Mixing With Headphones...

[Amiga 808]

Headphones have got better over the years,
A good pair of studio Headphones sound
great these days,

But? Who are we making music for? The kids
that share there music through there Phone
Speaker, The Dude that plugs in some $£30
headphones, Or the Club DJ that dose not
care about the sound system as long as he
can hear through his Headphones and gets
paid.

I Have gone through many Headphones,
They break i.e Cord etc... Or Just dont
sound right.

To the Point, I Have mixed down many
tracks via Headphones, And listing back
via "Loud Speakers" There are Differences.

Vocals sound Distant, Snares and Kick are
missing there original punch etc....

Made a test track today with Headphones,
would be nice to hear back from the Mixcraft
community to listen to Headphones On/Off

Cheers...

Please Leave comments here if you wish, Not on Youtube

Thanks...

https://youtu.be/CrYypZooFmY

I Know you don't get the full Fidelity
with Youtube...

Also big shout out to Brian Eno for the Original.

[JonInc]

I use headphones as one of five references (in addition to phones -- two pairs of monitors, boom box, and car stereo) for monitoring mixes, but if you're going to use only headphones, you should maybe look into one of these:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-p ... n-shootout

[Starship Krupa]

As Jon implies, headphones are one of many playback references I use to make sure my mixes/masters sound good.

In my studio/mixing room I have two sets of Alesis monitors, a set of Boston Acoustics A70's, and three sets of headphones I can listen to mixes on to see how they sound in different contexts, to make sure they sound good. A well-mixed song will sound good no matter what the playback device, so I try as many as possible. Apple earbuds are good to try, but they don't fit my ears very well.

My favorite cans for actual mixing, rather than just referencing, are my Samson SR850's. I find that mixes I do on them translate well to other playback devices. The fact that you can get a pair of them for under $30 is great.

As many will say, it's a matter of getting to know the speakers or headphones you're mixing on, how what you hear on them will translate on to other devices. My favorite nearfields at the moment are my first generation Alesis Monitor Ones. I know their sound, and I can listen to them for long periods of time without ear fatigue. I tried Event 20/20's and they just annoyed my ears after listening for a while.

You song sounded well-mixed on my Monitor Ones.

[Ianpb]

A good sounding mix through my Yamaha MSP5 monitors + Adam Sub7 will still not sound quite correct through my Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro headphones, especially when switching between stereo and mono. So I use the headphones to tweak the mix, as well as the mid and sides of the audio image.

[BillW]

The toughest place to get it sounding right, in my opinion, is the car.

First - the stereo separation is wider than I typical have. My speakers on my computer are a bit more than three feet apart. Headphones obviously much less. The car ? For me, not only wider but I'm not sitting in the center. Sure, I could adjust the balance, but that's makes it off for the passengers.

I just recently noticed that - and wondered why professional recordings don't have that issue to my ears/mind. Maybe I have too wide of a stereo effect? Not sure. I know the sound is essentially the same on my computer speakers and my Sennheiser headphones - but the car is inferior.

I chalk it up to "more to learn".

[comedians]

Bill, I think it depends on the car. My Lexus RX had a Mark Laurenson 18 speaker system, even bad mixes could sound good. However my Ssangyong has a more honest system & I use it regularly as a test bed, still gives a decent sound but flatter which is good guide.

I'm with Erik on the headphones have 2 sets of Samson SR850 & SR950. Good flat response and for the price a great buy, far more truthful than my $400 dollar Bose, like the Lexus they are deceitful !

One of my best buys, again inexpensive & indispensable, was a Behritone CA5 full range reference monitor - if it sounds good on it then you know you're close for your mix to sound good on anything.

[Mark Bliss]

I think the key advise would be to be aware that many common consumer grade headphones "hype" some frequencies and aren't necessarily accurately reproducing the audio. Many of the current models on the market REALLY hype the bass.
The more desirable "studio" grade phones tend to present a "flatter" more accurate frequency response.

That said, the next important piece of advise is to reference commercial music heavily and get to know whatever you use very well. The goal is to "train" yourself to know what your work should sound like on whatever you use to monitor. Listen to something commercial/pro while setting up your session and take breaks to refresh your memory and listen again.

Lastly, Its a good idea to listen on multiple sources to check you results. Don't mix on just headphones.

And practice. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.