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Forum : Producing Help : Studio Monitors
<span class="postbody">So I decided to work a bit during the holidays
and made some extra cash. The only thing my home studio (not a pro one
but a personal one for fun) needs is some decent studio monitors.
I do, however, have a couple of essential beginner questions:
I realise these are complete noob questions, I hope nobody minds.
1) Do studio monitors break easily? Normal speakers don´t tend to have a long life span when I make music.
2) Do studio monitors break easily listening to mastered music? (commercial cds, not my own unmasterd music).
3) Do studio monitors come with their own cables as in order a pair and
just connect them or do I need to order wires too? which ones should I
buy, jack or those round ones with 3 pointy things (RDK?).
4) Can I easily connect them to the audio out of my small m-audio
transit? I believe this is a minijack 1/8 audio out. Im asking this
because a pair of monitors means 2 cables right? Is there a sort of
cable for the monitors that end in a single jack?
5) I can´t really decide on which ones I should buy. I was looking
to give around 200 euros a piece tops. KRK RP-6 and 8 seem great,
M-audio BX8A seem cheaper yet still good. Yamaha HSM50 also looks good.
Truths seems to be fragile but cheap for what you get. Reveals, pfff...
so many nice choices and reviews praise a lot of these. So far the KRK
looks like it is sold most. I know the best thing to do is go to a shop
with a cd I know well and pick one I like but the shops over here don´t
really have a lot to offer so I need to order some from the net.
Another problem is not ever having heard a monitor so I don´t think I
can make the difference between something I need and something that
sounds good to me.I was wondering if I could go wrong with one of the
monitors I mentioned. Do not like the idea of spending quite a lot of
money on things I could break easily and would prefer buying something
that is great for the price paid.
</span>
<span class="postbody">
6) Can I find decent ones for personal use for the amount of money I wish to spend? (200 eur a piece) </span>
<span class="postbody">any help will be greatly appreciated</span>
and made some extra cash. The only thing my home studio (not a pro one
but a personal one for fun) needs is some decent studio monitors.
I do, however, have a couple of essential beginner questions:
I realise these are complete noob questions, I hope nobody minds.
1) Do studio monitors break easily? Normal speakers don´t tend to have a long life span when I make music.
2) Do studio monitors break easily listening to mastered music? (commercial cds, not my own unmasterd music).
3) Do studio monitors come with their own cables as in order a pair and
just connect them or do I need to order wires too? which ones should I
buy, jack or those round ones with 3 pointy things (RDK?).
4) Can I easily connect them to the audio out of my small m-audio
transit? I believe this is a minijack 1/8 audio out. Im asking this
because a pair of monitors means 2 cables right? Is there a sort of
cable for the monitors that end in a single jack?
5) I can´t really decide on which ones I should buy. I was looking
to give around 200 euros a piece tops. KRK RP-6 and 8 seem great,
M-audio BX8A seem cheaper yet still good. Yamaha HSM50 also looks good.
Truths seems to be fragile but cheap for what you get. Reveals, pfff...
so many nice choices and reviews praise a lot of these. So far the KRK
looks like it is sold most. I know the best thing to do is go to a shop
with a cd I know well and pick one I like but the shops over here don´t
really have a lot to offer so I need to order some from the net.
Another problem is not ever having heard a monitor so I don´t think I
can make the difference between something I need and something that
sounds good to me.I was wondering if I could go wrong with one of the
monitors I mentioned. Do not like the idea of spending quite a lot of
money on things I could break easily and would prefer buying something
that is great for the price paid.
</span>
<span class="postbody">
6) Can I find decent ones for personal use for the amount of money I wish to spend? (200 eur a piece) </span>
<span class="postbody">any help will be greatly appreciated</span>
1 en 2: if you re breaking pro monitors, you ll propably be breaking your ears, not a good idea.
3: you ve got to order cables too
4: you can use jack or xlr (the round thing with 3 pins). you ve got to choose between balanced or unbalanced. you won t benefit from balanced if your sound card doesnt support it. if you can use balanced you ve got to use balanced jacks or xlr. xlr had better noise performance.
5: go to friends with monitors, bring some cds you know good and decide for yourself what you like best.
6: the pricier the better but in the 200 euro area there are some good monitors to start with.
3: you ve got to order cables too
4: you can use jack or xlr (the round thing with 3 pins). you ve got to choose between balanced or unbalanced. you won t benefit from balanced if your sound card doesnt support it. if you can use balanced you ve got to use balanced jacks or xlr. xlr had better noise performance.
5: go to friends with monitors, bring some cds you know good and decide for yourself what you like best.
6: the pricier the better but in the 200 euro area there are some good monitors to start with.
the cable thing that strekie says only is so with active monitors, if you use passive monitors you'll need an extra amp ( best a special one for that, like the alesis ra series )....
breaking them is not easy and will indeed result in serious ear damage...
for affordable ones : KRK / Tapco ( budget line from Mackie ) / Alesis and even Behringer are good options, KRK and Tapco would be the best choices, in that budget range I'd choose KRK....
breaking them is not easy and will indeed result in serious ear damage...
for affordable ones : KRK / Tapco ( budget line from Mackie ) / Alesis and even Behringer are good options, KRK and Tapco would be the best choices, in that budget range I'd choose KRK....
Quote:
Originally posted by : strekie
5: go to friends with monitors, bring some cds you know good and decide for yourself what you like best.
he should go to a shop wich stocks lots of mon,itors since not any studio setup/sound proofing is the same... i doubt this would be useful.
if he can compare a lot of monitors at the same place yes, but different monitors in different conditions-places.... sorry no.
Thanks a lot for those quick replies.
I will be looking into that balanced/unbalanced problem.
75% sure I will be going for the KRKs, can´t decide on RP-6 (+- 190 euro pp) or 8 (+-240 euro pp). Is the difference more power? from certain reviews it seems as if RP-8 is has a better price/quality rate. The only real competition for the KRKs (in my opinion) are the m-audio BX8A (199 euro pp) and the Yamaha HS50M (+- 150 euro pp). Have been reading great reviews of all these. Behringer appear to be prone to blowing their fuse and pick up radio interferance, samsons seem to cheap for comfort; rubicons have ribbons (fragile?), Alesis 620 certainly looks cool and I like the clipping light but I don´t think they have what it takes. Tapcos reviews arent all that great.
Going to friends who own monitors would indeed be a problem; different rooms + I do not know anyone who owns monitors :D
Is there a shop near Gent or Beringen where they have a nice stock of monitors?
I will be looking into that balanced/unbalanced problem.
75% sure I will be going for the KRKs, can´t decide on RP-6 (+- 190 euro pp) or 8 (+-240 euro pp). Is the difference more power? from certain reviews it seems as if RP-8 is has a better price/quality rate. The only real competition for the KRKs (in my opinion) are the m-audio BX8A (199 euro pp) and the Yamaha HS50M (+- 150 euro pp). Have been reading great reviews of all these. Behringer appear to be prone to blowing their fuse and pick up radio interferance, samsons seem to cheap for comfort; rubicons have ribbons (fragile?), Alesis 620 certainly looks cool and I like the clipping light but I don´t think they have what it takes. Tapcos reviews arent all that great.
Going to friends who own monitors would indeed be a problem; different rooms + I do not know anyone who owns monitors :D
Is there a shop near Gent or Beringen where they have a nice stock of monitors?
that s true, just go to musicstore in germany
Quote:
Originally posted by : Swan
Quote:
Originally posted by : strekie
5: go to friends with monitors, bring some cds you know good and decide for yourself what you like best.
he should go to a shop wich stocks lots of mon,itors since not any studio setup/sound proofing is the same... i doubt this would be useful.
if he can compare a lot of monitors at the same place yes, but different monitors in different conditions-places.... sorry no.
Quote:
Ok been looking if my external sound thingie supports balanced or unbalanced, but it does not seem to feature either of those. Is this possible? it is an m-audio transit, quite small but really effective (asio) and cheap, thats why I bought it.
Do I need to upgrade to another one? because a fast track by m-audio seems to feature these as it says so in its detail on the m-audio site. From what I can make of it my Transit is only good for Headphones. Am I wrong?
Do I need to upgrade to another one? because a fast track by m-audio seems to feature these as it says so in its detail on the m-audio site. From what I can make of it my Transit is only good for Headphones. Am I wrong?
active monitors are preferrable since the built-in amp is designed for the speaker so you get no "coloration" of the sound. It also saves you money because you dont need an extra amp.
As for wich ones, KRK are favoured alot, i have active alesis m620 i bought recently and a pair cost me 350€, so thats in your pricerange. they are a bit bass heavy though, but thats why i bought them :-)I was advised that the Yamaha's are a bit cheaper but not as good as alesis.
you will indeed need cables to connect them to your mixer if you go for actives.
About breaking them: you would have to play REALLY loud to blow them, for example the alesis i have can blow out 100watt rms, thats more than enough for nearfield monitors (even a bit too much). I have set them at 50% of their capacity and thats already very, very loud when i sit in front of them.
Cool thing about mine is also that in case of clipping, the blue led's on top of the speakers turn red (says the manual, i didnt try it yet for obvious reasons)
one bad thing i found out about the ones i have is that certain capacitors sometimes have a short lifespan or are prone to malfunctioning, but if it happens it usually happens in the guarantee period (or even from 1st time use) so you would get a replacement pair for free.
hope this helps
As for wich ones, KRK are favoured alot, i have active alesis m620 i bought recently and a pair cost me 350€, so thats in your pricerange. they are a bit bass heavy though, but thats why i bought them :-)I was advised that the Yamaha's are a bit cheaper but not as good as alesis.
you will indeed need cables to connect them to your mixer if you go for actives.
About breaking them: you would have to play REALLY loud to blow them, for example the alesis i have can blow out 100watt rms, thats more than enough for nearfield monitors (even a bit too much). I have set them at 50% of their capacity and thats already very, very loud when i sit in front of them.
Cool thing about mine is also that in case of clipping, the blue led's on top of the speakers turn red (says the manual, i didnt try it yet for obvious reasons)
one bad thing i found out about the ones i have is that certain capacitors sometimes have a short lifespan or are prone to malfunctioning, but if it happens it usually happens in the guarantee period (or even from 1st time use) so you would get a replacement pair for free.
hope this helps
Thanks Hecticcc,
was going for actives anyway. I don´t own a mixer though. Quite a budget setup I have here which I use for fun, hence the cheap M-audio transit.
Seems I will be needing a better audio interface and a mixer then?
was going for actives anyway. I don´t own a mixer though. Quite a budget setup I have here which I use for fun, hence the cheap M-audio transit.
Seems I will be needing a better audio interface and a mixer then?
you dont necessarily need a mixer, you can hook them up straight in your output on the soundcard but i would not advise that. If you accidentaly send out a very loud signal from your pc you might damage the speakers/amps (or really scare the neighbours)
Any cheap mixer will do, behringer for example has small cheap line mixers. Or ask around for an old mixer from a dj'ing friend or something.
As for soundcard i think the one you suggest is fine for a "having fun" setup.
Any cheap mixer will do, behringer for example has small cheap line mixers. Or ask around for an old mixer from a dj'ing friend or something.
As for soundcard i think the one you suggest is fine for a "having fun" setup.
Quote:
Originally posted by : AstCfx
Thanks a lot for those quick replies.
I will be looking into that balanced/unbalanced problem.
75% sure I will be going for the KRKs, can´t decide on RP-6 (+- 190 euro pp) or 8 (+-240 euro pp). Is the difference more power? from certain reviews it seems as if RP-8 is has a better price/quality rate. The only real competition for the KRKs (in my opinion) are the m-audio BX8A (199 euro pp) and the Yamaha HS50M (+- 150 euro pp). Have been reading great reviews of all these. Behringer appear to be prone to blowing their fuse and pick up radio interferance, samsons seem to cheap for comfort; rubicons have ribbons (fragile?), Alesis 620 certainly looks cool and I like the clipping light but I don´t think they have what it takes. Tapcos reviews arent all that great.
Going to friends who own monitors would indeed be a problem; different rooms + I do not know anyone who owns monitors :D
Is there a shop near Gent or Beringen where they have a nice stock of monitors?
samsons are ok!
got 2 pairs but blowed them both before i could sell them
its small and not much db power (if you need it - i do)
i got samsons resolvs active monitors, and im very pleased with em, since more then 2 years now...
I have got the M-Audio Studiophile and I am very happy with'em, since i have got them my mixes are getting better and better. If you never worked with active monitors you will be very surprised! But sooner or later I'll get myself bigger ones for the db... small ones are really easy to kill!
I use the Fostex NF-1 's, passive monitors, combined with an alesis ra-150 and it works great...
active, passive...just listen and go along with what u hear....
active, passive...just listen and go along with what u hear....
Don't go for cheap monitors... I got alesis m1 mk2 (same price range and very good for their price range), was pleased with them for a while (years) untill I heard better. Dynaudio bm5 or bm6, that's more of a standard. Or Genelec.
Quote:
Originally posted by : bandarlog
Don't go for cheap monitors... I got alesis m1 mk2 (same price range and very good for their price range), was pleased with them for a while (years) untill I heard better. Dynaudio bm5 or bm6, that's more of a standard. Or Genelec.
well, we use genelec and dynaudio at school and i'm still happy with my yamaha's, just because i'm used to them. last year i mixed my shortmovie on big genelecs and afterwards i had to adjust thing on my yamaha's; some sound where just too different in dynamics and didn't sound great on less good systems.
my teacher music-recording told me that he went to a store last year and asked for the baddest sounding moni's from the store, just so his mixes would sound good anywhere.
offcourse you need to hear what you do, but you can do that also with cheaper moni's (as long as they don't recieve the radio, distort or have serious dips/peaks in freq's)
Genelec is a super-good brand.
Genelec 8020 A: 550 euro/pair
I personally own the ADAM A7 speakers... and I just love them! The tweeters are especially good, I hear details in the super high frequencies that I never heard before. If it sounds good on those speakers, it will sound awesome on any pair of speakers, as they are very "difficult".
790 euro / pair, built-in fanless amp, balanced and unbalanced inputs, and quite powerful (I use them at quite low volume and I can take a few walls down if I want to, I think :p)
Genelec 8020 A: 550 euro/pair
I personally own the ADAM A7 speakers... and I just love them! The tweeters are especially good, I hear details in the super high frequencies that I never heard before. If it sounds good on those speakers, it will sound awesome on any pair of speakers, as they are very "difficult".
790 euro / pair, built-in fanless amp, balanced and unbalanced inputs, and quite powerful (I use them at quite low volume and I can take a few walls down if I want to, I think :p)
So If I would be going to buy KRK RP5´s, they wouldn´t last long because they lack power? I started wondering about the huge difference in price between certain brands. KRK RP6 is 100W bi-amp 6 inch for about 400 euros a pair, m-audio BX8A is 130W bi-amp 8inch for the same price. Is the difference in quality a life span aspect or a sound quality aspect?
I would really like monitors I can keep for some time as I´m on a rather tight budget.
Quote:
Originally posted by : AstCfx
So If I would be going to buy KRK RP5´s, they wouldn´t last long because they lack power?
them to fill a big room, you are on the wrong track. these are nearfield monitors, which should be placed not much further than 1m from your ears. the biggest difference between the rp5's and rp8's ( or between 5" and 8" in general) is mainly the bass-end. so if you want 5" moni (cause of the price) and a deep bass-end, just add a subwoofer later on.Quote:
offcourse not. it all depends on how you use it. if you always turn them all the way up because you expect
but a sub costs around 500, so waiting a bit longer for 8" moni's would be a cheaper solution, although even 8" moni's often can't reach the very deep end that a subwoofer offers.
i've experienced that the watt's don't really matter, because you never turn your moni totally open (the max volume is dependant of the watts).
if you doubt between 2 or 3 moni's, just check them out in a store and compare
not to mention that placing a sub *correctly* is a real pain the ass