PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production Studio Monitors

Josie, and Critter,
Studio Monitors are one of the most subjective 'hard' objects in musical recording. What I mean by that is this; you can look up all the specs you want, listen to all the reviews you want, talk to people that you want to who have their own experience with monitors, and you may hate the sound.

I work for a company that makes Digital Audio Converters. We make some of the best on the market. In a dollar to sound reproduction ratio, I think we are the clear winners, meaning that you will get the most accurate reproduction or recording of whatever sound you put into the converter versus anyone else at the same price point.

But, one of the biggest issues that we have as a small company is that people don't really know what they are listening to. I could record a Steinway Grand Piano in a concert hall with two mics, and the present it to you in three forms, a.) unaltered, b.) with a small amount of harmonic distortion, and c.) louder, and you would probably pick 'B' or 'C' as the better sounding. Why? Because most people do not know what a properly mic'd piano in a concert hall really sounds like. Oh, they can get a Classical Recording and listen all the they want, but if the conversion process from analog to digital, either recording directly, or taken from old analog tapes, isn't the absolute best performed on good gear, you're going to hear something that's not there. Furthermore, before it gets to your ears, it goes through a recording and Mastering Engineer, who understands what it's SUPPOSED to sound like, but is also concerned about what WILL SELL THE MOST ALBUMS. If you have a recording that is accurate, but sounds thin and gutless, or you have a nice 'warm' recording that has so much harmonic distortion, overtones, and stuff that's not even there, which do you think is going to sell more?

The absolute best way to check studio monitors is to do it in person at your local music store, with source material that you've recorded. A single instrument, a vocal and a single instrument all the way up to a full blown recording with multiple tracks and vocals with effects processing added in. All of these tracks will give you the best feel for what you're hearing, because you KNOW what it's supposed to sound like. If you're a singer and you can't hear your own voice, take someone with you who can listen to the monitors and say Yay or Nay on how realistic they are.

Everything from your vocals or your fingertips, to the microphones, to the mixer, to the A/D and D/A Converters to the monitors are in the chain, but the monitors are where it all comes together. If everything else is good and decent quality, then the monitors are where things are going to get messed up, and where your recording chain will let you down. If your monitors are good, accurate and you like the sound, and they really DO sound like what you're putting into your recording chain, then get them.

Now, I just did an impromptu hearing test the other day, and at 0dBFS, my hearing dies out around 11.5-12KHz. So, I may not hear the highs accurately, but you younger folks should hear them well enough to be able to decide what the best monitors for your budget and price point are.

Gary