2020- SOS Mixing On Headphones
Headphone mixing is becoming a core skill for everyone. We asked some of the biggest names in engineering how they get the best results.
www.soundonsound.com
I switched sometime ago. I realized my room was never going to be EMI/Abbey Road or George Martins AIR studio.....not even Sunset Sound...etc..
Speakers might be # 1 in a golden good room, depending on Music Genre (Rap might need SubWoofers...Folk might not , bluegrass might sound good almost anywhere)
but headphones work fine and might be even better in a crap room.
So I went to try headphones and my mixes and ability didn't suck any worse! and that's good because Headphones were really easy to use.
Funny the technology keeps changing, subtley sometimes loudly...
I went in deeper and did the Open Back Headphones someone mentioned, and it was better and different than closed back tracking headphones due to less bass, more flat for mixing. Open Backs it is for mixing, flat, easier on the ears...comfortable too. Then wondered is my Headphone AMP any good? and tried some Headphone amps, with
Bob Ludwig praising the Grace Design...so dumped some big cash on a used Headphone Amp. $500...$600.. I found the confidence in the Grace Headphone AMP, but when comparing it made me realize the Behringer headphone rack was fine, one of my interfaces was 90% there, while a bunch of the interface HAmps really sucked and were weak and couldnt drive 600ohm, and not even able to drive the middle 250ohm range.
So headphone amp stayed in the studio, and is awesome for listening to enjoy too for everything.
I took post recommended from pro's and users and bought the
BeyerDynamic pro 880 250ohm, and this used Grace Design headphone amp (I sold it and bought it back later)...but my Line6UX8 has an amazing Headphone amp too, those are $150 I compared to my laptop headphone amp and the Behringer multi H-amp. All were ok, but again some suck and using 250 ohm headphones tested that out quickly.
Last someone figured out "simulation of room" and there's the PlugIns to slap on the final Mix Bus....to simulate listening to speakers while using headphones. As when listening to speakers our ears hear both speakers, not quite mono but near it in some ways...but great setup!! now without the "Bad Room Reflections" from the speaker method....hail the Headphone monitoring method.
its all good stuff... Sound on Sound and Headphones and Monitoring the Sound Recording...
Geoff Emerick- Beatles engineers mentioned, "the Monitoring is the most important of all because if you aren't hearing things right, how do we make adjustments."
So he
put Monitoring as # 1 before anything else. He used speakers in great rooms and HiEnd...but for HR monitoring is important and maybe Headphones work better?
some memory lane too, thinking back, people used stereos and hifis in the house for playback systems and listening. Those days were soooo different than todays "ear bud bluetooths of smart phone spotifys today." seems fitting and logical, mixing on
Headphones for a "headphone world" works and makes sense.
most computers and cars don't have anything but Bluetooth players now, so the whole mediums changed years ago actually.
My DynAudios BM5a have sat for over a year unused... maybe Ill hook a Bluetooth box to them? play my smart phone through them...or sell them?
I have 3 sets of studio monitors. One set is always on the interface. Available...ready to play but having a bunch of good headphones could work better. hmm?
just riffing....
I sit here today with my laptop, a cable from the audio out, to RCA in on my Grace Design 902 headphone amp, and my Beyer880 headphones> usually listening to youtubes comparing stuff or free music from someone. Its almost 2026.
