Me? Go political? On you? Never! I am talking about the speaker of the house, or more accurately: Speakers of the house. What are you listening to your music on? When you're making that final mix that has to be THE mix, how do you ensure that what you hear in your room is what others are going to hear when they listen to your CD in their room. Do you listen on home stereo speakers, a boom box? Small speaker, large speakers, passive speakers, amplified speakers, bi-amplified speakers, two speakers & a sub woofer, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 surround? Or just some headphones?

Actually, records have been recorded & mixed using all of the above. So if you're anywhere in that list, you're getting close.

Critical listening speakers are very important. They need to be honest. And one of the cheapest ways to keep them honest is to get some very non descript speakers to be able to switch to. An old staple of recording studios: some 5" paper cone Auratones. They are cheap, and will let you know if you're mix will survive. If you listen to the big speakers and everything sounds great then when you listen to the small ones the vocals are way on top of the mix-that's a flag. While these speakers don't pretend to have the frequency response of larger speakers, a mix that sounds stable on those will travel well elsewhere. Why not just mix on those then? Well, for one, you'd be missing a lot of important musical information while you mixed. No serious low or highs. The idea is that you never know what your audience will be listening to your music on. It truly might be a 2.5" mono computer speaker by their desk. Or a killer home theatre system. So just like the CD's we buy from the store, they have to work EVERYWHERE. So referencing the music on more than one monitoring system can be a big help. If you use passive speakers, meaning that they have no amplifier of their own, getting a good amplifier is as important as the speakers. I wouldn't use a live concert P.A. system amp for your control room. While these may offer a ton of power, the environment they are designed for (concert arenas) are more noisy than your mix area. So they might not be as quiet as you need. You want a nice, quiet studio amp to push your speakers. Be sure not to get an amp way to strong for your speakers, nor one to weak. The documentation that comes with the speakers should give you the ratings of what the speakers need for amplification power.

Of the many passive speaker manufacturers, there are brands like, Tannoy, DynAudio, Mackie, Event, Genelec, Westlake, and many others. Check for them by price point & sound quality when purchasing.

Active, or powered speakers have their own power amp built right in the cabinet. This can be handy as the amplifiers are perfectly matched to the speakers. The same list of suspects previously mentioned line up for this, plus brands like JBL, Roland, and Yamaha.

Also powered speakers are easier to travel if you need to be mobile.

Porting. This is where there is a hole in the cabinet either in the front or rear to expel sound energy from the inside of the speaker. One of the more important things to note about ports is that if they are in the back of the speaker, then you will need to place the back of them a few feet from the wall to let that low end sound out. If the speakers have ports on the front, well then, you can park them right next to a wall, or mount them in the wall with no problems.

Frequency response. This is an argument waiting to happen. Flat frequency response speakers are desirable. This is where home stereo speakers tend to lead you astray. Most playback, or home stereo speakers have little bumps in frequency response at both about 100 Hz, and 10kHz giving them nice bass & highs. While this may be cool when listening back to material, it might be death to mix with these speakers. Get some real near field monitors that are sounding good because your mix sounds good, not because the speakers sound good.

The idea is also to mix using a few sets of speakers. While this may seem more expensive, it doesn't have to. I've touched on this before. There are many sets of speakers in your house right now to reference your mix. The trusted car stereo, computer speakers, home stereo, the television, etc. are great ways to reference your mix. If it sounds good on all of those speakers, then your mix is fine. Then it'll be like a store bought CD sounding good in all systems.

There are some recording products like from Roland that have speaker emulation software right in the recorder, so that you have many sets of speakers emulated. You can play your mix and literally just change the software setting to change the speaker sound. That's pretty cool. In order to best utilize that feature though, it's best to have speakers made by Roland as well because that's what they use as a reference to write the emulation software against.

Buying speakers is never an easy task. Listening to them in a busy music store will only give you the slightest idea of how they sound. Talk to the sales person. Ask what they're return policy is. Make sure that if you take them home, and they just aren't the speakers for you, that you can return them. If you're not the type to abuse return policies, they shouldn't really care. Take CD's you know really well when you go to the store to listen. It doesn't help to listen to the latest R&B diva in the store if your music is Rock n Roll, and visa-versa.

I just thought I'd drop a few notes about speakers, as I've just bought a new pair for my room, and the experience is still fresh in my mind. Always be aware of new speaker technology. Some of it may be really helpful, as was the case with me. My trusty old speakers weren't so trust worthy when I put them up against today's speakers. But if you are turning out killer mixes as is, then keep on rockin'.

Take Care,
Phil
makintrax@philgates.com
www.philgates.com