Recording - March 2016 - 72

When Are Monitors
So Bad They're Good?

Guest editorial by Brian Marshak
"What does my mix really sound like?"
This question has haunted me... and it's
led me to curse, belittle, and secondguess myself, too. For better or worse
(usually better), this question makes me
think twice before sending the client a
mix, unless I have used several pairs of
reference monitors and headphones to
make sure I am hearing what I want to
be hearing.
When I began seriously mixing, I started out using a pair of monitors with a particular sonic signature that some would
call 'hyped.' Everything I did was sounding great and coming together so easily...
until the moment I bounced a mix down
and gave it a listen in my car, or on my
iPhone. In both of those environments,

and music fan, on whatever platforms they
use to listen to it.
There are several important decisions
that can be made when finding the right
pair of monitors and/or headphones for
you. If mixing is the goal, I would certainly recommend that you go for as
'honest' a pair of both headphones and
monitors as you can find. 'Honest' in
these terms means a flat EQ curve that is
naturally unflattering and un-hyped.
Yamaha NS-10 passive monitors are in
nearly every major studio and mix room
across the world for this very reason.
While some people will quickly point out
that they sound like sh*t, they are great for
that very reason-they do a lot of dire stuff
to your music, but they surely don't flatter
it! When your mix translates and works in
NS-10s, you know you are doing good
work and making good mix decisions.
Unfortunately NS-10s are no longer made;
if you want to go this route, you'll have to
find a used pair, as well as a power amp
to run them. Many people run a subwoofer
with their NS-10s, as there is little low-end
information in their sound.

tightly enclosed and isolated, you sit
between the speakers in a (rather off-center) stereo manner, and you're listening to
speakers that you most likely know very
well from listening to music while driving.
It's also a place where you may ordinarily
do a lot of listening to music that didn't
exclusively come from your own studio, as
well.
It's obviously important that you know
the speakers you are listening to really
well, which is another reason that listening in the car is a good idea. If you
spend time driving around listening to
your favorite tunes in your car, you begin
to get a sense of where things should be
in the mix while you're in there. So, taking your mix and bringing it into that
same environment will quickly let you
know how the vocal feels in relation to
the music, and how your kick and snare
are working, or not working, etc.
As I said before, owning a pair of headphones is another smart decision, since so
many people listen to music in earbuds or
headphones. I find headphones to be great
when working in a noisy home environment,

We pride ourselves on having good taste, good ears, and good gear.
That means we sometimes forget how everyone else is actually hearing music!
my previously 'slamming mix' now sounded muddy, unbalanced and awful. While
that moment taught me humility, it also
forced me to persevere and to figure out
how to make my mixes translate better in
a real-world manner.
The typical music consumer in 2016
listens to music in some of the most
unpleasant sonic environments possible.
The majority of people I know, or see,
are using cheap earbuds-or even
worse, Beats by Dre cans-into a mobile
phone, playing back MP3s, iTunes, or
streaming audio off of say, Pandora or
YouTube. Let's be honest, that isn't exactly
the same sonic fidelity as sitting in front
of a pair of Barefoots or Genelecs in a
professionally tuned control room.
We engineers and recording musicians
pride ourselves on having good taste, good
ears, and gear such as the aforementioned
monitors. That means we sometimes miss
the boat in terms of how everyone else is
actually hearing music and potentially making decisions on what is and isn't good.
When thought of in those terms, our listening environment should guide us toward the
truly needed end result: music that will
sound good to the client, listener, consumer,
72

RECORDING March 2016

Another great monitor to purchase for
mixing and referencing is the Auratone 5C
Super Sound Cube, which holds the loving
nickname "Horrortone." In case you aren't
familiar with the Auratone, it's a singledriver passive speaker that basically has
very little low or high-end information-it's
all honky midrange. Despite our ear's natural love of the smiley-face EQ curve, music
truly lives in the midrange. These little monitors tell us the truth about balance, automation rides, panning, and other important
mix related issues where it matters most.
Old Auratones pop up on the market all the
time, but as Paul Vnuk mentions on page
36, Sound Cubes are now easily available
again. Alternatively, there are active speakers out there that are meant to mimic this
application, like the Avantone MixCube
and Behringer's Behritone, which I haven't
tried myself.
Other great reference monitors are
boom boxes, computer speakers, iPoddocking stations with speakers, and my
personal favorite-car stereo systems.
There was a time in my life where I couldn't sign off on a mix unless I really enjoyed
how it sounded in my Jeep. The car is actually a great test-listening environment: it's

late at night, or when you want to eliminate
uncertainty from your room sound when it
isn't properly treated. It's just another avenue
to hear what is or isn't working in your mixes
and music.
Typically, I enjoy Sennheiser HD 650
cans, amongst others, while working on
music. I am very comfortable with their frequency response, and being dead center in
a left/right stereo situation I can make
good panning and balancing decisions. As
I mentioned before, being comfortable and
familiar with what you are hearing and
working on is the most crucial factor here.
Regardless of what your exact setup is,
the foundations and goals of monitoring
remain the same: making great decisions
and making great music! These are all
tools to make the music we work on the
best it can possibly be, so experiment,
use your ears, and be honest with yourself as to what works for you!
Brian Marshak (marshak@recording
mag.com) is a Los Angeles-based producer, engineer, and guitarist/composer
who does music for bands, television,
film and scoring. Learn more at brian
marshak.com.


http://www.brianmarshak.com http://www.brianmarshak.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2016

Contents
Recording - March 2016 - Cover1
Recording - March 2016 - Cover2
Recording - March 2016 - 1
Recording - March 2016 - 2
Recording - March 2016 - 3
Recording - March 2016 - 4
Recording - March 2016 - 5
Recording - March 2016 - Contents
Recording - March 2016 - 7
Recording - March 2016 - 8
Recording - March 2016 - 9
Recording - March 2016 - 10
Recording - March 2016 - 11
Recording - March 2016 - 12
Recording - March 2016 - 13
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Recording - March 2016 - 15
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Recording - March 2016 - Cover3
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