Upping the quality

Composing most of my music using a pair of Shure SHR440 head phones has left me wanting more. While I love the head phones and think they're a steal at around $80-90, they have their short comings. Mainly, it's the low end.

They have killer mids and highs but try to give justice to my 808's though and you're left feeling like Dostoevsky in the face of a Tzar - sentenced to death. This means I have to turn to my Panasonic ear buds and cheap Altec Lansing speakers for a cross reference. Even then, it's difficult to ensure the warmth and punchy-ness that's associated with bass.

This juggling act between two sets of head phones and speakers is annoying and isn't the best way to ensure sound quality. Enter the KRK Rokits. I found a set of them on clearance from Guitar Center and what a difference they've made. A set of monitors, like the Rokits, are a necessary things for every home studio to get at some point. The sound quality they provide allow your production to move up to the next level. This is especially true for my low end production. A test run on the hardest hitting dubstep and hip-hop tracks I have in my library did not leave me disappointed.

The underlying principle for production here is sound depth and quality. The higher the sound quality, the more detail you can put into each track. The depth of sound that monitors provide allow a degree of fine tuning that you just can't get with headphones or cheap speakers. This translates int0 better over all production quality. Again, it's the great little things the make great producers.