How to connect studio monitors to laptop

#How to connect studio monitors to laptop drivers#
#How to connect studio monitors to laptop pro#
#How to connect studio monitors to laptop professional#

Pushing your speakers against the wall or shoving them in a corner is never a good idea. Make sure that the speakers are as far away as possible from any walls to avoid potential low-frequency interaction with your roomвЂ™s physical structure. You can place the minimonitors just to the inside of your main monitors. When seated in the sweet spot between your speakers, your head and the two speakers should comprise the three points of an equilateral triangle. For the best near-field monitoring possible, make sure that your speakers are upright and level with your head. Speaker setup is crucial for good monitoring. And, for the sake of quality and convenience, the minimonitors should be self-powered, just like your main monitors.

#How to connect studio monitors to laptop pro#

By comparison, your minimonitors should have a 3- to 4-inch woofer (such as theВ Alesis M1 Active 320 or Avantone Pro Active MixCubes). Of course, you can add a subwoofer to augment monitors with small woofers, but for most music-production applications, having the bass in your face is preferable to having it under your seat or to the side of your workspace. In my opinion, the best enclosure-size-to-bass-output ratio for your dollar comes from monitors with 8-inch woofers (such as the Mackie HR824 or Focal Alpha 80). Consequently, you should stick with a 6-inch woofer or larger for your main monitors. The larger the woofer, the more bass youвЂ™ll hear in your mix.

#How to connect studio monitors to laptop drivers#

Keep in mind that the size of the low-frequency drivers (the woofers) determines your monitorsвЂ™ low-frequency output. Foam speaker-isolation wedges (such as the Auralex MoPAD), or the more advanced isolation stands by IsoAcoustic, are also an option and allow a monitor to be decoupled from what it sits on, preventing the speaker from transferring sound to the surface in a way that might adversely affect what you hear. For example, to compensate for a room that adversely emphasizes low frequencies, you could roll off your monitorвЂ™s low-frequency response by a couple of dB. Today, most well-designed studio reference monitors feature frequency fine-tune controls for tailoring a speakerвЂ™s response to best fit your listening environment. Though itвЂ™s no less important to tune your room for better acoustics (a topic for another blog), a proper near-field setup can reduce much of the room tone that you would normally hear if you were seated farther away from your monitors, outside the sweet spot. The point of near-field monitoring is to remove as much room coloration from your listening position as possible. Each of these units is designed to sit on your desktop and provide ergonomic monitor control, making it easy to switch between monitors while youвЂ™re mixing without losing your вЂњsweet spotвЂќ (the listening position between your monitors that sounds the best). Two of the most popular solutions on the market are the PreSonus Monitor StationВ and the Mackie Big KnobВ (both units are about $300). The stereo mix coming out of your audio interfaceвЂ™s monitor output is then connected to this box and split (multiplied) into several monitor output paths, each of which can be sent to its own monitor destination (including headphones). This begs the question, вЂњWhere do I connect another set of speakers?вЂќ The solution is to add an analog monitor control box to your system. Of course, chances are that your audio interface only has one set of monitor outputs (a pretty standard design).

TAKE A BERKLEE ONLINE COURSE WITH ERIK HAWK! Add an Analog Monitor Control Box This dual monitor approach will let you hear how most listeners will be hearing your tracks-over a cheap home stereo system, a television, or computer speakers-instead of the precise, accurate, and вЂњflatвЂќ sound of your pricey studio reference monitors.

However, to truly hear how your music will translate to the outside world, the real world beyond the four walls of your comfy studio, you should be working on at least two sets of speakers: your main near-field monitors and a set of small, inexpensive desktop computer speakers (minimonitors). Most home-studio owners purchase one good pair of powered reference monitors and thatвЂ™s it.

#How to connect studio monitors to laptop professional#

Do you think youвЂ™re set with one pair of professional studio monitors? If so, think again.