User Manual

5
A Brief Tutorial on Studio Monitors
One Pair or Two?
As mentioned earlier, listening to your mix on multiple
pairs of reference monitors can provide new insights into
your mix by giving you a dierent perspective. If you’ve
decided to purchase another set of stereo monitors,
choose speakers that are dierent enough from each
other to get the result you desire. For example, if your main
mix speakers are eight-inch coaxial monitors, like the
Sceptre S8, you may also want to purchase a smaller pair
of traditional two-way monitors like the Eris E5. A set-up
like this will allow you to mix on monitors with detailed bass
and a lifelike, three-dimensional Z-plane and reference it
on a smaller pair of monitors with narrower stereo image
and frequency range to see how it will translate across
various systems.
If you add a second or third pair of monitors to your
mixing rig, you’ll also need to add some sort of speaker-
management system, like the PreSonus Central Station
Plus or Monitor Station V2. These products not only
allow you to easily compare your mix on dierent monitor
pairs, they also provide source switching so that you
can compare your mix to another mix in the same genre.
Some speaker-management systems, like those made by
PreSonus, are also designed to become the central hub for
your studio and will provide extra headphone mixes and
talkback systems, so they’re well worth the investment.
The Sweet Spot: How Wide is Wide?
When shopping for studio monitors, you will most likely
read a lot about “the sweet spot.” This is the middle
position between the two sides of a stereo system, where
the speakers overlap, and it is where the stereo image will
be the best. In general, the wider the sweet spot, the better
the stereo imaging will be. While all studio monitors are
designed to perform in a stereo system, some variations of
studio monitors are designed to provide exceptional stereo
imaging.
If creating a detailed, multi-dimensional stereo field is part
of your mix philosophy, you may want to consider one of
these variants as your main monitoring system:
Wide: AMT monitors like the PreSonus R65 and R80
will provide a wider stereo image than a conventional
two-way monitor because of their unique high-
frequency driver design’s superior coverage area and
its ability to reproduce lifelike audio.
Ultra-wide: MTM monitors like the Eris E44 and E66
utilize their dual woofers to contain the dispersion of
the tweeter centered between them to limit phase
displacement and create an ultra-wide stereo field.
Ultra-width plus depth: Coaxial speakers like the
Sceptre S6 and S8 utilize their symmetrical response
and single acoustic center to provide the widest and
most three-dimensional stereo image.
Selecting Subwoofers
Subwoofers have become common in car and home stereo
systems. Because ultimately your mix is going to played in
someone’s car or through their desktop computer system,
you should consider verifying the deep bass content in
your mix, especially if the target listener for your mix is
going want to hear and feel that extended low end.
Adding a subwoofer to your system will make the wiring
and calibration of your monitoring system a bit more
complex, but when carefully tuned to the stereo full-
range system, a subwoofer will naturally extend the low
end without overshadowing your full-range system. A
properly calibrated 2.1 system can improve your mixing
environment by ooading much of the bass-frequency
reproduction to the sub, letting the woofers of the full-
range system focus on the low mids.
Some subwoofers, like the PreSonus Temblor
™
T10, let
you momentarily bypass the subwoofer with a footswitch,
allowing you to compare your mix with or without the
subwoofer engaged. This is very important, as it lets you
ensure that the bass in your mix will work equally well on
stereo systems.
Central Station PLUS
Monitor Station V2