Accurate speakers for mastering - A good or bad thing ?

[rca33]

I’ve been on the consumer audio business for over 20 years now.
One thing that I learned is that a good speaker will sound good with any recording you throw at it.
As an example, most speakers will sound good with “Tracy Chapman – Talking about a revolution”, but the same doesn’t applies to “Trumpet à Gogo by James Last” – a very old orchestra recording.

When i bought my latest headphones, i tried my “music samples” to see if they could sound good with different music material. They did and I was very happy with it.

Recently i made a mix that sounded great on these headphones, but when I played in my car or sub+satellite systems (such as Bose) it sounded like garbage, with a boomy bass and lack of definition.

Then a singer (friend of mine) told me something that he had learned with a sound engineer : hear the mixes in a car with a regular car stereo system.

This seems very strange, but if you think of it, most people will hear music in sound systems that are far from accurate (car stereo, mp3 players, cheap sub+satellite speakers, etc) and your mix has to sound good there.

I’ve noticed that recordings that sound good on a weak sound system (as natural) sounds even better in a premium sound system, but the opposite may not aply, so my question goes:

Is it a good thing having ultra-accurate monitoring speakers (ou headphones) in the mastering stage ?

[TonyB]

Quote: Is it a good thing having ultra-accurate monitoring speakers (ou headphones) in the mastering stage ?


My Answer: Yes, it is a good thing to have ultra-accurate monitoring speakers, but that alone is not all you need. The key is understanding what your ultra-accurate monitoring speakers can do for you. In other words, knowing your ultra-accurate monitoring speakers and how they translate to other media (i.e., iPod, car stereo, boom box, home stereo, night club system, etc) is very important.

I've been using my Yamaha HSM10s for about six months now and just now able to figure out how to get a mix to sound good on the various media.

This is what all the famous seasoned pros do. They all spend alot of listening time in their Mercedes, Lincoln Navigators, etc as well as with iPod earbuds stuck in the side of their heads.

Also, those ultra-accurate monitoring speakers also are able to find those nasty crackles and pops or singer's footstomps....etc etc etc

[rca33]

Originally Posted by TonyB

Quote: Is it a good thing having ultra-accurate monitoring speakers (ou headphones) in the mastering stage ?


My Answer: Yes, it is a good thing to have ultra-accurate monitoring speakers, but that alone is not all you need. The key is understanding what your ultra-accurate monitoring speakers can do for you. In other words, knowing your ultra-accurate monitoring speakers and how they translate to other media (i.e., iPod, car stereo, boom box, home stereo, night club system, etc) is very important.

I've been using my Yamaha HSM10s for about six months now and just now able to figure out how to get a mix to sound good on the various media.

This is what all the famous seasoned pros do. They all spend alot of listening time in their Mercedes, Lincoln Navigators, etc as well as with iPod earbuds stuck in the side of their heads.

Also, those ultra-accurate monitoring speakers also are able to find those nasty crackles and pops or singer's footstomps....etc etc etc

From what i understand of your words, you need some accurate speakers and some inaccurate systems, like a car-stereo or ipod, right ?

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by rca33

From what i understand of your words, you need some accurate speakers and some inaccurate systems, like a car-stereo or ipod, right ?

Yes. I use just about everything I have lying around the house, including a cheap $50 CD/Alarm Clock.

But I mostly rely on my Yamaha HSM10s and RP6's for mixing/mastering and then seeing how they translate on the (1) car stereo (for some reason the car stereo just isn't as forgiving), (2) iPod (more and more people are listening to recorded music on iPods, and (3) various home/mobile stereo systems.

This is what many of the seasoned engineers in Nashville do as well. I recently attended a seminar that included a panel of recording engineers who worked with the best performers in the biz today and they all convert their pristine mix-jobs to mp3 and walk around with ear buds.
Time's a changed!

[P.P.T.]

The reason that those all of those songs sound good on the speakers is because they were well mixed on good speakers that have a neutral sound.

If you mixed on speakers with a hot high end then you would tend to reduce the highs in the mix to make it sound acceptable on those hot high end speakers.
Now, if you play that mix on speakers with a neutral sound the song will sound a bit dull in the high end.
If you play it back on speakers with a dull high end it will sound very dull indeed.

This is why you want neutral sounding monitors.

It's not that some speakers in a playback system have some magical way of making everything sound good, but rather that the mixes that you are playing on those speakers are well done.

[brandondrury]

Is it a good thing having ultra-accurate monitoring speakers (ou headphones) in the mastering stage ?

Here's a fun analogy for you.

Let's say we are short on gasoline in our state. The governor is too stupid to think on his own. They bring in three people to help.

One is a Nazi. He refused to give any gas to Jews, Blacks, and you may have a hard time if you don't look Aryan. Oh yeah, and he wants to throw all of these mentioned people into furnaces.

One is a Black Panther member. He only wants to give gas to black people. If you are white, he wants to kill you. (I guess. I'm not up on the Black Panther thing yet).

Our last guy is just some regular dude in 2008 with a high IQ. He is so neutral on the race issue that the issue of race won't come up. He wants to come up with a plan that is good for everyone.

Who do you think the governor should listen to?

The neutral route is almost always the best. If you aren't comfortable with your studio monitors, it's a good idea to check the problem areas in systems that may exaggerate those. Monitors that show "prejudice" will make it tough to make a mix that sounds good for everyone.

In the end, it comes down to your ability to know your monitors. We are all looking for monitors that help illustrate what is going on. This is different things to different people and is ultimately the reason that there are so many monitors to choose from.

Brandon

[shambolic]

One engineer told me, if you can't afford the outrageous cost of full range monitor speakers get a set of Sennheiser 650's and some small PC speakers. the sennheisers are said to be accurate on bass representation which is where most headphones fail and the pc speakers will get you in the ballpark of the cheap crap speaker output. what do you reckon on that for those of us who cannot afford major league monitors?

[brandondrury]

I think it's good advice. I was never a big fan of headphones in the past, but I've had great luck with my Audio Technica ATH-M50 Studio Monitor Headphones

Brandon

[PeterPav]

I think "knowing your monitors is the best advice" In past years, my home stuff always translated the best because thats what I listened too everything else on. I actually mixed songs in studios without even hearing a regular song on the monitors. Oops. When I did I thought WOW no wonder why. I check mixes by volume too. Blasting a mix is great fun, but how does it sound really low. When you turn it down to almost nothing, can you still hear the lead vocal ? Shit like that. I've never had good results with head phones for mixing anything, and dont trust them.

[adorian]

I think the main idea is to know your system, especially your speakers. I've had better luck mixing on the $500 stereo I bought in 94 because I listened to it and the speakers since then. On the other hand it took me several months to get used to the studio monitors (JBLs) and I still bring mixes to my car and house to check for accuracy.

I use headphones as well as another reference - sometimes you hear things on them that you don't hear otherwise.