Curved vs Flat Monitor for Music Production

April 25, 2022April 25, 2022 Ishaan Sarna

Curved monitors look quite fascinating but are they good enough for music production? Or a Flat display is a better choice? DAWs need a lot of screen real estate for maximum productivity and both curved and flat display monitors offer ultrawide options. However, curved monitors have an edge over flat monitors when it comes to music production. Let’s understand the pros and cons of having a curved vs flat monitor for music production.

Why Curved display monitor is a better choice than a Flat monitor for music production? | Curved vs Flat Screen Monitor for Music Production

SAMSUNG 49″ Odyssey Neo G9 G95NA 4K UHD Mini LED Display, Curved Screen, 240Hz, 1ms, G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro – (Check Current Price & Availability)

While constantly working on large flat displays for music production, our neck and eye need a lot of movement to surf throughout the screen. This often causes eye or neck fatigue. Whereas in Curved display monitors, the distance between the left and right edges becomes shorter due to the arc which mimics the human field of view. As a result, our eyes are able to focus on a broader screen real estate at a time and more content comes under our “near-peripheral” vision.

Since the movement of our eyes and neck in curved monitors is very minimal, the probability of suffering from eye strain and neck fatigue reduces significantly. In the beginning, it may take a little while to adapt to curved displays for music production but once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back.

Before choosing a curved monitor for music production, don’t forget to take a look at how aggressive the arc is. The aggressiveness (or curvature) of the arc is defined by “R”. For example, 1000R, 1500R, and 1800R. “R” here is the radius of a circle in mm. So shorter radius (“R”) like 1000R would mean the arc of the monitor is more aggressive or curved.

Scenarios where a Flat display monitor would be a better choice over a Curved monitor for music production? | Curved vs Flat Screen Display Monitor for Music Production

LG 34BK95U-W UltraFine 34″ 21:9 5K 2K (5120 x 2160) Nano IPS LED UltraWide Monitor, 600 cd/m² HDR, Thunderbolt 3 / USB Type-C – (Check Current Price & Availability)

While curved monitors possess a lot of perks, there are some scenarios where a flat display monitor would be a better choice over curved ones for music production. For instance, in the case of multiple display setup, flat displays align much better with minimal gaps between the bezels. Curved monitors in multiple display setups are a poor choice as two separate displays will have two separate curves/arcs which would be very unsatisfying for the human eye to see.

How to overcome the problem of Multiple Display Setup with Curved monitors for Music Production

When comparing Flat vs Curved display monitors in case of multiple display setup for music production, we now know that curved monitors would not align well. Fortunately, there are many 49″ Ultrawide Curved monitors in the market with a massive 32:9 aspect ratio and almost 5K resolution.

These monitors mimic the screen real estate of two 27″ QHD monitors and that too without bezels. This way, you’d be able to open multiple windows in the same screen and still have a lot of room for other windows.

Best Curved Monitors for Music Production

Curved monitors mentioned above will provide you extremely broad screen real estate (horizontally). This extra width will drastically reduce your horizontal scrolling rate in the DAW’s timeline for music production.

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