using monitors

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:58 am

Hi, I finally bought a motu 8 pre and seem to have gotten it working ok. Haven't really tried to record much yet. But I have a question about using monitors. I have the monitors plugged into the back of the motu. I have my electronic drums going into the interface. I was playing with some friends tonight and managed to get the drums to come through the monitors by opening garage band and clicking "monitor on" on both the tracks the kit is plugged in. My question - is there anyway to get them to come through the monitors without opening garage band if I'm not actually recording. Not that it's a big problem, but just wondering.

by the way, the monitors I just bought on an impulse when I was buying the motu 8 pre. I was originally gonna buy the firestudio by presonus but they had none in stock. Once I realized that the 8 pre was fairly similar to the firestudio (at first I thought it only had 2 preamps and 6 inputs with no preamps, think I had it confused with another motu product) I decided to go with that since I'd read alot about issues with the firestudio not being compatible with the new macbook pros with certain chipsets. I have that chipset. I decided to play it careful and go with the motu. I like the fact I'll be able to daisy chain up to 4 of them if I ever want to. Anyway, i'm rambling. The monitors are M-audio Studiophile BX5a. I got em cause they were the cheapest ones there. Anybody know anything about these monitors? It's only a hobby studio for my own stuff here at home. Any opinions on these monitors, or anything I should keep in mind (ie, if they add bass or treble or anything)

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:02 am

Oh, and roughly how far away should studio monitors be positioned from where you sit? The cables I bought are pretty short.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:17 am

Try here.
Ethan Winer's site's Room Setup page, very useful info.

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:33 am

I have the BX5's and I would say they lack low-end causeing me to over mix bass in at first. Since adding a set of sony (home stereo) speakers that help to compensate for bass now and Im having better results mixing. Just my thoughts on the BX5's. Other then the low bass output they seem pretty flat to me. I have no experiance with other monitors though so my opinion might not be worth much.

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