Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

General Interest > Music, Art, and Media
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

North Spore Shop: North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card
    #13309601 -

Ok, so I'm looking to drop some money on this nice little package, as I want some good entry-level monitors and mics, and might as well get some headphones also...

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/KRK-Rokit-Powered-6-G2-Monitors-Mics-and-More-Package?sku=483367&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=199632736

I am also in the market for a nice sound card, preferably external.  Does anyone have anything they can recommend?  Hopefully in 100-150 range with a little leeway?

Edited by cbhead23 (10/08/10 06:03 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: cbhead23]
    #13315101 -

edirol are good entry levels, for under a hundred quid, and you cant go wrong with AKG studio condensers.


--------------------
www.myspace.com/metalmachinemusicuk

www.facebook.com/metalmachinemusik

www.youtube.com/themetalmachinemusic

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: MetalMachineMusic]
    #13315531 -

I see rokit in every studio interview with all my favorite artist. they must be some decent monitors if that many good producers use em.

I would not get the whole package, personally.
The headphones and mike/stands can be copped for much cheaper.


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: cbhead23]
    #13316685 -

the rokits are nice
have a look at the Emu soundcards

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: ShroomDoom]
    #13316952 -

ShroomDoom said:
The headphones and mike/stands can be copped for much cheaper.


To be honest, I'd rather have some Sennheiser headphones and an Audio Technica microphone than ones they show in that package. Since it's $200 for the speakers by themselves, you might as well buy ala carte & spend that extra $380 on some slightly better, more cost-effective stuff. Even if you spend an extra $50-100 right now, you'll have quality stuff you can keep for the rest of your life. I don't even think it would cost much more to get better stuff. Audio Technica has an awesome condenser mic for $99 right now and there's some nice Sennheiser headhpones for $100 or less, like the HD 280 Pro. These are the kinds of things that will give you clean, flat, true sound for recording & monitoring, meaning it won't overemphasize bass/treble/etc.

If you don't have time or energy to think about it, that package is perfectly nice and I doubt you'd be too upset by any of the products.


--------------------
Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high. :gethigh:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: ShroomDoom]
    #13318084 -

ShroomDoom said:
I would not get the whole package, personally.
The headphones and mike/stands can be copped for much cheaper.


I second.

You could get way nicer things for less money individually if you looked around. Those condenser mics arent really that good either.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: I_was_the_walrus]
    #13318474 -

When looking for sound cards, is there anything in particular I need to take note of?  I mean, I don't really understand 24bit sound or whatever..:confused:

Also, it looks like the speakers, for a pair, would be 400.  Unless I'm wrong.  It just looks like on musicians friend, it says the speaker is 200 for one.

Also, for the mics, I'm probably going to be recording homemade sound effects.  Possibly a drum set, a bass guitar, and shit, probably some keys.

So are there any mics I should be looking at?  Different mic for the kick drum as opposed to the high key notes right? Or can one mic successfully record the highs and lows?

I really am clueless.  I can drop the headphone, and the mic stands, I guess. Why not just hold the mic?  I guess you can't exactly lay it down on something next to a bass drum though....

Really my concern is the speakers, soundcard, and mic.  I can let the headphones go, even the mic, but if I'm paying 400 for a set of monitors, I guess I should just pic up the mediocre shit with it?  Or not?

Sorry for the scattered reply.  I appreciate the input fellas.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: cbhead23]
    #13318933 -

in a soundcard, the quality of the convertors and low latency (you don't want delayed playback) are most important I think. Other than that you might want to look into how many in- and outputs you want to have. Most soundcards that'll fit your setup will have 2 inputs and 2 outputs (so that's stereo in and out with jack cables). Some (external) soundcards also have a microphone pre-amp. Most mic's need a preamp with phantom power. there are also small preamps that aren't expensive and can deliver pretty good results.

this looks interesting and has 2 mic preamps/line inputs: http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/E-Mu-0404-USB-2.0-AudioMIDI-Interface?sku=242516
this is the same but a newer look and more expensive? http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/E-Mu-0404-USB-2.0-Recording-Interface?sku=501295

With monitors, why need a headphone? I'd say save up for a good one and play around with the monitors first. They deliver the whole spectrum also at low volume.

recording a whole drumset with 1 mic (or even 2), that's tricky and probably a hard task. Well it depends on what you're looking for... for instance you won't be able to do panning of the single drums after recording etc: you'll have a mono track of a full kit. best chance is make drums on your computer and play/record a real snare or hi-hats (one at a time) to give it a more 'real' feel. I would invest in 1 good mic, in stead of more mics to rcord a drumset. besides that, you'll need a preamp with more inputs, and possibly a mixer to route everything into your soundcard, leaving the option out to record each drum seperately (at the same time) and you won't be able to do mixing afterwards.

I've heard good things about the Bleu mic's http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Blue-Snowball-USB-Microphone?sku=279015#used but you'll have to read up on that. the easy thing is that it's usb powered (check out the cord length though!)
or this one (little more expensive and you'll need a preamp)
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/AKG-Perception-220-Condenser-Microphone?sku=271291#used
or if you must have an mxl like in that package this one seems like a higher end one http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXL-V63M-Studio-Condenser-Microphone-with-Shockmount?sku=273158

On a side note, I think you'll need to google and read up on the subject a little more...
especially on drum recording

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: stefan]
    #13319027 -

Great advice.

With an external sound card i.e. usb interface, in your budget youre pretty limited to about 4 live tracks. Very tricky to record drums this way.

You have two options:
1 Run your micd set into a mixer. Lets say you have 5 lines. Youre going stereo out of the mixer to your interface. That means later on in the process if youre not happy with the volume level or EQ of a certain drum...youre stuck with it. Way too much pre-tweaking of levels and EQs pre-recording...most of which you cant mix afterwords.

2 Run your whole set on two to four mics straight into your interface, depending on your number of inputs. Hopefully at least one is a condenser mic. Any way you go, either your mixer or interface is going to need phantom power.

As for recording a whole band at once, well its going to be horrible and sound like shit. Youre going to have to track over one instrument at a time (which I actually prefer).

Youre going to want at least a 24 bit recording, however its worth mentioning some recording software can only manage 16 bit operation. I know the latest release of cubase 5.5 runs a 16 bit asio audio driver. It all totally depends on your setup and recording technique and what youre planning.

What are your plans for recording? Do you want to go with a full live band, or track over individually? To be honest Im going to say ditch the monitors and mix/EQ on regular speakers. The monitors help it all sound great on your end but remember the masses dont listen to music on studio monitors. They listen to music with their shitty car stereo. For the most part, an amateur recording is going to sound the same on your cheap speakers as its going to sound on theirs. Expensive monitors arent going to help your recordings at all.

Edited by I_was_the_walrus (10/11/10 12:52 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: I_was_the_walrus]
    #13319177 -

actually good monitors aren't supposed to sound great, but give the sound as it is, not better or worse. ofcourse cheap monitors have a little colored sound. On monitors you'll be able to hear more detaild and can tweak/mix better that way.

On a side note it's a smart idea to test your mix on different speakers, like your home stereo, portable cd player, mp3 player car radio etc. A good mix should sound stay alive on all of those. if not, you'll have tweaking to do.

While mixing on a regular pair of speakers you start off with a colored sound which makes it harder to translate to speakers average joe uses.

other than that Iwtw has good points!

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: stefan]
    #13319274 -
Log in to view attachment

Recorded track by track, Tascam us 122 interface, left and right. Sonar...something. 5 I think? Cant remember. Audix d6 mic for the kick/parts of drums. Shure condenser mic (cant remember the model) overhead. The rest is typical and nothing special. Shitty speakers for mixing/mastering. Shure sm57 for pretty much everything else. Bass direct input

Edited by I_was_the_walrus (10/11/10 02:26 AM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Question About Studio Monitors/Sound Card [Re: I_was_the_walrus]
    #13319416 -

sounds good man, pretty awesome funkyness :laugh:
which instrument are you playing? or were you recording and not playing?

I'm not saying it can't be done, or that mixing is always better on monitors. It just could be easier to get the mix right. When you use speakers without a flat response it's important you know them well (sounds like you do know yours;)

bottom line: most important tool are your ears :grin:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

North Spore Shop: North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies

General Interest > Music, Art, and Media
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Soundcards - Application: recording music Spooge 879 8 12/24/07 01:47 PM
by Spooge
* best PCI graphics card JoHnNySc 1,257 8 08/24/01 01:27 PM
by Shiznitz
* Recording studio questions ToTheSummit 1,255 6 10/17/02 05:44 PM
by MsPacMan
* Post deleted by Anno Anonymous 886 6 10/20/04 03:42 PM
by Th3_Saint
* Have soundcard and preamp, how do I connect them?! michael_lifshitz 711 1 04/08/06 04:53 PM
by stefan
* A Portishead Question................... OctopusDr 885 7 12/16/03 01:56 PM
by MadadaM
* soundcard (music recording) thePatient 629 2 11/18/04 07:49 PM
by metamind
* Album in production..
( 1 2 all )		 Rob_K 3,758 23 07/04/03 05:35 PM
by Rob_K

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Middleman, automan, DividedQuantum
1,197 topic views. 0 members, 1 guests and 20 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.03 seconds spending 0.006 seconds on 16 queries.