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so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:39 pm
by LordBid
They should be here in a day or two but I was talknig to my bud and he said u cant just plug them into your soundcard out, so do I need to buy a mixer or some kind of interface or what? Could somebody plz enlighten me?
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:42 pm
by JFK
What monitors are they mate?
Also is it an onboard sound card or an external USB interface?
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:43 pm
by nowaysj
If they are active monitors, you can plug them directly in. If they are passive you will need an amp.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:47 pm
by LordBid
Behringer truth's, they are active, but would u advise a usb interface or what?
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:52 pm
by legend4ry
Narh just smash em straight into your headphone input jack on your pc/mac/laptop you'll be fine.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:55 pm
by Ongelegen
legend4ry wrote:Narh just smash em straight into your headphone input jack on your pc/mac/laptop you'll be fine.
this!
worked fine for me before i bought an interface
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:58 pm
by staticcast
You'll probably want a passive volume controller (30 quid or so) if you don't wanna reach behind your monitors to adjust the volume.
(Either that or keep em at full volume and use your soundcard's volume control, but that doesn't protect your ears/speakers if there's a click when you power on, or if your drivers are a bit buggy and your computer decides to play something at full volume, etc.)
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 3:01 pm
by LordBid
hey guys thanks a lot for the info!
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 4:11 pm
by tripaddict
or a small amp ... a standard stereo amp might suffice till u get something more suitable
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 6:38 pm
by yamaz
That would require an adapter right? My krk rockits have 1/4 inch so I use a mixer or usb interface.... to plug directly into laptop would require a 3.5mm stereo splitter - 2 mono 1/4 inch adapter...
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 6:43 pm
by Ongelegen
yamaz wrote:That would require an adapter right? My krk rockits have 1/4 inch so I use a mixer or usb interface.... to plug directly into laptop would require a 3.5mm stereo splitter - 2 mono 1/4 inch adapter...
or a 3.5mm to 2 1/4" cable, the less you have in between the better
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 7:15 pm
by LordBid
woudl someoen mind linking a usb interface to me that they would recommend, hopefully not too expensive?
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 7:21 pm
by casual-p
id strongly recommend against buying an amp as someone mentioned, you will murk your monitors. edirol do the ua25 which is definitely good enough for your needs at the moment, u can pick up a 2nd hand one on ebay for around 70 pounds. itll sound much better than a ghetto headphone jack thing and give you less latency when you use your programmes
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 8:12 pm
by nowaysj
LordBid wrote:woudl someoen mind linking a usb interface to me that they would recommend, hopefully not too expensive?
There is a thread on this topic right now. I would recommend against a usb interface if can get something else.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 11:28 pm
by Cyma
I also just got new monitors (rokit 6s) and have a couple questions if you guys don't mind me jumping in.
1. How can i assure the safety of my investment? I don't want to blow them out by being a dumbass. But we all know bass sounds cool. So should i set them up with the recommended factory setting and just go to town and not worry? Max the computer volume or somewhere in the middle? I feel ignorant but don't have money how to find out how not to ruin your gear. i.e. blow up monitors and buy new ones.
2. When you roll back the volume knobs on your monitors do you find that doing so attenuates the highs? Wondering about frequency response being linked as in guitars and amps?
Any other general guidelines are most welcome.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 8:55 am
by staticcast
Cyma wrote:I also just got new monitors (rokit 6s) and have a couple questions if you guys don't mind me jumping in.
1. How can i assure the safety of my investment? I don't want to blow them out by being a dumbass. But we all know bass sounds cool. So should i set them up with the recommended factory setting and just go to town and not worry? Max the computer volume or somewhere in the middle? I feel ignorant but don't have money how to find out how not to ruin your gear. i.e. blow up monitors and buy new ones.
2. When you roll back the volume knobs on your monitors do you find that doing so attenuates the highs? Wondering about frequency response being linked as in guitars and amps?
Any other general guidelines are most welcome.
1) Just be sensible really. You can get away with a certain amount of cone excursion but if your woofer is wobbling in and out by like a centimetre then you should probably turn it down a bit. And don't play sine waves at high volume for extended periods of time. Don't the Rokits have a built in limiter anyway, with a light at the front, or is that just the VXT series? Most (or at least a lot of) active monitors do....
2) No, with monitors there shouldn't be a difference. Guitar amps aren't designed for a flat response.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 9:22 am
by legend4ry
casual-p wrote:id strongly recommend against buying an amp as someone mentioned, you will murk your monitors. edirol do the ua25 which is definitely good enough for your needs at the moment, u can pick up a 2nd hand one on ebay for around 70 pounds. itll sound much better than a ghetto headphone jack thing and give you less latency when you use your programmes
How is it ghetto? There is things called PCI-E soundcards you know, theres studio ones too and they have the option of connecting via headphone jack.
Just because its not a USB interface doesn't mean its bad.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 11:26 am
by lp
For the money I spent I can't say anything bad about my Focusrite Saffire 6. It has 2ins 4 outs and gives a very nice sound as well as low latency recording and playback. Never had a problem with it and im runnin Windows 7.
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 11:57 am
by Project_B
I have mine straight into the headphone out from my pc.
heres what I do,
get a track thats you know well - but also its a bit louder than most track would normally be,
turn the monitors DOWN
turn the pc UP to the top,
then slowly turn up your monitors untill you reach desired level,
this means that you can control all volume on your PC and if for some reason some jackass cranks it when drunk it wont go so loud as to blow your monitors!
Re: so I just bought some monitors and have a question.
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 9:44 pm
by nowaysj
lp wrote:For the money I spent I can't say anything bad about my Focusrite Saffire 6. It has 2ins 4 outs and gives a very nice sound as well as low latency recording and playback. Never had a problem with it and im runnin Windows 7.
How long have you had the Saffire. Initially I researched that thing and there were a tun of vista complaints. I guess they fixed all that?