Yamaha HS5

I've got 2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-HS5-Powered-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00CFOX420

plugged into an old Benchmark DAC1

It's a question of tuning really well that and the fact that the audio engines are powered. Not active. (which is a huge downside. Active crossovers beats the crap out of any passive). Basically. The audio engines are tuned to be more colored and fun to listen to. Unfortunately that means it takes quite the hit in the technicality (that and that darn crossover) so the question is really. What kind of sound do you like. I'm personally a huge fan of the monitor sound because I'm not too fond of coloration and because you get quite a lot for your money. I personally paid 280$ bucks for my used prodipe pro8 (not available in the States unfortunately. Otherwise that would have been my recommendation)

And now a completely unrelated question. Have you considered the Yamaha hs5? Yamaha pretty much make some of the best monitors for non studio listening (the hs8 is the only option I would consider for my next upgrade)

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-HS5-Powered-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00CFOX420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382745876&sr=8-1&keywords=Yamaha+hs5

I really enjoy the sound quality in the Behringer B2031A monitors. They sound awesome, are great to dj at home with as well as a house party. My friend has a set of these in his studio for all of his live streams/ rehearsing sets. We both love them!

You can grab a them here!

6inch model

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000Q6EHA2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sydneyrae-20&camp=15121&creative=330641&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B000Q6EHA2&linkId=b37d06c4ad717ab06b5de6cb306d5645

8inch model

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0002MRCLQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sydneyrae-20&camp=15121&creative=330641&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0002MRCLQ&linkId=bddaeef8b0110c17f7b96271bed631e9

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Or if you are willing to spend a little bit more per speaker the Yamaha Hs5's are also a good choice, Especially for house parties. Here is a link for those as well..... NOTE these are 40$ off right now with this link!

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00CFOX420/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sydneyrae-20&camp=15121&creative=330641&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00CFOX420&linkId=80babb6f654b8d285db317efc1709ce4

Potentially lacking a tad of bass, but these are a great shout, very popular with students and staff on my course: Yamaha HS-5, you might also want to try the folks over at /r/audioengineering

Good catch! There was probably nothing wrong with the speaker he returned.

That makes sense because the speaker is bi-amplified, so a stereo cable is needed to feed a signal to both amps, one for the tweeter section and one for the woofer.

If one scrolls down here to the Frequently bought together section they will see the cable shown has a stereo, not a mono jack on the end of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-HS5-Powered-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00CFOX420

The sound output will still be mono, but the bi-amped system needs two signal sources, one to feed each amplification section. And here I thought that bi-amping and bi-wiring audiophile voodoo was left back in the 1990s when the gimmick was popular for marketing purposes only, to con customers into buying more amplifiers and speaker wire.

Hey man....I'll give you a breakdown of everything I own to make music. But you have to be aware, that there is a HUGE learning curve to home recording...and until you get proficient with your DAW and learning about all sorts of settings and how to set up your audio and workflow and what cable gets plugged into where and yadda yadda, you will find that there are days where it can get aggravating. And then once you finally get the hang of it, and you can record something with somewhat ease, you will find that it sounds like garbage, and then you realize you gotta learn all about mixing, and the struggles that comes with.

So first and foremost, just make sure you are aware that even if you had all the money in the world, it's going to take a good chunk of time before you feel comfortable and etc.

BUT,

here is a list of everything that should help you get started.



I assume you're a guitarist yeah?

First off, just buy the full version of Reaper. It's $60. It's worth it.
Also, for drums, I use Steven Slate Drums...The full kit is worth it..but if you want just the $40 version, that will work also.

For an audio interface, the best quality/bang for your buck would probably be something from Focusrite

And then you will need a set of monitors as well....again, the best quality/bang for your buck IMO is a set of these

And then of course you're going to need things like cables, etc.

XLR cables for mics,

balanced cables for connecting things like your interface to your monitors, etc,

get some instrument cables as well if you don't already have some,

A good surge protector as well, can't recommend this one enough, it has rotating sockets so you can fit everything on it.



From then, its just a matter of how much money you want to spend, and what all you want to do.

How do you plan to get your guitar tone. Are you going to mic a cab? If so, look into something like an SM57. If you wanna do it the cheap/free way, be warned you will be dealing with a latency issue. USB interfaces have latency, so monitoring your tone can cause some issues sometimes. You plug in your guitar raw straight into the interface, and throw on some plugins on the track that give you your tone. If you want to hear just a raw, clean guitar, there won't be any latency. But if you want to record while hearing your distortion, the computer has to take your clean signal, process it through the plugins, and then back out to the monitors, so there will be a split second of latency if you don't have things set up correctly and if your pc specs arent up to par..and even so, you never can truly get to 0 latency without spending some SERIOUS money.

If you have some extra money, I would highly recommending getting something like this eleven rack...I personally use this. You can bypass the latency issue by choosing what you monitor on the interface...do you want to monitor what is coming from the input (the eleven rack) or the playback (the computer) or a blend of both. So essentially i can just listen to my guitar live as I'm recording straight from the Eleven Rack, but i'm not acutally 'monitoring' it in Reaper. By doing so, my guitar doesn't have to travel through the computer and back out, thus no latency. You can really get some great tones out of this thing also...I like to call it the 'Poor Man's AxeFX'. Here's an example of something i'm working on...both using the eleven rack and the steven slate drums, so you can get a sense of the quality of the drums and guitar tone. I have done some slight eq'ing and stuff, but nothing dramatic.

Of course you don't need something like that for guitar, there are plenty of plug ins that are free that can help you with tone.

And lastly, as far as plug ins go, if you dont wanna mic a cab, or use something like an eleven rack, just search on youtube "free plugins for metal guitar" or "free metal guitar plugins" or whatever, and just watch. Youtube is your friend when wanting to learn about how to use reaper and finding plugins. I know for a fact there are full playlists out there to learn how to use reaper properly, from start to finish. So consider looking for those.

For other basic plug ins like EQ, Compression, Noise Gate, etc, I wouldn't worry about those. Reaper comes with like 13 or so of it's own plugins. They honestly are some great plug ins as well, and are all you really need.

Here's a picture of my set up, with all the stuff I suggested in this post.


Hope that helps.

Yamaha has very-well-regarded bookshelf-sized monitors.

These would probably be the modern equivalent of your downstairs speakers:

https://smile.amazon.com/Yamaha-NS-6490-Bookshelf-Speakers-Finish/dp/B00018Q4GA/

These would be a bit of an upgrade. Slightly less bass, but more accurate and musical:

https://smile.amazon.com/Yamaha-NS-333-Reflex-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B0000W4U1S/

Both would also require a small amp of some sort, such as the SMSL SA-50 or AD-18.

Yamaha also makes powered studio monitors. The sound will be more accurate; the speakers include an amp which makes them a little more expensive as well. The HS5 or HS7 would work well:

https://smile.amazon.com/Yamaha-HS5-Powered-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00CFOX420/

The HS8 has more bass, at the cost of a little midrange accuracy.

You will still probably feel shorted on bass, especially for smaller speakers, because good deep musical bass requires large drivers and a whole lot of amplification. You might want to start looking into subwoofers!

This and this could be a setup for you.

I will go with something else, for example these Yamaha hs5 which is around $399/pair: https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-HS5-Powered-Studio-Monitor/dp/B00CFOX420/ and some Studio Monitor Pads ($15):https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Addicted-Isolation-Acoustical-Monitors/dp/B0757LTZJJ which can be put on any desk or stands.

The A5's are definitely pretty speakers, especially in bamboo and especially compared to Rokits. But they're not super well recommended around here, since they're colored pretty heavily (think Beats' big boomy sound) and quite expensive.

Yamaha's HS5 are powered monitors at the same $400 price. Some people think that studio monitors aren't good for wide area, room listening though. I'm not sure how I feel.

These Klipsch bookshelves, paired with an amp, are a good alternative. Amps include the Muse M50, or a decent used receiver from Craigslist.

Best quality-for-value headphones: ATH-M50X

Best quality-for-value monitors: Yamaha HS5

Shop around on Google for both, you can usually find a decent discount somewhere.

HS5s are on the small side, so bass output may be weak. You can compensate with a sub, but with that added cost, might as well just upgrade to HS7.

Consider whether your genre is bass-heavy or not, and how critical it is for you to extend your bottom end by 5-10HZ (and also the size of your mixing space), then decide.