Mixing: Speakers or Headphones

  • Thread starter Thread starter guitgolf
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guitgolf

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I've been doing all my track recording and mixing with headphones. Biggest reason is, it sounds great. I have great speakers, but a lousy small amplifier that i cant do much with other than listen, it's sounds pretty bad, but the headphones sound pure, just as if it were live. I've gotten the mix just the way I want it through the headphones, but if I have to rely on speakers, YUK!

So, is this an OK way to mix, especially if I'm sending the songs to get professionally mastered?

HELP!!
 
lots of speakers

Mix with lots of speakers. To me head phones will not give you a good idea in the real world were most will listen to it.

They could be Cars, Walkman type devices, home, out at the beach with a portable strerio etc.

Let me explain not all head phones or speakers sound the same.

So the best is to check out your mix on as many sound sources as possible to get a good idea if it is the way you want your mix to sound.

I my self have a set of Yorkville YSM1P,s for my main monitors.

But then I send the mix to a set of EV ZX1,s plus SB122's
That are Biamped with a EV DC ONE.

Next it goes to a Small broadcast quality FM transmitter.

And after I like the way it sounds thought the house I burn to disk then take it to friends places there cars to see how it sounds.

I forgot I have a crappy pair of speakers 6X9 2 way car speakers in a box I test with to.

If it sounds good on all it is a good mix.


My 2Kws
 
If the headphones are acting the same as regular monitors (unaffected audio signal) then keep them for mixing. After you mix in the headphones, play to song in different environments (Cars, small radios, other computers, etc.) If it still sounds good, then you're in the clear.
 
I've been doing all my track recording and mixing with headphones. Biggest reason is, it sounds great.
Click to expand...
I hate to break this to you - A deaf monkey could make a mix that sounds great on headphones. The nice/horrible thing is that great mixes sound great on them also. You almost have to purposefully screw things up to make a mix that actually sounds bad for that matter...

Though I tend to disagree with the 'million speaker' situation to some extent... *ONE* set of ACCURATE and CONSISTENT speakers is a much easier (and more 'accurate' and 'consistent' - go figure) way to get from point "A" to point "B" as efficiently as possible. An additional set of "small, crappy speakers" (the NS10's being the famous example of the day) to get a "reality check" can be helpful. Bouncing around from speaker to speaker to speaker is trying to hit a moving target...

But headphones... Making edits, checking fades, etc., etc., sure. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
 
By necessity, I mix with headphones (Sennheisers). And I almost always end up with too much bottom end for the car. The speakers rattle the windows, and NOT in a good way. It's hard to convince myself to back off on low EQ when mixing, because it sounds so damn good on the phones!

So, I am learning...slowly!

-Mike
 
IMO you can mix on headphones BUT .... you have to have a headphone rig that costs way more than a decent set of monitors.
I have a lttle over a grand in my current headphone set-up ..... Sennheiser HD650's and a Headroom headphone amp. It's neutral as can be and sounds virtually identical to my JBL monitors. But very few are gonna spend that much on a headphone rig and without one and the cross-feed circuit Headroom has in their amps, you get too much of that unrealistic imaging and bloated bass that cans are famous for.
 
Headphones are great but there really is no substitute for a good pair of monitors.
 
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