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Hi all. I've been producing for the last half year, on Walmart speakers/subwoofer, and Koss UR-20's that I borrowed from a friend. I've already been saving up for new headphones, specifically DT990's. Over the course of this year, I plan to buy new studio monitors, a mixing console for production in FL Studio/Reason/Ableton/Cubase, and possibly a headphone amp.

First off, would I even need a headphone amp for the DT990's if I have a mixer? And if so, would the Focusrite Saffire 6 get the job done? I've heard insanely great reviews about both the 990's and the Saffire 6, especially on DOA. My budget for everything total is $1,400-1,600. Now, to the products themselves.

I've been leaning towards Adam A5X monitors, simply because I heard a couple of good reviews on them, and they are within budget. I know almost nothing about studio monitors, so any advice and suggestion(s) is welcome. With a mixer, I've found the Yamaha MG124C's and the Mackie 1202-VLZ3's to be good choices, as both are definitely within budget along with the monitors (and headphone amp). Again, I'm open to ANY good, worthwhile suggestions, as I'm moving rooms in my household, and feel like with a fresh room, I should get some fresh gear. Quality gear really. Thanks in advance.

Why do you want a mixer? Are you going to be using outboard gear? Also, why the hell are you using 4 DAWs? That sounds a bit ridiculous. I'd also be surprised if you were actually able to buy all of that even with 1,600 dollars (if you are talking USD). You won't need a headphone amp with the mixer or just the interface IMO.

fragments wrote:Why do you want a mixer? Are you going to be using outboard gear? Also, why the hell are you using 4 DAWs? That sounds a bit ridiculous. I'd also be surprised if you were actually able to buy all of that even with 1,600 dollars (if you are talking USD). You won't need a headphone amp with the mixer or just the interface IMO.

I only have Reason and FL. I don't use Reason anymore except for every once in a while, I just figured I might as well list Cubase and Ableton for possible reference purposes. And I will be getting outboard gear as soon as I get the monitors and mixer, so, yep. Like I said, I'm a novice on software, and a complete amateur on hardware.

Maybe you want to hold off on the outboard gear then, being a novice with software. What other outboard gear do you want and why? I'd recommend buying a interface with a healthy set of audio I/Os instead of buying an entry level interface and entry level mixer, for the same money you can get something like a MOTU 828 MK2 interface and just use your DAWs mixer.

I wouldn't bother with anything other than the monitors and audio interface. May as well spend the money on good monitors (my KRK rokit 6's are all I need, other than maybe some headphones) and a decent audio interface with a few in/out options. I've got a lexicon omega that I picked up for about $250 Australian, and my monitors set me back $500 for the both of them. The headphone amp is kinda pointless if you're getting an interface, and you might wanna look into getting a midi keyboard.

Good audio interface + good monitors = good mixes. Well if you know what you're doing anyway, I'm yet to get there myself.

fragments wrote:Maybe you want to hold off on the outboard gear then, being a novice with software. What other outboard gear do you want and why? I'd recommend buying a interface with a healthy set of audio I/Os instead of buying an entry level interface and entry level mixer, for the same money you can get something like a MOTU 828 MK2 interface and just use your DAWs mixer.

Well, I'm not necessarily looking for a mixer, per say, but a mixer with lots of knobs for manipulating sounds instead of writing out an envelope everytime. And not sure. All I know is I want a ton of analog hardware.

Sure_Fire wrote:I wouldn't bother with anything other than the monitors and audio interface. May as well spend the money on good monitors (my KRK rokit 6's are all I need, other than maybe some headphones) and a decent audio interface with a few in/out options. I've got a lexicon omega that I picked up for about $250 Australian, and my monitors set me back $500 for the both of them. The headphone amp is kinda pointless if you're getting an interface, and you might wanna look into getting a midi keyboard.

Good audio interface + good monitors = good mixes. Well if you know what you're doing anyway, I'm yet to get there myself.

That's the thing, I have no idea what I'm going to do, yet. But I was thinking of getting Adam A5X's since they're $500 each and seem like they'd do more than get the job done, and that Motu is very tempting.

Although way out of my price range now that I checked it a little more.

sofarmusic wrote:

fragments wrote:Maybe you want to hold off on the outboard gear then, being a novice with software. What other outboard gear do you want and why? I'd recommend buying a interface with a healthy set of audio I/Os instead of buying an entry level interface and entry level mixer, for the same money you can get something like a MOTU 828 MK2 interface and just use your DAWs mixer.

Well, I'm not necessarily looking for a mixer, per say, but a mixer with lots of knobs for manipulating sounds instead of writing out an envelope everytime. And not sure. All I know is I want a ton of analog hardware.

Yea. It sounds like you need to do some more research then, man, I don't think either of those mixers do what you think they will do. In general it just seems like you have no idea what you are getting into. Not trying to be harsh, just honest.

fragments wrote:

sofarmusic wrote:

fragments wrote:Maybe you want to hold off on the outboard gear then, being a novice with software. What other outboard gear do you want and why? I'd recommend buying a interface with a healthy set of audio I/Os instead of buying an entry level interface and entry level mixer, for the same money you can get something like a MOTU 828 MK2 interface and just use your DAWs mixer.

Well, I'm not necessarily looking for a mixer, per say, but a mixer with lots of knobs for manipulating sounds instead of writing out an envelope everytime. And not sure. All I know is I want a ton of analog hardware.

Yea. It sounds like you need to do some more research then, man, I don't think either of those mixers do what you think they will do. In general it just seems like you have no idea what you are getting into. Not trying to be harsh, just honest.

I completely agree, but my main focus is monitors and an interface, now that I'm learning little by little, as you can see. Now, since Adam A5X's are about $500 each, the cheapest interface I can get will probably have to be $500 max.

Check out the reviews on Equator Audio's D5s before you spend a 1,000 dollars on those Adams. I've seen many comparisons between the D5s and Adam and Dynaudio models stating their sound quality is equal or that the D5s are better... and the D5's are only 299 a pair. Sound on Sound featured a great review of them recently. I've read good things about them on Gearslutz and the Reaper forums. I recently purchased a pair myself, but just received them and haven't had a chance to work on them much yet.

Thanks for the tip. Gonna check now. That'd definitely save me some money to get a good interface. Also, would I need to get anything special for routing/setup with the monitors to the interface to my pc? Like, any special cables or settings to make sound quality as high as possible? I'd have to hook up an interface by USB, since I don't have a firewire port, but from descriptions on nearly every model, the companies don't seem to point out major distinctions between USB and FW at all.

You just need balanced quarter inch cables. I have no idea what you are asking about USB and Firewire and "major distinctions" the units are either USB, firewire, or both.

Most times when I see reviews on interfaces, people always say Firewire is better, but the companies don't seem to point that out. Anyways, got any suggestions for a good interface other than the MOTU? Maybe a little cheaper?

I've only owned three interfaces M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI, Mackie Onyx Blackjack and the MOTU. The MOTU blows the other two way out of the water on all counts, but easily on sound quality. Also, I think you were looking at the MOTU 828 MKiii not the MKii...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid= ... &_from=R40

You can get an MKii for around 300USD, but it's firewire only anyway.

Firewire is technically faster, but to take advantage of it you need to make sure you have a class compliant firewire card. The Texas Instruments chipset is recommended by manufacturers such as MOTU as the TI chipset is one of the few that actually meets the requirements. My MOTU interface worked with my non-compliant, non TI chipset on my motherboard, but I got a few errors and more latency than I did after I upgraded.

Stick with USB, dont' worry about FW

Yeah. <$300 is way better than $650-735. Also, is there a big difference between DIY acoustic treatment and pro acoustic treatment? Like, noticeably? Sorry for all of the questions.

Edit: Considering D5's and MOTU will cost roughly $650, any acoustic treatment will either have to be extremely minimal (and precise), or cheap DIY. I'm beginning to realize my budget doesn't need to be $1,400-1,600, but $1,000 at the most.

I have no idea. I don't use treatment. My studio is also our guestroom and I haven't won the "can I hang treatment war?" with the woman yet. For me, I'd probably go with the commercial stuff because of time restraints on my part and ease of installation. Also the DIY stuff doesn't look as pretty.

fragments wrote:I have no idea. I don't use treatment. My studio is also our guestroom and I haven't won the "can I hang treatment war?" with the woman yet.

Ah. Have you showed "the woman" how clean acoustic treatment really looks? It'd be like throwing big, thick posters on the walls. I talked to my stepmom about acousticly treating the room I'm going to move into since a corner of it is oddly shaped and all of the windows in there, and she agreed. At first I was talking about foam until I went back to my room to realize I really just need a couple of absorbers and bass traps.

Oh trust me. I've tried many, many things. She doesn't trust the supposedly temporary spray adhesive. It's not worth getting into, but so far I've lost all the battles...something something...but not lost the war.

You def. don't want too much bass going on in there even if you do treat. I work in a weird room too and since I downgraded to less bassy monitors I can really hear everything better.

fragments wrote:Oh trust me. I've tried many, many things. She doesn't trust the supposedly temporary spray adhesive. It's not worth getting into, but so far I've lost all the battles...something something...but not lost the war.

You def. don't want too much bass going on in there even if you do treat. I work in a weird room too and since I downgraded to less bassy monitors I can really hear everything better.

True, true. Well, since the MOTU is firewire only, any recommendations that are USB capable, and still harness the quality that MOTU's do in the same price range?