Hallo everybody.

I am thinking to buy a pair of studio monitors.

I am a keyboard player used to play and sing alone in clubs and small parties.So I used to make karaokes for self use.

Last couple of years I am using Audio Technica ATH M50 for making,mixing and mastering.I use this one because I used to work in my drawing room whole night when every body is sleeping.With this headphone my results are not too good in my ears.That means when I am playing my karaokes in Clubs (mix and mastared in ATH M50)..I feel the whole mix are lack of mids,too much bass.Highs are OK. Most of the time I have to re adjust the tracks and remaster it.

In some sites I read that mixing in headphone are very often produce this kind of results so that I should go for a real studio monitors.At last I able to arrange a place (6'X 9') in my garrage room.Now I am thinking to buy a pair of active studio monitors which could be long lasting and reliable.( I can't effort this many times.)

My budget is within $ 200.May be little high after some days.As my workplace is too small I don't need very high watts but reliable bass and mids.

Your suggestions are gladly accepted.Thanks in advance.(my english is not too good,please forgive).

 

For 200$ you can buy good headphones.
However, If you need to get some studio monitors.
I'd suggest that you should save your coin
and buy something that you would really want to use man.
Or you can also look on Ebay, at some used monitor deals.

Best of Luck!

 

If you have a low budget I suggest you M-Audio BX5 D2 (also on Amazon).

 

dont go for Rokit 5s whatver you do, try and go for rp3 r6's as the response should be all you need, but youll have to find them second hand or save a bit more

 

Or after time you should learn and know what is wrong in your mixes. If you always end up with something that has too much bass and not enough in the mids, that means your M50's are low on bass (really?) and have a strong mid presence. Take a single EQ and make some simple bass boosts and mid cuts, and leave this on in your master bus (leave it very late in the chain, just before your (brickwall) limiter). Mix with that to 'compensate'. When you're 'done', and you want to render / bounce your file, take the compensate-EQ off and render that (maybe check your limiter at the end to see if it's still doing what you want it do do).

And although good monitors will help, I can tell you that the 'audio-source-dance' is real no matter how good your studio equipment is. Good monitors or only headphones, when you _think_ you're done, you go listen to it on as many devices as you can. In the car, your home HiFi, cheap iPod ear buds, etc.. Just to check that it is 'pretty OK' across the range of devices. There are plugins to help and emulate this kind of thing, but actually doing it (specially the car thing) helps a lot.

Also, take some good analyser plugin to anaylse your final mix through. Seeing the frequency response (and the spectral images) of your mix and compare them to a good reference track should help a lot. Of course mixing should be done 'with the ears', but if your equipment can't reproduce certain frequencies OK and you're on a budget, looking at spectral graphs of your mix and reference tracks might help in showing what is lacking or what is too much.

shorter version of this whole story: Buying monitors help, but also think about treating your room and budget-monitors aren't really that much better than good headphones. And you _still_ gotta learn how your equipment and ears react and compensate for it.. whether working on $100 headphones or through $5000 monitors + amps... always final check on as many devices if you can in the end.

 

Totally agree with learning the response of your speakers/headphones.

You should highlight something when you're mentioning "reference tracks". It shouldn't be just a "good reference track" but actually, a good & SIMILAR reference track, which shares some similar elements, such as similar synths, similar drums, similar grooves, etc. Using a great sounding reference track but with totally different mix elements, it will make the problem worse.

Actually, there's something which speakers monitors features that headphones lacks, such as Ears Health!
You fuck up your eardrums working all the time on headphones. I'm working like 10 minutes max per day on the headphones to check stuff, the rest i'm working just on the monitoring speakers.
The sound have to travel through the air to reach your eardrums and also there's cross feedback between the speakers, while headphones's Left & Right are isolated and also too much closer to the eardrums. I fucked up my eardrums and i always feel pain on the high SPL levels regardless if i'm listening in a concert situation, mixing, producing, headphones, or whatever. I just can't handle high SPLs anymore. I had to buy some "Alpine MusicSafe Pro" filters to wear them on concerts or even live lounge music in the pubs. I used to make music on some cheap in-ear headphones 3 years ago and i fu*king regret it. My hearing is still good, but i have to deal with the pain on harsh highs or loud places.

 

I got the JBL LSR305s for $300. Would definitely recommend them for budget monitors. I don't have a lot of experience with different monitors, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I haven't seen anything else in the price range that gets the sort of praise these do.

 

What both Evorax and Dipje said you can take to the bank. Use reference CD's of songs you know and love to compare your mixes with professional producers and mixers, hell, they do the same thing. Also listen on many different systems and sources. Analysers are great tools to enable you to visualize your sound, so use these also. Your Audio Technica ATH M50 headphones are very good (I know because I use them to track with and as a reference for a mix)and if you like how they sound keep on using them. If not, for that 200 bucks you can get others. But please, save your money for better than 200 buck monitors and in addition treat your room correctly or you will have wasted all your money and will be back in the same place. Some people use quite shitty monitors and mix brilliantly because they use all the tools I have mentioned at their disposal. Good luck my friend, and tarry tall and straight into the future.

 

AV30 are better although cheaper

 

For that price range, i'd recommend ESI Aktiv 05. German quality, better than both mentioned.

 

http://www.presonus.com/products/Eris <----- would be my choice on a budget!

 

The cheapest usable monitors that I know of are Equator D5, Yamaha HS5, KRK VXT6, and Tannoy Reveal range of active monitors. That's about it.

I think Tannoys would be good for you as they have a bit pronounced bass [and highs for that matter], so if you make bassy mixes they might turn out just right. KRK VXT6 are similar, also. But it's really important to have at least somewhat treated room, especially if it's a garage. You'll need at least several bass traps in corners for a start, then some absorbers at sound reflection spots and behind speakers, and a diffuser behind you which can be a big shelve filled with stuff. You need to make a "box" not be/sound like a box. I had a similar problem.

Cheers!

 

guys its simple.

Your monitors are only as good as the acoustic treatment of your room, no exception.

Saying that though doesn't mean you can't write music, I mean theres artists such as skrillex & whoever else who write basically full albums through headphones while travelling.

It comes down to just getting used to your room & speakers & you will be able to produce decent stuff.

Theres nothing wrong with KRK either, it all depends on what monitors sound nice to you as we are all individual, nothing wrong with most monitors on the market today except for the obvious low quality ones.

If I had to suggest something affordable, check out KRK or Event. and yes your probly better off saving more then $200 , realistically your looking at around $600 - $700 for a pair of monitors.

 

behringer truth? flatter frequencies response than any krk, only cons is high change of Dead on arrival witch shouldn't be a problem with guarantee

 

Thanks to all of you for your valuable suggestions.I'll wait to save some more for better option... till then my M50 is ok.I'll try to follow your instructions to get better mixes.Thanks again.

 

itd be nice if you could backup your argument with graphical evidence, but ill take your word for it. Its good info to know.

but my point being still, if you want to get serious about "monitoring" you need to have sufficient acoustic treatment, genelec speakers or something of the equivelent, high quality cables & audio interface.

Entry level monitoring is so so, you just make do with what you got or get.

 

are you mixing on the K-14 meter ? do you know much about how the human ear works ? research these things & youll get better mixes, & don't forget to reference your mix's on as many systems as possible headphones included.

 

well it's in a dutch magazine I've laying around somewhere, also I remember a topic on gearslutz with tests done by members,
not 2 of the best places to get your info from, gearslutz is full of developers promoting their own stuff and magazines need advertising so... you know where this is going.

in my opinion the best thing to do is selecting some monitors and call your local shop and ask if you could test them in a a/b set up, this is not to much to ask if you spend 200 euro's or above in my opinion...
make sure u bring a good mix and bad ones and listen how the speakers behave.

I also like to add that krk speakers might be less flat but that does not mean they are worse,
I have been fortunate enough that I have used krk v88 next to dynaudio bm6a for a year or 2

playing piano or arranging a beat I preferred the krk for being more musical (man that double cone made my liver almost burst *yes*)
but when mixing vocals or auditing the stereo spectrum I preferred the dynaudio's

 

For a suggestion out of the box maybe try a set of Logitechs. Model z623 to be specific.
they're well within your price range and will surprise you both with clarity and volume.

And i know plenty will jump on and list a heap of reasons why computer speakers are no good, but give them a listen at least. but not on the showroom floor, ask to test them in a smaller space like the managers office or something similar.

And more and more people are listening to their music on smaller, often portable speakers nowadays.

Are they ideal, no. But they are good value for money.

 

It is a good idea to have some kind of computer speakers for a lo-fi check up, but to mix on them... *no*

At some point I bought Logitech Z-2300 for that [cost me ~150 euro], but I got rid of them. No good even for a check-up. Too much disparity between the somewhat good sub and really bad, plasticky satellites. The sound was really incoherent. Better have a pair of some full range passive speakers with no crossover, Avantone cubes like. Currently I'm using Scythe speakers that have good full range drivers for a lo-fi check-up. Some cheaper one-way Logitech speakers will do, too, but not "hi-end", they're a waste of money IMO.