Recording - March 2014 - 12

By Paul Vnuk Jr.
One of the wisest pieces of studio advice that
I've ever received was from our Senior Editor,
Lorenz Rychner. As one of our first-line monitor
reviewers here at Recording, Lorenz has had
hands-on experience with many of the brands,
models and styles available over the years. Folded
ribbon, inverse dome beryllium, Kevlar, 2-way, 3way, tiny and huge... Lorenz has critically listened
to more monitors in the past five years than most
of us will in a lifetime.
Thinking he would clue me into the Holy Grail,
I posed the question, "Which ones are your
favorites?" His answer: "The best monitors out
there are the ones that you can mix on."
Since then, I have heard from other professional engineers, who claim that they can mix on any
monitor setup once they acclimate their ears to the
speakers and the room. The question, rather than
"What should you buy?", becomes "How do you
know which monitors you can mix on?".
A balancing act
Choosing monitors requires a balance of what
you want, what sounds good, and what you can
afford. Most seasoned engineers agree that if
great mixes are your goal, then you need to allocate most of your funds towards the best set of
monitors that your budget will allow, even at the
expense of sexy outboard gear and high-end
microphones. Sadly-and you'll hear this again
and again in this issue from Eleanor Goldfield
and Paul Stamler-one of the biggest mistakes
beginners make is to get this backward!
Once you have a budget, you can choose tweeter style, speaker size, wattage, and even looks. It's
good to read reviews and seek the knowledge of
others with regard to technical specs, build quality,
and even common likes and dislikes. Disregard
anyone who seeks to convince you that one pair is
the best while another pair is junk.
Next, your ears and personal taste will come
into play. You will need to listen to multiple sets
before you find the ones that will sound right to
you, preferably in your own space, or at least a
controlled and quiet environment. Listening to monitor speakers on a showroom floor or at a trade
show is rarely ideal beyond an initial gut reaction.
12

RECORDING March 2014

Mixing vs. listening
As a rule, the best studio monitors are made to
be honest and revealing more than they are made
to be pleasant. I often have to warn clients that
"objects" in my studio speakers may sound "closer than they appear". In other words, the mids
may be more forward, the lows a little less thumpy,
and the highs a tad brighter, when compared to a
typical home listening environment.
This is by design. You need to hear all the
details and spot problems in your mixes more
than you need to be impressed by how "good"
the monitors sound. The balance here is that you
still need to enjoy mixing on them, so a pair that's
too harsh or aggressive, which often leads to ear
fatigue, won't be the best choice for you either.
The room
At this point, let's assume you have the best
monitors that you can afford and an initial affinity for their sound. Now you need to learn how
they react in your personal space.
Before you put up your monitors and get to
work, you need to consider their placement in the
room and how the room will shape their sound.
Eleanor's and Paul's articles talk a bit about placement and other considerations, so I will not go
into that here, other than to climb on the following
soapbox.
If you spend any time in online audio-gear
forums, you will have encountered the following:
In almost any thread dealing with gear acquisition, especially monitors, amid all the talk of
"what should I buy next", someone always jumps
in with "Treat your room!" Amid excuses and
shouts of "But, but, but...!" they simply repeat,
"Treat your room!"
Well, guess what? I am that guy!
In a nutshell, treating your room is the process of
adding the right balance of absorption, diffusion
and bass trapping to your mix environment, to
tame and lessen unwanted frequencies and reflections that will lead to false impressions of your mix.
It is a subject that can fill a series of articles on its
own (and has, and will again-see Paul's article in
this very issue and many articles in our online
Reference Library at recordingmag.com). Trust me

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Recording - March 2014

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