the audio gear in the world, including the best monitors in the best room, won't
help you hear great music if you're deaf. Take care of your ears! Wear earplugs at
shows and in noisy environments, and monitor at safe levels (I recommend 80 dBA or
less) with frequent breaks, so your most precious, irreplaceable music-appreciation gear
will give you a lifetime of great service. Okay? Enough said.
Enjoy the issue!

SOCIAL MEDIA
Brent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.
ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney
WEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES
Lorenz Rychner

EDITOR/PRODUCER:

CIRCULATION
Tiffany Sepe

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING
DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz
CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Colin Courtney
ADMINISTRATION
Thomas Hawley

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley
VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

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Recording - March 2014

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