Studio monitors

A

aceteleman

New member
I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this but it does concern recording, in a sense....

I have a small home recording studio and I'm using M-Audio BX5 D2 monitors. I have 2 questions about this;

1. I've read on a couple of other forums that there are ways to connect my monitors to my computer, and I've seen some monitors that have usb connections for that but these do not, are there special cables I need to do this and what are they and how do I connect??

2. I've also read about adding a sub woofer to this setup but have no idea how to do that either.

I asked these questions on the M-Audio forum and got one 'STUPID' reply telling me I needed the right cables, well NOT SHIT SHERLOCK!!! That really answered the question...

So, if anyone here has answers I'd really appreciate it....

Thanks:guitar::guitar:
 
How are your speakers connected at the moment?
The best way to connect would be thru audio interface and by that I mean proper AI, not built in card.
For connecting subs the signal flow usually goes like this: Interface->sub->monitors. (so the signal goes thru the sub). Of course it depends of the sub you are willing to add, some may not offer the option of sound going thru.

Oh, and yeah, you need the right cables :D
 
Those maudios are active monitors which means the amplifiers are built into them.

They each expect a line level signal.

Most built in soundcards will have a stereo line level output but since tip and ring serve as left and right hot, they are not balanced outputs.
This means you will probably have problems with interference and noise.

The best solution is an audio interface (as suggested) with balanced line level outputs.
There are stacks of simple one or two channel usb ones on the market.

Look at tascam, maudio, presonus, etc.

If you plan to do any recording using microphones or line level devices, now would be the time to take stock of what you are likely to need in terms of input channels.
 
I have an Audiobox interface. At the moment I've got them hooked direct to my Fostex MR16, which is where I do most of my recording at the moment, with Live Wire Advantage 16 guage speaker cables. As for the sub, that was just a thought for the moment anyway and something to look into somewhere down the road.

Anyway, I really appreciate the quick response from you guys and the good advice. Oh yeah, I'll be sure to use the 'right' cables, hahahaha..... I guess I should've known better than to go anywhere but homerecording.com to get good advice, I've not been steered wrong once since I joined this forum.

I use Calkwalk Sonar X1 Producer on my computer but do very little direct recording there. I usually just take the .wavs from the Fostex and do the mixing and editing on the computer but up until now I wasn't sure how to connect the monitors and have been doing most of the computer work with headphones. I can't afford a really good pair of phones so what I'm hearing that way is so so.....

Thanks again guys.....
 
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I hate to tell you, but the cables you're currently using are the wrong ones. "Speaker" cables are meant to carry a high power signal from a power amp to a speaker. They are generally not shielded because any noise they pick up along the way will be so much quieter than the program signal that it just cant matter, and wont be amplified again.

The speakers you have are self powered. The signals you're sending to them (from the Fostex or the computer) are at line level - much lower than speaker level - and will be amplified along with the noise they pick up along the way. For this you need something shielded and preferably balanced.
 
ashcat_lt said:
I hate to tell you, but the cables you're currently using are the wrong ones. "Speaker" cables are meant to carry a high power signal from a power amp to a speaker. They are generally not shielded because any noise they pick up along the way will be so much quieter than the program signal that it just cant matter, and wont be amplified again.


The speakers you have are self powered. The signals you're sending to them (from the Fostex or the computer) are at line level - much lower than speaker level - and will be amplified along with the noise they pick up along the way. For this you need something shielded and preferably balanced.
Click to expand...

They are what was recommended to me in the Pro Audio dept at Guitar Center. Been using them for 2 years now and haven't had any problems with extranious noise but I will try something sheilded like a guitar cable or something. I have some sheilded patch cables but they aren't long enough. I'll look into getting something different.

Thanks for that info
 
A couple of thoughts...

First, as you've found while using speaker cables to carry a line level signal, you can often get away with all sorts of cable abuse and the use of unbalanced, unshielded cables where balanced is recommended. However, it WILL eventually come back to bite you. Things like a thermostat arcing or your neighbour's car developing a noisy ignition will suddenly put noise on your monitors even after a few years good use. A couple of short TRS to TRS cables will cost about the same as unbalanced guitar cables (and not cost much at all) so you may as well just do it properly.

...maybe not at that branch of Guitar Centre though. That has to be some of the most incompetent advice I've ever heard!

Regarding a sub woofer, what you'll need is some sort of crossover to split the speaker feed into two bands, one for the sub (probably 150Hz and below only) and ones for your main monitors (everything above 150Hz). You can buy separate boxes to do this but you'll probably find that many of the subs you look at have this feature built in--you just wire to the sub and it gives you "crossed over" outputs for your mains.
 
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