what!! no monitors?dream on....................

Tapehead

Tapehead

Member
The problem with headphones is an artificial sense of stereo depth (no interaural crosstalk) and, in my experience, rapid listening fatigue. And I use pro phones. But if there are pros who say otherwise, I'm interested to learn more about how to do this as it would be a bonus especially for apartment dwellers or late night basement recording geeks (such as me) with a family sleeping upstairs.
 
Stupid question... Is it possible to mix without monitors? Do you have to have a mixing desk ,I'm recording acoustic fingerstyle guitar only.
 
Personally, I don't feel you can do an accurate mix thru headphones only. For one thing effects like reverb sound "wetter" in phones than they do in a room thru speakers. This can lead you to eroneous settings in your mix. With headphones you just have extreme left and right. With near field monitors the sound from left and right mingles a bit before it gets to your ears creating a more realistic sound field. IMHO of course.
 
Mix on headphones if you plan to have everyone who ever listens to it use headphones as well. Otherwise monitor speakers are 100% essential. Headphones are too close to the ear to give an accurate rendering of the sound, as already suggested.
 
I consider headphones as just another playback system. Many people play their mixes on multiple systems to get an idea how it will translate. I almost always throw on some headphones to make sure nothing is sticking out too bad.
It's pretty hard to judge how a headphone mix will translate to speakers ... but I won't say it's impossible. I think if you're used to doing it that way enough, you can perform a decent mix that translates pretty well.
It sounds to me like you're doing 1, maybe 2 instruments only ... which would probably make it easier to do this.
My opinion only, as always ... but I've done late late night mixing through headphones which I have actually liked better than the mix I did through the monitors the next day.
I think I remember an article on this subject recently in Recording magazine ... maybe a month or 2 ago.
 
It's the June 2000 edition of Recording magazine. And they're planning a follow-up soon which is going to talk about specific brands of headphones which are good for mixing. The article talks about what headphones are good at in mixing - catching the details that speakers miss, for example. It talks about what headphones do not give an accurage picture of - stereo imaging, wetness of effects, bass. Their conclusion is similar to Big Kahuna's - headphones are always useful, sometimes adequate, and often a useful addition to speakers.

I've also heard pros say that for quiet music (yours, for example) you *can* mix using headphones.
 
All their inherent drawbacks notwithstanding,a really good set of headphones is cheaper than a really good pair of monitors,for those of us for whom money is a consideration.I'm not saying that 'phones are better than good monitors,but I feel they are better than "affordable" monitors.
 
"Quality headphones are a low-cost alternative to loudspeakers for a home studio. You may find that headphones provide adequate isolation if the music you're recording is quiet... Even though headphones may not sound like speakers, you can do your mixes over headphones to match commercial records heard over those same headphones. Then your mixes should sound commercial over speakers, too."

Bruce Bartlett ("Practical Recording Techniques")

Second time I've quoted this guy in a week. I really ought to read another book some time.
 
Tapehead...
You're first sentence is 100 percent correct.
Mixing with headphones is definitely NOT the way to go.
 
so, Ive got my home stereo with 2 different sets of speakers (90s vibe vs 70s thump) hooked to it that I flip back and forth between, and my headphones..(sony 7506s) I use them all, then listen to the mixes on the way to the gigs, then take some pills for my OCD and mix some more. It turns out pretty good.

xoxoxo
 
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