Underestimating the influence of studio monitors?


Every recording gets its final sonic signature from a recording engineer who listens to the recording through a pair (or more in case of mutli-channel) of studio monitors. In the face of that reality, the recordings we listen to at home are shaped by those very studio monitor speakers.

So, if the monitors used are inherently bright, the result in our home systems will sound slightly dull assuming that the engineer is adjusting the mix to sound "real" based on the sound coming from the monitors. If the monitor's bass doesn't extend to the lowest octave, then the result at home is likely to sound overblown in the bottom octave for this same reason. Likewise, if the monitor has a bass hump, then the final result may sound a bit bass-shy. Therefore, unless the studio monitor is completely neutral in tonal balance and covers the entire audible spectrum from low to high, the final recording will have some inappropriate signature based on its defficiencies.

I suppose the skill and experience of the recording mixing engineer can come into play if they know the defficiencies of the monitors themselves and compernsate accordingly in the mixdown but can we really count on this? What do you think?
krisjan

Showing 2 responses by shadorne

It would be interesting to compare recording engineer's monitors with mastering studio's monitors.

Stan,

You make an excellent point. I know of only one speaker manufacturer that is popular and has consistent products BOTH in recording AND in mastering BOTH as near-field as well as far-field main monitors: ATC. They are not "bright" in the treble sense but they are certainly more forward in the midrange than what most consumers seem comfortable with (as you correctly point out - not comfortable enough for broadcast work). Definitely a tool to hear every microphone placement issue and mixing level details in the recording but still enjoyable enough for compression and final EQ touches in mastering to create a product that translates well to target market.

Until ATC came along, speakers typically used to sound completely different from the small monitors to the big bad main monitors used to impress clients and run bass checks - EVEN if they were from the same manufacturer!!!
If you want to hear what the master heard, or wants you
to hear, ask him what setup he used, and enjoy.

Good point. Since much of what you can find has been done on ATC then that
would be an option I'd recommend investigating (if you go that way and I am not saying it is the only way or even the right way). Here is just the output of one Mastering Engineer that uses ATC (there are more than five pages and you'll find many of your favorite artists like Pink Floyd, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole etc.) Last I heard he still uses Benchmark DAC1 also.