Why are main monitors so powerful?

[Multicore]

When I browse the catalogs of the vendors of speakers for studio installation, I marvel at the colossal SPL output of the big main monitors. But I remain unclear what exactly the 130 dB SPL is used for. I've no doubt it is important in some situations but it's hard for me to imagine. Is it for tracking or mixing? and of what kind of program material?

 

[heraldo_jones]

Usually for recording so every minimum nuance can be heard, they are noticed better in bigger speakers. Nowadays more for client party vibe.

 

[Oddball]

For movie soundtrack mixing they would need 105dB at MLP to reach the reference peaks. Some SPL would get lost in distance to MLP and best bet rest is headroom for reduced distortion. Also not sure what FQ range they certify at 130dB. They might be lower rated at 80hz which is likely their crossover point, and would still need to reach 105dB at MLP.

 

[Jim Taylor]

Back when I had some little (very little) experience with studio work (and dinosaurs walked the earth), mains were used chiefly to impress clients. There were, of course, other uses; the tremendous output capability meant that moderately-loud output in the bass stayed at a lower level of distortion.

I think that even today, the mid and treble units on mains monitors tend to mimic lower-output models ... it's the bass section that's really different (higher output/lower distortion).

Jim

 

[Multicore]

Back when I had some little (very little) experience with studio work (and dinosaurs walked the earth), mains were used chiefly to impress clients.

Now you remind me of when we did the second Blood Money album at Deadverse (Bandcamp in .sig). I recall Oktopus said he doesn't use the mains much. Somewhere on the second day when mixing we asked to hear some of it on the mains.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

When I browse the catalogs of the vendors of speakers for studio installation, I marvel at the colossal SPL output of the big main monitors. But I remain unclear what exactly the 130 dB SPL is used for. I've no doubt it is important in some situations but it's hard for me to imagine. Is it for tracking or mixing? and of what kind of program material?

In my experience they were used for individual instrument set up. So while someone steadily hit each drum or cymbal, the monitors could show up buzzes, creaks, squeaky pedals etc. Then for the bass guitar amplifier, any unexpected resonance etc. Sometimes also used on the whole mix, since it's the closest to the band playing live (except it has real low extension unlike PA).

The sensation of such undistorted power is quite amazing. I've not heard any domestic set up getting close in terms of low frequency power with low distortion. All domestic stuff sounds a bit "polite" in comparison. But of course, the control room is acoustically quite dead and very well isolated from outside noise.

 

[gnarly]

In my experience they were used for individual instrument set up. So while someone steadily hit each drum or cymbal, the monitors could show up buzzes, creaks, squeaky pedals etc. Then for the bass guitar amplifier, any unexpected resonance etc. Sometimes also used on the whole mix, since it's the closest to the band playing live (except it has real low extension unlike PA).

The sensation of such undistorted power is quite amazing. I've not heard any domestic set up getting close in terms of low frequency power with low distortion. All domestic stuff sounds a bit "polite" in comparison. But of course, the control room is acoustically quite dead and very well isolated from outside noise.

Enjoying everyone's comments on when/how the power capability is used, as I have no studio experience at all.

I do have experience with undistorted power here at home (probably > Genelec 1236A's), and fully agree with your descriptions.
Uncompressed, unclipped, low distortion SPL that holds up just as cleanly for low end extension, is like you say ...quite amazing.

 

[kemmler3D]

I don't have direct experience with this either, but in theory real instruments / mics have dynamic range that is comparable to a serious mains setup. If (for some reason) you wanted to hear the full dynamic range of something being recorded, from noise floor to peak (either for details or otherwise) you theoretically need that SPL capability.

 

[KSTR]

Is it for tracking or mixing? and of what kind of program material?

During the tracking process of, say, a dynamic rock band recording live in the studio, you also want to monitor the raw tracks or very raw mixes, with almost not compression and limiting, to give the band an impression of how exactly they played. Like, you record several takes of a song, then the band assembles in the control room to check and select things.
The band won't be happy if you present them their playing on some mini-monitors, let alone NS-10's ;-)

 

[Multicore]

During the tracking process of, say, a dynamic rock band recording live in the studio, you also want to monitor the raw tracks or very raw mixes, with almost not compression and limiting, to give the band an impression of how exactly they played. Like, you record several takes of a song, then the band assembles in the control room to check and select things.
The band won't be happy if you present them their playing on some mini-monitors, let alone NS-10's ;-)

Interesting. I got the impression from other posts above that for tracking you could accomplish much of the same checking with headphones. But no, not if you need multiple people to listen to the exact same thing. And then if you want to remove from that negotiation any question about the monitors then ... yeah ... like you said.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Interesting. I got the impression from other posts above that for tracking you could accomplish much of the same checking with headphones. But no, not if you need multiple people to listen to the exact same thing. And then if you want to remove from that negotiation any question about the monitors then ... yeah ... like you said.

I've not seen mixing like that done on headphones. With a band, everyone needs to be involved. Headphones are sometimes used on pre-fade and channel-group checks etc.

 

[Sokel]

In my experience they were used for individual instrument set up. So while someone steadily hit each drum or cymbal, the monitors could show up buzzes, creaks, squeaky pedals etc. Then for the bass guitar amplifier, any unexpected resonance etc. Sometimes also used on the whole mix, since it's the closest to the band playing live (except it has real low extension unlike PA).

The sensation of such undistorted power is quite amazing. I've not heard any domestic set up getting close in terms of low frequency power with low distortion. All domestic stuff sounds a bit "polite" in comparison. But of course, the control room is acoustically quite dead and very well isolated from outside noise.

That is pretty much what Genelec describes too.

The worst thing about them is that everything else sounds small after such experience

 

[Cbdb2]

A couple reasons.

When your trying to impress someone who's used to hearing his guitar thru a Marshal stack on 11, or cymbals a foot away being hit as hard as possible or even a conductor 15' from a full orchestra you'll need clean full range spl.

Mix room size.

 

[Jim Taylor]

Mix room size.

Reminds me of somewhere ...

Dick Burwen's Sound System

Jim

 

[stoo23]

Apart from the various examples given previously, it is / was also because,.. Waaay back,.. in the completely analogue days,.. when one ONLY had one's ears and meters to understand what was going on ... AND ... your end product, was a Record, it was very important to understand exactly what was happening in the Low end.

You needed to have a 'tidy' controlled output at both ends but an excessive out of control or poorly contoured low end, could cause the cutting engineer grief and force him to let the 'Lathe' use too much space when cutting, let alone it cutting unnecessary and problematic 'deviations', that a well contoured bottom end would not

 

[Duke]

Back when I had some little (very little) experience with studio work (and dinosaurs walked the earth), mains were used chiefly to impress clients.

When I've had the privilege of designing and building custom main monitors for a studio,"impress the clients" was one of the primary requirements. The subs partially hidden by the control board use 21" B&C woofers.

 

[GXAlan]

The Meyer Sound Ultra X-40 is rated to 130 dB pink noise at 1m.

But you can see that even at 10% THD, it is really 120 dB at any given isolated frequency rather than the sum of the pink noise and of course, you are listening at distances beyond 1m

 

[EJ3]

In my experience they were used for individual instrument set up. So while someone steadily hit each drum or cymbal, the monitors could show up buzzes, creaks, squeaky pedals etc. Then for the bass guitar amplifier, any unexpected resonance etc. Sometimes also used on the whole mix, since it's the closest to the band playing live (except it has real low extension unlike PA).

The sensation of such undistorted power is quite amazing. I've not heard any domestic set up getting close in terms of low frequency power with low distortion. All domestic stuff sounds a bit "polite" in comparison. But of course, the control room is acoustically quite dead and very well isolated from outside noise.

Yes, "Polite VS Visceral"!

 

[EERecordist]

Many of the big far-field monitors are very efficient, mid- 90s in dB for 1 Watt at 1 meter. I would say relative to the total expenses of a recording studio with an acoustically treated control room, and acoustically treated tracking room, the costs of big speakers and the amplifiers for them are miniscule.

You do need a little more power to fill a very large tracking studio that holds a whole symphony or movie scoring ensemble. They are not listening to playback that loud.

Today nearfield monitors are favored and they don't need to produce large maximum SPL.

There is a limit to monitoring volume because people want to preserve their hearing.

 

[EJ3]

Many of the big far-field monitors are very efficient, mid- 90s in dB for 1 Watt at 1 meter. I would say relative to the total expenses of a recording studio with an acoustically treated control room, and acoustically treated tracking room, the costs of big speakers and the amplifiers for them are miniscule.

You do need a little more power to fill a very large tracking studio that holds a whole symphony or movie scoring ensemble. They are not listening to playback that loud.

Today nearfield monitors are favored and they don't need to produce large maximum SPL.

There is a limit to monitoring volume because people want to preserve their hearing.

Huh? OHHH, preserve hearing!