Is it All About the Monitors?

I hang out at Pensadia every once in a while.

It’s Dave Pensado’s student’s Facebook group.

It’s a fun place to hang out, ask questions and get insight into your productions.

The discussions can get pretty heated but at least it’s not as bad as Gearslutz.

Don’t even get me started on that…

No, people tend to disagree a little more politely in Pensadia.

For instance, the other day I came across this thread on the importance of studio monitors on your mix quality.

This guy’s point was that better monitors will always give you better mixes because you will hear things more clearly.

And I would tend to agree.

I look at it this way:

If you were to mix the same song on two different sets of monitors, one being $200 and the other being $2,000, I think you would end up with a better mix on the $2,000 ones.

Does that mean you can’t do a mix on $200 monitors?

No, absolutely not.

It’s just that with more expensive monitors you’ll hear everything a little more clearly.

Especially when it comes to EQ. A more expensive pair of monitors will give you a better frequency response and won’t distort your perception of the mix as much. That will end up with a mix that translates better on other systems.

When it comes to the typical home recording setup we usually have to check our mixes on multiple speaker systems to know if our mix translates. Over time we come to “know” our monitors and we start churning out mixes that translate better without necessarily having to check it all the time.

Better calibrated monitors will take out a lot of this guesswork.

So more expensive speakers will be easier to mix on but it’s no substitute for knowing your monitors.

And more knowing how to EQ.

Even though a cheaper pair of monitors might skew some frequency information it all comes down to knowing how to translate your mix with skillful EQ’ing.

You can have the flattest frequency response in the world but if you don’t know how to EQ your instruments together those speakers are more or less worthless, whether they’re $200 or $2,000.

That’s why EQ is so important. The skill to EQ effectively is worth so much more than any monitor, in any price range.

And if you’re looking to improve your knowledge in that area I’ve got just the thing.

Check out EQ Strategies – The Ultimate Guide to EQ here:

www.audio-issues.com/ultimate-guide-eq

Image by: clocktrick

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