Monitors

[Silenced Fred]

For mixing, what do you guys recommend? I'd have these set up for mixing as well as general listening. I don't wanna break the bank, but I want good quality for the money. Mind you, most recording would be amateur, and not professional, but still, I'm not going to use the cheap set from Target

[damian]

Landmine question..............I recommend active nearfield monitors, a 5" woofer is fine.....For your needs, almost any brand that ARE

 

nearfield actives should do if they are on sale...Yes, they're all different, but they all do the same thing more or less....They reproduce

 

your music as flat as possible....In short, they aren't designed to sound bad, they're designed to not sound good....I haven't used this

 

brand but Wharedales can be affordable and work well.....One engineer I know has $12,000.00 monitors, and he enjoys pointing out

 

that many cheap monitors do the same thing almost as well........I love KRK Rokkits....6" woofers......M.F. and Hello Music have daily

 

deals that you might check daily on until a real nice deal shows up.....Monitors are high profit items, so, price doesn't mean better......

[Silenced Fred]

Landmine question..............I recommend active nearfield monitors, a 5" woofer is fine.....For your needs, almost any brand that ARE

 

nearfield actives should do if they are on sale...Yes, they're all different, but they all do the same thing more or less....They reproduce

 

your music as flat as possible....In short, they aren't designed to sound bad, they're designed to not sound good....I haven't used this

 

brand but Wharedales can be affordable and work well.....One engineer I know has $12,000.00 monitors, and he enjoys pointing out

 

that many cheap monitors do the same thing almost as well........I love KRK Rokkits....6" woofers......M.F. and Hello Music have daily

 

deals that you might check daily on until a real nice deal shows up.....Monitors are high profit items, so, price doesn't mean better......

 

I have heard great things about KRK, but they are pretty spensive.

 

I've been looking at these and JBL is a good name, and they aren't too bad price wise

[damian]

I have heard great things about KRK, but they are pretty spensive.

 

I've been looking at these and JBL is a good name, and they aren't too bad price wise

 

Eh......To me, these ARE like the TARGET brand.....Not really monitors and too expensive Nat....ie, M.F. has M-Audio BX5a monitors

 

which list for 399 that they sell for 299 on sale for 199....I bought a pair new for 99 two years back at G.C.....Rokit 6" sell for 199 each,

 

but you can find them at 100-150 each new.....I like price matching, and getting the free shipping from M.F.....Holiday season is

 

coming, save your money and be ready to pick up good monitors for almost store cost......I still say go with Rokits...........

 

My income is just over the "poverty level" and I do quite well by shopping carefully..........

[Silenced Fred]

Eh......To me, these ARE like the TARGET brand.....Not really monitors and too expensive Nat....ie, M.F. has M-Audio BX5a monitors

 

which list for 399 that they sell for 299 on sale for 199....I bought a pair new for 99 two years back at G.C.....Rokit 6" sell for 199 each,

 

but you can find them at 100-150 each new.....I like price matching, and getting the free shipping from M.F.....Holiday season is

 

coming, save your money and be ready to pick up good monitors for almost store cost......I still say go with Rokits...........

 

My income is just over the "poverty level" and I do quite well by shopping carefully..........

 

thanks man. i know **** about monitors, and figured since a few guys do home studio stuff, i'd be good to ask around here. I thought the price seemed too good to be true, I'll just have to shop around quite a bit then

[Guest Farnsburger]

I have a pair of Roland monitors, small but fine for my purposes. It is important to remember that while monitors are a useful tool because the flat frequency response means no frequencies are emphasised, no one will play your recording back with them. Most modern hifi speakers over emphasise bass and treble and leave mids slightly scooped so you should listen to your mix through several sets of domestic speakers before you master it. Pro studios tend to have piles of domestic speakers as well as monitors for that reason.

[ShredAstaire]

I love my M-Audio BX5a's....they sound sweet and are not too expensive...

[damian]

Great points Farns and Shred.......Oddly, or maybe not, many engineers like "test running" mixes in their car stereos......

[Silenced Fred]

I have a pair of Roland monitors, small but fine for my purposes. It is important to remember that while monitors are a useful tool because the flat frequency response means no frequencies are emphasised, no one will play your recording back with them. Most modern hifi speakers over emphasise bass and treble and leave mids slightly scooped so you should listen to your mix through several sets of domestic speakers before you master it. Pro studios tend to have piles of domestic speakers as well as monitors for that reason.

 

word. i have a big set of speakers in my basement that i run stuff through, two pairs of computer speakers (small sonys and a cheaper one I got for free from someone, as well as I try to, once I have a mix that kind of works, I play it through iPod headphones because that's what everyone uses. I know that's me thinking I'm super special, but meh.

 

I haven't done too much mixing with a lot of my tracks I've posted, but I want to make them sound better.

 

Shred and damien- I'll look into those M-Audios

 

you guys rock

[Silenced Fred]

Mackie MR5

 

Fostex

 

Fostex PM0.4

 

M-Audio BX5

 

So I've heard recommendations for the M-Audios, but what about these other ones?

 

If I could keep the price around 200, that would be superb! I'm gonna head over to Guitar Center tomorrow to try some out, but their recording section is super small so I have no idea what they are going to have in stock

[Guest Farnsburger]

Great points Farns and Shred.......Oddly, or maybe not, many engineers like "test running" mixes in their car stereos......

 

I believe it's because a car is about the worst possible sound stage imaginable with standing waves all over the place. Just another extreme environment to test in.

[djroge1]

I have KRK's too and they are great! I highly recommend them.

 

I used to mix everything on a pair of JBL Control Plus and they too are awesome.

 

I would recommend either the KRK's or JBL's.

[daveinspain]

I used Yamaha NS-10m, been using them for 25 years... If it sounds good on them it sounds good.

[damian]

Yesterday "Hello Music" had the Rokit 6"inchers for $300.00 a pair.......(just an example of what's out there for deals)....

[EVOL!]

I am not a fan of active monitors. I ended up with a set of Polk bookshelf speakers (got 'em at Abt, on sale) and a Marantz integrated amp that allows me to run direct (no EQ). I think it's a better setup for home mixing.

 

If you can't spring for an amp, go with active monitors. If you have an amp you can get more passive speaker for your dollars.

[Windmills Optional]

I'll throw in with the M-Audio BX5 crowd. Granted, I'm just doing pretty rough front bedroom recording, but they seem to work pretty well for my purposes and were pretty affordable.