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chapter 1 • about the Monitor One
Monitor One Mk2 Reference Manual 7
About near-field monitoring
In the early days of recording, most recording studios used big monitor
speakers almost exclusively. Unfortunately, they also required high-powered
amplifiers and expensive acoustic treatment (often poorly done) of the entire
control room. Still, a well-constructed big monitoring system really was
impressive to listen to, a fact not overlooked by the studio owners who
wanted to impress the record company executives who paid for the big
studio's time. These big systems had big level control knobs, and clients
enjoyed "cranking-up" the volume.
Fortunately, recording engineers and producers eventually learned that this
was not the best way to accurately mix music because it wasn't the way
people listened to their radios, cassettes and CD players (metalheads
excepted). Also, big monitor systems and the costs for the required control
room acoustic treatments were going through the roof (no pun intended),
particularly beyond the budget limits of smaller project and home studios
which were growing in numbers. A new way of accurate monitoring was
needed: near-field monitoring.
Near-field monitors, by their definition, are intended for mounting close to
the listener. The idea here is to improve the direct acoustic path between the
speaker and the listener by making it shorter, thereby giving less
opportunity for the always-present indirect (reflected) sounds to get back in
and muddle things up. With near-field monitoring, the surrounding acoustic
environment becomes a much less significant factor in establishing the
monitor system's sound character.
A good set of small monitors properly placed in a reasonably non-
reverberant room and powered by a 150-watt amplifier will yield
surprisingly accurate results at budget prices. The Monitor One has become a
standard used in thousands of studios worldwide because, unlike other
“bookshelf” speakers, it’s designed to be listened to for hours at a time
without causing ear fatigue and can handle loud low-frequency transients.
Carried to another studio, the Monitor Ones should also provide repeatable
results. In fact, some recording engineers carry their own Monitor Ones
around because they know how they will sound in almost any room. Now,
even the big studios use Monitor Ones to augment their big monitoring
systems, and near-field monitors have become proven tools in the recording
business.