Monitor speakers are often used in control rooms, recording studios, recording studios, etc. From the design concept, it must be based on the pursuit of the original appearance of the sound source. Any stylized and personalized sound quality and tone rendering should not be added, and the music production should be restored as faithfully as possible. A person’s thoughts, what you hear is what he wants you to hear, so we should not be able to hear any sound like British or American sound from a good monitor speaker.
▍The advantages and disadvantages of monitor speakers
1. Advantages:
①It is easy to find the volume balance;
②The overall sound can be made more natural;
③It is not easy to get tired after working for a long time;
2. Disadvantages
①It is difficult to set appropriately and is easily influenced by the environment;
② Smaller noise may be difficult to detect;
③It is difficult to make a sufficient volume in an ordinary room;
▍The difference in sound between monitor speakers and HIFI speakers
The monitor box and the ordinary Hi-Fi box have different applicable fields. The biggest feature of the monitor speaker is that it can restore the sound of the high, medium and low frequency bands in a balanced manner, without any modification or rendering of the sound playback, and faithfully restore the audio signal. The popular point is to record the original sound. Perform a replay. The design principle of monitor speakers is to produce mass-produced speakers that can meet the working needs of the studio (to hear clearly) at the lowest price, without considering too much listening enjoyment from the perspective of audiophiles. To put it simply, most of the problems with monitor speakers are that they don’t sound good. They are straightforward, sharp, and hard. They have higher requirements for the environment. Monitor speakers are solely for the playback of recordings, not for music playback. They are monitor speakers and HIFI speakers. The biggest difference.
▍Types of monitor speakers
1. Mid- and far-field monitor speakers
The mid- and far-field monitor speakers are also called full-band monitors or main monitor speakers. In the past, the mid-to-far field was generally placed behind the mixing console, but now it is generally embedded in the wall with the design and construction of the recording studio to integrate with the entire room. The reason why it is called a full-band speaker is that only when the speaker has such a volume can it be complete and accurately cover the human hearing frequency range of 20Hz-20KHz. The mid- and far-field speakers have obvious advantages in expressing large scenes, expressing the depth and layering of music, and listening to low-frequency dives. But doing more meticulous editing and adjusting individual timbres can sometimes not be as sure as listening on near-field monitoring. The mid- and far-field monitor speakers are expensive, starting from 30,000 to 100,000, and ideally a pair of 150,000 to 200,000. And the acoustic environment of the room is demanding, which is not affordable for most home studios, and it is usually purchased by the unit. Therefore, whether to have a pair of well-modeled mid- and far-field monitor speakers is regarded as one of the signs of home studios, professional recording studios, and sound mixing studios. Near-field monitor speakers still dominate in home studios.
2. Near-field monitor speakers
Near-field monitor speakers are the most common monitor equipment in small studios and home recording studios. The more commonly used sizes are 5-inch, 6-inch, and 8-inch two-way speakers. Near-field monitor speakers are more suitable for listening at a distance of about one meter. From the perspective of frequency response, near-field monitor speakers can perform more accurately in the middle and high frequencies, and the details in the sound can also be displayed more clearly. However, due to the size and design power, it is not ideal for low-frequency diving, and the sound field and sense of depth are smaller than those of mid- and far-field speakers.
The lower limit of low frequency playback is determined by the size of the woofer. The lower base frequency of the bass is 41 Hz. The 5-inch bass can dive to about 55Hz, and the 6-inch bass can reach about 45Hz. Mixing on near-field speakers with a small bass size (less than six inches) is difficult to manage the low frequency of songs as handily as in mid- and far-field monitor speakers. The low frequency is the foundation of the whole music. Therefore, when mixing on the near-field monitor speakers, you must be very careful with the low frequency processing. Hierarchies like kick drum bass are difficult to perform well on small near-field monitors, so they are difficult to handle. Therefore, mixing should start at six inches at least, and eight inches is ideal. But for general arrangement, music appreciation, and application scenarios that do not have harsh requirements for low-frequency performance, 5-inch and 6-inch near-field monitoring accuracy is also sufficient.
3. Contrast error correction speakers
This type of speakers is neither used for mixing, but mainly for near-field and mid- and far-field speakers, and is not suitable for listening to songs. But when the recording mixing enters a certain stage, when encountering a bottleneck and undecided, it is used to compare error correction. The representative models of comparative error correction speakers are: YAMAHA NS10, Auratones 5C, Avantone MixCube. The several comparative error correction speakers mentioned above are very unpleasant and basically have no musical taste, but they can easily expose the problems in the work, such as frequency defects, imbalance in proportion, and so on. Therefore, contrast correction speakers are also essential in the mixing studio.
▍Recommendations for purchasing monitor speakers
1. The purchase of monitor speakers mainly depends on the purpose and budget. Although other equipment has become cheaper in recent years, the price of the speakers has still risen instead of falling. It is still the most expensive piece of equipment in the studio. The speakers are extremely valuable. Tens of thousands of high-quality speakers bought five years ago can still be sold at an 8-9 discount if they are carefully maintained.
2. In the case of extremely poor room conditions, such as small space, irregular shape, and large reverberation, the sound heard by headphones is more reliable than the sound heard by monitor speakers. Because headphones are not suitable for long-term wear, if you need to work for a long time, you can buy a pair of 2000-3000 yuan speakers for transition. The 5-inch monitor speakers at this price are okay to listen to the normal arrangement, but if you want to really listen Knowing the level and depth of music, at least 10,000 yuan starts.
3. here is no direct relationship between the size and accuracy of speakers. A five-inch speaker with better quality at the same price will still have a higher accuracy than a six-inch speaker, except for a slight difference in low-frequency dive.
▍Conclusion
The monitor speakers need to provide accurate, uncolored sound that can truly express the musical composition as much as possible. When you are recording, editing, mixing or processing bus audio, a pair of transparent and clear speakers can ensure that your mixing results are smoothly transmitted to the end user's headset, TV, car and other audio systems.
A professional recording studio usually has at least a pair of main monitor speakers and a pair of near-field monitor speakers. More mature home studios must have at least two pairs of near-field monitor speakers, or use a pair of 8-inch monitor speakers as the main monitor speakers, and then be equipped with a set of wrong speakers. Because there is no pair of excellent, panacea speakers in the world. Different types and sizes of speakers have their advantages as well as their disadvantages. Therefore, a mix often requires repeated comparison and audition on more than two pairs of speakers. Multiple pairs of monitor speakers can form a mutual confirmation function, which is convenient for picking out mistakes and finding balance.
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