Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

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griff
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Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by griff »

Currently setting up a small studio in my man cave and am a bit of a noob with recording equipment, especially monitors.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I will need to spend about $250 for some good headphones and maybe $600 - $800 for some good monitors??
Most of my tracking will be in the evening, so the headphones win in that respect. But if it really is monitors that I should be looking at for better mastering results then I can make daytime tracking work.
Not sure what to do.
Your 2 cents will be most welcome.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by kwhelan »

http://www.rockshop.co.nz/shop/recordin ... -pair.html
absolutely awesome, done away with my amp and just use these now plenty of volume and using either amp sims or multifx they are in stereo so can do all those great reverb, delay soundscapes

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by griff »

They look awesome. So you've gone back to modeling and just jam through these?
How do your recordings sound when played back through a regular home stereo?

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by kwhelan »

i use a multfx into them thru 1/4 leads from stereo out of fx. the multifx has usb interface built in so that feeds into pc so I can record in a DAW or play along with youtube,mp3s whatever on the pc at the same time, they work well as pc monitors as well, don't miss my amp one bit for home use, have them about 8ft apart so can get some really great chorusing and swells going around the room.
theres no reason any amp sims wouldn't work the same but I still like being able to do manual patch changes, wah etc so prefer the mutifx

not sure where you are but locally they be 15% off that without even asking, may be able to shop around

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by Olderama »

:mental:

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by griff »

Saw this the other day. Will let ya know man. Cheers.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by olegmcnoleg »

In the end you will need both! Coincidentally I use the same headphones Olderama has for sale (I've tried a few), so as to not inflict my limited music production efforts on the rest of the household. But I revise the mix on monitors at regular intervals.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by LucyTheSpud »

Id say for budget conscious, get headphones. Good monitors can sound shit if they are in the wrong room

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by Delayman »

olegmcnoleg wrote:In the end you will need both! Coincidentally I use the same headphones Olderama has for sale (I've tried a few), so as to not inflict my limited music production efforts on the rest of the household. But I revise the mix on monitors at regular intervals.
I think this raises a good point - you will really need both to do a proper job - but depends on whether you'll be able to use the monitors at decent volume or not. Then you get into the whole room treatment thing - the studio room at my old house over emphasised one particular frequency. Depends on what your main need is - translating well to other speaker systems, or simply listening to make sure it generally sounds ok.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by Reg18 »

You don't have to spend $800 on monitors, although having 6" or 8" speakers gives you a better full range sound to work with a set of smaller or cheaper ones would be fine in most applications. I had a set of 8" studio monitors and it certainly is easier to get a good mix quicker. I sold them due to financial reasons and was left with just a set of Sennheiser headphones to mix on but I would have to do so many "final" mixes because it just didn't sound the same as through speakers.
Personally I'd buy those AKG headphones and try and find a set of moniotors cheaper S/H as well.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by Delayman »

Reg18 wrote:You don't have to spend $800 on monitors, although having 6" or 8" speakers gives you a better full range sound to work with a set of smaller or cheaper ones would be fine in most applications. I had a set of 8" studio monitors and it certainly is easier to get a good mix quicker. I sold them due to financial reasons and was left with just a set of Sennheiser headphones to mix on but I would have to do so many "final" mixes because it just didn't sound the same as through speakers.
Personally I'd buy those AKG headphones and try and find a set of moniotors cheaper S/H as well.
I was reading an article about monitoring and a guy made a comment I thought was good. He works in multiple studios and has to quickly adjust to different monitoring set ups. He has a reference CD (- one he loves and has played so often he knows how It 'should' sound) and he uses that to guage the set up and either keeps it in mind, or actually puts an eq plug in to normalize the system to what he expects. I thought that was a good tip.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
Lawrence wrote: Every orchestra that comes thru here is a covers band as are most of the jazz bands...

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by jeremyb »

I watched a good youtube vid where a guy used a reference track when he was doing his mix on headphones so he could get his track to sound similar, really good idea!
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by griff »

Thanks guys, great advice.

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Re: Not sure whether to get Studio headphones or monitors

Post by jeremyb »

Open back headphones are the way to go for mixing apparently, something to keep in mind...
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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