Round Up Of Best Monitor Speakers

Monitor speakers; There are many different kinds, ranging from 50.00 to 5,000.00 , But what does the home studio need, one that is on a tight budget? In this post I will give you the advice and look at some monitors that are great for the price, and what they are for.
The main monitor speakers are your ears, LOL, the next ones are called near field monitors, near field monitors are the ones you will use most and are the work horse of all monitors. They are called Near Field, because you have them place as you would your normal PC speakers, only at a 45 degree angle, and near you, one on each side of your PC monitor. You can get USB near fields, Passive, meaning you will need a separate Amplifier, and The other is power d, non passive, these have their own power supply, these are the best and most common for home studio monitoring. 
I will show a few pitches and give my recommendations on which ones are the best value for your money

These are 100.00 for both, they are powered, and they are USB, very simple set up and has a great sound. Alesis M1 speakers have been around a long time, the pic is the newest one they offer, I tell you, for 100.00 these can not be beat.

I will say for 100.00 bucks these monitors are a close second, if not a tie for the number one monitors I recommend for the price range. 50 watts strong, crisp, clear, perfect, and also self powered. M-Audio products are outstanding, all most everything they put out is great. These monitors for the price are mind blowing and a must have, OK I guess I would make these my number one pick hands down. It is nice to have the headphone inserts on the monitors, for late night recording, but you must have a good pair of headphones, headphones are also monitors, very near field LOL. in your head.
A very good pair of headphones will cost around 50.00 there are some great ones in this price range, the best for a pro sound run around 100-150.00. There are many kinds of headphones, open back, DJ style, Closed back, Sound Isolation, extreme Isolation. Sony MDR series are the best in a cheap range, a great cheap pair is 30.00 aprox MDR-v150, I use a pair of them every day for general use. AKG has a real good pair many home studios use and they are around 40.00. You can pay 2,000.00 for top level headphones, PLEASE, forget these ones, dear lord, come on man were talking a home studio, that will give pro results for pennies on the dollar here. Have 1,500 bucks for headphones? below is a pic of such a pair, yes they are mind blowing, but also a WMD on your wallet. Go to Guitar centers web site, these are the top ones in the price range, and take a look at the specks, nuff said.

Note: headphones should NEVER be used for a final mix down and never, ever used at the mastering of your audio, never . Headphones, good ones, can be used to make music, not mixing audio recording, but extreme isolation headphones are for live sound mixer use in a noise y place, I also use extreme Isolation headphones when recording , so no one in the house is bothered and I can hear only the music and not the local dogs barking. I live in the desert, in the middle of nowhere and it is quiet a small town of 900. I just moved to a smaller place, tanks to no work and a bad economy , I live in SO, Cal, so all in CA know how bad it is , I moved just recent, the small neighborhood is as loud as N.Y. City sometimes, the military base uses the main street we live right off of, trucks, and many, many trains, so out in the middle of the Mojave desert, outside of Barstow, CA little Yermo is a very, very noisy place, so I need extreme Isolation headphones, also darn dogs all over the place and of late they have destroyed my vocal tracks, my videos I do, etc, I hate dogs LOL.
The next step up, in price, and the best bang for your buck is double the price 200.00 you do get what you pay for in audio, but there are products like the ones I have blogged on that can make pro recordings at home for cheap. My first pic for the next level is without a doubt.

Alesis wins again, and at 200.00, these baby's will as I say, blow your mind, these are big, big step up from the 100.00 near fields, they are also  Powered and LOUD. If your on a real tight budget, these can be used in the final mix and mastering and can serve as your only pair of speakers needed, aside from a sub woofer, a sub woofer is a must, esp. depending on your style of music, sub-woofers are not cheap, they run 500.00 plus for good ones, there are some very good sub-woofers in a 50.00 PC speaker system I have used, and I even mastered with this 50.00 set, the two small monitors have pristine sound, plug into your sound card and can shake the windows. I had an individual woofer, bass monitor I bought used and it was the best, I paid 60.00 off Greg's list in Seattle, so look around, go used and save 50 to 75%. why not?
Next we move on to what are called studio reference monitors, these have a very specific use, in a pro studio and at home, it gives extreme exactness of sound, are used to set up a pristine mix and give the real sound of any given instrument or vocal, they are also used in room acoustics and studio design, as reference to the sound of the room, and thus can be used to tune a room.
For the pro home studio, these are what I have always used for my final mix and master, never had any of the big bad boy monitors I used while working in a pro studio. The home studio does not need the super bad boys, and why? only someone with equal speakers would hear the great sound these give off, post production work, music for film, yes you need such speakers and quality surround speakers for film post production, and a 100% pro mastering studio, were talking home people, play these big top dollar speakers, you better have your studio set up, designed to perfection or they would be of no use. Room acoustics are everything no matter what, at home baffles, and foam reflectors you mount on the walls is all that is needed. 

1,100.00, these are the very best pro monitors you should have if you do your won mastering, these I used and were my main go to guys, the older model, If you master your own audio, and you should, why ? you are making pro recordings at home, it used to be called the black or dark art science of the audio recording stage, why? so few had any idea what so ever how to master audio. All you need is T-Racks, a Tube emulator mastering plug in or Nomad blue tubes mastering plug ins and use the presets and your now a master, It is almost that simple, in time, over time you will learn how to fine tune T-Racks and other tube emulator VST plug ins, but the presets of these plug-in are a great start point, and less complicated than my Waves plug in bundle that cost over 4K.
Most pro sequencers and even cheap ones like Mixcraft 5, 69.00 the best of the best and would be all in one package you would need to make 100%  pro recordings at home. Stay in the analog realm as long as you can, use analog out gear, or analog emulation plug ins, all the way to the mastering stage, many table top 8 tracks, 4 tracks, pro sequencer software like Sonar, are all digital and they sound it, use analog and digital, but stay with analog emulators like the final stage in mastering using T-Tracks and you will have a pro sounding product, with practice. The best equipment in the world will not make you a great home recordist, just as a lot of effects do not make a great song, a great song is a great song without any fancy audio work and pad sounds, it should sound like a great song when played on one guitar or one piano, a great song, is a great song, a great recording is a great recording, and can be done at home for pennies on the dollar.

Next post I will have a video with a tutorial on using Crystal sound engine, the best free audio recorder on the planet, so keep your ears fresh, take a break every 15 to 20 minuets, this is a must and you will have fresh ears to make your pro recording at home for pennies on the dollar.

The coming depression and how to keep making music

How to make a Pro recording for under 200.00

I worked in many pro recording studios, I was a second engineer for years until I learned the ropes on how to go about the whole recording process, that was years ago, for the last 15 years I have devoted my self to Project studios and home studies. I try to demystify all the jargon and bull the big studies think you need.

The advent in recent years in home studios has made it passable with Little cash to make a actual pro recording or a great pro demo. You may need a wake up call to how just a few hundred bucks and a lot of practice you could have a great home studio and charge clients to record, start your own Production Company or a Record Label, it is now all passable and the investment is much smaller than you think to get started. Gone are the days of paying hundreds or thousands to have your CD cut in a pro studio, with study, trial and error you can and should do it your self, and save thousands of dollars in the process. What you spend you will make back on your first recording, literally. So join me on this Little journey, most of which I took from my free E-Book how to make a pro recording At Home For pennies on the dollar.

I teach two different groups of aspiring recording artist, of late It has all been geared to the one with little or no recording experience.Many do not know what a Low-fi or Hi-fi cable are or what plug goes where.They may have some stuff on hand and to date the results still echo out loudly this is a demo. It never has to be this way, never. It takes years to master a craft, I do mastering engineering, yet after all these years I consider my self a student, mastering is called the unknown black art, but it need not be that way, I say mastering for all.

 In later blogs I will demystify the mastering process and explain what it is , what it is not, and how anyone with practice and good plug ins can do a good job mastering there own music. My little in house production

The reason a pro studio sounds, or can sound so good is what we will be talking about in this article.Ore-amps, microphones,mixers, and software the pros use and how and where to legally get the same stuff they use for pennies on the dolor. You relay can make a pro recording for under 200.00 and that is chump change, almost anyone can come up with that. So I hope this article is of great hope and a launching pad to the many more books, web sites and free links I will be sharing, step by step, hear a little, there a little.

Being an Indy artist is what that means non commercial and non mainstream, like the fluff and crap we hear on the radio.

So you want to be a independent artist? control your music from A to Z that is what it is all about.With the advent of pro PC recording software , mastering plug'ins sound cards that can produce 24 bit by 192 KHZ is indeed considered pro specs. So why with all the good software do you have do you feel your recordings are not up to par with pro studio and FM radio?

I mentioned before, software is not the problem a good 1 to 200.00 sound card with studio specs is not the problem, so what is the problem I will list 3 essentials on what, and how to take your recording to the next level.

1.Quality Mic pre-amps. This is the most important equipment a home recorder needs.There are good tube driven pre amps for under 50.00 some others more expensive that are digital solid state run 100 to 5,000 and more, so whats the lower middle grounds, most of us can not compete with a pro studio, but only by way of the pre-amps and high end large diaphragm condenser microphones, that's it, more on good quality mikes latter. The pre amp has always been the overlooked gear need in a home and project studio.You must first ask do you want a 100% digital solid state or a warm tube pre--amp.

The pro engineer has a wide array of mics and pre amps do to the fact a voice may sound better with a Neumann U87 and a high end tube pre-amp, or a AKG C414 may sound better on a certain voice with a solid state pre-amp, I did all this, still the pre amp comes first so get the best one you can get

My #1 choice that will produce a warm pro sound is the At 2020 100.00 a 5 star rating

from may engineer's also the Rhodes NT1 mic

Another good prices 100.00 pro level mic is


This a great, great mic also the AKG presona makes are outstanding, but the AT 2020 for 100 is the best Mic in the price range that will produce pro recordings.

As I mentioned on Pre amps I would choose first the following

The M-audio DMP3 around 160.00 a dual pre amp and sound 100% pro

Other lower end pre amps that sound good are

Behring makes cheap, but pro sounding gear and they have been the front runner in pro consumer stuff this pre amp is under 55.00 and works well with electric Guitar and vocal tracks

You can not go wrong with this unit, but a real pro pre amp sound for vocals can not be made if your shooting for a budget pro level home or project studio

there are many others, I tried the Presonus   and wow all models are great

 It really does not cost that much to put together a pro level sounding home studio, the most expensive or must have new gadget is not always the way things work, the sales man try to push the new stuff, new stuff is not always better.

 As many pro studios I worked in still use the same board, pre amps and mics from years  why? they work. The only thing pro studios have all adopted is the PC running Pro tools, if you want a job in a studio as a second engineer you must know your way around pro tools.You can get a Pro tools SE small nodule with pro tools software, what is good about pro tools is you can learn one little module and will be able to run a full blown pro tools set up.I like pro tools and have played around with it, but look in the small midi or pro tools area of a studio and what you are really seeing is a
on premise home studio.

so #1 pre amps

#2 Condenser mic

#3 The sound card, now again people have different likes and dislikes, some cards have a break out box, much preferred over dealing with hooking and UN hooking a nice card via the back

But wait, we want gear tried and proved that will make a pro recording and for not much money, so with no break out box the winner is as has been a while

The upgrade and famed MIA with the new Midi cable, the specs on this are the best, but this card was made for the songwriter and solo artist and is not big on multi channel so best card for solo recorder the price is around 130.00 to 200.00 shop around and make sure it is not the old Mia with out the needed Midi break out cable.

The best pro level card for multiple recording is the standard and still low budget yet pro champ

.

The M-audio 192 with Midi, note many cards do not include MIDI you will need it.The unit like

others can record 24Bit at 192 KHZ those specs are mastering studio specs.Most people do not use the 192 unless it is a critical recording of strings, orchestra, all acoustics It can be a blessing and a curse and can make some recordings sound lousy, so always shoot at minimum pro level use , that is 24bit and 97 KHZ, if you never heard the difference hold on to your hats, even the audegy SE a 40.00 sound card recognizes and records 24/97 and is a great card for one doing pro level demos that can latter be made in to mastered products, the problem with the SE is they are no longer available on the market as DELL bought them out.If you can get one on Craig list or e bay cheap do so  the only online store that has it new for 30.00 is tiger direct., weakness only one line in and one out. You will need from a sound card a minimum of 2 Analog in's and two outs +midi. Most have 32 bit DSP effects processing and do many recorders use 32 bit stationed or float in there software. Now lastly get a good mixer, I must say the onyx brand by Behringer are all wildly good, the smaller ones are used in Broadcasting and sound for small clubs and churches

Samplitude Pro 7 ,T-racks, Nomad mastering plug ins, waves gold bundle and many other stuff.

50.00 pre amps 40.00 look on postings and you can cut start up 25 to 70% I kid  you not, I have done it, look at OEM software and get ready to freak out I use it paid Penny's on dollar and have a PC studio worth well over 40,000 honestly. My total pay out around 1,000 not including monitors or mixers I use this mixer with outstanding results.

You want a fast PC min ,PNT 3 1Ghz ,I used a 1 Ghz on a tun's of music, running acid pro 6

Lets not forget a needed mixer.

it is a 4 mic XLR input all with mind blowing xenyx boutique pre amps, this are great preamps even with out an out board per-amp, but not as good as a dedicated pro level pre amp. the unit is 130+ look around  use in home studio, church , practice, gigs and is USB to PC if you desire that.Note you can not beat plugging your midi out to midi in on a sound card, but you can place your pre amp before the in on this unit and a small 50.00 compressor, as I said radio and TV stations use this as well as small clubs this is a pro level board for the home recorder.

So my summation is:

Pre-amp and more pre-amps a large diaphragm Condenser Mic like the B1 a great tool, a sound card under 200.00, you can get a good sound card under a 100.00 and has pro specs, but no Midi in and out and no pre-amp 48 volt phantom supply, I would not use any of the cards as my source for a pre amp as the Xenyx blows them out of the water. You can attach many mixers if you want one to USB 2.0 and its convenient and nice, but going to the sound card with the mixer In a far better sound altogether.

One can still make pro recordings with a 59.00- 69.00 Mix craft 5, easy to learn easy to loop great effects and mastering effects for under 80.00 it has a top of line sampler, many, many VSTI synths.

Recording try this all in one audio and midi sequencer it CAN NOT BE BEAT. also it is one of the funnest programs I ever tried I give the unit 5 stars mark my words you will be happy and amazed. a used 50.00 condenser like ones I explained I just got an m-audio Nova for 40.00 and it does the job Use a small mixer in the xenyx line they range from 39.00 and up and use the xenyx for your pre amp for now,A pro studio that is a starter but will take your music to the next level for a little over 200.00

As an audio teacher and not involved or payed by any of the business that I mention' their products. I try different stuff daily and unbiased give a honest review.

For a free copy of my e-book the poor mans guide to making a pro recording at home-for Pennies OnThe Dollar .It will be posted soon for free reading and download'
http://www.digitalgoatee1.zoomshare.com/

To hear my current music that I did in a low cost home studio listen to what can be done.

www.soundclick.com/daniellouis
www.sundclick.com/d'abaldo



Peace

until next time. also a great web site for new recordist filled with great info is

http://www.tweekheadslab.com/

Have a great and music filled week. Do not be shy ,email me and we will set up a time for some one on one instruction, mentoring etc it is a free consultation service I offer as I pay it forward.

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