Mixing with headphones

[Dr.Strangelove]

I don't care how well you know your headphones, you shouldn't be doing a full mix on headphones period!

This is correct.

Headphones are inferior to monitors because mixing is about SPACE. It's much more difficult to place instruments in the mix when all the sounds are together and so close to your ears.

There's a reason why professionals use monitors.

[ego killer]

i have found i need to run mixes through multiple sources, if it sounds good on headphones it might sound like crap on a system with subs, and if it sounds great on subs there might not be enough bass in the headphones. i need to invest in monitors but i'm dead broke right now.

[fataltone]

mixing your instrumentals for the sake of leveling and making sure things sound decent headphones are great for
I'm going to grab up some cheap headphones tomorrow for just that

but yes a full-blow mixing job should never be done on headphones only just part of the your own monitoring systems
checks and balances


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[sleeper187]

I've done some mixing with decent studio headphones, but have them sound like crap on the monitors. Also when mixing with headphones, there's the issue of not being able to hear phase, or something like that IIRC from a mastering class I took. There's also a lot of psycho acoustics involved with mixing with headphones. Whether you're mixing at a low or high volume, the sound from the headphones is amplified in your ear canal since the source of the sound is so close, and your ears become "used to" certain sounds and FQs quickly, which in turn might make you turn up a certain sound when in reality it was just about right. Then you play it on monitors, boom, it's too loud.

[tjlee87]

Umm.. phase isssue should already been taken care of by checking the mix through mono even on the headphones, it's kinda the basic.
Anyway one thing headphone is bad at is setting the reverb.

[jubnoske08]

probably the best mentality you can have in the mixdown process is to stop viewing your monitors as the gold standard. obviously its what you need to balance volumes, eq, and check your stereo panning when writing the track, mixing it, and your initial mastering, but once the track sounds PERFECT in your studio, view all the speakers you have access to as your new monitors. check your mix on an old stereo, your laptop speakers, ipod earbuds, beats headphones, your car stereo, an ipod dock, your tv speakers, anything that you might think of as being useless for monitoring is now your new best friend. because that's what people are going to listen to your track on. i've made tremendous improvements on tracks which sounded completely perfect on my studio monitors but muddy or dull on car speakers by simply changing the aspects which stood out on other speaker sources. it always sounded magically better back on my monitors after changing the track to better suit these other speakers, mainly due to my ears becoming too accustomed to hearing the track in the same way. big name producers often use the same trick (car speakers in particular are infamous for bringing out the dead spots in a mix)

[Jmo (Jmofficial1)]

I would find a way to get monitors tho.. I master my music by switchin back and forth from headphones to monitors to make sure they sound good in both..

[JawadShabani]

NEVER EVER use Beats by Dre headphones. They beef up the bass way too much and it throws you off when mixing and mastering. Bose and Sennheiser are great for that purpose

[dzara]

ok guys I will give you the same answer I give my assistant engineers

The best way to monitor in a small studio is to switch your monitoring sources often so your ears can hear different perspectives. Even pros will monitor on near field speakers, switch to "grot" speakers, switch to a boombox. Their is nothing wrong with doing some mixing on headphones however you need to get the best you can afford. I just picked up a pair of shure 1840's and they work great. However I dont mix solely on headphones. I have been mixing national acts for years now and I know they will be impressed if I turn up my near field monitors and blast their mix. Whats more impressive is if you can get that reaction by playing it out of a boombox. To sum up do this. In addition to your studio monitors buy a pair of "grot" speakers and buy the best pair of headphones you can afford and use a reference song when mixing. By doing this you will start training your ears and being to get the best mix out of all three monitoring sources in a shorter amount of time. rinse and repeat and you will be on your way.



One of the most important things when monitoring on any source is understanding how you mix will translate to other systems.
How do you do this? Pay attention to differences when listening to the material on other sources.Does it sound to muddy or to bright?
Over time it will be second nature and your mixes will sound good on any source



if you are going to invest in headphones. you should get open back headphones. They produce a much more natural and open sound

[bralecharlit]

NEVER mix on headphones...and the Dre beats headphones are good for consumers...NOT professional mixes...they color the sound...you want a flat mix when you're recording so you hear what's ACTUALLY happening...not something colored to make it sound better