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Mixing in headphones.

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drden

Nov 11, 2008
216
1
Troy, NY
#1
I've been doing some home recordings, and before I mix and master my tracks, I want to make sure I'm doing it right and getting a true representation of my mix. I know mixing on my computer speakers or in cheap listening headphones is hazardous to mixing, and I was wondering if that is the case with all headphones.

Basically, I'm looking for a pair of studio headphones to use for mixing. My only requirements are a perfectly flat, true sound, and a reasonable price tag. I know reasonable is a debatable term, but I'm looking to buy a pair on eBay for under 100 dollars.

If nobody has suggestions, tell me they at least exist, because I definitely can't afford studio monitors.

Thanks!
 
#2
Using headphones is not optimal in getting a good mix that translates. If that is your only option burn some rough mixes to disk and listen to them in the car, home stereo etc to get a feel for what will work best.

Check out AKG K240 and Sennheiser HD280 both can be purchased new for $100.

You may be better off with a cheap pair of studio monitors for $200
 
#3
Peter is right. You'll go nuts trying to make mixes on even the best headphones that translate, and it'll take many additional passes to get things right. Sure you can A/B with other recordings you like, run back and forth to the car, other systems, etc. but you'll get better results MUCH MUCH faster even on cheapo studio monitors.
If you can swing a little more than 100 bucks even something like these would serve quite well:
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.co...Reference-Speaker-System-pair?sku=600092#used
 
#5
You can learn to mix with cans, but studio monitors, even cheapies, will feel better. As long as they produce more bass than a pair of computer speakers, you can learn to compensate for their shortcomings. Many of the best albums of all time were mixed with Yamaha NS-10s, little more than glorified car speakers.

Go on eBay and look for a cheapie sub, if you can. My father bought a KRK lookalike for just over $100, and it added quite a bit to the quality of sound produced by his cheapie monitor setup.
 
#7
If you are mixing on a laptop, and are worried about the noise, you can mix in your car by plugging the output of your interface directly into the AUX input of your car.

Believe it or not, this works. People spend endless hours listening to music in their cars, and learn the response idiosyncrasies by second nature after several hundred hours. I always check my mixes live in the car (not moving, of course!) since I know exactly how my favorite albums sound in the car after listening dozens and dozens of times.

Only thing to be aware of is that you are sitting inside of a sealed enclosure, which for all intents and purposes is a large bass cabinet, so your mixes may be lacking in bass since they are so emphasized in the car. But if you can make it sound like your favorite albums you'll be close.
 
#8
Using the cans is useful for checking detail---once you get that mix sounding good on the speakers, it never hurts to give it a listen in the cans. Especially if you're mixing on small near-fields in a less-than-ideal environment--sometimes you might miss a little unwanted click, or a noise, or whatever on the speakers, and in the cans it could jump out at you.
 
#9
One of the problems with using headphones as your primary reference for mixing is that the apparent bass response can vary significantly depending on how tightly the phones cup your ears. Press them while you're listening to playback and you'll notice that not only does the overall apparent volume increase, but the mix seems to have more low end. Depending on the initial fit of your headphones, the mix can seem *a lot* bassier.

Now stop squeezing the earpieces. They'll probably float back to roughly their initial position, but some designs will stay pressed a little closer to your ears than they were initially, leaving you with a mix that still seems to have more pronounced low end.

Take 'em off and put on back on a few times. Again, depending on the design and fit, the bass response can subtly change each time. When you're mixing, you don't want that kind of changing response. You*can* work around it, and some people get used to working in phones that fit them well, but IME it's less than ideal.
 
#10
Thanks for all the responses everybody, I think I should just invest in a couple of decent studio monitors after all. Though I am on a budget, I figure I should just spend the money, because if I get a good set I'll be using them for a while, maybe most of my life even.

Will most decent monitors solve mixing problems? they are all as flat as flat can be, correct?
 
#11
drden said:
Thanks for all the responses everybody, I think I should just invest in a couple of decent studio monitors after all. Though I am on a budget, I figure I should just spend the money, because if I get a good set I'll be using them for a while, maybe most of my life even.

Will most decent monitors solve mixing problems? they are all as flat as flat can be, correct?
Click to expand...

Well, no. There are as many different flavors of studio monitors as there are microphones almost. Then there's the room. That's a topic for another massive thread I'm afraid.

But when you're starting out, just get something you can afford that sounds decent to you---go to GC or whatever, bring a CD you like, and listen to a few pairs of monitors. A lot of getting good at mixing is about getting used to YOUR gear and just spending gobs of time on it, taking those mixes out into the real world--cars, home systems, MP3 players, bad systems in bars---you name it. And constantly A/Bing your work with album tracks you like (sure they're professionally mastered, etc. but push yourself to get as close as you can. Your skills will ramp up exponentially).
 
#12
drden said:
Thanks for all the responses everybody, I think I should just invest in a couple of decent studio monitors after all. Though I am on a budget, I figure I should just spend the money, because if I get a good set I'll be using them for a while, maybe most of my life even.

Will most decent monitors solve mixing problems? they are all as flat as flat can be, correct?
Click to expand...

yeah Pbass2 speaks the truth. In an ideal world they are flat, in reality that is a physical impossibility! Speaker design is a compromise from the word go. So the important thing is finding speakers that don't lack any frequency, thats the important one. As long as you can HEAR everything to be able to work on it it doesn't matter so much if its not flat!

And theres a few approaches to monitors, some people like great sounding monitors that flatter the sound wheras others find that leads them to make lazy mixes that don't translate. Others like really nasty sounding monitors that are more like audio magnifying glass', not fun to listen to but incredibly good for hearning the harsh areas of the track to work on.

In reality though, its nice to have a set of both, a classic main monitor setup in loads of UK studios at the moment is KRK V8's, Yamaha NS10's and your favourite hadphones. Nice sounding, nasty sounding and 'phones is a good combo....
 
#13
Your monitors and your room *will* add their own characteristics to how you hear your mixes. The key is that they will add the same characteristics *consistently.*

As you gain experience in your mixing room, you'll learn to compensate for the room's slight bass bump at 120 or your monitors' 1K hype.
 
#14
Vetting a mix in mono as well as stereo, on small speakers as well as large, on cheap headphones as well dear, and at low volumes as well as high should help to ensure that a recording sounds musically balanced on a variety of playback systems from disco speakers to ring tones.
 

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