{"id":7916,"date":"2022-02-14T09:59:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T09:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/soundid-reference\/blog\/?p=7916"},"modified":"2024-07-03T07:17:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T06:17:23","slug":"flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production","title":{"rendered":"Flat is the predominant choice for sound production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>All around the world there are more than 67&#8217;000 studio speaker setups measured and calibrated using Sonarworks SoundID Reference software. After the measurement process is complete, users can choose whether to design their own custom target or choose flat. As seen in the graph, in absolute majority or 73% of cases the flat target is the preferred choice, while for the rest of the speaker systems various custom targets are used. What\u2019s more, usually the custom targets are within a few dBs from flat.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-14-at-12.59.00-1000x558.png?auto=compress%2Cformat\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7921\" width=\"750\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-14-at-12.59.00-1000x558.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1000 1000w, https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-14-at-12.59.00-400x223.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400 400w, https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-14-at-12.59.00-768x428.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=768 768w, https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2022-02-14-at-12.59.00.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1628 1628w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>These findings are in line with the consensus in the pro audio industry\u2014working on a flat-sounding full-range speaker system in an acoustically treated room leads to the best results. When interviewing sound professionals among our users, there are two main reasons behind choosing the flat calibration target. First, such a playback system gets rid of frequency masking, therefore it&#8217;s the best target for critical listening. Second, content that\u2019s created on a flat-sounding system translates from studio to consumer listening environment with the greatest accuracy. In contrast, there\u2019s more variation in user arguments why they choose custom targets. Some prefer to increase a specific frequency range by a few dBs purely for enjoyment, while others like to work with a more hyped target in the early stages but return to flat when finalizing their work. The feature is also used to compensate for hearing damage and other more niche use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have demonstrated evidence that the majority of professional audio work is done using a flat sound target. This means that playback using flat-sounding sound systems is the closest to the original artist&#8217;s intent, however, is it the right sound for consumers? That is one of the questions we answer in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/white-paper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">our latest whitepaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/learn\/what-is-flat-sound-and-should-i-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What is flat sound and should I care?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All around the world there are more than 67&#8217;000 studio speaker setups measured and calibrated using Sonarworks SoundID Reference software. After the measurement process is complete, users can choose whether to design their own custom target or choose flat. As seen in the graph, in absolute majority or 73% of cases the flat target is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_improvement_type_select":"improve_an_existing","_thumb_yes_seoaic":false,"_frame_yes_seoaic":false,"seoaic_generate_description":"","seoaic_improve_instructions_prompt":"","seoaic_rollback_content_improvement":"","seoaic_idea_thumbnail_generator":"","thumbnail_generated":false,"thumbnail_generate_prompt":"","seoaic_article_description":"","inline_featured_image":false,"seoaic_article_subtitles":[]},"categories":[266],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Flat is the predominant choice for sound production - Sonarworks Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working on a flat-sounding full-range speaker system in an acoustically treated room leads to the best results. Learn more about that in this article\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flat is the predominant choice for sound production - Sonarworks Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Working on a flat-sounding full-range speaker system in an acoustically treated room leads to the best results. Learn more about that in this article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sonarworks Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SoundIDCreate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-14T09:59:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-03T06:17:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog-uploads.imgix.net\/2022\/02\/ingo-schulz-lNQ7kD8A1SI-unsplash.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3118\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2079\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Indrikis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@soundidcreate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@soundidcreate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Indrikis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Indrikis\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ca68f995c88a7f25936f084c92ff5332\"},\"headline\":\"Flat is the predominant choice for sound production\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-14T09:59:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-03T06:17:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/research\/flat-as-the-predominant-choice-for-sound-production\",\"name\":\"Flat is the predominant choice for sound production - Sonarworks Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-14T09:59:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-03T06:17:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Working on a flat-sounding full-range speaker system in an acoustically treated room leads to the best results. 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