Studio Monitors

This question is for folks who make their own music and might compose a few for some small change. Do you use studio monitors in your workflow? I have my daw (Reaper), my old soundcard, a headphone, mic, various libraries and vsts, but no monitors. Where i'm from monitors are mainly for those that can really afford them, so i was wondering if i could get by with my basic speakers and my reference headphones or do i have to splurge for monitors?

 

I have a pair of cheapass Fluid Audio F4 monitors. They're pretty great for the price. My headphones are Sennheisers that cost about the same at full price, but I got a decent discount (seems the price has gone up since). It doesn't have to be expensive to still be usable

 

Nice, thanks for the feedback man

 

I've used a variety of monitors over the years at both work (in game studios) and at home. A few points that ring true. You get far less ear fatigue when working on monitors as opposed to headphones at the same volume over long periods of time. Therefore monitors are recommended for long term use and are better for your hearing. Although you should always check your mix on various systems, headphones, monitor speakers, home hi-fi and in the car.

On the budget end of monitors I would suggest looking at the cheaper Adam range like the 5AX, 7AX or F5/F7. A 5 inch woofer would be the smallest I would go for. You won't get enough bass from anything smaller. (Ideally if you have the budget and room for it, 7 or 8 inch is ideal). You might also want to checkout the cheaper Mackie range, something like Mackie MR Series (MR5mk3 / MR8mk3)

Lastly monitors are a personal choice. You really need to go to a shop where you can listen to a range of different monitors and make a choice about what suits your ears and your music. Personally from all the monitors that I have used I like Dynaudio, Adam and Mackie... Fostex are also very good in terms of price/quality.

 

Bruh, this is the only place in Jamaica that sells studio monitors :

http://www.musicmart.biz/29-studio-monitors

As you can see, there ain't much for the picking, and their slightly more expensive down here.
What you guys pay $150 for, i pay $300.

 

Yikes. I live in a frozen S***hole and get better prices!

 

. I have Controller, mic, headphones, and an interface. But monitors.....S***ty logitech speakers yo.

 

Basic (non-studio monitor) speakers are not *flat sounding*. I would even say the same of most studio monitors under $500 a pair. They are usually accented in bass / treble to "sound good" (subjective). So even if you get things to sound great on them, you have no idea about other "colored" systems such as your car stereo and you'll have to take the mix to different systems and tweak repeatedly and have a lot of luck to get it right.

So getting some *flat* sounding studio monitors is a necessity if you don't want to go crazy. If you want tight, non-boomy bass, I also say getting a studio monitor subwoofer is also necessary.

The cheapest ones that are any good are the KRK's Rokit5's. The 2 + subwoofer would run you $700.

Or you could go for the Yamaha 8's (which I have now) for the same price without subwoofer.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...Pm6gRYBy9W92UYsmUr--8wpo6QqruVswEQxoCQQTw_wcB

If you just don't have the money, at least get some relatively flat headphones (although note that it's impossible for headphones to sound completely flat regardless of price). I like my Audio Technica ATH-M50's. Aside from the tight bass tweaking I had to do at a friend's house (with subwoofer), they work excellent for mixing headphones. They run about $120

Cheapest way to go that doesn't suck IMO: Get the KRK Rokit5's for $300, and add the KRK subwoofer when you have more money. I've heard the cheaper Mackie's every other brand in the $300 range and nothing comes close to the clarity of the KRK's.

Lastly, you need to make your room (with studio monitors) non-colored. Get the speakers as far away from a wall as possible. Set the speakers and your ear into an equilateral triangle shape with tweeters at ear level. Do not put the speakers on their side. The larger the room, the better so you don't hear too many room reflections, which give a false impression of the true sound.

With headphones the "room color" does not matter, which is one good part.

 

They don't sell Rokkit 5 down here, only Rokkit6 and they cost $800. Also the site that i posted only sells Samson subwoofers for $400 bucks. That's $1200 for a so called decent setup.

 

Then I'd just get some semi-flat headphones unless you want to take a vacation to a place that sells things for normal prices. That's total rip-off for KRK's.

 

Yup, tough economic times bruh. I think i'd have to ask a relative to buy me a sub par studio monitor over there and bring it down for me. Sigh

 

That makes it difficult. I'd try and bargain with the shop owner to bring the price down or just order a pair from overseas and pay the shipping costs (provided shipping costs are not too crazy).

 

Ok, will try something.

 

I have a home studio with a couple of Mackie HR824 studio monitors that I use for composing/recording/mixing, and a gaming computer which was using a cheap 10 year old Onkyo 5.1 system. I changed out the front left and right speakers on the gaming system a week ago with some old cheap Event studio monitors I had lying around, and it was like night and day. You can hear frequencies and other nuances in sound (like compression) that were completely unnnoticeable on the home theatre-in-a-box speakers. And the difference in flatness between the Events and HR824s was also pretty noticeable when I made that upgrade a while ago for my studio, especially in the midrange.

Sorry your choices are so limited there... and that really sucks about the prices. I'd agree with getting the cheaper KRKs or even JBLs somewhere more affordable and having someone bring them down as oversized baggage or something, especially if you already have an interface with decent ADDA converters. Having a flat and accurate sounding system is pretty necessary if you want it to translate well to other listening environments. What about finding some studios in your area that are looking to sell some of their old equipment?

One day, I'd like to get a full surround setup with these monitors:
http://www.amphion.fi/en/create/products/one18/

but I told myself only if the game I'm currently developing gives me the profits to get 'em!

 

Yeah, thanks for your advice. I'll see what i can do