Decent Active Studio Monitors for ~200-400€ ?

[Photon]

What to get, where to buy?

I'm pretty new to this field, so any and all views are appreciated.

I'm using Reason 3 and various trackers via an Edirol UA-1EX external sound card.

[kola]

I dont know a thing about soft synths (and wouldnt want to) so maybe you have different requirements to myself but the Alsesis M1 Active mk II's get fantastic reviews.

There is alot of choice for budget active monitors though. Best go to a shop and try them out or look at publications such as Sound on Sound and narrow it down that way. Choice is bewildering

Oh by the way. You say your new to this so heres some advice. One of the best ever monitors made was the Yamaha little whites (NS10s) And they sounded god awful!!! This is why they were superb. If you could get a mix to sound good on these then it would sound great anywhere. So, dont expect your new shiny monitors to sound better than your similarly priced hi fi speakers. If they do, there is something wrong. Monitors are supposed to sound neutral (You only hear exactly what you play) Where as speakers colour the sound. IE everything sounds better than the original input.


Hope this helps.

Mickey

[skitz]

What to get, where to buy?

I'm pretty new to this field, so any and all views are appreciated.

I'm using Reason 3 and various trackers via an Edirol UA-1EX external sound card.

I totally agree with Kola's post and in fact I actually have a pair of the Alesis M1 ACTIVE Mk2.

As kola says you do need to be very careful when using "Reference Monitor" speakers as everything you hear from them by definition must be completely neutral (i.e. the frequencies you play into them are not touched and you should hear them as they were recorded). This is obviously ideal for the actual music production stage of a project but once you get onto the mastering and EQ stage it becomes a completely different set of skills and depends on the source track and target audience. For example mastering a Dance track would use a completely different set of parameters to that of a Classical piece or even a Pop tune. Welcome to the wonderful world of Sound Engineering!

One final point is that if you only have a PC with an Edirol UA-1EX External Sound Card and a copy of Reason 3 then to use any Active Monitor speakers you will also require and external mixer to drive them with. Depending on what expansion you want will define what mixer you need but ideally you want one with XLR master outputs to drive your Active Monitors with and obviously at least 2 inputs to plug the Edirol outputs into.

Anyhoo, good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of Remixing!

[SkyMarshall Arts]

I use M-Audio BX5a with my Edirol UA-4FX ...
and they are just within you price-range ... and great

[ifadeo]

i use a pair of ESI nEar 05 together with a subwoofer.... i'm happy with that setting....

[Macnetized]

What to get, where to buy?

I'm pretty new to this field, so any and all views are appreciated.

I'm using Reason 3 and various trackers via an Edirol UA-1EX external sound card.

Have a look at KRK RP5. Nice small active monitors, within the budget and receiving great reviews.