Hey guys,
After seeing a few posts about monitoring headphones and things, I was curious, what studio monitors do you use or recommend, and what mastering software/equipment do you use if you master your own stuff?
I’m looking to get some decent best for my buck affordable studio monitors, and am also just beginning to start mastering my own stuff more diligently (pretty overwhelming at first) so I’m curious to see what kind of things you guys use or recommend?
I use Mackie HR824 MKIIs for monitoring, awesome flat response curves, nice spatial setting options, gets low as hell. 
As far as mastering goes, I suggest using universal audio plug-ins, although they are pretty expensive. The waves L3 is a great limiter too. T-Racks does some cool stuff. There is alot of free stuff out there as well, but the quality tends to be pretty varied in the VST world.
edit: i should mention that mastering via hardware sounds a lot better, albeit it is astronomically more expensive.
I’ve been using the Event APS 8 for the past five or six years and used the Event 20/20bas before that. The Mackies are very popular and many achieve excellent results with them. Before I bought each set of Events I listened to the Mackes and for me each time the I preferred the Events.
I do all of my Mastering in WaveLab. It is important to work on the “sound” of the room using various sound treatment materials. Work on the distance from the monitors to your listening position, the tweeters should be ear level in height.
There are many good monitors in the under $1,200 range. The key is to learn how they sound
All of my heart voted for krk’s, that yellow cones of love!
You can get a pair for 150 used easy. Great flat response without any hype on any freq yet kicking and loud monitors with decent price, could become overkill with some mixer tweaks.
Just mho
Good luck!
i use mackie hr824 monitors, they do the job.
as far as mastering i used a manley vari–mu running into a tc finalizer then rerecorded into a neve model on a focusrite liquid pre.
i was blown away by this combo.
you can check it out at
www.theincredibleheatmachine.com , might not be moog on every track but it is in there on several of them.
I use a Kinetic Audio 12" speaker in a Peavey KB/A 60 most times for monitoring, and other times I use a pair of Knight Audio speakers, both with 12" bass drivers. Otherwise I use a pair of Sony bookshelf speakers. I recommend the 6 1/2 inch drivers, as they have a wider frequency range than the 8". These speakers go through a six ohm, 15 watt Aiwa bookshelf stereo.
I know it’s not practical, but it works for me, and the sound is phenomenal. 
I have both Mackie MR5s & Adam A7s & they’re very good.
The most impressive I heard for the money would be the JBL LSR4326P Pak… WOW.
I love my Genelec 8030As and 7050B sub. H8000FW and KSP8 for mastering.
Awesome, I’m loving all the suggestions/info.. I’m trying to check all of the setups out on my free time here at work… So far for my own monitors I’m leaning towards those KRK rokit 8 g2’s almost soley because it’s the only one I’m looking at thats actually within my budget haha.
I’ve been checking out a lot of your mastering suggestions too and I’m still up in the air with whats right for me.. I liked the look of wavelab, but I only have Mac’s at home so that wont work… I did try a demo of Izotopes Ozone 4 and it seems to have improved some of my mixes a bit but I still want to shop around for some other solutions just so I can see what else is out there.
Thanks for all the responses. Has anyone here used Izotope 4 on mac? I’m interested in how some of the mastering hardware rivals some of the software too.
Check out DSP Quattro http://www.i3net.it/dspquattro/asp/homepage.asp
Wow, DSP Quattro looks great. Can’t wait to try the demo when I get home.
I use an old pair of Alesis M1 Actives.
Like headphones - it’s even more important to not only learn the sound of your monitors but also the room they are in. It took me a fair amount of time to really know the sound (and extra bass) they put out. So, I need to tone down the bass a bit when I’m mixing with them so it sounds right on other (normal) systems. Part of the reason I don’t want to get rid of them - I don’t want to re-learn that
Got to thinking, Alesis still makes the M1 MarkII Active Monitors. I have not heard the MRKII but did have a chance to do a listening test on the original M1 back in the late 90’s. For the price point hey are worth looking at
Thanks for all the suggestions! I got the KRK rokit g2 6’s… and am quite amazed with them right now 
btw, props to T7 for showing me Quattro.. such a wicked editor.
Waves L2 and C4 Multiband compressor is all you really need for mastering as long as you’ve got a solid mixdown
I have the august issue of Music Tech Magazine and it was all about monitoring, mid-high priced and everything else you need to know about it.
Not sure, but you could probably find it still in store (hopefully)_
One thing you’re most likely to see in any shop, though will be the KRK rokit & VXT range_
Yeah, Honestly I’m still getting used to how to make a solid mixdown haha.. I’ve always just hoarded instruments and equipment and never focused too much on high quality recording or mastering and things untill lately.. but it makes the world of difference so right now thats my goal, to learn it all.
I actually find it kind of overwhelming.. I found its really easy to make a clean master, but.. a lot of the stuff I listen to is more experimental, or, you can tell the mastering is done creatively to sound unique.. I guess my plan is just to learn how to do things clean and well, and then hopefully that will give me a better understanding so I can start experimenting with my own unique sounds. But I’m finding it to be quite a challenge now. My new KRK’s are helping though
Hey, glad that you’ve finally settled with the krks, how do you like em?
Cheers
Love them man! They have been really impressing me so far.. I might be tempted to buy the 10S subwoofer as well though, only because a lot of the stuff I do has a lot of bass, I found so far its easy to overdo the bass with these things.. I’ve mixed things that sound great on the speakers, but when I checked headphones, still sounded great, just too bass heavy.. so I think if I grab the subwoofer I’ll be in perfection.. thanks for the suggestion.. can’t emphasize enough how stellar these are
PS. I got the 6’s.. I tested the 8’s and I honestly did’nt feel a big difference.. a tad more bass response but not enough to dish out the extra dough.. if I had the money I woulda got the VXT’s.
When it comes to mastering I must say that what plugins you use are far less important than that you learn how to use them!
Read everything you can find about limiters, multiband and regular compressors, EQ, etc. -Ozone has e.g. a well-written manual on their webpage.
And as someone else already has written, it is also very important to learn how to make a good mix. It is much easier to master if the tune sounds great already at mixdown!