do you have to buy studio monitors?

[SacredDespair]

i was just wondering if it was neccesary to buy studio monitors or if they could be replaced by stereo or computer speakers. If you have to buy them, which ones are affordable(around $100) that will get the job done. Thanks

 

[Newbie dude]

You need studio monitors. Computer and Stereo speakers enhance your sound to make it more pleasing to the ear. You don't want that in the studio. You want to hear exactly what your mix is.
The only studio monitors I know of that are 10 dollars are the M-Audio StudioPro 3 and the Edirol Ma7a Micro Monitors. I've never used either of those, but my monitors ae made my M-Audio and they're pretty good.

 

[TimOBrien]

Having real monitors is like taking a layer of vasaline off your eyeglasses.

For $100 - use your home stereo and save your pennies. (unless you can find someone willing to give you a set of real monitors.)

You'll spend at least $300 to start to get into something accurate.

 

[CyanJaguar]

use your home stereo

 

[fuzzyhair]

I have M-audio studiophile ones. They cost about $140. They are pretty nice.

 

[SacredDespair]

i was just planning on using some computer speakers that i have laying around for now, but i don't know how to hook them up to the recorder. will those work, and if so, how do i hook them up to the recorder?

 

[noisedude]

My personal opinion is that you should get the mechanical conversions right first. That means mics on the way in, and speakers on the way out. One decent mic and one decent pair of monitors will make more difference than trying to climb up the preamp or rack gear ladders!

However - don't bother if you're just going to get cheapies. Learn to live with your computer speakers or hi-fi. Then move on to something worth keeping. I made a mistake here and am lumped with some Alesis monitors that aren't good enough to be worth having, valuable enough to be worth selling, or bad enough to make me want to go back to hi-fi speakers. This no-man's land is rubbish because it takes quite a bit of money to get out of it ... more so than if I'd just not bothered with cheapies to start with!!!