Obviously, people who can afford, should go and buy monitors. They will be able to reproduce audio so precisely that you can be very comfortable about making changes to audio and being sure about it's translation to different audio systems (translation is quality of how exact is audio reprodution on different audio systems) But if you are on budget, or you still don't have all the necessary microphones to get stuff done, it would be better to settle for some consumer audio.
The most crucial quality of monitors is perfect crossover between LF speaker and HF speaker. (a circuit responsible for sending lower frequencies to one speaker and higher to the second). The typical problem about that is how precisely is this circuit calculated. This calculation involves data that can be obtained only by measuring actual frequency response (as air pressure).
So if the big speaker is playing everything below 600hz and the little speaker everything above 600hz, the total frequency response of your monitors should be totally flat at 600hz. (no amplification and no attenuation!) Thats difficult because obviously responses of those speakers will overlap. Most of consumer audios would have a serious bump here.
Here's a picture that shows how can a peak appear on the crossover frequency.
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| Audio crossover graph. Please don't care about exact numbers, just take a brief look to catch the idea. |
Most of cases, frequency response of a consumer set of 2.0 speakers will be not totally flat but resonably predictable As soon as you pick up a pair of speakers that don't have any kind of artificial boosting, exciters etc. You just need to listen to a lot of music with those speakers you are working with. Remember that folks who use monitors, need to "learn" their monitors too!
This kind of speakers (2.0) doesn't have much bass and very high end. That's right.
But listening to everything that those little speakers can deliver, is essential to a good sounding mix.
You need to take care if you manage your bass right and it's not that hard because if you ever get too much bass, those speakers will lack energy etc. It's also useful to check it with headphones sometimes.
Here are some audio checks that I recommend you to do before any public release of your tunes. Those are very good things regardless of what monitoring system you are using (even if you have monitors, it's good to give your song a listen with eg. a little speaker of smartphone)
Some additional checks to make sure your mix has fine "energy management"
- play it on a car audio
- play it on a home cinema with a huge subwoofer
Make sure that volumes of your instruments are perfect and there are no bad details:
- download the song to your smartphone and listen with the built in speaker
- listen to the song on built-in notebook speakers
Check for excessive hi-end:
- listen to it on an iPod with sound-isolating earphones (those that go deep into ear)
Recently I have read an article in Sound on Sound, that was about a famous producer who mixes on a little hi-fi ! In spite of real, good monitors waiting in front of him. At the moment I use a cheap "hi-fi" too. I am about to release an album that will be probably mixed with those speakers. I'm moving soon and don't wanna buy any big toys.
Get what you have (the most natural sounding audio from those you have, preferably 2.0) and go make things!
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