Suggestions for home studio monitors

[songsmith]

Thinking about a set of active monitors for my home setup... 5 or 6 inch woofers, doesn't have to deliver mega-bottom (no rap projects anytime soon), but should be tight. I'd go used, too. I'm hoping to find a pair used for a couple hundred, or 3 hundred-ish for new. I just saw Tannoy Reveals in that range.
Any ideas?

[lonewolf]

I am using old Alesis Monitor One MKII monitors...they work well on a budget, but they are not active.

If you have a S/PDIF output that you aren't using for something else, you may want to consider monitors that have S/PDIF inputs with D/A converters built in.

I think Roland/Edirol has a model like that and there are probably a few others out there.

[Jasaoke]

I have no idea of cost but Tannoy had (has) a Reveal series (both active and passive) that were (are) fantastic.

[skipisode]

John, check out some KRK RP5G2' s. They run about $150 each most places.
Specs. aren't bad and have about 75 watts of power each.

[KeithReynolds]

Grab the Tannoy Reveals!

Heres one with a rebate:
http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i- ... edium=feed&

$308 for a pair!

[songsmith]

Those are the ones I saw, Keith, at zZounds, for $150 ea. I used to hear a lot about them on prosoundweb awhile back... nobody seemed to say anything bad. One guy said they used them in a big pro studio to A/B mixes. Seemed like a good deal.
LW, I don't have the S/PDIF capabilities on my interface or laptop. It's not a formal recording rig, really, just a 2-channel Tapco/Mackie USB interface into and an old Vaio laptop, with a few cheap LDC's and SDC mics and whatever I have in my PA gig-bag. I'm at a place where I look at song lyrics I wrote, and have no clue how the melody went. That's not acceptable, and winter makes me want to hibernate and record, so that's where I am.
Also Keith, I DL'ed the Reaper program. So far I like what I see, I'll have to record something on it and navigate the learning curve. There was one thing old versions of Audacity had, that Reaper doesn't... In Audacity, you could set it to simply record whatever audio was playing on your computer, which was great. I could go to Youtube, cue up some old live chestnut, and own my very own audio-version of it. I couldn't get Raper to do that, and after DL'ing the new Audacity, IT no longer does it, either. Bummer. I still have an old version of Audacity of the Vaio, so I'll just have to do that stuff on there.

[songsmith]

Raper. LOL I meant Reaper, obviously, and no, it wasn't a Freudian slip!

[KeithReynolds]

Hey dude, do you want me to email you a cool little theme pack for Reaper? It makes it look MUCH better!!! The defult theme is kinda eh compared to the others!


Want me to post on the Reaper forum and see if Reaper does what Audacity did as far as recording any audio playing on a comp?

The routing capabilities on Reaper are really badass, so I dont see why it cant be done.
Make sure you DL the Reaper manual, theres lots of good stuff in there!
http://reaper.fm/userguide.php
The free download is at the top.

[LHSL]

Thinking about a set of active monitors for my home setup... 5 or 6 inch woofers, doesn't have to deliver mega-bottom (no rap projects anytime soon), but should be tight. I'd go used, too. I'm hoping to find a pair used for a couple hundred, or 3 hundred-ish for new. I just saw Tannoy Reveals in that range.
Any ideas?

As goofy as it sounds, check out the ones from Behringer. You can get their active 8" versions for the price of most 6" passive ones. They also make a 6" model and everything is available in active or passive. I believe they have a line with ribbon tweeters now as well.

They sound really good, and get pretty loud. I've actually taken them apart and they are pretty heftily made, asside from an MDF cabinet.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/B2031A.aspx

[songsmith]

Thanks, Keith!

LHSL, I'll look into the Behringers, too. Thanks.

[KeithReynolds]

Ok, about recording from youtube...I asked your question to a big Reaper user, and he said THIS: "set the driver to wave, then on the record panel of the wave panel (Windows mixer) set that to record master".


Here are some awesome Reaper themes: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1514762/Awesome ... Themes.rar

Unzip everything in there to C:/users/your name/app data/roaming/Reaper/color themes

Thats where they go on Win 7. What OS are you using?

To switch themes in Reaper, go to Options, then Themes and your list of themes will be there.

[songsmith]

I'm running Windows 7, Keith. Oh, and I'm actually okay with the default theme, I know it ain't pretty, but it's got the stuff I want it to, especially after tweaking. I did actually try one of the themes, but went back to default.
I will try changing the driver to wave, that's what I hadn't done. Thanks again!

[Killjingle]

I like my KRK g2 8" speakers. If u are serious about mixing try not to go with a small speaker. They dont reproduce the below 40 hz - 60hz bass that can kill your mix when listening on other systems. Been there done that. I keep a pair of tascams for quick mixing and lilttle projects and then get the big boys out when its time to mixdown a more serious project. Just my .02


I dont know anybody who was ever disappointed with spending the xtra cash up front, vs buying something that was inadequate; taking a beating selling that pc of gear off and then buying the speaker they should have bought in the first place.

[BloodyFingers]

I am using M-Audio BX5A's. My mixes sound great all the time. At $300.00 a pair you can't beat them....

[funkmeister]

Check out a pair of Event 5's - Biamped system (70W to Woofer, 30W to soft dome tweeter) and a front port. Nice, compact, loud if you need it speaker that has a built-in tilt-back mechanism (although I reccomend some isolators under the cabs) and both balanced and unbalanced inputs. Won't break the bank. Very true sound!!

[tornandfrayed]

Don't forget that it is easy to get something sounding great on a great set of speakers. I always thought that it was also important to have several sets of more "Generic" speakers hooked up for monitoring to get a real world feel...