Seconding the PreSonus recommendations. They offer great value for starting out with studio monitors instead of typical multimedia speakers. I bought PreSonus monitors and headphones recently. Here’s the monitors:
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Those do look like great speakers and I’m sure they sound great, but I have to ask…
Why would you need such enormous power just to listen to backing tracks while you practice? I could see hanging those on a sound system for a party or whatever, or even on the TV to get great audio for movies and such, but in the practice space?
Am I missing something here?
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I guess the power/volume thing is a personal preference, and I did use my old Harman Kardon soundsticks to play along to tracks just fine until I got these. However for recording/mixing, I wanted something to play audio in its pure form without “enhancing” the bass or treble, which I understand almost all consumer level multimedia speakers are built to do automatically. So I wanted studio monitors for that reason, and I went with the 4.5s instead of the 3.5s because they were on sale and it wasn’t much more expensive to do so. And I do like to crank it up occasionally.
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Okay, I understand the preference thing, but when recording and mixing everything comes and goes directly into and out of the DAW. As far as I know, the speakers are just for monitoring, and play no role in the actual recording.
Again maybe I’m missing something.
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No they play no role on the recording side, besides accurately monitoring what you’re recording – It’s more about mixing, and re-creating the audio as accurately as possible. I am no expert in this area but here’s a good summary –
Consumer-grade HiFi speakers are designed to sweeten how the music sounds and they’re pleasant to listen to. But what that means is, the EQ/tone of the speakers are tuned in a certain way to enhance the sound. Most commonly you’ll find these speakers have a lot of extended low frequencies and extended high frequencies.
If you’re currently mixing on HiFi speakers and you take your mix out of your studio and play it on your car stereo or other speakers. You’ll probably notice that it sounds dull and lifeless and not how you were hoping it would sound. This is one of the big issues with mixing on home stereo speakers (they don’t translate well).
Studio monitors, on the other hand, are designed to be sonically neutral. When you use them for recording and mixing they will give you the flattest most accurate representation of whatever it is that you’re listening to.
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Okay, I see the point. However at my level (not a studio engineer), just listening to the track on my little Bose speakers so I can play along with my bass is good enough for me. I let Reaper handle the rest. I figure the song I purchased on Amazon and downloaded has already been mixed to perfection, so I don’t concern myself with such things. I just strip the bass out of it and add my own bass line.
If I didn’t already have my Bose speakers (imperfect as they are), and was shopping for speakers, I’d certainly consider the ones you have.
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After my KRK monitors I had a pair of A7X Adam’s. The difference between computer/compact hifi speakers and a pair of decent monitors is night and day. These days I just use a DAI > headphones.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/A7X--adam-audio-a7x-7-inch-powered-studio-monitor
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Those look nice also, but as I said before, when I’m playing a version of a song through my DAI with the bass stripped out of it, high fidelity is not that important (to me). All I’m doing is monitoring the song and the drums in order to stay in the groove.
Then, when I’m recording the bassline, I’m overlaying it onto the track with the original song. The final product will be the original song as recorded and mixed in the studio on one track, and my bassline on another track. The final product is my cover of the song. Having high fidelity or totally crappy speakers to monitor the song while I’m playing has absolutely no effect on the outcome.
It’s great to have awesome high fidelity speakers to monitor, I’m just saying it’s not necessary for this purpose.
Just my $0.02 worth.
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I just clicked on the link. YIKES! $749.99 (each) just to monitor the track while recording bass over it? Wow!
I guess if you want something to listen to music from your laptop those are good, but damned pricey LOL
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@bjams and @Paul are you guys using those speakers just to sit back and enjoy music from your laptop? If so that makes sense. I’m talking more about monitoring the songs while recording. Maybe we’re talking about two different things.
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Well there is a use for them in recording covers as well, aside from just playing the original track. Any nice hifi speakers like the ones you have are perfectly suitable for playing along to songs – they’re even designed to make mastered music sound better. But when you are adding the recorded bass on top of the original track in Reaper, you are mixing at that point. And that’s where having flat studio monitors comes in handy. Because the audio coming from Reaper that you’re using as a reference point for mixing in the bass is being slightly changed by the hifi speakers.
I’m not saying they’re necessary for recording covers or anything like that, most of mine were recorded without studio monitors. And you could always use a decent pair of studio headphones to achieve the same ends as a big set of monitors.
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The playback part makes more sense to me. I don’t use those little Bose speakers for playback of the finished product. I render it to MP3 and upload it to my cloud so I can listen to it on my laptop with headphones. In that case, those big expensive speakers would make sense, but the headphones work for me.
I thought you were saying these are helpful for recording of the track. I misunderstood.
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Haha no, I had those speakers when I had producer/engineer ambitions. I sold them for a very good price too, so no regrets there. For playback and play along purposes I would just use headphones or speakers that can at least produce a nice bass sound…
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yes i certainly use them for this too 
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What about these @PamPurrs 
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BB6XBDA--pmc-bb6-xbd-a-twin-15-inch-3-way-reference-monitor-pair
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Studio monitors are for a lot more than just playing backing tracks, Pam. They are for playing all the mixed instruments and vocals through and mixing your music. I am wanting some better ones and seriously considered the Eris before.
Just playing instruments over stripped backing tracks is a very niche usage of DAWs, you realize 
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Indeed, and if I was in a studio with lots of instruments and vocals and mixing board and all that stuff I’d insist on having those big expensive exquisite monitors.
But, it’s just little old me in a little corner of my house, trying to make covers on Reaper, so the 8 year old Bose speakers are just fine for me. When I finish recording, I just render it to MP3 and listen to it on headphones to check if it sounds okay.
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I’m curious though… Is a laptop even powerful enough to drive those big speakers?
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They are powered, that’s part of the point
They have small amps in them.
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