Apple Logic Pro 8 - Manual (Page 86)

86 Chapter 4 Setting Up Your System
You should look at a dedicated set of reference monitors (speakers), and a matching
reference amplifier. Many monitoring systems today have powered speakers, negating
the need for a separate amplifier.
Note: Reference monitors are specially designed speakers that offer a flat frequency
response across a wide range (usually 20 Hz to 20 kHz). These are not your average
home hi-fi speakers, and are usually only available from professional music and studio
equipment dealers.
This type of system is recommended due to the precision it offers. Logic Pro is capable
of delivering CD or higher quality audio, and creating your mixes on a home hi-fi will
generally result in music that is not properly balanced.
Put another way, most home hi-fi speakers tend to enhance particular areas of the
frequency spectrum, resulting in mixes that have too much bass, mid, or treble
frequency when played back on other systems. Reference monitors and amplifiers are
designed to provide a flat frequency response, avoiding emphasis of particular areas of
your mix. This translates to a final product that will sound good (or at least, passable)
on most monitoring systems—car stereos, home hi-fi, portable players, and so on.
Headphones
A good set of studio headphones is handy for particular tasks, such as precise EQ-ing
and sample editing. Given the design of most headphones, and the fact that they’re
used so close to the ears, most people find that headphone mixes tend to be too
bright or too bass-heavy.
As such, they are not recommended for general monitoring duties, but they are useful
tools nonetheless. If you are recording groups of people, you will probably need several
pairs of headphones, a headphone distribution amplifier, and a mixing console.
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Tip: You should not use headphones for longer than ten or twenty minutes at a time,
as they can cause listening fatigue, resulting in you making poor choices for your mix.
Audio Mixing Consoles
The inclusion of an audio mixer—analog or digital—is heavily based on your typical
studio use. It is also dependent on the number of inputs and outputs provided by your
audio interface and your working preferences.
To explain, if you are most likely to record bands, several MIDI synthesizers, or drum kits
in your studio, you will need numerous microphone and line-level inputs to
simultaneously record the performances of the musicians and vocalists in the group.
Microphone inputs differ from line level inputs in that they provide power (known as
phantom power), which is used to amplify the incoming signal from condenser
microphones.