Decent Sound Card and PC speakers

jambredz

jambredz

Veteran
Ok ...i know nothing about whats good and what isnt when it comes to this. So if u guys can tell me whats a good sound card to get with some good pc speakers for editing for reasonable cost i'd appreciate it. reasonable is relative i know...just think cheapest without sacrificing much quality.

thanks.
 
What's your budget?

I would say there are no good PC speakers at all that would be any good for editing - they just won't tell you enough and you will miss lots of things because the PC speakers are not capable of resolving it..

I use a Grace m902 and a pair of K+H O110.

m902_main.jpg


kleinundhummel_o110_f.gif
 
Thanks John. I don't wanna spend more than 200 for the sound card. Less if I can. Speakers...I have no idea cuz I don't know what stuff like that cost.


edit :Checked out those speakers and they are way 2 expensive for me. I'm mainly concentrated in cinematography so that kinda $ would go into a lens or light. Generally i don't need anything high end for this cuz I really want to hear dialogue and music video tracks mostly. I'm not a pro editor/ scorer/ composer. Just want sumn decent that won't break the bank.
 
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If it´s all about fun and games, I´d look at the JBL Duet Series...
If you really need to monitor audio for paid work, you should get an usb/firewire interface and some near field monitors.
But this will set you back another 1000 bucks, and that´s for entry level stuff...
 
jambredz said:
I'm mainly concentrated in cinematography so that kinda $ would go into a lens or light. Generally i don't need anything high end for this cuz I really want to hear dialogue and music video tracks mostly.
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Just for the record you do realize this is the same as saying
you don't need a good high end lens because you are only going to be photographing people and buildings...
 
Sorry but dont see it anywhere near the same thing.

In anycase i think my point was made. the point is if and when i need pro mixing and scoring and the like...i will get that done by a pro. I need decent audio for some stuff that i edit. (dialogue mostly and music video tracks). If i was a pro sound person then i'd spend the whole shabang on it. I'm however an aspiring DP which is where the chunk of my change will go.
 
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Dialog and music require as much clarity and freq response and any other "sound"
you'd put through speakers, just as a lens looking at a person requires the same clarity
as a lens pointing at anything else.
 
I've had that M-Audio card in a couple machines here for a few years now, no complaints. I've had good results with several of M-Audio's PCI cards. (Their USB stuff on the other hand...)

As for speakers, you really do need something better than whatever BestBuy tries to sell you.
 
jambredz said:
I'm mainly concentrated in cinematography so that kinda $ would go into a lens or light. Generally i don't need anything high end for this cuz I really want to hear dialogue and music video tracks mostly.
Click to expand...

Rippie said:
Just for the record you do realize this is the same as saying
you don't need a good high end lens because you are only going to be photographing people and buildings...
Click to expand...

Beautiful Rippie - that's perfect.


jambredz said:
Sorry but dont see it anywhere near the same thing.
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Er - it *is* saying the same thing.

The sound is really more important than the pictures - at the very worst, equal with the pictures.

It's the same thing as using a £5,000 camera and doing the editing on an iPhone.
 
No disrespect meant as i believe sound is quite important. However i still dont agree with the comment (no biggie), as it applies to me. As i said...if and when i need pro mixing i can source a pro. If i thought it wasnt important then i wouldnt. One of the first things i got was my octava mk set, rode ntg2 with boom pole, senheisser g2 ,Sony mdr7505 headphones and sound dvd sold here (soon to get 7506 and rode blimp) . And that maybe quite low on the chain of sound gear but for ME it does quite well as a beginner kit which is all i need. For one man band projects and films i choose to shoot for myself with friends then i use that. If i have to do a commercial or something i get a pro sound person if the client can afford it. So for me who is primarliy concerned with Cinematography( and all round budget), spending a "grip" on sound is not a priorety and said "grip" would go to something related to the field of my expertise and interest. I;m not one of those person's who doesnt respect the different fields in film cuz i think all depts are important to the overall project. I'd still like decent enough sound. While i'm not a pro sound person like many of you in this section of the forums who may (or may not) be able to afford high end audio stuff, i'd like something workable. Not really a hard concept to understand.

Thanks for the help thus far...I appreciate it .

From seaching the forums i've seen 2 speakers mentioned...the m audio BX5a and and KRK rp5(Rokit). those SEEM good enough. However if any of u have personal experience with them i'm all ears.
 
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JordanBlock said:
I've had that M-Audio card in a couple machines here for a few years now, no complaints. I've had good results with several of M-Audio's PCI cards. (Their USB stuff on the other hand...)
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I'm using a M-Audio USB Fast Track as audio I/O for my desktop and notebook. It sure beats using the on-board audio on either computer:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html

I picked mine up on eBay for $99 shipped. Works great with mic/line/instrument signals, has phantom power for condenser mics, and comes with a lite version of ProTools.

As for speakers, you really do need something better than whatever BestBuy tries to sell you.
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A pair of small powered monitors (I use Mackie) like these would work:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileBX5aDeluxe.html
 
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The Fast Track Pro is great if you need 4 channels and MIDI I/O. It's a little older design than the one I have so you can pick them up fairly cheap on eBay. KRKs are good speakers too but I can't stand yellow woofers.
 
When looking as speakers look for monitors not speakers. They are different things but monitors are like the headphones in your audio kit. They are made to be flat so that what you hear is the sound, unlike speakers or traditional headphones that have a bias to make things sound better.

What you need, as others have said, is an audio interface and a pair of monitors. For inexpensive monitors I like the JBL LSR232s but those are probably out of your budget at $200 ea. ($400 for the pair). If you are trying to spend as little as possible then I would recommend that you get a good interface and use your audio kit's headphones. Coming from the pro audio world I like digidesign's equipment so my recommendation would be the M-Box 2 Micro it is a quality interface that will only do playback (which is all you care about). M-Audio gear is okay but it is not that great and is not pro-level gear, whereas digidesign's stuff (even the LE stuff) is defiantly pro level quality gear. Also if you care about audio I would stay away from cheap monitors (sub $150 or $200 for the pair) like the plague because they will deceive you.
 
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