From: levitin@waldron.Stanford.EDU (Daniel Levitin)
Subject: Re: Studio monitors/history of turntables
Originator: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: Music Dept., Stanford Univ.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 13:16:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.174905.9491@philabs.philips.com> ytl@philabs.philips.com (Ying Tat Leung) writes:
>
> My speculation of
>the requirements of a studio monitor are:
>- reliability: got to work almost continously for a long time.
>- robust: can take possibly frequent abuse.
>- sounds like the system of an "average" intended buyer of the
>recording being made: this perhaps explains why studios don't use the
>best available.

> Why is Yamaha NS10 so
>popular?  Maybe we can all buy a pair and listen to recordings the way
>the recording engineers intended, given its rather low price.  Was it
>designed for studio monitoring?

	This is an interesting issue and Stereo Review has asked me
to write an article for them on this (which I am working on), but for
those interested, I'll share my preliminary thoughts here.

	First off, studios that do rock and pop recordings typically
employ three separate monitoring systems (three pairs of speakers),
and the engineers constantly switch back and forth for referencing.

	One pair is usually gigantic and is useful for playing back the music
very loud.  After the musicians have been out in the studio playing,
when they come in for playback they enjoy hearing back on these
speakers because they approximate actual performance levels and they
reveal the most nuance.  Mixers occasionally reference to these during
mixing, but I don't know any reputable mixers who rely on the big
speakers exclusively.  They are useful for tuning up or tweaking the
eq of an instument at the very bottom or top of the frequency spectrum
because they do reveal subtle nuances.  But they tend to very far
afield from the average listener's listening environment, and are thus
unreliable as an approximation of what the recording will sound like
once it is in someone's living room or car.  Popular brands in the top
studios (apart from custom jobs) include main monitors made by
Westlake, Urei 613s and Meyers.
	The second pair of speakers used approximate bookshelf
speakers used in a typical hope.  The JBL4311s were used for years,
but nobody liked the way they sounded that much (a tad "boxy") and it
was a reluctant standard.  Things changed when mixer Bob Clearmountain
("Born in the U.S.A.," "I Want A New Drug") began championing the
Ns10s.  Nobody ever claimed that they liked the sound of them, only
that they were useful in approximating the average person's home
system.  Many of us who mix and engineer found that when we worked
with these as our main pair (referencing back and forth to the other
two in the studio) and then listened in other environments, such as a
car, a freind's living room or the record company president's office,
there were relatively few surprises waiting for us.  The NS10s became
another reluctant standard, although one more enthusiastically
embraced than the 4311s.
	The third pair is usually a small (6") cube speaker made by
Aurotone, to approximate the sound in a cheap car stereo system.

	All this referencing back and forth is so that you don't end
up with a mix in which the lead vocal can't be heard on some systems,
or in which the bass line nearly destroys the woofer.  You can imagine
that if one mixed a song on speakers with poor bass reproduction, it
would be easy to mix the bass 10db too loud and never notice it until
you got to a system with good bass response.

	For reasons that aren't clear to anybody I know, audiophile
home speakers are tons better than studio monitors.  One quality
studio monitors must have that home speakers don't need, is the
ability to handle transients created by live musicians actually
playing.  when the bass playerdoes a loud "pop" or the drummer hits
the microphone with his stick, the speakers in the studio have to be
able to sustain this sudden transient.  These transients never appear
at home, because the recording process has mitigated them.  Similarly,
the studio monitors need to be able to operate at tremendously loud
volumes and out of phase without complaining.

	It is indeed an enjoyuable academic exercise to listen back on
NS10s to albums that were recorded on them.  When I listen to Bob
Clearmountain tracks, for example, they come alive on NS10s in a way
they don't on other speakers.  I recommend them for that reason for
some listening.  Another speaker gaining in popularity is the Meyer
HD1s.  IT is great fun to listen to stuff recorded on them, but stuff
that wasn't can sound anywhere from good to downright bizarre.

Dan Levitin
Writer for REP, Mix, Billboard magazines
former producer/engineer for C.B.S. records
	

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