Max Out Your Monitoring: A hard look at the art and science of hearing your music right

In studios of all types and sizes, every decision made—levels, EQ, compression, reverb—is based on what the engineer hears in the studio monitoring system. And that’s not just the speakers, but also the physical environment—the room itself. It can be easy to forget just how critical this is, and to get lost in the fun of assembling and experimenting with the latest and greatest mics, plug-ins, and other studio toys. You can end up paying less attention than you should to the selection and setup of the monitor speakers and the arrangement and treatment of the control room, where those critical decisions will be made. 

But a studio is only as good as its monitoring system allows, and there are a number of important considerations that need to be taken into account when setting up a production facility of any size. Naturally, top studios can choose from among the priciest state-of-the-art speakers, and have room response measured and tweaked by professional designers with big-ticket test equipment. But even smaller operators on more limited budgets can do a lot to optimize their listening environments, as long as they know what to watch out for. So let’s take a look at some of the main considerations for monitor speakers and room issues that should be taken into account when setting up an audio production facility. We’ll start with the speakers...