I would recommend a decent set for home use like KRK Rokit 5 or M-Audio BX5 D2. There are few more popular brands in this price range. I personally use KRK Rokit 5s and I'm very satisfied with them.
The truth is that depending on the room and what you plan to do with them, you won't need a bigger (and more precise) setup , like ones that include subwoofer for really low frequencies or monitors with larger speakers or more power. If your room is not that big and you plan on working on home mixing/recording on them, mentioned sets above should work well.
They are around 250-300 euro I think for the set.
What they allow you to do is get a much clearer picture of what you are doing. Whether you are mixing or just playing a guitar, you will get to hear a much more "realistic" sound to what it really is. Listening to music from other artists on them will help you learn the "character" of the monitors and you will start to know how they react to different sounds and what classifies as "good sound" on them. What is good about using monitors in home studio is that when you do recording/mixing on them and it sounds good to you on those speakers, there is a good chance it will sound good on other regular speakers/headphones etc....Which is not the case when you mix on hi-fi gear.
I wouldn't try to do mastering in home studio conditions though (for any serious project) - you can get that kind of service from local and online studios for a reasonable price and it will make your music play as best as it can on all audio systems (and make it loud for you
).
But, of course playing with audio production and doing some home mastering is a lot of fun and can make your recordings sound really cool.
Thanks Bogdan for youre very detailed explanations. I will check out those speakers
I should have clicked here earlier - yeah it takes some getting used to. Now I'm one with the program. Never did get that PM btw
Ever since I won the GX with POD Farm here on GMC (in a contest) I have used it so much for everything! I have the Metal Shop, Power Pack, and FX Junkie. Those expansion packs are awesome, though I use mainly things from the Metal Shop, I believe. I find POD Farm to work well with my slow laptop. I have tried other products, and I can't seem to get the same near zero latency that I get with POD Farm. So... Line 6 for life I guess. haha Or at least until Axe Fx is an option.
I can share some tones if you want, but many of mine require the metal shop expansion. But anyway, no matter what, they are going to sound different with another guitar and player. I tweak my tones all inside POD Farm, and then butter them up with final EQs in my DAW.
This tone should be fine without needing expansion packs. You will find you get better at getting good tones as you do it more often.
Thanks mate
I got sent some tones and was having a lot of fun with them.I tried downloading some tones online and could not use them because I did not have the any expansions.
I will check out the tone after work
Cheers Sean