Pro Tools Best "Economic Speakers" Buy

[Cutlerbri]

Reynaldo,
Get yourself some decent studio monitors. That translates basically into "what you can afford". M-Audio, Mackie, Yamaha, you have lots to choose from. Most of them are "purty good" as my grandmother used to say. You can spend a couple hundred bucks or mortgage payment money. It's really up to you.

But here's the thing. The monitors for your project studio are mainly there to get the dang headphones off of your head during mixing, or to get the dang headphones off of your head while doing DI stuff.

I don't know anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who doesn't take a mix out to the car stereo, or boom box, or iPhone, or some other real world medium before settling on a final rendition of your precious work of art (and I say that without the slightest bit of sarcasm. Really).

It's good to get studio monitors. Get the best ones you can buy without setting you back so much that you can't meet your utility bills. Then have fun in your studio.

[CME]

Yep. It's funny to me how many people are worried about mics and pres and converters and plug-ins, and spend thousands on them. But when you ask what their mixing room is like? I have some (insert decent $199) monitors stuck in the corners of the room. Have you acoustically treated the room? I put up some egg crate foam on the back wall.

Now for full honestly. I used to he that guy. Well I at least bought auralex foam lol. But most people tend to neglect the most important part of mixing. The monitoring chain. And your room is like 90% of that equation.

I'm not saying better speakers aren't worth it, and so you should just buy cheap ones. I'm saying until you treat the room, and find the best spot for the monitors, they're all going to lie to you. So don't neglect that part of the chain. Considering you will probably be listening to them while recording, at least between takes, if you're in a the same room, you need a solid monitoring chain. Spend some time and money on both a good set of monitors and on acoustically treating the room. It makes a world of difference. I know from experience.

And right now I don't have a room dedicated to mixing. And if that's your situation I understand that also. In those cases you do the best you can. I use some etymotic er4pt's, KRK kns8400's, sennheiser hd280's, ttpod t1e's, cheap computer speakers, and of course the car test. Even in a good room, it's good to get a "second opinion". Like using a good set of cans. And when you don't have a dedicated room, then it's best to listen to your mix on as many different systems as you can. Fwiw I am doing everything I can to set up another room. I greatly miss having one. They can't truly be replaced.

[VRW]

These are another pair of very affordable yet really nice, useable monitors.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS5
Yamaha HS5
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music...hs_series/hs5/

It offers 70Watt, goes from 45Hz-30KHz, if necessary you can add a subwoofer later.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS8S
As they are providing a decent low freq response particularly for small rooms you don´t
really need the subwoofer but it´s available if you should need one anytime.
It further offers a really clean, linear, accurate sound characteristic for this price range.




Mac Mini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, Mac OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2
Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10, Pro Tools 11.3.1, Logic 10.1.1, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, HOFA, IK Multimedia, NI etc.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by VRW

These are another pair of very affordable yet really nice, useable monitors.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS5
Yamaha HS5
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music...hs_series/hs5/

It offers 70Watt, goes from 45Hz-30KHz, if necessary you can add a subwoofer later.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS8S
As they are providing a decent low freq response particularly for small rooms you don´t
really need the subwoofer but it´s available if you should need one anytime.
It further offers a really clean, linear, accurate sound characteristic for this price range.




Mac Mini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MBP Mid 2012 2,5GHz i5, 16GB Ram, Mac OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite, Apogee Quartet+Duet 2
Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10, Pro Tools 11.3.1, Logic 10.1.1, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, HOFA, IK Multimedia, NI etc.

I have the earlier and still in production MSP5's and they have taken a beating and then some and still keep on working. Some people might not like the front firing port design.

Earlier it the JBL LSR speakers were mentioned and those LSR305's have a nice wide sweet spot and don't seem to be super-critical as to placement of speakers or the operator's monitoring position. I'd buy those in a heartbeat or better yet the LSR308's with the bigger woofer.

[DC-Choppah]

Originally Posted by ReynaldoPena

How do I swap the output signal from the speakers to my headphones though? Is it the direct monitor button on my fast track or no?

No. The direct monitor button is used for low latency monitoring. It sends the input right back out to the speakers. You need this if your DAW has lots of latency only. PT has low latency monitoring, so you might not need to use this feature of the box. But the same signal either way will go to both the headphones and the speakers.

FastTrack solo only has one volume control that does both the headphones and monitors, The FastTrack pro and others have separate controls I believe.

[vocalvoodoo]

On the relatively cheap, I really dig the Equator D5s. $400 a pair with an unconditional 60 money back deal. Nice lows for a 5" driver too.

http://www.equatoraudio.com/D5-Studi...-Pair-p/d5.htm

[ReynaldoPena]

I've decided on the JBLs. Let's say I make the purchase. I've already emailed them but, will I receive only one (1) speaker or a pair of speakers?

[VRW]

Originally Posted by ReynaldoPena

I've decided on the JBLs. Let's say I make the purchase. I've already emailed them but, will I receive only one (1) speaker or a pair of speakers?

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/deta...FQaQaQod0oEANw
If you scroll down to "JBL LSR305 Active Studio Monitor Features" it says "sold individually", so you will only get 1 speaker for $150.-, not a pair.

[gives]

Originally Posted by CME

Yep. It's funny to me how many people are worried about mics and pres and converters and plug-ins, and spend thousands on them. But when you ask what their mixing room is like? I have some (insert decent $199) monitors stuck in the corners of the room. Have you acoustically treated the room? I put up some egg crate foam on the back wall.

Now for full honestly. I used to he that guy. Well I at least bought auralex foam lol. But most people tend to neglect the most important part of mixing. The monitoring chain. And your room is like 90% of that equation.

I'm not saying better speakers aren't worth it, and so you should just buy cheap ones. I'm saying until you treat the room, and find the best spot for the monitors, they're all going to lie to you. So don't neglect that part of the chain. Considering you will probably be listening to them while recording, at least between takes, if you're in a the same room, you need a solid monitoring chain. Spend some time and money on both a good set of monitors and on acoustically treating the room. It makes a world of difference. I know from experience.

And right now I don't have a room dedicated to mixing. And if that's your situation I understand that also. In those cases you do the best you can. I use some etymotic er4pt's, KRK kns8400's, sennheiser hd280's, ttpod t1e's, cheap computer speakers, and of course the car test. Even in a good room, it's good to get a "second opinion". Like using a good set of cans. And when you don't have a dedicated room, then it's best to listen to your mix on as many different systems as you can. Fwiw I am doing everything I can to set up another room. I greatly miss having one. They can't truly be replaced.

This person is correct on the room being the most important thing. The speakers won't tell you much other than you won't be able to hear much if the room is not accurate.
read this: www.bobhodas.com
After I build my rooms, I have Bob tune them. Of course it costs, but so worth it. You see that a lot of clients that you may know of are using him for final tweaks of their rooms. G

[Manu101]

Originally Posted by vocalvoodoo

On the relatively cheap, I really dig the Equator D5s. $400 a pair with an unconditional 60 money back deal. Nice lows for a 5" driver too.

http://www.equatoraudio.com/D5-Studi...-Pair-p/d5.htm

+1