S
sibleypeck
New member
I posted questions some time ago about mixing with headphones and was warned by many of you of the hazards of doing so. I took your advice and dragged out an old stereo amp and speakers, and set them up to mix on.
As I mentioned before, I don’t have enough room in my little cubicle, so I placed them on the floor, speakers facing up, on either side of my chair, on stands made of books.
The result was an improved mix, at home, but some unexpected problems when listening to a CD copy on other systems.
At home, in Pro Audio 8, everything sounds balanced, though still thick and muddy in the mids and low-mids. But in the car, or on a portable player through headphones, strange things occur. Here are some examples:
1) All the cymbals are way too loud, all the way through.
2) The lead and background voices are prominent in verse 1 and chorus 1, but hard to hear in verse 2, chorus 2, and the first bridge. Then they are fine for the rest of the song. Same thing with the bass.
3) At the first climactic point of the song, the sound distorts ever so slightly – just enough to sound intentional. But on later dynamic highs it becomes distorted to the point of distraction.
Because I have no mixer and no signal processing equipment, and use only Pro Audio 8’s software equivalents (and editing everything in the event list view) you can imagine what a chore mixing is. Though it is a labor of love, realistically there are only so many hours in a day. I already have over 800 hours invested in this project and am quite anxious to get it finished. I was hoping someone would be able to give me some pointers here.
The other thing is it occurred to me that reference headphones, such a the DT 990 Pros, the K240DFs, or the ATHM40s, might be of some use in EQ-ing individual instruments, and, switched to “mono”, might help me to accurately set levels in the mix, such as cymbals, if not pan and effects. What are your thoughts on this, anybody?
As I mentioned before, I don’t have enough room in my little cubicle, so I placed them on the floor, speakers facing up, on either side of my chair, on stands made of books.
The result was an improved mix, at home, but some unexpected problems when listening to a CD copy on other systems.
At home, in Pro Audio 8, everything sounds balanced, though still thick and muddy in the mids and low-mids. But in the car, or on a portable player through headphones, strange things occur. Here are some examples:
1) All the cymbals are way too loud, all the way through.
2) The lead and background voices are prominent in verse 1 and chorus 1, but hard to hear in verse 2, chorus 2, and the first bridge. Then they are fine for the rest of the song. Same thing with the bass.
3) At the first climactic point of the song, the sound distorts ever so slightly – just enough to sound intentional. But on later dynamic highs it becomes distorted to the point of distraction.
Because I have no mixer and no signal processing equipment, and use only Pro Audio 8’s software equivalents (and editing everything in the event list view) you can imagine what a chore mixing is. Though it is a labor of love, realistically there are only so many hours in a day. I already have over 800 hours invested in this project and am quite anxious to get it finished. I was hoping someone would be able to give me some pointers here.
The other thing is it occurred to me that reference headphones, such a the DT 990 Pros, the K240DFs, or the ATHM40s, might be of some use in EQ-ing individual instruments, and, switched to “mono”, might help me to accurately set levels in the mix, such as cymbals, if not pan and effects. What are your thoughts on this, anybody?
