I work on Renoise since about 6 month, and now i’ve made several (and unfinished) songs, I think that it’s time to enhance and finish them. But my multimedia speakers (Altec Lansing, 2.1) are not very good (and are very old !). Now i want something that allows me to hear my songs in a better way.
So, as I’m going to earn money on this summer, I’ve decided to spend around 500 € / 790 $ / 400 £ for it.
But I don’t really know what i wan’t to buy, because few months ago, someone told me that monitors are not very good for renoise because of the neutrality of their sound. I’m actually studying in audiovisual and i know that audio monitors are perfect to mix a video product. I also know that there are used for music mixing.
So i wanted to know what you guys think about it ?
Should i buy some audio monitors, or should I better buy some good multimedia speakers (in order to have a more “hi-fi” sound) + headphones monitors ?
By the way, here’s my stuff :
CPU : Intel Quad Core Q6600
OS : Windows XP Pro SP2 (I’m going to try Linux in order to get some audio freewares)
Video : GeForce 8500 GT
Audio : M-Audio Delta Audiophile 24/96
Thanks, and don’t hesitate to tell me if you don’t understand something because of my free-english-style,
The Ant
well i’m no expert… but i do know some stuff about budget setups !
what i would do is to buy cheap but fairly ‘ok’ monitors (such as my beloved samson rubicon 5a)
then you will have some money left to buy a creative gaming speakers set (the one with the sub woofer) also pretty cheap… then also squeeze a nice headphone out of your budget…
then when you got those… monitors, hi-fi set, headphones… hook them all up… monitors go on the main output. put a splitter on the headphones output so you can have the hifi set and the headphone connected to it. now you can easily switch between them all and hopefully make pretty solid mixes. well it’s what i’m planning to do coming weeks
… you may want to make sure you’re getting active (powered) monitors… they’re most likely cheaper than buying monitors and a decent amp, and on a budget, they’ll probably end up sounding better than having an external amp too, because the company that makes them is going to chose amps and speakers that work well together. They’re also more compact
Make sure you go to a store witch have a lot of monitors…
Take a cd with you wich you really like and heard a lot…
and listen, listen, listen, listen
Choose those monitors witch gives you the best natural feeling.
personal tip:
Try to pick the monitors that doesn’t give a lot of impact.
because you want to sit behind your monitors for a long time and it will be exausting for your ears.
Good thread! I’m in the market (the very very cheap market) for monitors as well. I’m seeing a lot of speakers claiming “studio monitor” with cones as small as 3". For a simple no-sub setup, does anybody have recommendations on how small you could go and still have useable bass monitoring?
I wonder what Renoise has to do with the quality of monitors or speakers in general… audio is audio and neutrality is the keypoint for proper mixing.
btw. I also own a lowbudget pair from Keytone SM-250A and I’m still very content with them. Lacking a bit, when it comes to highfrequencymonitoring but that’s an issue which can be compensated.
I find them pretty good for starters however.
I’ve heard they are not quite flat though. Some dips in the mid-highs or something, can’t remember correctly. Can anyone confirm this? I’m too on the lookout for some monitors, once I have the cash to spare.
i own the RP-5. they are great, however i will probably add the RP-10 sub when i have the cash. i would however recommend the RP-6 or RP-8 (or something else with a bigger cone), because the bass isn’t all there on the RP-5 i dont think. generally i think they are good monitors. i have no problems with the mids or highs, though they dont touch the genelecs we have in the studio here for that… but the genelecs are pricey so what do you expect (plus its in a properly isolated room… i live by a motorway >_<). the KRKs have certainly made a huge difference to my mixing vs hi-fi speakers (where i always had horribly wrong bass levels, amongst other things). but i didnt have the opportunity to listen to many others so i mainly went on recommendation. i would probably have gone for the RP-6 or RP-8 but i really dont have the space for them here. i allowed some budget to buy some isolation foam to go underneath which i think is a very good idea, and it gets the at them right height/angle too which is important.
so overall i cant say much about other speakers, but for the money im very pleased with the RP-5 and their response, but i’d get the RP-8 if you have the money and space, if you’re going for the KRKs.
My job doesn’t allow me to investigate too much, but i’ve suceed to go to a music shop (that seems to be about the only one in my town…) and according to the salesman (note : whose job is to sell his products), the Yamaha HS 80 are a reference for my budget. So, as I’ve not heard only good things about these monitors, I’m going to try it when i’ll have some free time, but i’m afraid that it’ll be useless : I’ve never bought monitors and for now I don’t think to have a good ear enough to know if it’s good or not.
In an other hand, a guy (the same who thinks that HS 80 are bad) told me that he owns the KRK RP5 and that the mixes that he makes with it sound very well on other better monitors (he also works in a studio with 2500€ monitors - I don’t know wich one - so he can test his mixes on both systems). He recommends me the RP8, but maybe the RP6 are better ?
I have to take care to another criterion : my room is not huge, and in september i’m going to continue my studies so i’m not sure i’ll have a big room to put my monitors…
Well, from herce, chosing monitors seems to be quite difficult… Two weeks now before I earn enough money.
I have RP5’s, and agree with the above comments about the sub. They’re good monitors, but once you start messing with 50 and 60 k a lot like I do, they just don’t deliver as much as they should.
