No matter if you are an established recording professional or just beginning, quality home studio speakers are essential for accurate mixing. Based on industry standard NS10 monitors, Yamaha HS5 near-field monitors offer near-field sound ideal for smaller rooms.
They boast an accurate representation of how music actually sounds, are budget-friendly and offer convenient room control settings.
Monitors
Studio monitors are essential in providing an accurate representation of audio you are listening to, which allows you to make mix decisions with confidence. Compared with regular hi-fi speakers, studio monitors are specially designed to account for sound reflections and room issues and often feature smaller drivers for more accurate reproduction of high frequencies – an important way to avoid harsh sounds or distortion that could cause hearing damage.
Studio monitors typically consist of two main drivers – one for woofer and tweeter in a 2-way configuration – as well as an additional midrange driver for 3-way setups. As well as considering how many drivers there are in a studio monitor system, it’s also important to take note of their wattage and frequency range; these indicate how accurately their frequency response reproduces specific frequencies.
An essential consideration when purchasing studio monitors is your room size and listening position. The closer they are to you, the more their reflection off of surfaces in your room can cause phase issues and muddy sound; to achieve optimal results it’s recommended that monitors be placed a minimum 8-12 inches from walls and corners for best results.
Make sure your studio monitors are at ear height and facing you; stands or foam isolating pads can help achieve this, as is tilting them downwards; this will prevent high frequencies from echoing off of the ceiling back into your ears.
Prior to purchasing studio monitors, it’s also wise to test them out in their intended room before committing. This practice, known as acoustic treatment, ensures you will have optimal studio monitor performance. To test out your monitors in their intended surroundings, play some music through them while simultaneously adjusting interface volume until just below where distortion peaks occur.
Subwoofers
Home studio speakers benefit greatly from having a subwoofer as part of their setup. A subwoofer helps relieve other speakers in your system from reproducing low frequencies, which helps avoid distorting your mix. Furthermore, its increased bass output enables you to hear more of the lower spectrum sounds.
Subwoofers provide room-filling bass music. While bookshelf speakers tend to be designed for close listening, most home studio subwoofers can be placed away from walls than your monitors for optimal sound quality. Their size matters too as larger subwoofers will produce louder and deeper bass sounds; keep it at around half its maximum volume so as not to drown out mids and highs!
Dependent upon your subwoofer model, you may be able to fine-tune its level and filters with an app or built-in controls. Furthermore, using a sound pressure level meter like Decibel X Pro you can calibrate it specifically to your room; first turn both off; then play some pink noise via Room EQ Wizard before adjusting volume until 85dB appears on your SPL meter.
Cranking up the subwoofer can fill any room with bass, but it’s important to remember that your mix will vary when played through different speakers or media players (car stereo, regular stereo etc.). Too much bass may obscure details in your music and become distracting to listeners; excessively amplified bass may even lead to overproduced and murky mixes; that is why many producers and engineers use subwoofers only after finishing mixing their project.
Amplifiers
Home studio environments rely heavily on having access to an amp of superior quality. Less expensive or mid-tier models typically provide too much gain at low and high frequencies, leading to overly compressed sounds. More costly and high-quality models typically use feedback control for distortion reduction at certain frequencies and output enhancement of speaker drivers to produce cleaner, more accurate sounds.
Home recording setups often use large diaphragm cardioid condenser microphones, as they’re very versatile and widely found. This type of mic can record vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar amps and numerous other instruments; especially when used on bass amplifiers. You can further tailor its sound by positioning it closer or farther away from speakers – keeping it pointed directly at them will produce brighter and more direct sounds while moving it farther back will capture more ambient room sounds.
Another approach would be experimenting with bi-amp configuration, in which each speaker driver (low, mid and high frequencies) has their own dedicated amplifier – giving more accurate sound reproduction.
Interfaces
An audio interface is at the heart of any home studio setup, acting as a link between microphones, instruments, headphones and your DAW (digital audio workstation). There are various interfaces for every budget available on the market today from ultra-compact units like Presonus Audiobox USB 96 up to full-featured studio mixers such as StudioLive 64S that offer integrated recording control as well as DAW control features.
No matter the style of music production, a quality audio interface can make a significant impactful statement about its own recordings. That is because these units provide superior analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion as well as essential features designed specifically for music production such as headphone amplifiers and phantom power.
the optimal audio interface for your home studio depends on your workflow and number of inputs and outputs you require, such as supporting multiple tracks at once in stereo or mono. Furthermore, an output device may also be necessary in order to route signals to headphones, monitors or additional hardware like compressors and EQs.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 is an economical yet high-rated start, featuring high-quality preamps and offering 24-bit recordings at 88.2kHz sampling frequencies – higher than most DAWs but still very close in terms of recording capabilities.
Presonus Audiobox is another top choice, featuring four Class A XMAX preamps and four mic inputs packed into an ultraportable and compact package. Record in stereo or mono, using its handy combo input which supports both 1/4″ jack cables and XLR connections; as well as its outputs that can connect headphones or studio monitors directly without latency issues from a computer’s processor.
Note that no matter which audio interface you select, it is vitally important to follow the manufacturer’s instructions on installing drivers and firmware updates, setting up output devices, and routing output signals in your DAW. Furthermore, avoid connecting via hub as this could introduce unwelcome latency and inhibit performance.