Quality headphones for mixing/mastering?

I suggest AKG K240.
I once had a good pair of sony mdr-v but I prefer the K240 because they cause less hear fatigue and the sound is better.

Peace.
 
IMO, there's no such thing as "good headphones for mixing" period. I won't even get into mastering with headphones (unless you're just using them to sonically "zoom in" on fades or anomalies)...
 
Yeah but considering most of the music is listened thru earplugs these days..

Besides the point - is it just me or headphones make music sound somehow better?
 
I own the Sennhiesser headphones, they are pretty good. Of course your not suppose to be mixing/mastering with headphones either way.
 
Perhaps I should get a set of monitors instead...I thought perhaps you were able to mix with headphones however maybe a pair of monitors would make more sense.
 
Add my vote for the K240's. I have 2 pairs of em, had em forever with zero problems. I have 2 kids who play with em, on one pair the plastic around the cord is destroyed, so all the inner wires are exposed, but they still play perfectly.

I just saw the MF reviews, I'm suprised theres so much negative on there... I do agree with the 'slightly weak bass' comments, but it's not bad. Sound good for $100. I actually DO mix with em, b/c I'm usually playing late late late at nite when I can't crank up the monitors. But of course I always have to adjust them later......
 
Sony MDR-7506

Do NOT fucking rail me on this.

Been mixing on these cans for years, it's doable. However, you MUST check on speakers. You can't mix on heapdhones alone....well.....you can but you better be damn good and have a lot of experience at it.

I don't know about all headphones, but with the 7506 model as well as a few others I have tried, you should start mixing at a moderate, but nowhere close to "loud" volume, and once you have established a solid foundation, crank 'em up. Tweak from there. However, you should roll the volume levels up and down from time to time to check for consistancy.

One thing that most people don't think about (or seemingly don't consider) is the fact that your ears have natural compression built in that will fuck with percieved aural space and overall sonic energy past a certain threshold. This is where ear fatigue comes into play. Mixing in cans can be decieveing and frustrating but it doesnt have to be. Just be smart about it and realize whats going on and that there is no "real-world" in headphones. No reference point but dead silence.

Bringing me to my next point. THE SECOND EVERYTHING STARTS SOUNDING LIKE MUSH, STOP!!! Take off the cans, go out for a smoke or something but wait for at least 2 minutes then listen again. Repeat.

All that being said, if you go with the Sony 7506's, make it fat, make it punchy, but DONT make it too bright. these cans tend to be a little false in the lo-mids to the point that you will want to mix bright.

Sorry for being a little spotty in my response, but I am kind of in a rush and a little scatter brained at this point.

-the kid
 
Sony MDR-7506

Do NOT fucking rail me on this.

Been mixing on these cans for years, it's doable. However, you MUST check on speakers. You can't mix on heapdhones alone....well.....you can but you better be damn good and have a lot of experience at it.

I don't know about all headphones, but with the 7506 model as well as a few others I have tried, you should start mixing at a moderate, but nowhere close to "loud" volume, and once you have established a solid foundation, crank 'em up. Tweak from there. However, you should roll the volume levels up and down from time to time to check for consistancy.

One thing that most people don't think about (or seemingly don't consider) is the fact that your ears have natural compression built in that will fuck with percieved aural space and overall sonic energy past a certain threshold. This is where ear fatigue comes into play. Mixing in cans can be decieveing and frustrating but it doesnt have to be. Just be smart about it and realize whats going on and that there is no "real-world" in headphones. No reference point but dead silence.

Bringing me to my next point. THE SECOND EVERYTHING STARTS SOUNDING LIKE MUSH, STOP!!! Take off the cans, go out for a smoke or something but wait for at least 2 minutes then listen again. Repeat.

All that being said, if you go with the Sony 7506's, make it fat, make it punchy, but DONT make it too bright. these cans tend to be a little false in the lo-mids to the point that you will want to mix bright.

Sorry for being a little spotty in my response, but I am kind of in a rush and a little scatter brained at this point.

-the kid

Nobody's railing you....but even YOU say in your post: "You MUST check on speakers", and "these cans tend to be a little false in the lo-mids to the point that you will want to mix bright".

So, in other words, you shouldn't mix with headphones. :eek:

Anyone that claims they get better mixes out of headphones than they would with good monitors is lying to themselves. Period.
 
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I have the AKG K240 headphones. They're good, although I think they are lacking in bass. In my experience it is much easier to mix / master with monitors. But if you HAVE TO mix with headphones then from the books and magazines I have read, the Sennheiser HD600 are the go-to headphones. I don't know if the make the HD600 but there's probably a pair in that product line that replaces them.
 
The sense of space and depth is inextricably related to the phase between two speakers and how they interact with each other. I don't see how anyone can accurately determine how things should be placed in a stereo field when there's a big obstruction called a head isolating them.
 
Sony MDR-7506

Been mixing on these cans for years, it's doable. However, you MUST check on speakers. You can't mix on heapdhones alone....well.....you can but you better be damn good and have a lot of experience at it.

I'd love to hear several examples of your work mixed solely with 7506 phones.
 
I got into this on another post in the newbies section, so there's no sense of going through this again . . . the Sennheiser HD 280s are ok (that's what I use to occasionally mix with), but get the ATH-M50's from Audio Technica--I don't have them yet, but to say they are getting rave reviews would be an understatement. You can pick up a pair for around $130.00 US.
Justin Peacock is an editor and reviewer for Recording Magazine. He reviewed the ATH-M50's in the March issue. In other words, he's someone who would know a thing or two about these things, and his review is very positive.
 
Saying a certain pair of headphones are good, and saying you should mix with them is 2 different things.
 
I'm not going to photocopy and then paste the review from the magazine here--copyright issues (I think). However, Peacock used them for " . . . recording and production critiques of attendee's recordings." (The attendees here were at Taxi's Road Rally pow-wow in Los Angeles).
He used headphones because he had to, in other words. But he also mentioned that for "critical monitoring, decisionmaking or proofing, you need resolution and detail." He then says that the ATH-M50s fit the bill; they are
"a truly professional headphone within reach of mere mortals." Furthermore, he writes, "Are the A-Ts worthy of professional use? Absolutely. They are, without a doubt, the best sounding closed headphones I've ever used." Because of their comfort and "good isolation," they are "impossible to beat."
Now, I know he didn't say anything about monitoring with them and all, but I know I've seen something in this or maybe another magazine where a producer/reviewer specifically mentioned mixing with headphones. At any rate, I'm not suggesting anything more here than for D_Vincent to get the headphones described above. You need them for tracking, no matter what, and until you can afford monitors and a nice room to put them in, you may want to try doing other things with them. Other than that, producerkid is right on with the whole fatigue thing.
 
Here's how I parse it out myself (YMMV):

Shoul one do the entire mixing process through headphones? Not if one can help it. While it may not be impossible to turn out a quality mix through phones - Ray Charles was blind and could run his own studio gear including his outboard rack gear, Marlee Matlin is deaf but can dance a better Latin rhythm than any of us, Ringo Star is an ugly guy with almost no musical talent who managed to both be a member of the Beatles and marry Barbara Bach - it's a whole magnitude harder than doing it through actual monitors. One would have to be either handicapped like Ray or Marlee or an utter masochist to try it for anything other than personal vanity recordings. If you want to it right and you are not handicapped or a masochist, then do it the "right" way (so to speak) and get some monitors.

Should one stay away from headphones altogether during mixing? Of course not. Headphones are entirely appropriate tools to use for certain tasks within the mixing process. I put on and take off phones all the time during mixing. It's like mixng in mono. It's not an option anybody here would recommend for the entire mix session, yet it is a useful technique as a single part of the overall mixing process.

That said, as far as phones in the $100 range, I also cast my vote for the Sony MDR7506. BUT, it's not for everybody. Neither are the Sennheisers or the AKGs or even the ATs. Headphones are transducers just like loudspeakers are, and just like no one model of studio monitor works the best for every ear, no one model of headphone fits that description either.

G.
 
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