This month of February WLPR is focusing on gear. And how to get the most out of your gear while working in Logic Pro.
Gear and plugins all play a big part in your creative process. But you could argue that the most important aspect of your workflow is your studio monitors.
Your monitors shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility. It’s their job to tell what’s going on in your songs and mixes. Not only that, but you’d hope what they’re telling you is as faithful and accurate as possible.
It’s never that easy though, is it?
Because there’s another element in your workflow which might be even more important than your monitors…
And that’s the room itself.
Unfortunately, your monitors don’t exist in a vacuum, completely neutral and free of outside influence. Instead, your room has a direct influence on what you hear. Your room is a permanent part of your playback system.
And if you’ve been struggling with your mixes and productions, your room might be responsible.
But how do you get around its influence on your monitors?
Most home studios don’t have the luxury of space or excess wealth. Sure, acoustic treatment sounds great! But your landlord or significant other might not be as enthused.
One way you can dramatically improve your monitors in your space is to simply move your monitors.
In fact, if you took even one afternoon to play with the placement of your monitors and listen to the results, you could make huge gains.
Gains that would improve the accuracy of your monitors while you produce and mix. Which means less time chasing your tail as you mix. And mixes that will sound better on other playback systems.
So today let me take you through my journey of testing out different sets of monitors in the same space.
And how I was able to closely match the performance of a pair of $600 monitors to a pair of $2500 monitors.
Links from the Video:
ADAM Audio YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofDcGEcoR6Zjwja_BZF_Kw
Sound on Sound – “The Elephant in the Control Room”
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/elephant-control-room
KRK Audio Tools is a useful phone app that helps to tune/align your monitors. I still have the original Rockit5’s that still see some use because theyre front ported and Im used to them. I use a single Behringer Behritone to check mixes in mono. Ive mixed a ton of commercials for television over the years and if you can hear everything in your mix on one of these Auratone type speakers, it will usually translate well when you bring them up to your main monitors.
I also mix on open back style headphones or even the new MacBook Pro 16″ model speakers–theyre surprisingly impressive sounding. I find the more you get used to what you have to work with, the more comfortable youll be dialing in your mixes. Its always good to check your mix on a phone, computer speakers, bluetooth speakers, ear buds, etc–being that so much music gets listened to on these devices. Theres no question we all gotta give it the car test.
I dont think any reference monitor has ever been truly flat, they all color the sound somewhat. I mixed on the JBL44 Series, Yamaha NS10’s, and Auratone’s for years. I use HS8’s now and keep some acoustical foam behind them as ‘treatment’–they are also placed close to the wall as Chris recommends. Although these are rear ported monitors, I dont want that low end wave to go very far. I also recommend some kind of decoupling for table or desktop scenarios which helps in defining the low end.