A spectrum analyser give a visual representation of the frequencies an audio signal is made of.
It may help identify problematique frequencies and help speeding up the fixing process.

pcrecord, post: 460031, member: 46460 wrote: It may help identify problematique frequencies ...

...particularly those in the region below 100Hz that your monitoring system may not be able to reproduce accurately.

Most of the time spectrum analyzers just distract from using one's ears.

bouldersound, post: 460033, member: 38959 wrote: Most of the time spectrum analyzers just distract from using one's ears.

Right on !! But when one has never trained that ear?? ;)

pcrecord, post: 460034, member: 46460 wrote: Right on !! But when one has never trained that ear?? ;)

I would suggest training the ear with a parametric eq. Boost/sweep, cut/sweep, make it wide then narrow. Look at the numbers on the knobs. That will focus attention on what's most important whereas a spectral display gives too much information in real time to be a good way to learn to hear frequencies.

Use spectral analysis to complement what you hear, not replace it. It's useful for getting a different view on something that you can hear is not right, and also (as mentioned earlier), for checking on things that you can't hear with your gear, such as a 30Hz rumble.

There also good for quick and dirty room response tests along with some pink noise blast and frequency sweeps.

and they're great for helping you work out just why that guitar doesn't blend properly! You can see where the energy in a mix already is, so you can spot 'holes' that your ears are warning you about. I rather like to have a stereo meter on the go too - that's more useful to me I think than the spectrum scope.

Hi guys, New to this site. Spectrum Analyzer is very useful when mixing monitors in a live situation when pesky low freq feedback Is dogging you. Sometimes you need to find a problem fast and soloing an output send with a analyzer on it can get you out of trouble fast. With all the sound going on onstage sometimes your ears can deceive you. Although your ears are your best analyzer over all. Thanks Joey, ps check out for sale section as I have a few fantastic analog consoles for sale.