looking for capable monitors - suggestions?

[FuzzTone]

Hey everyone!

I am in the process of building a small home studio setup and I need to select some good monitors. I will be purchasing a V-drums kit within the next month or so (90% certain it will be a TD-12). I was thinking that it would sure be great if the monitors I choose could double as amplification for the v-drums.

I will most likely be getting active monitors as there seems to be way more options currently available (as opposed to passive). I would need enough power to go as loud as an acoustic drumkit without putting strain on the monitors. I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to understanding wattage... I'm not sure how many watts each speaker should have to suit my purposes.

I understand that the outputs of the v-drums are unbalanced, and I'd be running them through a mixer or I/O interface like this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...xer?sku=630121

In any case, I have a feeling that I will need a significant amount of power in my monitors... if anyone with experience here could comment, I'd really appreciate it. I'm looking to spend around $500 on the monitors. (but I could be convinced to spend a bit more)

thanks!!

[M_C_M]

Ain't gonna happen! Studio monitors ain't made to amplify drums and drum amps ain't made to mix audio through, they are two different things. You can run your drums through your studio monitors but only at low volumes ie. for practice or recording and even then the kick drum hammers them pretty hard if your not careful. to get a Vdrum set to acoustic drum levels you would need a powered PA cabinet and they are not designed for nearfield studio use. I'm sure someone will elaborate on this real soon...

[daveybabes]

Hey everyone!

I am in the process of building a small home studio setup and I need to select some good monitors. I will be purchasing a V-drums kit within the next month or so (90% certain it will be a TD-12). I was thinking that it would sure be great if the monitors I choose could double as amplification for the v-drums.

I will most likely be getting active monitors as there seems to be way more options currently available (as opposed to passive). I would need enough power to go as loud as an acoustic drumkit without putting strain on the monitors. I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to understanding wattage... I'm not sure how many watts each speaker should have to suit my purposes.

I understand that the outputs of the v-drums are unbalanced, and I'd be running them through a mixer or I/O interface like this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...xer?sku=630121

In any case, I have a feeling that I will need a significant amount of power in my monitors... if anyone with experience here could comment, I'd really appreciate it. I'm looking to spend around $500 on the monitors. (but I could be convinced to spend a bit more)

thanks!!

I use a TD12 then from main outs to a small mixer (Behringer UB802) and then to 2 x TR5 Event powered studio monitors, THEY KICK! they supply enough volume to blow my ears off and the sound quality is superb ... the frequency response gets down really low and i can have them quite loud before the cones in the cabs start vibrating, there is a new version of them now that are even beefier and better, also addin a sub woofer off Ebay or somewhere later will beef up the low end even more, don't go too loud though cos u don't wanna blow em! happy drumming ...

PS if u want very high audio levels then just get bigger monitors! mine are 100watts a side and are loud enough that i have to turn em down, good idea is to test drive some in the local music store.

http://www.dv247.com/invt/froogle/24337/

Should have these and similar in the USA ... but always compare the frequency response and see how low it goes.

ps - your interface/mixer will be fine for getting a good mix into the pc, also it mentions Ableton, i use that and it's superb, i use a stripped down version that i got for a few dollars off ebay, great for recording and launching samples from your kit. Also forgot to say, my monitors and most others have balanced and unbalanced inputs, i use av connectors with jack plug conversion connectors on the end (very cheap few dollars) so thats all balanced.

Extra ps - Roland drum modules are also general midi so u can plug in a cheap controller keyboard and get all the general midi sounds like piano, synth, bass etc not great but certainly usable.

[JrummerJ]

There is no way you will move the same amount of air as an acoustic kit with studio monitors, and definitely not ones with 5" drivers. For studio monitors, I know you can find the KRK RP5s right now for real cheap, or at least you could a few weeks ago.

As for your drums, to be as loud (and full sounding) as an acoustic kit, you would need something like these: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...ker?sku=600734

1 or 2 depending on volume and if you want stereo, I don't like Behringer, personally but these kind of cabs are made by Mackie, Yorkville, JBL, etc....

J

[dschrammie]

You're going to get a lot of opinions here. The subject of studio design and the components needed will no doubt always bring up debate. So be prepared for a whole lot of "Use this..." "no, use this..." "that guy's an idiot and has obviously never been in a studio before..." etc.

I have to be honest, for a small home studio, high power is absolutely not necessary. Your monitors are meant to be near field and have crisp clarity, not blow your ears off. When you start getting into extremely high volumes, you're not going to hear the clarity of what's been recorded. The wonderful thing about edrums in a studio is that you don't need to worry about how loud they are. They can be as high or low as you want when you mix them in. The drummer in the studio isn't usually listening through the monitors, he's usually listening through headphones...and that's another great thing about edrums is now the drummer can hear himself as well as the mix without having to blast the headphones in order to hear over his acoustic drums.

At $500 (or even $1000) for a pair of active monitors, you're not going to find professional studio quality (on the other hand, you probably don't need that right now either). So don't bother looking at pro level stuff from ADAM, Genelec or Tannoy. Event has made some really good stuff for home use that's not too expensive as well as Mackie. Honestly, anything in the 100W to 150W per channel range is absolutely fine for near field monitoring. Just as a little exercise, let's look at what you'll get from a typical monitor. If a monitor has a sensitivity rating (which not all manufacturers list) of 92 dbSPL @1W/4', then 100W will yield approximately 112 dBSPL at 4 feet away (a typical near field monitoring distance). Just half of that power (50W) will still have you at 109 dBSPL at 4 feet. I was going to write out an explanation what these sound pressure levels do to your hearing, but it was getting a little too technical and in depth...the short of it is that for critical listening, like in a studio, you don't need nor want levels that high because you actually won't hear everything (if anyone wants me to go into detail, I can, but for now take my word for it).
So what I'm getting at is don't go nuts for power...you want audio quality.
You can find stuff used for really great prices, but you'd want to make sure that it's really lightly used...you don't want something that a user has been blasting at the extent of its capability.

Note: sorry I started to get up on a soap box a little bit. It's just a subject that I get a little nuts over because it's really misunderstood and a lot of people will insist on high powered amplifiers that are not only unnecessary, they're damaging to your hearing. Oops, there I go again...okay, I'll stop now.

[JrummerJ]

Note: sorry I started to get up on a soap box a little bit. It's just a subject that I get a little nuts over because it's really misunderstood and a lot of people will insist on high powered amplifiers that are not only unnecessary, they're damaging to your hearing. Oops, there I go again...okay, I'll stop now.

I agree with you for the most part. My post was based on the fact that he said he wanted to get near acoustic levels, I assumed this might mean that he is jamming with a band and needs those kind of volumes. If so, then I would recommend what I mentioned above or something similar. But you are right, for just jamming in the privacy of your home, you don't need those kind of speakers.

Heck, I use my Sennheiser HD280s or if I want to go out loud I have an ~8 yr old set of Altecs that were meant for computers, but threy rock loud enough for just goofing off. And one of my buddies has the 8" Behringer monitors and they get pretty loud and have some nice bass.

J