Deciding on studio gear

[DJ-REVERSEDSKIES]

Hellow everyone,

I am looking to improve my home studio bit by bit and i want to start with a new audio interface and a new pair of headphones first since speakers aren't that good of an idea with my neighbors XD

But anyway, my current gear consists only of an audio interface and a pair of headphones,
-Behringer U-Control UCA202 --- Audio interface
-Panasonic RP-HT-161 --- Headphones
I do have a 2.1 speaker set but it's something simple and i don't even know the brand and model of them.

This is the current stuff that i'm using and it gets the job done but i want to get serious now because those headphones and the audio interface cost less then 60 bucks combined.


I am looking to buy some new hardware but i have yet to decide on some.
Right now the stuff that's on my mind are the following,
-Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404HD --- Audio Interface
-Alesis SRP100 --- Headphones

This is the stuff that i have my mind on right now.
Funny enough it's exactly withing the budget i am willing to spend.
I didn't want to spend more then 120 on a audio interface and no more then 60 on headphones.
I live in the Netherlands so it's in euros but i don't care if it's a little over those prices but i am just looking for some advice, if this is any good or that i should go for some other hardware then this.

Thanks in advance for any replies ^^

 

[Milo Burke]

You're definitely in the uber-budget realm. It's hard to get good stuff there. But ... it's nice because each time you can increase your budget by 25% or so, you can appreciate rapid quality improvements, not the diminishing returns of the high-end stuff.

I can't speak to what's best in the super cheap realm, but I can guide you in the cheap realm.

In my opinion, and the opinion of my bud that reviews audio equipment for a living, Focusrite offers the best sound out of all the cheap interfaces. Certainly better than the popular competition, like PreSonus, Behringer, Mackie, M-Audio, etc. I'm sure the bigger-buck items sound better, like RME and Universal Audio, but then you're chasing diminishing returns. Good for studios, not for bedroom producers.

You should be alright creating music on headphones so long as you can be sure it translates well to speakers. So go ahead and make it on headphones, but test it on your living room stereo, your car, your boombox or Bluetooth speaker, your friend's high-end stereo, etc. If it only sounds good on your headphones, you've got a major problem you need to fix. But if it sounds equally good (though different) on everything, you're doing alright.

That said, cheap headphones are only going to get you so far. If your headphones are faulty, for example not enough ultra-high frequencies and too much mid-bass bloat, then you're likely to compensate by making super crispy mixes that are very lean in the mid-bass region. You need more accurate headphones (or speakers) to understand how things should sound. Also, clarity and detail is super hard to find in cheap headphones. And you can't fix mistakes you can't hear in blurry, indistinct-sounding headphones.

Most all good sounding headphones are open-backed. These block very little sound from your environment. Terrible for riding on the subway, for example. But great for high-end listening or audio work in a quiet environment. Some closed-back headphones sound good, but not many, and they're very expensive. But this is mandatory if you're listening in a noisy environment or tracking quiet instruments like vocals or acoustic guitars.

I know this is above your budget, but the AKG k702 is the best value for detailed, balanced, natural headphones I know of. When I bought mine, they were regularly selling for $350, yet were in the running against $1,000 headphones. (Not better necessarily, but comparable.) Now, they're selling for just over $200. And the Q701 should be good too, very similar. And the K7XX Massdrop should sell for only $200, I think? I bought mine in 2010, and I still use them almost every day. Super detailed. I'd choose them in a heartbeat over monitors costing $500/pr.

For recording vocals, I use the Sennheiser HD 280 Pros, for $100. They sound just okay. But I needed isolated phones, and I don't like the sound of the closed AKG's or Audio-Technica's.

Bose and Beats are overpriced garbage. Don't even consider them.

If I was on an uber budget for headphones, and open-backed was okay, I would do all my sound design on the Grado SR60 headphones for $80.

 

[Dave201]

In the budget range I would always go with Focusrite for an audio interface. They've always produced good results with me even when I sent work to different studios. I've only just sold my Saffire Pro 26, as I bought an RME UFX. But I am considering buying another in the future for live work, as they are cost effective and come with great software.