Great sound in headphones, not so great everywhere else?

[timandjes]

I thought I saw a similar question to this a while back somewhere on this sight but now I can't find it. I recorded our band on my Tascam 414 MKII. At mixdown, in the headphones, everything sounds crystal clear & great. Then I put the tape in a couple of other tape players and for some reason, there's a big difference in the sound quality. It seems dull and less clear & bright.....Any suggestions?

[Blue Bear Sound]

If you tracked and mixed using headphones only, that is EXACTLY the kind of results I would have expected.....

Bruce

[slkeen]

I'm no pro, but headphones are good for monitoring your tracks, not mixing down. Everything sounds good on headphones, like you discovered. Try mixing on your home stereo if you don't have studio monitors, you'll get a more realistic sound. I use my home stereo and set all the treble, bass and loudness controls to flat or 0. Keep the volume up quite a bit and mix away! This is not the best set up, but much better than headphones.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by slkeen
I'm no pro, but headphones are good for monitoring your tracks...

Yes... but only AFTER you've made decisions on tone and timbre using SPEAKERS.

Bruce

[timandjes]

At the risk of revealing how little I know about PA equipment, I have a pretty cheap set-up @ home, (an 80 w Realistic amp & a couple of old realistic speakers). My band also does some recording @ Church where we have a 500 w Peavy amp and a couple of big new Nady speakers. In both places, tapes played sound heavy on bass tones with little treble. What would you suggest to help me know I'm adjusting everything properly? Better speakers? Any suggestions for someone on a tight budget?

[Track Rat]

Don't mix through the PA. On the system you WILL be mixing on, play a bunch of commercial CDs through it that are simaler to the material you're going to mix. Listen very carefully how this system resolves bass and highend content and try to memorize how it sounds. As you're mixing your material, periodicly pop in some of the CDs again and compare how they sound next to what you're doing. When you think you've got a mix, make yourself a CD or cassette copy and try it out on as many different systems as you can to see how it's holding up. If you hear problems, tweak and try again.

[A Reel Person]

If the tape sounds good on the deck it was recorded on, but not so good on other tape players, it's probably the difference in azimuth, head alignment, that's causing the relative drop in sound quality.

Also, ditto, I agree that you'll get a better sound overall by mixing down on a decent reference monitor, instead of phones. Phones do sound great, but they can skew the mix a little, 'cause they sound different than most monitors. Not bad, just different.

/DA