Getting serious about my audio- Studio Monitor Recomendations?

[Glenn Chan]

So how would one calibrate studio monitor speakers?

You could get a sound pressure level meter and calibrate the monitors so that you are getting the right SPL for your audience.

You can also add EQ to the speakers to even out frequency response of the room, but that doesn't really help.

You don't really calibrate audio monitors as they generally do not drift (you may need to clean the connectors every few years). To get accurate sound, you need good equipment and a good room. Right now even the best rooms are far from being flat in frequency response depending on how you measure. But you can try to get the flattest response possible given your budget.

And does the soundcard play a large part in the accuracy....in other words is it impossible to get accurate flat responce from an Audigy 2?

A sound card will affect the following things:

flat frequency response. At the low low end of the bass, the card might be slightly weak. This is not a problem for you as speech does not go low enough to be an issue with your Audigy2. Some on-board sound on old computers is really bad and rolls off bass significantly.

Distortion/detail. A better sound card will offer more detailed sound. This can help with noise reduction as you can hear the 'artifacts' clearer. However, your monitor likely play a larger role in determining detail. You can use headphones for noise reduction. In this case your sound card makes a difference.
*Headphones are not for mixing! Tasks like dialogue editing and noise reduction can be better on headphones however.

Signal/noise ratio. Shouldn't be an issue for what you do. The Audigy2 should provide more S/N ratio that your target format.

[Peter Wiley]

Glen or Douglas

Is there a quick and easy way to measure the freq. response of a room?

[Glenn Chan]

One way to do it is this:

Generate a sine wave that is increasing in pitch. Play this through your speakers and record the sound. By looking at the waveform in your audio program you can get an idea of what the frequency response is.

You will want a microphone with flat frequency response. Behringer makes the cheapest one... (like $80 or something like that). They (may) have copied the design from someone else, which is why it's so much cheaper than everything else out there that runs for several hundred dollars (low R&D costs since they are copying/reverse engineering). Otherwise use an omnidirectional microphone. You could use any other microphone and get the frequency response charts for it to know how much of the variation in frequency response is due to the microphone.

You may want to repeat the test in a different point in the room, as the frequency response will shift.

Other ways of measuring frequency response:
Playing broadband white noise and using frequency analysis on the recorded sound.

Playing narrow bands of white noise.

If you want to get even better measurements, you could play short bursts of noise or sine wave and measure the frequency response of the direct and reflected sound. (something like this)

You could also do the first test mentioned above and use your ears instead of a microphone.

[Jacques Mersereau]

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Wiley : Glen or Douglas

Is there a quick and easy way to measure the freq. response of a room? -->>>

There is a way that it is done. Almost all the audio testing systems I've seen are
based around a laptop with a mic interface, though there are single
boxes that are stand alone RTAs (Real Time Analyzer)

I think sound devices
makes a USB preamp. Get Smart or Spectra Foo software and
a good omni microphone that has a flat response. Most guys go with
Earthworks mic. Add a device which outputs tone at a certain SPL
(most expensive part of the system) for calibration and voila . . .
you can then run pink noise through the speakers and see what the
sum of all the factors of your studio environment produce.

From there you make adjustments to improve your situation.
Those improvements usually include EQ and sound treatment
like adding diffusers.

[Jose di Cani]

I have behringer truths and these babies don't have let me down. Been using them for over a year and they are soo amazing clear and you won't get tired of them. They are cheap and they received great reviews from all the mayor midi/audio magazines online and offline. They say it is a ripp-off of the mackies which cost 4 times as much. :) I love these Behringers I have.

If you want to create those low bass sound effects heard in cinemas, buy 2 extra subwoofers. The behringer truth cuts at 50 hz. Thsat is common for all nearfield monitors. The behringers are great for hiphop/trance/r&B/rock styles. If you want more clarity , buy the mackiens 824 monitors. They cost 6 times as much. :)

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

The Behringers are indeed a nice monitor. They are also indeed a ripoff of the Mackies. But they don't sound much like the Mackies, I've got both. I'll take the Mackies, thank you very much. I didn't pay for the Behringers, but if I was on a budget, I'd not hesitate one second to buy them. They're very nice for the price.

[Sean McHenry]

Just about 2 weeks ago I bought the Behringer 2031A monitors and so far, although I have not given the a real workout, I love them.

I did however have a real problem with the built in NVidia audio chipset in my PCs main board. I went down to the local Sam Ash and picked up an M-Audio 192 card with sounds of - nothing - on my mind. The sweet sound of nothing, how I longed for that. Unfortunatly, I still had a nasty buzz whenever some major processing was happening on the main board.

I swapped that for the M-Audio MobilePre USB box they make. That did it. No more noise. I figured if I went out of the box digital, it would help and it did.

I can recommend this method if you need something portable too. When I use the laptop like normal, the onboard soundcard is OK. If I want to edit or capture sound, plug in the MobilePre and it becomes the sound card. Unplug it and I am back to normal. Put a mixer in front of it and capture a whole session in stereo. Seems to be ideal.

48K max I believe on the sample rate but that's what the Avid is looking for anyway so It's going to be OK.

I also bought the Behringer B1 mic and a decent AKG stand with boom arm and a Shure pop-stopper.

I'm building the studio space in the basement and it's taking shape nicely. Tons of AC outlets, space for the Avid system and a seperate DAW (running Vegas) with room for the voice overs and even a couch and chairs. Dimable quartz lighting, etc.

I'll send pix when it's up and running this spring.

Sean McHenry