Mixing with headphone

nope - hard to do a good mix on headphones unless you really know your reference tracks well and can compensate for the inconsistencies/"features" in your headphones as a result
 
My advice for those who don't have true reference monitors [yet] and are working with headphones or "home audio" speakers? I have somewhat of a ... Rigged up set up. I have a basic mixer running to a jbl receiver hooked up to two vintage speakers with a pretty wide range for lows,mids and highs. I set my mixer and receiver as flat as I possibly can, is there anything else I can do to help strengthen my monitoring to achieve results closer to if I were to have a true reference monitor set up?
 
Dimos Zagaris said:
What do you think guys about mixing with headphones?..Is it better than monitors?
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It totally depends on a number of factors: What headphones, what monitors, what room, how was the room treated/calibrated etc. So the this vs. that is all dependent on what you compare. A great studio/control room/monitor solution has important acoustic qualities which makes it a lot easier to succeed with the balance, dynamics and the sound of the mix. With a poor headphone solution you get totally wrong frequency response, very unpleasant dynamics and so on, this can cause serious damage to your music and should be managed as soon as possible. Monitors also provide the advantage of true multidimensional mixing, meaning you can mix against several different monitor sets all at once, so that what you end up with scales across speakers. For that you need to switch between headphones in the headphone world, which is not true multidimensional mixing where you can hear and do all at once. For this reason monitors "win" over headphones, it is really that important.
 
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Nice, thanks for the info. I have a weird room situation. The walls are actually wood, a 1/2" thick soft wood, carpet floors and typical drywall/plaster [whatever] textured ceiling. I don't get echoing of any sort in the room, that's a good sign I would assume having no knowledge of acoustics and treatments. I try to not use any headphones to mix. Usually I'll mix on my speaker setup, check it on multiple platforms [car, just out of my phone, laptop etc etc.] just to see what the difference I'll hear from each. When it sounds to be about the same [and good ofcourse] all the way across I assume I've gotten close to a half decent mix to my ears at least.
 
When working on headphones, I make sure that I'm playing everything at a moderate volume. Kind of difficult to define "moderate" considering how loud many people play music through earbuds and not having a way to measure the output of the headphones that you hear. I also use a bandpass filter to make sure the frequency response of my track is similar to my reference tracks.
 
Adrian-MarQ said:
When working on headphones, I make sure that I'm playing everything at a moderate volume. Kind of difficult to define "moderate" considering how loud many people play music through earbuds and not having a way to measure the output of the headphones that you hear. I also use a bandpass filter to make sure the frequency response of my track is similar to my reference tracks.
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When it comes to monitoring in general, yes mixing at moderate volume is good because it helps to combat ear fatigue which is critical in order to maintain a good quality boost curve throughout the mixing process. However, mixing at moderate volume can on some headphones produce undesired results because unpleasant dynamic peaks can turn exaggerated, which is the case on many open back headphones. When I work on headphones, I avoid this by not mixing the rough mix using open back headphones and also by mixing the rough mix at loud volume with the master fader attenuated on purpose to combat gain loss. When the rough mix is done I take a break before I resume to the "actual" mixing process. This ensures I have a good gain structure when I start and that my ears are fresh. It is at this point that I also start mixing on moderate volume, and when done on headphones I do it on closed back headphones.
 
It depends on the monitors and headphones honestly. You could have a super expensive pair of headphones that give you a more accurate mix than say a crappy pair of $50 monitors. And vice versa. I personally always feel more comfortable mixing on my monitors. Always gives me a more well rounded mix than headphones.
 
Dimos Zagaris said:
What do you think guys about mixing with headphones?..Is it better than monitors?
Click to expand...

I prefer headphones to monitors, yes.

Obviously depends on the headphones. But if you get yourself a pair of Beyerdynamic 880's or something like that, you can do most of your mixing on them.

The problem with mixing in headphones is they provide a much wider stereo panorama than monitors so you will want to do most of your stereo imaging (panning, depth, width) on monitors. The result u get from adjusting imaging on headphones won't translate well to other playback systems and can be frustrating.

Also, I would leave effects such as reverb to your speakers too.

But overall I prefer using headphones a lot of the time. I feel like I'm in my own little world.

And best of all, you don't have to worry about room treatment when you use them.

Best of luck!
 
Headphones are not good because they will separate channels Left to left ear and right channel to right ear, Studio monitors giving You a spatial sound. I heard few decent mixes made by my mates with the headphones but these made with studio monitors was always better..
 
depends on the headphones i wouldn't recommended it there to close to ear and probably wont sound good on other speakers
 
I mix 90% on headphones. Like anything; it takes time to get to know ur gear, but really - that's the key. I've used various headphones and monitors of the years: my choice is dt990s for headphones... I understand these well; been mixing on them for over 3 years; and every miX I create sounds close to spot on and needs very minor tweaks on monitors.

Basically I use my monitors only to confirm the low freq punch and feel, and these days still don't need to tweak it much.

Also, keep in mind: monitors are only as good as ur room; headphones are repeatable in any room.
 
If you have to ask it probably isn't a good idea. I'm assuming that you are asking because you're new to mixing. And if you are new to mixing you definitely wanna invest in some good monitors and get used to that first.
 
I do everything in headphones, until I can afford monitors. Then I'll still use my headphones most of the time but check in monitors every once in a while. I have always mixed in the same pair of ATH-M50s.
 
One advantage that studio quality headphones have over nearfield monitors is the extended frequency range. Mixing on headphones can help to get a good overall drum balance. Near field monitors without a subwoofer would make it difficult to judge the bass frequencies. This could result in bass heavy mixes. One thing you should be cautious about when mixing on headphones is boosting narrow frequency ranges. This can be a bit tricky to get right and should always be checked on several loudspeakers/monitors. Also, make sure you always listen to a reference track when mixing on headphones.
 
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Topsounds said:
One thing you should be cautious about when mixing on headphones is boosting narrow frequency ranges. This can be a bit tricky to get right and should always be checked on several loudspeakers/monitors. Also, make sure you always listen to a reference track when mixing on headphones.
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I do find this is also true with monitors, some headphones are already so quiet in some frequency ranges, so when you mix against them and want more frequencies in those areas, then yes when you play that mix through other headphones/monitors that are loud in the same frequency range the frequencies you boosted might simply come out much too loud. At mastering you can discover this by sweeping through the frequencies at all scopes (analyzed by meter readings) to ensure you don't have any nasty boosts anywhere that is distracting the listening experience which you cannot easily hear with your particular monitoring setup.
 
DarkRed said:
It totally depends on a number of factors: What headphones, what monitors, what room, how was the room treated/calibrated etc. So the this vs. that is all dependent on what you compare. A great studio/control room/monitor solution has important acoustic qualities which makes it a lot easier to succeed with the balance, dynamics and the sound of the mix. With a poor headphone solution you get totally wrong frequency response, very unpleasant dynamics and so on, this can cause serious damage to your music and should be managed as soon as possible. Monitors also provide the advantage of true multidimensional mixing, meaning you can mix against several different monitor sets all at once, so that what you end up with scales across speakers. For that you need to switch between headphones in the headphone world, which is not true multidimensional mixing where you can hear and do all at once. For this reason monitors "win" over headphones, it is really that important.
Click to expand...

A lot of good engineers will do that too... Some studio's will have like 5 different speakers set up, near field, far field, little tinnies, and big room speakers... if you are tweaking your mixes like you are doing well... I mean, headphones can be good for some things, but not others.. they are good for bass response.. and general balance, though you never know what room acoustics will do one those frequencies are released out into the air!! :) If you mix real quiet in headphones, and can hear everything in your mix, its good way to get equal loudness too...
 
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