After years of mixing with headphones, I just got near-field monitors

[kcearl]

I just got a pair KRK Rokit 8" near-fields. Up until now, I'd been mixing with a good pair of Shure studio phones. Wow, what a difference! I got home late and didn't have a lot of time to play with monitors, but I put up a few mixes. The difference between the "inside the center of your head" sound field you get with headphones, and having a proper sound field spread out in front of me is like night and day. Right away I could hear errors I had made in the mix, some subtle but some really profound, for example I had the vocals running far too loud. These near-fields are brilliant.

My only quibble is some very slight EMF incursions. However, I'm using unbalanced cables at the moment. I have a KRK Ergo coming in two days, and that will take an S/PDIF feed directly from my Fast Track Ultra and, in turn, will be connected to the near-fields with balanced lines (and also a subwoofer, which is supported by the Ergo), and I expect that will take care of EMF incursions.

Seriously, I used to think I could mix just fine with headphones and, all things considered, I did fairly well. However, I can't wait to spend the weekend fixing the mixes so that I can get them right. I should have bought these a long time ago (and before I bought that extra microphone. )

I, like many others, mix in an untreated small room with monitors that are prolly way too large for the task

I have the rokit 8's too and heres what I found helps mixing on them in an untreated room (by all means ignore and experiment yourself)

turning their volume down by -6bd (on the rear), and remembering to push them hard every now and then helps with the mix...at low volumes theyre not so great for clarity...they work better when pushed...im not sure the subs necessary with these

give the HF level adjust a 1db boost and that seems to help with some of their darkness...doesnt effect the translation of my amateur mixes too much


i think its better to pick up something small to A/B against, i use avantones, but something cheaper would do...and dont ditch the headphones, a decent pair will help with detail more than the krk's

 

[GONZO-X]

Why would anyone spend years doing anything they were happy doing ?
It's a myth to say that mixing can't be done with headphones. And it's unhelpful to say that mixing can only be done with headphones.
Stay away from unhelpful myths.

the right tools for the right job.

headphones allow for comb filtering to exist.

if you have ever heard a mix that has comb filtering problems, you can probably guess at the culprit.

these are commonly known issues, and to ignore them, is quite unhelpful.

 

[grimtraveller]

the right tools for the right job.

headphones allow for comb filtering to exist.

if you have ever heard a mix that has comb filtering problems, you can probably guess at the culprit.

these are commonly known issues, and to ignore them, is quite unhelpful.

Different people produce great mixes within different situations {high end monitors, cheapo ones, average ones, phones, hi fi speakers, treated rooms, untreated rooms etc, etc, etc} as they have gotten to know their set ups.
Different people produce shitty mixes on all of the above. The medium is never per se the reason.
Balance is useful.

 

[GONZO-X]

like i said, you have to understand the basics about comb filtering, and how headphones decouple that.

until you can grasp that concept, then you can't completely understand the problem.

most pros do not mix on headphones, only to spot check issues.
it has always been this way.

do you aspire to great mixes, or are you happy with mediocre mixes that do not translate, and can never figure out why?