I've been were you are at man, new baby and, the only person in the house making any money. I tried every cheap or free thing I could think of before I even considered spending money. None of it worked. Not one little bit. The best I ever was able to achieve was mixes that proved to my wife, that my buddy's and I weren't just hanging out smoking pot all night, when I could have been at home helping out with the little one. Mind you those mixes never sounded good in any way shape or form.
The more I got into recording the cheaper I got too. I used to hang my mics from the ceiling with kite string because I couldn't afford mic stands. Mind you this was back in the early 90's and, I was recording on a Fostex X-28H 4 track cassette based system that I bought used at
a pawn shop for $150 without my wife's permission and, slept on the couch for a week over it. Which by the way was a step up from the tape deck that I, plugged a Radio Shack DJ mixer, into the RCA inputs. I won't even get into the convoluted method I cooked up for doing multiple tracks because, at the end of the day it all sounded like ass. Never mattered to me that it sounded like crap because I was having a ton of fun doing it. I was writing songs with my best friend and, having a grand old time coming up with clever ways to do things for free.
Cut to 20 years later and I'm making more money and have a lot better toys. I learned a whole lot along the way, most of it in a time before the internet and, forums like this were even available to me. The one thing I've learned to be true is that there are certain things you are going to have to spend money on. If you don't have it right now find a way to save for it. There is almost always a way. My ex wife and, I came up with a compromise that allowed me to get a few things. All the change leftover from daily purchases got put in a jar and, was mine to spend. I even took a couple of lawn mowing jobs in the summer to pay for my first decent set of headphones. If you want it bad enough you'll find a way to make it happen. My friend and I used to go down to the park and, play with a tip jar just to have money to buy blank tapes with.
The guys here in this forum are correct when they tell you that mixing on headphones doesn't work. Headphones are great for tracking but, for mixing it just doesn't work. Your mixes will NEVER translate, EVER. You can mix on your car stereo if you want, something I applaud you for even coming up with. Hell if I had had that option back in the day I would have given it a shot. But knowing what I know now, I know that those mixes will not translate to other playback systems. But like my ignoramus 20 years old son and, me when I was younger, you too must learn things for yourself. Probably like most idiotic young men, you'll do it the hard way. I mean no offense by that but, I long ago realized that I was a flaming idiot at that age and, that most people of the male persuasion generally are too.
Anyways, sit back take a breathe and evaluate your situation. Figure out what you need. You don't need the best set of monitors money can buy. You just need something that you can work on. You can upgrade later. As far as not being able to mix out loud. Rubbish. You can listen to the TV while everyone is sleeping can't you? Well then you can mix out loud while they sleep too. There is no need to buy the loudest set of monitors on the market. You can get a set of M-Audio AV 40's for about $150 new and, probably find them used for about $50. Are they the best monitors in the world? Not by any means. Are they better then mixing on $20 headphones? You bet they are.
It's been my experience that the only people who make excuses for not getting what they want, are people who don't really want it in the first place. They just want to bitch about not being able to get it. Like I said before, I was 25 years old and I went out and knocked on my neighbors doors to ask if they wanted their lawns mowed so I could buy gear. I also shoveled snow in the winter. If you want it man you will find a way.
