Are these good mixing/recording headphones?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Crysiq
  • Start date Start date
I'm not familiar with those, but in general, NO headphones are good mixing headphones. I know one or two people will chime in before this thread is over saying THEY can mix in headphones. But, unless you have a VERY expensive headphone set up, there is no such thing as "good mixing headphones".
 
if you have no choice but to mix in headphones get something that's 'open air'

Bang for the buck is Audio Technica ATH-AD700's

And I'm probably the main guy Rami's talking about but I ALWAYS point out that I have a pretty expensive headphone rig.

So if you're going for cans because you feel you can't afford monitors, be aware that monitors will cost you less than the kind of headphone rig you'd need.

If you simply HAVE to use cans because of noise issues ..... get some as flat as you can find and open air tends to be less fatiguing and usually doesn't have that boomy over ripe bass you get on closed cans.
 
Lt. Bob said:
And I'm probably the main guy Rami's talking about but I ALWAYS point out that I have a pretty expensive headphone rig..
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Hehe....Yup. I was waiting for you. :)

I don't doubt your results at all. But we have to admit that you are an exception to the rule, because of your set up, etc...

:cool:
 
RAMI said:
Hehe....Yup. I was waiting for you. :)

I don't doubt your results at all. But we have to admit that you are an exception to the rule, because of your set up, etc...

:cool:
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no doubt of that at all. Monitors are the best way for ..... well, virtually everyone.

The main reason I usually chime in is that some guys that HAVE to use cans for various reasons end up feeling like there's no point in even trying because of the slamming headphone mixing gets. I just personally feel it's always better to record than not record, even if you have to use less than optimum set-ups.
Newbies get discouraged easily and sometimes I feel the critisism gets to a level where some guys might go, "Well shit ..... may as well not record".
I personally prefer it to be more of a, "Well ..... it's not the best way but if you have to then these would be good cans for that purpose."
But sometimes the responses are more like (not you but others) ... "well it'll suck badly and you're stupid for even wanting to try that."

So I try to provide a little hope and encouragement ....... sometimes there are true reasons why someone might HAVE to use cans and I don't personally feel like we should tell them there's no point in that.

But to be fair to me, I really do always point out that I have mucho dinero invested in my headphone set-up and they can get monitors for much less.
 
Lt. Bob said:
The main reason I usually chime in is that some guys that HAVE to use cans for various reasons end up feeling like there's no point in even trying because of the slamming headphone mixing gets. I just personally feel it's always better to record than not record, even if you have to use less than optimum set-ups.
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I totally agree. It's good to have sme balance and input from both sides of a question. People do tend to to do what I did in this thread and say "You CAN'T mix in headphones!!!!". While true for most people, it doesn't mean one shouldn't be recording and mixing anything with whatever they have.
 
RAMI said:
I totally agree. It's good to have sme balance and input from both sides of a question. People do tend to to do what I did in this thread and say "You CAN'T mix in headphones!!!!". While true for most people, it doesn't mean one shouldn't be recording and mixing anything with whatever they have.
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and in fairness to you, you did say "in general" which is not quite the same thing as "you can't".

I listen to your recordings and there's no way to avoid the fact that you know what you're doing and as such, your opinion has big time merit and is one I always listen to.
And you really do try to be less strident about things than some others.

I guess my POV is that if someone says they're gonna mix on 'phones ..... it's better to suggest some good choices for cans in order to give them their best shot at decent results.
And, of course, mention that they really should get some monitors ASAP because they'll get better results that way.
But I try to avoid 'rules' per se since some of the coolest recordings ever broke rules when being created.
 
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When I first started mixing, I used stereo speakers but at times, I was hot to trot and it was late at night and living in flats, I was surrounded by neighbours so I'd use headphones. There's no doubt in my mind that the music sounds different and most of my mixes weren't much cop. Mind you, that was true in general, on speakers too ! There's been so few mixes I've done that I have been retrospectively pleased with. I am surprized that a few that I do like were headphone ones though.
That said though, I like monitor mixing. For one thing, not having the sound enclosed means that things don't sound out of tune ! The phones are useful for panning sometimes, though.
 
Lt. Bob said:
if you have no choice but to mix in headphones get something that's 'open air'

And I'm probably the main guy Rami's talking about but I ALWAYS point out that I have a pretty expensive headphone rig.
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What headphones do you have, wish this place would have a gear list section like Head-fi does. Do you go on Head-fi?
 
John California said:
What headphones do you have, wish this place would have a gear list section like Head-fi does. Do you go on Head-fi?
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Sennheiser HD650's and a HeadRoom amps. The particular model is no longer made but equivalent to whatever they've got that's around 600 bucks.
 
Lt. Bob said:
Sennheiser HD650's and a HeadRoom amps. The particular model is no longer made but equivalent to whatever they've got that's around 600 bucks.
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Oh nice, funny that people think that is a VERY expensive rig, thought you were about to say Stax SR-009 :D Great rig nonetheless, i have the Shure 940 and am using that to mix for now, i don't need an amp with these and my M-Audio 192 card drives them plenty well and is a great DAC, If i did get an amp i'd probably get an O2, i'd hope i'd end up with a pretty invisible set-up.
 
Just because you don't like mixing in headphones doesn't mean you can't at least use them to get a rough mix. What about these people who set up their monitors in surround sound with subs and wonder what went wrong when they play it in their car. You have to give more specific alternatives to headphones if your gonna bash them. I always start by rough mixing in headphones so I don't piss off everyone around me. I rough mix it like this so that I can limit the time necessary when mixing through monitors. Also it can be easy to get distracted if you can hear things that go on around you.
 
While I think what you have said about mixing with headphones is absolutely true, the guy asked for the quality of those headphones as recording/mixing gear. As you said it would be very hard to mix with headphones, but how about the recording part? Do they have good isolation? Would they do the job on determining a mics best position? I think you guys should comment on that too.
 
John California said:
Oh nice, funny that people think that is a VERY expensive rig, thought you were about to say Stax SR-009 :D Great rig nonetheless, i have the Shure 940 and am using that to mix for now, i don't need an amp with these and my M-Audio 192 card drives them plenty well and is a great DAC, If i did get an amp i'd probably get an O2, i'd hope i'd end up with a pretty invisible set-up.
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I'd love some Stax but that's outta my price range. Compared to most of what is used here my rig is fairly expensive but if I win the lottery I'd probably spend 4 or 5 grand on a good rig. There's some amazing headphone amps out there and a lotta really great headphones.
The newest top line Sennheiser is still what I'd probably buy and I think the top line HeadRoom amp too although Grace has one I've read some rave reviews on.
 
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