Speakers. Do you need them at all? And if so, how good do they need to be?
The team investigate the different options when it comes to monitoring in a home studio )or any environment for that matter. Why you may or may not need monitoring, and more importantly how much do you need to spend?
In this episode, Robert, Andrew, Robbo and George discuss the Pros and Cons of listing the gear you’re using.
Don’t forget to like our facebook page and if you have a question of your own you’d like us to answer, post it there and we will answer it as best we can.
You’ll also find us on the web at theproaudiosuite.com
The Pro Audio Suite Podcast copyright George Whittam, Andrew Peters, Robert Marshall & Darren Robertson.
00:00
this is the pro audio suite podcast
00:03
quick bytes welcome to another pro audio
00:06
quick bytes this week we’re going to
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talk about monitors and the reason we’re
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going on this subject is because I was
00:13
at an Australian rules football match
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and there was a singer songwriter
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musician guy I’ve known for 35 years or
00:20
something and he said I’m selling a pair
00:23
of NS tens thought I said he said I’ve
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had them for 27 years I don’t use them
00:28
anymore so I’m just gonna get rid of
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them and I said did you buy them because
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Bob Clare mountains mixing on NS tens
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we’ve got to get them and he said yes I
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did that’s exactly why I bought them so
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my question is do we buy all these
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monitors in our studios at home because
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other people have Flash monitors and do
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we need them Wow okay I need speakers I
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think and I think it’s annoying to wear
00:51
headphones absolutely all the time so
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unless you’re okay with constantly
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wearing headphones just to listen to
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stuff you need speakers yes you need
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speakers but you need speakers in an
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environment that is conducive to
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monitoring so that’s a bit of a problem
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for a lot of voiceover actors that don’t
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have that environment right so if we’re
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talking specifically about voiceover
01:12
actors I think that a good pair of
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speakers that at least gives you very
01:17
clear top-end proper pair tweeters on
01:20
them and something that gives you at
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least down to somewhere around 100 Hertz
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but you know depending on what you’re
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doing as a voiceover actor if you’re for
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instance um doing books on tape and have
01:31
to clean up all your own stuff you may
01:33
you might actually even want a subwoofer
01:34
to pick up all those really low closes
01:36
if you’re not running with just a
01:38
high-pass filter you know it’s like
01:39
sometimes you the only way you know is
01:43
if you have a full range set of speakers
01:44
the mix engineer for Bjork needs a
01:47
subwoofer because I’ve heard Bjork
01:49
albums where I hear plosives
01:50
and I hear the mic pow and my sub and
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I’m like really calling you out mix
01:56
engineer for Bjork let me throw this out
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there though if you’re a voice actor who
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is purely doing stuff that you record
02:04
and send off to get someone else someone
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else to audio engineer and you’re not
02:09
doing edit any editing or mixing at home
02:12
do you need a top-end speaker can you
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get away with a little computer monitor
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or some sort of a monitor that lets you
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hear the odd pop crackle
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he’s whatever if you’re a professional
02:24
audio person you should have a pair of
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two-way speakers and the woofer should
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be at least four inches and then you’re
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probably in the right neighborhood with
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something that’s gonna give you you at
02:38
least know what you’re listening to and
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you’re probably only at that point
02:40
losing low-end and but you have
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something that’s gonna give you somewhat
02:44
of a full picture but some sort of Dell
02:46
speaker that’s four inches or not even
02:49
like two inches in no tweeter yeah
02:52
you’re you’re missing stuff yeah not
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only will you miss stuff but you might
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actually hear stuff that isn’t there
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because what’s really cheap plastic
03:00
speakers the speaker cabinets remove
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they resonate and vibrate sometimes and
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you might hear like a syllable or word
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that goes boom like that and you think
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oh god it’s something wrong and then
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you’re hearing something that really
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isn’t there so the speaker should be
03:16
reasonably good I mean there are
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thankfully because of home studios being
03:20
such a big market some pretty cheap cost
03:24
but usable monitors that are in the
03:26
hundred dollar range Macke makes them
03:29
Presonus eres the ear is little nearest
03:33
monitors the 3.5 s are really really
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surprisingly good
03:37
I remember fostex had a nice pair we
03:39
they they’re actually it can happen
03:41
dollars yeah and and so you you should
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get a cabinet a speaker with a proper
03:47
cabinet you know not a plastic computer
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speaker that can really resonate and
03:53
vibrate with certain syllables it’s
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gonna completely screw up when you hear
03:57
it so right if you’re doing any if
03:59
you’re making any decisions about EQ and
04:02
compression you should have a speaker I
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think that gives you at least from 18 K
04:08
down to 100 Hertz in some relatively
04:11
flat it doesn’t have to be ruler flat
04:13
because flat doesn’t exist but just some
04:17
relatively and listen to it like like do
04:20
the biggest thing with speakers is just
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listen to stuff on them and get to know
04:24
them so that you
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know what to expect from them and then
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when you hear something that’s not right
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you know oh that’s not right because
04:30
it’s not right not that it’s not right
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because my speakers are crap right mmm
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but I’ve heard things where people have
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you see them on forums all the time it’s
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like I’m getting this really weird sort
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of echo noise whenever I record and I
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don’t know what it is but when I’m this
04:46
thing back and it turns out that the
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there is no echo noise on the actual
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file they’ve recorded they’ve just got
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really speakers in a really crappy
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room and they’re getting stuff bouncing
04:57
everywhere and they don’t really even
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know what they’re listening to a really
05:00
really expensive speakers in a really
05:02
crap room exactly like having a really
05:05
expensive mic and a really bad booth
05:06
correct very it still starts with the
05:10
fundamentals and and if you’re looking
05:12
for you know headphones can be a little
05:14
bit deceiving and a little bit overly
05:16
pleasing but if you had a room that was
05:20
questionable and speakers that were
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questionable it’s easier to get a pair
05:24
of headphones that are gonna give you a
05:25
better sense of the truth then yeah
05:28
speakers in a room yeah I I agree
05:31
strongly I I I have promoted the use of
05:34
headphones for voice actors in home
05:36
studios for a really long time I’ve
05:39
gotten a lot of pushback on that and
05:40
it’s mainly because they’re just most
05:44
voice actors just don’t have a budget or
05:46
space to do a monitoring environment
05:49
that’s gonna do them any justice so
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often you know I see a pair of monitor
05:53
speakers sitting on a desk
05:54
shut up against the wall they resonate
05:56
at like 125 Hertz horribly bad and they
06:01
suddenly sound very bumi and muddy and
06:04
they have no idea what it really should
06:05
sound like it totally screws up their
06:08
frame of reference so it really doesn’t
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do them any justice because they’re
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hearing something that’s so far from
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real that it just they don’t their frame
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of reference is way off
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so yeah pair of headphones even $100
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pair of headphones is gonna do way way
06:25
more accurate monitoring then a $300
06:28
pair of speakers shoved up against the
06:30
wall on top of a desk resonating madly
06:33
against the wall you know because either
06:35
thing here where I was monitoring in
06:37
here and I was hearing
06:39
kind of like some low-level static and
06:41
things and it wasn’t until I actually
06:44
played some headphones directly out of
06:46
the PCI card and listened through those
06:49
headphones to realize it was actually
06:51
nothing to do with what was going to
06:53
tape or to the da W was actually what
06:56
was coming out of the Mackey big knob
06:58
which is really noisy yeah so yeah so
07:02
I’m sort of freaking out about this
07:04
noise and it wasn’t nothing to do with
07:05
what was going down being recorded it
07:07
was actually the monitoring system
07:08
through the Mackey that was bad I mean I
07:10
mean you can take it another step
07:13
further have you seen some of these
07:14
programs I believe even like Ike a
07:18
multimedia makes one and all the way up
07:20
to like the trinova system which is like
07:22
extremely expensive but these systems
07:24
that basically measure your room wring
07:28
it out and then you know undo the baddy
07:32
cues that happen you know the bed comb
07:34
filtering that happens because of your
07:35
wall configurations and lack of
07:37
absorption so so do you get a pair of
07:42
speakers it has a relatively full range
07:44
and then take it a step further and
07:45
flatten out your room with some sort of
07:47
room correction I mean what’s what’s
07:49
really necessary is it works I mean JBL
07:52
had a monitor controller that I
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installed in a studio like 10 years ago
07:56
it’s now sitting on my shelf because
07:58
it’s kind of run its course it doesn’t
08:00
work very well anymore but it has that
08:02
feature it has a microphone a cheap
08:04
plastic measurement mic that somewhat
08:07
measures the room response and adjusts
08:09
the response curve for your monitors
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$200 monitor controller it just does it
08:14
JBL is built that feature into their
08:17
monitor speakers for years Jay Genelec
08:19
just recently started doing it with
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their monitor speakers where they have a
08:25
measurement system and there’s a lot of
08:28
credence to that I mean it because it
08:30
really works and so most a lot of rooms
08:33
aren’t symmetrical
08:34
so one speaker needs to have a 2 DB dip
08:37
at 110 the other one needs to have a 4
08:40
DB dip at 100 and 100 Hertz you know
08:42
stuff like that
08:44
so that really were questions like who
08:46
needs who needs what and if you’re a
08:48
voice actor and you’re mainly just
08:50
delivering stuff and you don’t need to
08:53
yeah make critical EQ and compression
08:55
decisions you just need to make sure
08:57
stuff is clean and that you can hear the
08:59
full range so you know that you’re not
09:00
completely essing out or right or
09:03
blowing up your plosives then pretty
09:05
much any fairly full range monitor
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system will will do the trick for you
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and you don’t have to get snotty about
09:11
it or do room EQ but if you’re mixing
09:14
things then you at least want to sort
09:17
your room out get the reflections down
09:19
and and maybe go as far as to get a
09:22
fairly good pair of speakers and maybe
09:25
even do a room correction yeah you know
09:27
and that analysis and EQ as a pair of
09:30
really surprisingly good monitors for a
09:32
very for very small spaces if you have
09:35
very little space I’ll out which is a
09:38
model model speaker model line from i ka
09:41
multimedia they do one called a micro
09:44
monitor and they’re one of these like
09:47
dare I say sort of Bose esque
09:49
speakers that have like some kind of a
09:51
waveguide inside and like a mile a
09:53
tubing inside them but they’re really
09:55
small and the chassis feels very solid
09:57
and dense and they don’t resonate they
09:59
don’t ring and they go flat almost down
10:02
to 50 Hertz and these things are I have
10:03
a three inch woofer it they kind of
10:06
device to five physics but I’ve heard
10:08
them and they’re really impressive about
10:11
three hundred bucks a pair maybe but if
10:14
you look something once something really
10:15
small it doesn’t dig a lot of space and
10:17
was still gonna let you hear a putt
10:18
popped pea check those out I was really
10:21
impressed by them I’ve heard them used
10:23
in studio in a studio and they they
10:24
they’re pretty cool I mean is it me or
10:26
is the best place to catch a pop P
10:28
actually a subwoofer like even though
10:31
things don’t always do it yeah the
10:33
subwoofer makes it look just like it
10:35
felt there you go it’s like super pound
10:37
you over the head brilliant said I’ve
10:39
heard major record record releases where
10:42
the closest made it all the way to
10:44
mastering and I’m wondering how is that
10:46
possible like how did they let closest
10:48
through to the very end of the to
10:51
release nobody was listening on a
10:53
subwoofer not not for years man like
10:56
like not until after the 90s really did
11:00
subs become really commonplace I mean he
11:03
had like big big speakers in your studio
11:06
but right interesting yeah I didn’t I
11:08
don’t know when subs came on to the
11:10
forefront of them into the mainstream
11:12
but I’ve definitely heard maan would
11:15
provide food fighters okay probably
11:19
actually around that time actually oh it
11:21
was a hip hop producer for sure yeah
11:23
the interesting thing you might be
11:24
missing here though to Georgie’s
11:26
artistic integrity maybe I mean Bjork
11:28
such a hippie maybe she was going I just
11:29
want the natural sound of what we
11:31
recorded man you know imagine I can
11:34
imagine Bjork doing that there’s a
11:36
plosive there because I wanted I was the
11:39
fat because I wanted it’s meant to be
11:44
there later exit OD kid I wonder what
11:47
happens when she blows someone’s
11:49
speaker’s up well how about the Howard
11:53
Stern Show oh my gosh let’s talk about
11:56
yeah what happened there you guys have
12:00
no idea what he’s talking about
12:06
do you have artistic license like that
12:08
hey yep yep so at the end at the end of
12:11
the day I think it very much depends on
12:13
your needs in your particular studio
12:16
setup but you know and just like we said
12:19
with the gear when we talked about what
12:21
gear you need to have you know if you
12:24
are mixing for stereo or 5.1 surround
12:28
you absolutely have to have good steer
12:30
cereal you know monitor set good monitor
12:32
system a good playback system and if
12:35
you’re a voice actor just cutting track
12:37
and sending it off you may even need
12:39
just one speaker like if you’re really
12:42
on a budget or space as a premium one
12:44
powered monitor speaker for 150 bucks
12:47
might be all you need because you’re not
12:48
mixing stereo you just need to hear a
12:51
reasonably accurate playback and that’s
12:53
it and you’ll get more accuracy out of
12:54
one speaker any day of the week than you
12:57
will too because yeah two speakers
12:59
causes twice the problems in terms of
13:02
resonances and everything else so give
13:05
it a try give it a whirl well I think
13:07
hopefully we’ve answered that question
13:09
but I’m gonna paraphrase your quote from
13:11
a couple of weeks back George because I
13:13
like it I think which this should be
13:14
part of our show every week
13:17
it should be we will tell you what you
13:20
don’t know because you don’t know you
13:23
don’t know that’s not right what the
13:24
is it you said you said they don’t
13:31
know what they don’t know and it’s our
13:33
job to teach them it is true that’s what
13:36
people hire me for and I try very hard
13:38
to make sure I’m not teaching them what
13:40
they don’t need to know exactly
13:42
yeah they don’t to spin their wheels and
13:44
waste a lot of time and banging their
13:46
head against the wall you know it says
13:47
I’m very sensitive to that I empathize
13:50
with the voice actors out there who
13:52
spend too much time googling watching
13:54
YouTube videos and taking training
13:56
courses on stuff they just never will
13:59
need to know you know what all I want to
14:01
know is if we’re channeling the Howard
14:02
Stern Show whose peak Bowman I think you
14:04
are we don’t have a big moment here
14:08
we’re not really doing then you in DC
14:12
it’s no one that was the pro audio suite
14:16
if you have any questions or ideas for a
14:18
show let us know fire our Facebook the
14:21
pro audio suite podcast
14:27
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