Some uncertaintys with my gear...

[HotPan]

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Hey!

I just started producing electronic music at home. I already got some equipment, but im not really sure with some of the things, and i hope some of you people with more experience than me can take a little time and answer me some questions. I would be very grateful.

I bought a good Audio PC, Ableton 8 with the free upgrade to 9 and an USB-Audiointerface. A friend of mine gave me his studio monitors for free, so of course i took them. Im just curious how far i will get with them. They are called http://www.alesis.com/monitoronemkii (http://www.alesis.com/monitoronemkii) . I dont know if my room is made for making music, too. I got very "thin" walls, so my neigbours would hear a subwoofer for example pretty loud. Is it for a beginner possible to pay a little more on the headphones as kind of "substitute" for the roomsituation/speakers?

My next point is: I want a small keyboard, with 25 keys, and a controller for my DAW. But not for live issues but for the studio: controlling parameters like instruments/plugins, faders, transport functions etc. Have you any tips/recommendations for me?

Thank you!

G

HotPan

[whyterabbyt]

Hey!

I just started producing electronic music at home. I already got some equipment, but im not really sure with some of the things, and i hope some of you people with more experience than me can take a little time and answer me some questions. I would be very grateful.

I bought a good Audio PC, Ableton 8 with the free upgrade to 9 and an USB-Audiointerface. A friend of mine gave me his studio monitors for free, so of course i took them. Im just curious how far i will get with them. They are called http://www.alesis.com/monitoronemkii . I dont know if my room is made for making music, too. I got very "thin" walls, so my neigbours would hear a subwoofer for example pretty loud. Is it for a beginner possible to pay a little more on the headphones as kind of "substitute" for the roomsituation/speakers?

My next point is: I want a small keyboard, with 25 keys, and a controller for my DAW. But not for live issues but for the studio: controlling parameters like instruments/plugins, faders, transport functions etc. Have you any tips/recommendations for me?

Thank you!

G

HotPan

you can get away with headphones, but you want to make sure they're good for monitoring ie they dont have boosted bass or high-end, the way a lot of consumer headphones do. also, stereo on headphones can sound different from on speakers because they cut down on the natural 'crosstalk' between left and right sides that speakers would cause. There are a couple of plugins which simulate that, though, which can help you restore that if you need to (eg http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-isone/ )


whats your budget? do you mean a combined controller/keyboard or two separate things? There's plenty of options out there, like these:
http://uk.novationmusic.com/midi-controllers/launchkey

[rob_lee]

you can get away with headphones, but you want to make sure they're good for monitoring

+1

@OP

I use these below and you don't need monitors IMO

http://www.dv247.com/headphones/beyerdy ... ones--5044

Rob

[HotPan]

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Thank you for your fast and friendly response ! That's good to know, but I think headphones should be only an alternative, right?
Well… I think I will go to 500€/434£/681$. My desk isn't really big, so I want to really use my space. Id rather buy one expensive but really good controller than a cheap one that sucks. Since I have no experience with controllers, idk if I want to have separate things. Does that make sense? Its important to me that I can control my plugins. When I want to create new sounds of my instruments, I wouldn't like it to do that with my mouse… what do you think of this one? http://uk.novationmusic.com/midi-controllers/sl-mkii (http://uk.novationmusic.com/midi-controllers/sl-mkii)

The Beyerdynamics are not that expensive… I would really love to buy good, relatable (!) headphones for that price!

[rob_lee]

The Beyerdynamics are not that expensive… I would really love to buy good, relatable (!) headphones for that price!

What do you mean buy good relatable for that price? I can swear by these and i'm sure many others on here use them, go try them out at your local music store if they have them.
They're not expensive but are great IMO

Rob

[HotPan]

Well, i believe you but its kinda hard I thought i have to pay about 300-400€ for good ones. May i ask you what youre doing with them, in detail ?

[tehlord]

Auto correct fail perhaps. Reputable.

Best thing to do is get down to a store and try a few different pairs of monitoring headphones. You'll preferably want semi open, or open back headphones as they'll represent the lower frequencies more accurately.

You could still use the Alesis monitors to check mixes on. Personally I find it very difficult to mix on headphones, but I do find them very useful to check mixes on after I've done the majority of the mixing on monitor speakers.

[rob_lee]

May i ask you what youre doing with them, in detail ?

Everything, sound design and producing track releases, never failed me yet. Why you wanna pay 3-400 euro if your just starting out? Fook that pal get a set of DT990's and buy a new synth with the change

Rob

[HotPan]

@tehlord:
of course i could try several headphones. but would that really make sense? i can only compare their sound to my stereoheadphones... i dont know whats important. i think i first should have a pair of headphones - then i could compare my next to them. maybe the sound that i "like" is unbalanced or something like that... hard to explain since english is not my native languag, sorry about that.

so good headphones/monitors are important for mixing and mastering in the first place? for "producing" like - finding melodys, create synth sounds etc. every speaker/headphones are okay (assumed they are not totaly crap?). I think biggist problem in first place is bass with the alesis ones, right?

of course i dont wanna pay that much money... they really seem really good. i think i will buy them wiht my next wages

[tehlord]

What you're looking for is accuracy, don't compare them to what you're using now.

It's best to take a selection of tracks that you know with you to demo the headphones, and pick the ones you think you can work with best. It's not about which ones make the music sound better, it's about the ones you feel provide the most accurate amount of information on the music you're listening to so that you can assess what changes need to be made to a mix.

You may find that you hear things in a mix that you'd not heard before!

[Wormhelmet]

As a general rule, I take my final mix and listen to it with my AKG headphones, beats headphones, home stereo, car stereo, computer speakers, and earbud headphones. If you can get a mix that sounds decent on all that, then you are golden. Kind of like web programming and testing in 5 browsers. You never know the media playback situation of the listener, so adjust for all around use.

On a side note, I also have Alesis M1 mkII and bought a subwoofer because I was constantly adjusting the bass wrong and boosting it to make up for the lack of low end response in the Alesis monitors. Final mix always sounded bass heavy in the car and home stereo.