Home Recording Studio Equipment: Monitors and Headphones Features, Uses and Explanations

In order to create great mixes, you have to have an accurate system for monitoring the sound. For that, you will need to get the right kind of studio monitor speaker for the space you will be working in. If you have a larger room, go for a pair of far field monitors. The operating principle should be that you want to hear your mix in the same way that the consumer will be listening to it. Most consumers will pop it into their living room's stereo system. In those situations, a large part of the sound they will hear is the reverberation and echo of the room. Far field monitors are the closest to approximating that, as you listen to them in the context of your mixing room.

If you do not have the space or ability to install far field monitors, you can use near field monitors. These typically go on your desktop, and let you hear a highly accurate mix. Since you are closer to them, you are hearing the signal in a purer form. It is not recommended to use consumer speakers for mixing. These are constructed to make music sound it's best, and typically have an amplified bass timbre. In mixing, aim for as flat a frequency response as possible, in order to get the most accurate sound.

It is also not recommended to mix using headphones. With headphones, there is absolutely no input from the room 's ambience. Additionally, headphones also tend to have a flattering sound that can mislead you when mixing. It is recommended, however, to check your mixes in headphones. Firstly, you can verify that the stereo balance is good. Secondly, many people do listen to music in earphones, so you should make sure that your makes will sound good to those people. Just like with monitors, not all headphones are created equal. Check the specifications, and notice if the manufacturer bills them as studio headphones or not. Studio headphones will not be as flattering to the sound as consumer headphones will be.

• Far field monitors = Larger speakers placed in the wall, usually high up. These are used to listen to the mix as it is heard in a normal room. The technician hears both the original signal and whatever reverberations are present in the room. These provide best results when used with higher volume.

• Frequency response = Frequency refers to the length of the sound waves emitted by any source of noise. The shorter the wave, the higher the frequency, as there are more of them in the same amount of space. The human range in hearing has been calculated at from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. A flat frequency response means that the equipment processes all frequencies within its range is relatively equally.

• Impedance = The resistance of the circuitry to the signal. As a general thing, lower is better.

• Monitoring = Listening to the sound coming out of the mixer, whether it be already recorded or what the microphones are picking up in the recording booth.

• Near field monitors = Small speakers that are placed closer to the technician at about the level of his head. This will give him the ability to hear the audio directly from the speakers, without much influence from the room's ambience.

• Powered monitors = Speakers require a lot of electricity to amplify the sound. Most speakers must be hooked up to an amplifier for them to work. Some have their own power supply, and thus do not need to be connected to an amplifier.

• Tweeter = The small cone of the speaker that gives the treble frequencies.

• Woofer = The large cone of the speaker that gives the bass frequencies.