New Monitors or liquid mix

[curly]

I have managed to save up some money to spend on my studio and am not sure where would be the best investment.

I have got about £400, £500 absolute max to spend and have made a fair few bad impulse choices in the past so thought i would ask for some advice.

I'm not sure if to replace my monitors, a pair of passive tannoy reveals with an active pair of monitors if so what would anyone suggest. My setup is in the lounge of my flat with a laminate floor(i have heard they are really bad for sound) and the usual furniture(sofa TV curtains etc), or maybe i would be better with a slightly cheaper set of monitors and some acoustic treatment.

or I am getting tempted by the liquid mix http://www.focusrite.com/products/liquid/liquid_mix/

I am currently using the stock ones in logic.

Any advice would be appreciated as my thighs are getting warm and that money will burn a hole in my pocket real soon,

[BloodStar]

get the best monitors you can afford. personally, i would look for mackie, adam, or dynaudio. there is plenty of good speakers around, so go to some shop and test them. models deffinitelly wort checking,. mackie hr824, dynaudio bm5a, adam a7, genelec8020,....

[Siege]

you deffo dont wanna be writing stuff with that laminate floor, my mates just moved into a new gaff and the room hes using for production as a laminate floor.....bad news.

the resonance in there is really bad.

[Jay Pace]

i don't know much about tannoy reveals, so not going to be much help there.

In general though, monitors are the most important thing in your studio. So spend as much as you can bear, you can get plugins galore for free from elsewhere, and you can buy processing power in accordance with your needs.

500 should get you some cracking 2nd hand kit.
Mackie 842s go for around that 2nd hand, or there's plenty of other top notch options, Adam a7s, the magic room compensating JBLs etc

So go for monitors, thats my advice.

[The_Laughing_Man]

the magic room compensating JBLs etc

I was just checking that out for curly.
Unfortunately the mass of rave reviews and demand has forced the price up drastically.
Brand new they range between 700-1000

second hand the price isn`t much better

[The_Laughing_Man]

well, I would say always, that the monitors are the most important part of your set up.
They make the sound.
Everything you do will be referenced through them, and more than anything else they will allow you to achieve clarity in your sound.

I`d sell the tannoys on ebay and then plump for one of the following monitors
all under 400 jib

KRK RP6 G2
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/produc...6-g2-pair.html

Quested S6R
http://www.dv247.com/invt/49859/

Fostex PM-1 Mk2
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/produc...mkii-pair.html

personally I would save up just a little more and get some KRK VXT4`s

It depends how serious you are, those 3 monitors listed above will do you proud, and you`ll notice a difference straight away compared to the tannoys.
Get yourself up to romford and go try them out at the Digital Village warehouse.

I would go for the Quested myself. They have a very respectable history of speaker building in studios and I really like the sound of them.


The Liquid mix is great, I have one myself, the Compression and EQ`s are really spanktastic, especially the ability to mix and match band range "components" from different studio EQ`s.
But get good monitors before you get a liquid mix or you won`t be able to appreciate it for what it does.

And don`t worry too much about the laminate floor, you proibably won`t be working at levels where it will seriously effect what you are doing. Nearfields are meant to be used "close" so that you hear them before reflections.

In fact I did a bit of work in a friends studio the other week with a laminate floor and a set of adams monitors, and it didn`t take me long to use his set up effectively.

[curly]

I would like to say thank you for all your prompt replys. I hvae been looking at them monitors and they have balanced inputs, unfortunatly the sound card i am currently using only has phono outputs. A tascam us 224.

http://www.tascam.com/products/us-224;9,15,137,16.html


would this be a problem, and do i need to update my soundcard aswell? been about 15 years since i done any electronics and am a bit rusty on that side of things

[The_Laughing_Man]

That sound card should be fine

[curly]

Been To DV's, came home with a pair of KVK RP6 G2, sound so much clearer than what i had, and can still afford to eat. I'm well happy :)

The Quested S6R were £375 each, putting them well out of my price range.

Thank you for all the advice, I'm so glad I invested in monitor not the liquid mix, sounds like the cotton wool has been removed from my ears

[The_Laughing_Man]

Been To DV's, came home with a pair of KVK RP6 G2

...

[The_Laughing_Man]

those RP6`s should last you a good while man.
You`ll be able to push yourself to a good standard with them with no problems.

[Jay Pace]

I got the KRK RP8s

They're great. They're probably a bit loud for my flat, but they sound great and they're clean, powerful and accurate.

For the price difference between them and my mackie 824s they sound utterly brilliant.

There are better monitors out there, but to be honest for how much room noise interferes with most studio setups, I think the benefits of high end monitors are lost on most home studio setups. No point having God's personal nearfields if your room sounds like an echo chamber. Might as well saver your pennies and get something affordable and functional.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Most people won`t notice the difference on very high end nearfields, and to be honest beyond certain factors you end up paying for the name.

With Main room monitors it`s a different game, but with nearfields they reach a certain clarity and the rest is personal taste and technobabble

[curly]

I'm well happy with what i have got, Ive spent the evening just listening to them, I have never heard a stereo image like it, and the bottom end is now so clear, no mud, and they are responding clearly down to G1 49 Hz, I was struggling to hear much below 80Hz before. I am also able to pick out individual elements in the mix much more clearer. TBH at my level of production i feel these are going to serve me well.

And the other bonus, I have got myself an excellent pair of bookends for all those magazines --- my old passive tannoy's.

[The_Laughing_Man]

I'm well happy with what i have got, Ive spent the evening just listening to them, I have never heard a stereo image like it, and the bottom end is now so clear, no mud, and they are responding clearly down to G1 49 Hz, I was struggling to hear much below 80Hz before. I am also able to pick out individual elements in the mix much more clearer. TBH at my level of production i feel these are going to serve me well.

And the other bonus, I have got myself an excellent pair of bookends for all those magazines --- my old passive tannoy's.

yeah, listen to lots of reference material through them, and in 6 weeks or so your ears will really tune into the increased mid range detail.

[supergroover]

the mackies 824 are a little big on low end for a smallish room.. So i might skip those if you have a room smaller than 18m2.

I would invest in new monitors as others already suggested.
Don't worry too much about the floor. Just put a carpet on it, close to where you are sitting. Or maybe a few carpets around the room.