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how much are decent studio monitors

a few questions about studio monitors

1)how much would i have to throw down for a pair good enough to produce pro tracks with

2)I am pretty sure i don't need a woofer if i buy these because they can already handle the bass, correct?

500�

You do not need a woofa bro.

You want to have the sound as flat as possible.

Re: how much are decent studio monitors

quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon 1)how much would i have to throw down for a pair good enough to produce pro tracks with

Approx 1300 USD or more.

quote:

2)I am pretty sure i don't need a woofer if i buy these because they can already handle the bass, correct?

A subwoofer is a good idea to complement "low budget" (< 2000 USD) nearfield monitors. BUT (and this is important) - don't even consider getting a subwoofer if you're not willing to spend at least 2000 USD (in addition to your monitors) to treat your room with bass traps and acoustic panels. If you don't do this, a subwoofer will create one giant mess and you won't have any clue what you're doing to the sound.

Regards

what brands are considered the industry standard as far as monitors go?

quote:

Originally posted by hey cheggy You do not need a woofa bro. You want to have the sound as flat as possible.

I wouldn't say so, it really depends on what you do. I've got a feq friends and places where they use woofers for monitoring... those are monitoring woofers btw

Try searching for Dynaudio or Genelec nearfield monitors.

thx!

Mackies ftw!

adam, dynaudio, mackie and genelec are the one to watch out..

and i would spend not less than ~$1500 for a pair of good monitors. so you can use them your whole life without limiting your production skills.

Re: Re: how much are decent studio monitors

quote:

Originally posted by RivalMan BUT (and this is important) - don't even consider getting a subwoofer if you're not willing to spend at least 2000 USD (in addition to your monitors) to treat your room with bass traps and acoustic panels.

Well, this doesn't apply only to subwoofers. I would rather use 500$ monitors in a treated room, then 2000$ monitors in a really bad room. For the best possible sound, you need to spend money (a lot) on both.

Re: Re: Re: how much are decent studio monitors

quote:

Originally posted by Chronosis Well, this doesn't apply only to subwoofers. I would rather use 500$ monitors in a treated room, then 2000$ monitors in a really bad room. For the best possible sound, you need to spend money (a lot) on both.

He he... What do you prefer: Bad sound due to bad monitors in a treated room or bad sound due to great monitors in an untreated room? I guess that question really doesn't make much sense.

You are right, and we do agree! My point in the previous post was just that once you get a subwoofer, it becomes even more important to treat your room properly in the low region. I guess the approach should be something like this:

1) Get a decent pair of monitors. You need to use at least 1300-1500 USD on these (and it's not a bad thing to use even more). My suggestions would be ADAM (could be the S2.5A/S3A), Dynaudio BM5A or BM15A or Genelec 8040A. I use Genelec myself. They are great, but they could definately benefit from a subwoofer. So if you don't plan on adding one, you might want to consider the Genelec 8050A rather than the 8040A.

2) Treat your room with bass traps and accoustic panels. Forget all that nonsense about foam, blankets, madrasses, carpets etc. It doesn't treat mid-low and low frequencies and 9 times out of 10, those are the frequencies causing problems. So you really need to spend another 2000 USD on room treatment.

3) If you still feel you want a more exact image in the low range, add a subwoofer (but not just any, but obviously the one that matches your monitors). At this time, you are probably able to do mastering (and not just mixing) in the room.

4) If you're still not satisfied with the sound, you probably have to do some rebuilding, tearing down walls, build new unparallel walls etc. and get new wall builtin monitors.

The time span between each step in this procedure depends on your luck when playing the jackpot

Regards

treating the room wow,
what are the dimensions of an ideal room to do this in? do actual things in the roof such as furniture have any bearing on the sound after these panels are installed?

quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon what brands are considered the industry standard as far as monitors go?

Mackie HR824
http://mackie.com/products/hr824/index.html
$1200/pair

the last monitor you'll ever need.

I don't really want to spend a lot of money on acoustically treating the room, as mine is my bedroom also . All I have is isolation pads beneath the monitors (Mackie HR624 - Excellent btw).
Therefore I put on a CD of some of my favourite tracks that are superbly mixed, such as Michael Jackson, Moby, and some other stuff such as Queen, Van Morrison. The bass sounds superb and tightly controlled, so therefore if I can get the bass to sound similar on my tracks, then I know that I'm mixing accurately.
Not sure if there is much point forking out a lot for accoustic foam if you are going to buy shit monitors, so my advice (given to me by a few people such as the jew-gimp Maor Levi) is to spend as much as you can to get decent monitors the first time round.
Try to get something from these brands:

Mackie, Dynaudio, Genelec, ADAM, Quested or JBL...try looking on here:

www.dolphinmusic.co.uk . Good selection.

Hope that was some help.

quote:

Originally posted by antronx Mackie HR824 http://mackie.com/products/hr824/index.html $1200/pair the last monitor you'll ever need.

I must say, you have to turn these up loud to get a good bass response, and they do rape the ears fast. I feel like I need to spend another grand on the mackie HRS120 sub that goes with them to get the most out of them.

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja I must say, you have to turn these up loud to get a good bass response, and they do rape the ears fast. I feel like I need to spend another grand on the mackie HRS120 sub that goes with them to get the most out of them.

What's in your sound chain? Most of the time its not your speakers, its your mixer or sound card lacking bass responce. You also need to use better cables going to your monitors. There is the difference between different type of cables. I figured the best approach, using the cable that has balanced TRS plug going into the mixer (for versatility) and balanced XLR plug into mackie. XLR plugs do have better sound responce than TRS. Call me crazy, but there is difference. You might also want to try using good quality RCA to RCA cables. Sometimes, RCA sounds better because it's Unbalanced, which means the sound goes through less sound chips inside your mixer and speaker. Balanced has to be converted into unbalanced to feed the mackie's amps. Same goes for your sound source, unbalanced has to be converted into balanced. All those steps degrade sound quality slightly.

My sound chain consists of Digi002 Rack > Mackie Onyx1620 > 2x Mackie Hr824. There is also CDJ800 going into the Onyx. Sound quality is amazing when I play well recorded classic rock CD's, like eagles or clapton. You also have to keep in mind that most of electronic music is not done in multimillion dollar recording studios and made by half-deaf DJ's. Thats why a lot of EDM sounds not well mastered, which makes your ears bleed...

But i agree with you on the subwoofer part, having flat frequency responce down to 19 Hertz gives me a hell of a hard on!

I go Delta1010 soundcard -> mackie micro 1202 12 channel mixer -> hr824's. My mixer doesn't have XLR outputs or i'd use em, but I might try getting some nice RCA monster cables and using them.

I've had a low bass problem with one of cheaper mackie mixers, i believe it was 1420 VLZPro, i returned it back to sam ash, paid extra and got the Onyx. Problem solved. Is It possible to connect your sound card directly into mackies? Try that. Dont waste money on monster cables, just get Hosa RCA-RCA. Its the one with fairly think wires and long shiny metal plugs. And its somewhere around $20 for 15 feet.

I used to have it hooked up straight to my soundcard, but it's nice having the volume controll right on the mixer.

I just connected my monitors through a Velodyne CHT-10 500$ sub with RCA and it sounds better than ever before. I can sit down and enjoy listening to music through it now. I might ebay the sub and get the HRS120, but i'm pretty satisfied with it right now

Yea, the HRS120 should knock you off your feet... Its cool that its working out better for you now. I would like to get the sub myself, but i got to spend very similar dollar amount to fix my broken tooth

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