it doesn|t, but still, most people will probably listen to his music in the mp3 format.

you dont get great reference monitors in this price range, new or used, but they will still be a significant gain in sound quality taking the step up from headphones or pc-speakers.

The Fostex PM series is one of the cheaper alternatives, new or preferrebly used in his case.

I don't disagree with anything being said here. But, the OP has to start somewhere and dedicated playback for audio production is I think the best start. You can worry about everything else afterwards.

I learned the hard way that the acoustic performance of your studio room is a far bigger influence than anything your gear can contribute. I've also learned that it's incredibly hard to persuade newbies how real and important this issue can be. You have to wait until the "My mix sounds great in the studio but shit in my car" posts to start in on acoustic treatment. Then again, some people seem to have lucky rooms that can work well enough for them without treatment and the problem doesn't arise.

Anyway, this is probably going a bit out of scope of a 404 forum. There's plenty of resources on the web to look at.. Sound-on-Sound magazine has a long running series where they set up peoples rooms for studio use as easily and cheaply as possible as well as general articles on studio setup.
This one for example....
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec07/a ... ustics.htm

Happy mixing
Jim

I know I have to buy both (monitors & soundcard).
It's just a matter of whats first.

a good usb card must be enough for now. the speakers will come later and I hope both devices will give my sound some qualitys that I'm looking for.

I consider my self sort of a newbie (5 years of production), I produce at home with Acid 4.0 + pc-shity soundcard + standard pc spekers and all my shit sounds good.

I make the track, burn it and test it on my car. Usualy I'm happy with the results: levels / Eq. / Highs / Meds. / Lows. Shit sounds cool to me. Even comparing with a professional recording I ain't unhappy with it.

having in mind that any cat in a pro studio has thousands of dolars of equipment in his tracks, and that I had spent 0€ on it. My audio is pretty fucking good: sounds fine while I'm producin it, sounds fine in the car, sounds fine on myspace. And it's not that far from the sound of those millionare producers out there. That's what my ears tell me.

thanks a lot for the help friends.

EMU 1212m same A/D's as the protools hardware