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Monitors, new or used in the 600 dollar price range! Recommendations!?


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Okay, so here's the deal, I have headphones coming, and despite what I think they may hold up to, I may be completely and utterly wrong, or maybe right now while I am learning and such, they'll work. I am hopeful the latter. However, I am working on pushing a piece of gear out the door and expect around 600 dollars for the stuff. I figured my stuff is analog and I suppose I could have room for a digital synth, but if I really need it, I would really just want to incorporate a computer. I mean putting that aside, I've begun work on a custom SID chip synth and will be incorporating an Atari ST with Cubase 3.0 in as a sequencer where the LinnSequencer I have may fail, although unlikely, I love that thing. :)

 

So straight to the point, give me recommendations of monitors that are good. I can score a used set in excellent all-round condition pair of Mackies on a regular basis here in Minneapolis for about 600-650. Would these be the best bet at this range? I don't know new speakers. I know vintage JBLs :) and I just said somewhere else that I have owned SRM450's which made me a Mackie nut, just cause they rocked and were loud and were in a tiny little cabinet, heehee. Monitors are different, no doubt, but....your input is most definitely appreciated and will probably fall into which route I go. Does everyone agree, 824s? =]

 

Also, somebody asked me for pictures of my gear. Here's some shots in my not-setup environment. This stuff has since been moved 150+ miles away from where I am staying right now. I was supposed to move tomorrow, but I got rejected. So my stuff is in a basement studio in the city where I'm supposed to live, heehee. The Juno is still here though for me to play with and my parts will be arriving to solder back in the Envelope slider. I have more gear, just no pictures of it to share.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Aaron

 

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The mighty 106.

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This mixer is weird, it's old, from 85, it's an Akai, it works great, analogue, and just a temporary mixing solution right now.

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I don't know when I took this, but it was probably erm, 3 weeks ago, before moving it far away from me. I keep everything in a lockup case since my son is almost 3, but he likes to touch and play with everything mine. Hell, I even have a 7 ft tall bookshelf made of plastic with doors on it to keep things locked up [it has a key too] from him. As well as 100% plastic computer desk so he could beat the crap out of it as much as he wanted and it'd still be standing. hehe.

 

K BYE! i talk too much. ;)

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Nice kit there - you're a Roland freak eh?

 

The Mackies will do you proud I reckon, especially at that price. Make sure they're 100% working though before you pay.

I am not a Roland freak so much, but I buy things that are *deals*. The MKS-50 and programmer were basically free, the D-550 came as a set with the programmer and a bunch of crap at a price I could not deny, and well, yeah, you get the picture. It's just kind of turned out that way. I *wanted* the super jupiter, the other stuff just kind of happened at bargains.

 

OKAY I ADMIT, I love the roland sound =] nonetheless. I haven't had much else to play with. Nobody locally is ever selling something not roland for a super bargain. And regarding the Mackies, yeah, they'd be in working order. Lots of people in the music scene here use the mackies and they come available often at what I'd think to be a good price.

 

I would like to say that putting Roland aside, I would like to acquire an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler keyboard and would prefer a kawai midiboard, but it's either the midiboard or roland a-80 and midiboards are hard to find...as my midi controller. I require one of those cause I would be using it to play live as well and the polyphonic aftertouch is schweeet for live apps. Not many midi controllers have this feature, at least ones that are weighted. I don't know anything about synth-action controllers...but!

 

Anyways, weeeeeeee. ;)

 

-d

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The ASR-10 has polyphonic aftertouch ;)

 

And the A-80 is a fine keyboard.. synth action I believe, to the A-90's weighted keys, but still really playable. Don't think it does the poly aftertouch though.

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The ASR-10 has polyphonic aftertouch ;)

 

And the A-80 is a fine keyboard.. synth action I believe, to the A-90's weighted keys, but still really playable. Don't think it does the poly aftertouch though.

The A-80 has poly-at. It is solid hardware based as well. It does have weighted keys as well. The A-90 is somewhat identical to the A-80, but the poly-at has software emulation, so I guess it's described as having untrue poly-at, if that makes sense. :)

 

I had no idea the ASR-10 had poly-at, crazy! I was going to go a rack mount sampler, the asr-10r, but decided a sampler keyboard would be even better. :)

 

Edit: I meant earlier the Kurzweil Midiboard - not Kawai. I don't know if anybody else is into Poly-At, but here's an interesting site I just found talking about it a little bit: http://personal.inet.fi/private/matador/cs-80_tips.html ;)

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Overall, people seem pretty split on Mackie monitors. Those that like them love them, those that don't, don't. I think the biggest complaint I've heard of them is that the "passive radiator" causes smear in the low end due to timing problems. Never heard them myself (in a decent listening environment, that is).

 

One thing I can suggest is ADAM monitors. Again, I haven't heard them myself, but as opposed to literally every other monitor, I have never heard a bad comment about ADAM. If you have a good amp, their passive ANF-10 monitors can be had for about $750/pair. Their other monitors are powered, and therefore more expensive (but worth it, from what I hear.)

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I love my Genelec Monitors, but a lot of people hate them.

 

Anyways, this has nothing to do with the topic really but I found this little chart here the other day with some budget monitor comparisons:

 

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In case someone in the near future reads the thread, its a nifty little chart.

 

also, if you can get your hands on Future Music issue 181, there is a big monitor round up in that, which pretty much tells it all.

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when talking about monitors, you can throw the specifications to the trash.

 

some of this monitors' specs are just like the high-end gear. how do you explain that? :angry:

of course noone should buy by the specs. one can compare the specs, and then go LISTEN to them.
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