Recording - March 2018 - 24

MAX OUT
YOUR
MONITORING
A hard look at the art and science
of hearing your music right

BY JOE ALBANO

n studios of all types and sizes, every decision made-levels, EQ, compression, reverb-is based on what the engineer
hears in the studio monitoring system. And that's not just the speakers, but also the physical environment-the room itself. It
can be easy to forget just how critical this is, and to get lost in the fun of assembling and experimenting with the latest and
greatest mics, plug-ins, and other studio toys. You can end up paying less attention than you should to the selection and
setup of the monitor speakers and the arrangement and treatment of the control room, where those critical decisions will be made.
But a studio is only as good as its monitoring system allows, and there are a number of important considerations that need
to be taken into account when setting up a production facility of any size. Naturally, top studios can choose from among the
priciest state-of-the-art speakers, and have room response measured and tweaked by professional designers with big-ticket test
equipment. But even smaller operators on more limited budgets can do a lot to optimize their listening environments, as long as
they know what to watch out for. So let's take a look at some of the main considerations for monitor speakers and room issues
that should be taken into account when setting up an audio production facility. We'll start with the speakers...

Warts and all

Although headphones are a necessary and useful component
of any studio, it's the monitor speakers that will provide the
majority of the sound that recordists and mixers base their
technical and creative decisions on at every step of the
production process. I'll touch on why speakers are favored
over headphones for serious work a little later in the article.
Casual musicians and hobbyists often press a favorite pair
of home hi-fi speakers into service as studio monitors, but anyone who's serious about getting the best sound and creating
mixes that "travel" well-sound good on speakers outside
their own studio-knows that what's needed are dedicated
studio monitors, designed specifically for that purpose rather
than for the simple enjoyment of casual music playback.
Home stereo/hi-fi speakers are often designed to make
everything sound "good", and that often means loud, bright,
and thumpin'. To that end, they may have a deliberately hyped
frequency balance, with both treble and bass accentuated for a
more dramatic listening experience, especially at lower listening
levels. But studio monitors are not intended to make everything
sound good-in fact that's the last thing you want them to do.
Instead, they need to have as neutral a tonal balance as possible,
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RECORDING March 2018

so the listener can hear what the recording or mix actually sounds
like-if it's good, it'll sound good, but if it's flawed, the engineer/
mixer needs to know, so they can make the appropriate adjustments
and corrections before finalizing things. See Figure 1.
A pair of speakers that smoothes over rough spots with a
pleasantly hyped frequency response, or by deliberately exciting
extra ambience from the room via reflections, may make for
a pleasant listening experience, but wouldn't be doing its job
as a studio monitor. A flat response and freedom from other colorations is necessary, and that's what most dedicated
studio monitors-even the smaller ones-will try to provide.
Naturally, a flat frequency response is the goal of any studio
monitor, but of course in the real world no speakers are perfectly
flat, and no two speaker designs will sound exactly the same.
Still, even though differences in overall tonal balance may
be obvious when comparing different monitors, the differences
should be subtle enough not to drastically alter decisions made
about EQ by more than a dB or two here and there. Assuming
you're selecting a set of monitors from among a number of options
that are all well-respected designs from recognized companies,
it could be good idea to choose a set of monitors whose specific
response slightly leans to your own listening taste-this could

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2018