Requirements of good speakers for audio recording

M

marktheman

New Member
Hi,
I'm looking to buy a set of speakers for audio recording and monitoring. I'm trying to discover the important criteria when buying speakers. Could someone please help me with this? I thought frequency range was the most important, i.e. in my case it would have to be very wide, nearly the 20-20000Hz range, but I came across speakers that were very cheap and had this frequency range therefore I must be wrong in my thinking. Is power a consideration? I would be very grateful if someone could help me as regards this, and if someone can, could they possibility recommend a good set of speakers for audio recording?
Thanks.
 
ok yea what sound card are you using along with what program your recording with and how are you looking for a pair of pc speakers or studio speakers i do all my audio in the same place so i use a pair of peavey speakers for playback and i just loop audio to my soundboard and what quality of sound are you looing for
 
Hi,
Sorry complete novice when it comes to sound.
I'm using pro-tools 7.1 and have a "SoundMax Digital Audio" soundcard.
I have the asio driver installed but am a bit confused as to whether this is the driver used by the pro-tools application because within the "Sounds and Audio Devices" option in Control Panel, the sound playback option defaults to "SoundMax Digital Audio" and not "Digidesign Digi 002: Chan 1-2" and also the MIDI Music playback option defaults to "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" and not any of the Digi 002 options.
Therefore I'm unsure about a lot of issues:
I thought Pro-tools needed to use the ASIO driver to use the box that came with it. Maybe I'm wrong. Currently just have speakers connected to headphone socket.
The pro-tools box has monitor connections at back of it for speakers so I'm still unsure as whether pc speakers or any speakers will do. Anyone able to help as this is quite a confusing situation for me.
Cheers.
 
Pro-tools only runs with either digi-design or m-audio hardware. You're saying presumably that you have a digi002 yeah? That's the big box with 8/16 inputs on it connected via firewire or usb(!). That's the 'soundcard' you use with protools. It will not use any other hardware, all your ins/outs and midi data should be from that.

As for speakers, numbers unfortunately mean nothing! Some speakers are rubbish, some aren't, it often has little to do with the specs or the price.

You'll find most studios use yamaha ns10s as they're notoriously honest, that is, most music sounds rubbish on them, so if you get it sounding good on them, it will sound good on anything!

PMC are also a great little company. I've got a pair of their TB1s. They sound great, consider them.

Tannoy make nothing that good these days, but they do make some active speakers, which might appeal to you.

Ultimately, get down the shops and 'pro-audio' shops and have a listen. Take some cds that you know well (one classical, if strings sound poor then walk away, one rock, one pop, and one with big low down bass) and spend a few minutes just listening. Not too long though or you'll get used to them and think they sound ok when they're not! Your first impression is almost certainly correct as well, if they sound like shit to begin with then move on.

And don't listen to the staff, they're working in a hi-fi shop, chances are they don't have a clue
 
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Just IMO, but Logitech all the way. I had Altec Lansing 2.1 Surrond speakers. (2 small speakers, one sub). Then I got my $38 refurbished kit (X-230) from eBay.

It was a huge improvement!
 
Don't buy computer speakers, they're all rubbish compared to professional speakers. You'll definietly want to route sound through a receiver or separate amps, via optical or digital coaxial cables.
 
Cheers. Thanks everyone for their great advice. Will post a reply as to what happened later and hope to help others on the web-site in future.
Thanks.
 
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