Headphones question

L

Lomas

New member
I know it's not a good idea to mix on headphones. But while tracking, if everything sounds good on the phones, can I trust that I can get it to sound good on monitors too?

Maybe I'm not clear enough...

If everything sounds good in the phones, does that mean that with different mixing and ammount of effects it can sound good on speakers?

I'm asking because a lot of the time I can't even try to listen on my monitors because it's late etc, and if I track a whole song with headphones I don't wanna sit and second guess the quality of the tracks. If possible.

Hope it makes sense.
 
Getting the tracks to sound their best over your monitors while you're tracking would be best. No matter how good a track sounds in your headphones, it's going to sound different in your monitors.
 
So it's not only that the levels and effects applied will sound different, but also the quality of the track.

Let's say I have a song with bass, drums and acoustic guitar/guitars. If I get it to sound good in the phones, that doesn't necessarily mean that I can get it to sound good on speakers (or at least that chances are good I can) with the same "raw material" but different use of effects and different levels?

edit: that is, when it's all been tracked only listening on phones
 
it's going to sound different on the phones than the monitors. that's not saying that you won't be able to work something good out of the tracks but once you go to the monitors, you'll be working with something different than you heard while tracking thru the phones. it's kind of a crap shoot as to whether the difference will be good or bad, unless you know your monitors and headphones very well. even then, you'll be doing some amount of guessing.

home studios are full of compromises though. do what you have to do and try to figure out some of the differences in sound between your headphones and monitors along the way. i've heard a few decent mixes here that were done on headphones. :)
 
Results will vary greatly depending on the phones you use too. If you are going to do it, you may want to try to find phones that sound as close to your monitors as possible. Nothing will be real close, but try to find something without super hyped hi's and lows. better yet avoid it if possible:D

F.S.
 
Hehe, yeah I'd love to avoid it, believe me.

There's a huge difference between them, yep. I get things sounding good and clear in the phones and then switch to monitors and it sounds so bad I want to close it down and go watch X-men instead (yes, THAT bad!!!!). All muddy and dull, and I've got no idea how to fix it. And if I do make it sound better on the monitors it sounds like crap on the phones.

I was just thinking/hoping that maybe a good sound was a good sound and you only need to know how to bring it out in each listening environment.
 
It ain't that easy; if it were, there'd be no need for mastering engineers. The chamber (created by the air trapped between the headphone and the ear) is unique to every person. That means that no two people will hear exactly the same thing, even with the same set of headphones. That's one of the reasons why you don't mix or master with headphones. As a spot check, maybe, but not as your only reference source.

That leaves your nearfield monitors (which were never intended to be a mastering or mixing reference), usually playing back in an untreated room, with poor acoustics. Good speakers for mixing or mastering typically run about $3,000 a pair or more. Mastering speakers can easily run $40,000 a pair.

The best you can do is make a CD and go down to Best Buy and try it on a bunch of speakers. Try to eq it to sound good on as many different sets as you can. That's about the best you can do.
 
I know that I can't mix on the phones and expect it to sound good on speakers. But just to clarify, that's not what I'm thinking about.

I'm wondering if I get it to sound really good in my headphones, is there a good chance that I can, by mixing it differently, get it to sound ok on speakers?

I think the answer is still "no" :)

Thanks though för all the help!
 
I usually set things up while listening thru my monitors and then use headphones during tracking (one man band here). If you could dial in the sounds you want during decent hours and get down to tracking at night, you'd probably be much better off than doing the whole shebang thru the headphones.
 
Yep. My main problem is still not knowing exactly how to get a good sound, no matter what I'm listening through. Thanks.
 
Lomas said:
I'm wondering if I get it to sound really good in my headphones, is there a good chance that I can, by mixing it differently, get it to sound ok on speakers?
Click to expand...

Ah... yes! Every recording I make sounds good, to me anyway, with both headphones and speakers. Different, but good. I don't think there is any fundamental law of the universe that prohibits mixes from ending up sounding good with both.
 
Lomas said:
Yep. My main problem is still not knowing exactly how to get a good sound, no matter what I'm listening through. Thanks.
Click to expand...
And therein lies the problem.

We already know that the response of headphones will change, depending on the person's ear shape and the coupling chamber, and we know that the average speaker system in an untreated room will be far from flat, so how do we determine what we're listening to?

If you compensate to make it sound good in your room, the problem is that it will probably only sound good in your room. Not a problem if you just invite everybody who buys your CD to come to your house and play it back on your system.

You really have just three choices:

1. Have it mastered by someone that has a proper room and flat speakers so it will sound pretty good on most any system.

2. Have it mastered by someone that has a less than good room and speakers, but really understands how his room/speakers translate to the real world.

3. Listen to your CD on as many systems as you can and try to make it sound ok on all of them.

It means following the old doctor's creed, "First, do no harm." That means don't fuck up the sound so that it kicks ass on one system, but sounds like ass on any other system. If it sounds a little boomy on a lot of systems, take down the boom - a little!! Don't go crazy.

Make small changes, a little at a time, and then listen. If it still sounds boomy on a lot of systems, take down the boom some more - but just a little more!!

Mastering, or making something sound good on everything, is a game of inches. If you don't have the proper tools, you CAN still make it sound good, but it will take a lot longer.

There are two routes to "good": time, or experience.
 
  • Like
Reactions: XLR
As a small postscript to my above post, I was reminded of an old saying we had in design and manufacturing:

"Good, fast, cheap - pick any two. What you don't pick is what it won't be."

You want it:

Good and Fast? It won't be Cheap.
Fast and Cheap? It won't be good.
Good and Cheap? It won't be Fast.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top