Active studio monitors - an overview
There are a number of synths, plugins or mixers that DJs and music producers prefer to spend their savings on. Automatically, many people think they can improve their sound. But experience has taught us that the best investment to sustainably push your mix to a higher level is an upgrade of the active studio monitors.
Active monitors are the studio's first choice for high-quality sound reproduction. Compared to passive speakers, active speakers have an integrated amplifier and are freely adjustable, so that you can integrate several speakers into the playback system depending on the application.
Why Active Monitors?
Whether House, Techno, Hip-Hop or even Classical: in music production it doesn't matter which exotic EQ curves you shape or how hard you let the compressor work. But what counts is what sounds from the loudspeaker. And of course this implies that the result of the recording should sound good on as many playback devices as possible. And the right studio loudspeaker is indispensable for this.
You've probably already experienced that your mix on the sound system for home applications sounds pretty good, but on a higher quality studio sound system or on the PA system in the club you'll find a few problem zones in the mix. Since you certainly trusted your intuitive hearing during the production, you will have made the right decisions. But with the right active monitor, you probably would have made other decisions that would have been easier to transfer to the usual playback systems.
You have to imagine studio monitors like the view from a skyscraper. When you walk up to the viewing platform of a skyscraper, you want to enjoy the best view in the best weather to experience the panorama as detailed as possible. The situation is similar with studio speakers, which in the best case offer a "clear view" of the mix. If you walk on the skyscraper on a foggy day, you will be disappointed because you can't see far away and many things remain hidden in the view. The counterpart of the misty prospect of music production would be that you produce on loudspeakers that don't reproduce the entire frequency spectrum and, for example, offer a fat-sounding bass, but the treble is only very faintly reproduced. The result is likely to be that you're working unconsciously against the loudspeaker's shortcomings, and in this case you want to increase your presence at high frequencies, so that on a sound system with clear trebles your mix would sound comparatively sharp.
An active studio monitor offers the advantage that no external power amplifier is required. This is already built into the loudspeaker and is usually tuned exactly to the speaker. The active monitors generally sound worse than passive monitors is a rumour that still holds its own today. In most cases, the output stage has been perfectly matched to the other components by the manufacturer and therefore also harmonizes with the other components.
Which active monitor?
The extensive selection of our active monitor speakers is designed to keep you safe from these dangers and make the mixing process easier. Of course, there is not "the" perfect monitor for everyone, but also studio monitors actively differ from each other. The human ear is individual, so the choice of active speakers is a matter of taste and depends on your production style. If you like producing techno with deep subkicks, speakers with a larger diaphragm are an advantage to be able to judge the very low frequencies. Even better in this case would be a subwoofer, which of course takes up more space.
And let me say it in advance: a more expensive monitor does not necessarily have to be better than a cheaper one. There are DJs and producers who perfect their hearing with the time for a pair of mid-range monitors and process almost every mix on this setup first-class. This is simply because they feel comfortable with their system and work with the properties of the speakers and not because they have the most expensive models.
A wise decision
The right speakers are often an enlightenment, because they also help you discover new potential in your sound generators and effects. Suitable active speakers are like friends who are honest with you. So you might notice earlier in the selection of sounds and editing, what is suitable for the respective track and what is not. So they are an enormous help in the creative process to save time and nerves.
We wish you every success in finding your studio monitor. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone at +49- (0)9951-690190.