Monitoring Psychology

There are many reasons why a mix might not transport well to other systems – and it’s down to a lot more than just the monitors...

The recording personnel in many small studios seem endlessly to be searching for that magic pair of loudspeakers that they can trust for whatever type of music they mix on them. They swear by one pair of loudspeakers as being their ultimate reference, then after the first mix that fails to sound as good on another system – say, at home or in the A&R department office – they lose all faith in them and seek a new ‘reference’. Until they find that new reference, they may live in a state of unease – and even panic – as their perceived anchor to ‘reality’ loses its grip. Why such well-trusted loudspeakers could suddenly lose their authority has long puzzled many people, but the fact is that the loudspeakers themselves rarely are the sources of the problems. They usually have not changed at all between the days when they were used to make the ‘magic’ mixes and the days when the mixes were not perceived to travel so well. As often as not, the problem lies not in the loudspeakers but in the music, as we shall see later. However, many other things can also change along the way, such as the perception of the recording engineers who are using them. They often seem to pass through the following phases during the period of use of any single type of loudspeaker system:

This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 48
Filed under General Features

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