“My new monitors have decreased my creative output.”

For the first time in my 20+ years of home recording, earlier this summer I invested in some proper monitors, and took the time with an RTA mic to equalize the listening position for some issues with my somewhat small basement bedroom studio space.

Now, I can’t stop listening to some of my favorite recordings through these. I know the adage that nearfield monitors are not necessarily supposed to sound desirable and should reveal ugliness but dang these sound great!

A couple nights ago I pulled up Tycho’s “Slack” to see if I could play along on kick and snare with the 7/8 sections of the song and I ended up just listening and taking production notes. I probably listened through the whole thing 5 times and rewound sections, wrote a post about it here because Tycho is a young artist and there’s far too much old fart complaints about new music, and by the time I finished my post it was time for bed.

Anyone else have this experience with new monitors?

I’ve had it with new instruments but usually I can launch that into some creative output. With these monitors I end up just sitting and chilling to great music like I haven’t heard it before.

Very nice, Scott. Sounds like fun!

I agree with the adage, but I think that applies to home studio recordings. In other words, your new monitors allow you to hear how your favorite recordings were properly mixed and mastered.

My Adam monitors and sobwoofer are such a pleasure but it’s a one-person solution. If I want to play music for others, I use my hi-fi setup from the early 70s, including the 12” Pioneer unpowered speakers. Do they sound ‘perfect’? No. But they sound ‘right’ for the purpose.

As for “new” monitors, I’m not able to experience that. I’ve been in recording studios for too many decades, and they were among the first to adopt nearfield monitors for mixing. It didn’t start to become the norm for home studios until, maybe, 2000 or so. But it does make a considerable difference in what you hear! Enjoy.

Critical listening is one of the easier tasks someone can do to gain knowledge about audio recording. Having new monitors to listen to increases the fun factor.

Is it a common experience? Not for me as I'm too busy discovering new music!

Hey Rockstar_Not,

I have certainly had this experience with many different pieces of equipment. I can say I had similar experiences listening to Vinyl on a proper system for the first time, or getting your first pair of "Real" headphones. Also, who could ever forget the first time they crank their amp to 11 and feel the music in their chest.

I think as creators, we often focus on how our music comes together, but it is an equally exciting (at least for me) experience listening to the same track on different equipment.

I believe the adage is correct, your monitors should be flat, and put any rough edges in the forefront. At the same time, when you listen to a properly mastered track on great monitors, it really can bring out the best in the track.

Great post that had me reflect on some fun memories

rockstar_not, What monitors did you get?