Stereo Speakers or Studio Monitors – What’s best for your Home Studio?
For those wanting to start a home studio, the inevitable question is, “Do I really need Studio Monitors?” In a time where most of the music is listened to on headphones, laptop speakers & Hi-Fi speakers, it’s rather common to wonder whether it would make sense to monitor & mix your music on similar speakers. The answer however is pretty straightforward. If you want to take mixing seriously, then you’re going to need a set of good studio monitors. This is because only studio monitors can make your mixes sound as good as they can possibly be. By using your regular stereo speakers for mixing, you’ll only end up finding that it sounds totally different when played back somewhere else. A monitoring system that is unable to reproduce the sound that has been recorded correctly in playback is the biggest challenge for even the most experienced engineer. Stereo Speakers don’t reveal everything about your Mix Your everyday speakers are hiding things from you! The consumer-grade speakers are designed to sweeten how the music sounds and they’re delightful to listen to. You can surely make your mix sound great on those speakers but you don’t quite get the whole picture. If you’re currently mixing on stereo speakers and you take your mix out of your studio and play it on your car stereo or other speakers, you’ll notice that it sounds dull and lifeless and not how you were hoping it would sound. You need studio monitors to give you a more accurate picture of what is going on in your mix. Studio monitors, on the other hand, are designed to be sonically neutral. When used for recording and mixing, they will give you the flattest most accurate representation of whatever it is that you’re listening to.