mixing and mastering with headphones?

[hrwmusic]

Hey, i was looking at the athm40fs for mixing and mastering. I dont really have much money and i think thease are around 60 dollars. Anything will be an upgrade for me. But i heard that you should never mix with headphones.


what do you think? Should i look at moniters instead, if so, any ideas?


thanks alot guys!

[thedude400]

Many will tell you that mixing with headphones is a bad idea. There are websites that explain this in great detail and the truth is, if you're gonna get serious about home recording, I would get some decent monitors. I just got a pair of powered krk monitors for 100 bucks a piece. There is a world of difference. I know that may seem like a lot of money since you were only planning on buying 60 dollar headpones but there are even cheaper powered monitors out there.

If your really new to home recording and are not extremely picky about all the really fine details when it comes to mastering than use headphones. Monitors will really speed up the process and make things much clearer. before I had monitors, I use to get done mixing and take the song out to my car 4 or 5 times to get the mix close to how I wanted it.

Don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't mixdown with headphones. Do what you want. Everyone can adapt. But eventually you will probably want to get some monitors.

[Docaroo]

NEVER MIX WITH HEADPHONES.

lol... sorry bud but there's a reason why people say this.

Mix with monitors, then use headphones to listen to the mix (for a different feel).

EG, after a mix I will go listen to it on my Hi Fi, TV and even on my car stereo to see how it works on all these applications.

You simply cannot mix with headphones alone!

[Massive Master]

Headphones are for tracking and checking little details - Not for mixing. Don't even get me started on mastering (through headphones?!?).

You CAN NOT HEAR phase relationships in a mix with headphones on. It's not possible (unless your head is... well, completely empty). That immediately disqualifies headphones if you ask me...

[thedude400]

The way in which you hear audio that you are mixing down will NOT in any way change the way your music is going to sound. It will only change the way in which you INTERPRET it. This is common sense. However there are quicker, easier, and clearer ways to mix down ( i.e. monitors). Monitors are specifically designed for this purpose. The truth is, you could mix down your music with earbuds and by either chance or hours and hours of tweaking get the same results as 1000 Mackie monitors. When I was 15 I had a little Tascam portastudio and a piece of shit pair of headphones I always mixed with. Those kept me happy as a pig in shit for years. But like I said before, if you plan on getting serious with recording music, you're eventually gonna want monitors.

[SonicAlbert]

Originally Posted by hrwmusic

Hey, i was looking at the athm40fs for mixing and mastering.

I have those headphones, and they are pretty good. However, I would not want to use them exclusively for mixing, and mastering on headphones is not a good idea at all.

If you can save up for a while longer, there are monitors in the $300 range that would be much better for you than mixing on headphones.

[hrwmusic]

Well im in a real tight spot right now. Ive been recording my stuff through my sound card (dell standard, i know...) and a cheep mic to cool edit pro. But ive finally spent some money and got a fast track pro, and a mxl v67g mic-even though thats it, it is deffidentally a huge step for me. So after spending about 330$ i really dont have any more money, well, three dollars.

so i was looking at those headphones, which seemed to have good reviews.

are there any decent, entry level moniters that will last me for awhile that are around 100 (in total?)?

[tkingen]

Originally Posted by hrwmusic

Well im in a real tight spot right now. Ive been recording my stuff through my sound card (dell standard, i know...) and a cheep mic to cool edit pro. But ive finally spent some money and got a fast track pro, and a mxl v67g mic-even though thats it, it is deffidentally a huge step for me. So after spending about 330$ i really dont have any more money, well, three dollars.

so i was looking at those headphones, which seemed to have good reviews.

are there any decent, entry level moniters that will last me for awhile that are around 100 (in total?)?

At this stage you're a hobbiest - track and mix with those headphones and enjoy yourself.

[jonnyc]

If you have a little shelf stereo system laying around use that. You'll have better results on a shelf stereo than with headphones, and probably equal results when it comes to shelf system vs. 100 dollar monitors. At least with a small stereo system you'll be able to hear phase problems and have a more accurate perception of your stereo field. Worse come to worse use your computer speakers to mix, anything but headphones.

[hrwmusic]

Originally Posted by tkingen

At this stage you're a hobbiest - track and mix with those headphones and enjoy yourself.

yeah, i think im going to go with that. i know i cant afford decent moniters. so ill do my stuff with headphones and check periodically through my cheep computer speakers, cheeper headphones and my car.

i do plan to persue a careere in music performence, but i can afford to pace myself through the steps.

thanks alot to everyone!

[SonicAlbert]

Actually, if it were me I'd do it the other way around. I'd listen mostly on the computer monitors and check on the headphones. Actually, use the headphones when you are recording tracks, but then in normal listening for mixing use the computer monitors mostly, while checking on the headphones from time to time.

[hrwmusic]

Originally Posted by SonicAlbert

Actually, if it were me I'd do it the other way around. I'd listen mostly on the computer monitors and check on the headphones. Actually, use the headphones when you are recording tracks, but then in normal listening for mixing use the computer monitors mostly, while checking on the headphones from time to time.

you think so...my moniters are crap and i dont really have any trust for them.

wouldnt a flat response be more accurate, eventhough all the phase issues...I know im going to have to be using alot of cds (too bad my car doesnt accept cdrw!) and running around, and guessing and checking. I just seems like it would be more important to know what kind of image i am actually giving my music and then immediatly checking through my moniters after my changes. (so im saying why wouldnt i use the headphones as a standard, then moniters...)
what would my moniters really do to help me though? would i be able to let me know if anything is clashing better then on the headphones?

can anyone help me on that?^

thanks guys,

[LeeRosario]

Originally Posted by hrwmusic

wouldnt a flat response be more accurate, eventhough all the phase issues...I know im going to have to be using alot of cds (too bad my car doesnt accept cdrw!) and running around, and guessing and checking. I just seems like it would be more important to know what kind of image i am actually giving my music and then immediatly checking through my moniters after my changes. (so im saying why wouldnt i use the headphones as a standard, then moniters...)
what would my moniters really do to help me though? would i be able to let me know if anything is clashing better then on the headphones?

can anyone help me on that?^

thanks guys,

Well that's good, theoretically. But you need a perfectly tuned and isolated room to hear exactly what you're getting. Plus a good set of speakers among other things. So the headphones are the unfortunate alternative.

But when I say "unfortunate", I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm just taking out my frustration on the clients who don't book me into a good studio to save money.

Always with love (just in case any of them read this)