Monitors or Headphones?

[blackscot]

I know this must be a frequent question, so sorry for any duplication. I wasn't finding anything through searching. Please just direct me to any earlier threads if appropriate.

Otherwise, I'm wondering if there is any concensus as to whether speaker monitors or headphones are better for mixing. Seems to me that for monitors to really work as intended, the entire space has to be fairly heavily treated acoustically for "deadness". A good set of headphones would seem to make the situation a lot more simple, so you could mix just about anywhere that was reasonably quiet.

If so, then why doesn't everyone just use headphones instead of monitors?

ETA --Crap, I just found the thread lower on this page......sorryyyy......

ET-also-A -- Sounds from the earlier thread like most folks feel monitors (and a good space) are ultimately needed to get around various sonic limitations that headphones have. True?

 

[Massive Master]

ET-also-A -- Sounds from the earlier thread like most folks feel monitors (and a good space) are ultimately needed to get around various sonic limitations that headphones have. True?

Most definitely.

 

[Dogbreath]

Yup...definitely true.

And when you are treating your room, you're not looking for "dead", you're looking for "tame", balanced. Ya start with bass traps to relax the strong assed bass waves that are stomping the shit out of your mids and highs.
Then when you listen thru your monitors, you get a much "truer" representation of what's really going on in your mix with the air being moved, the space etc that headphones can't do.

hope it helps dude.

 

[blackscot]

.....when you are treating your room.....Ya start with bass traps......

......hope it helps dude.

I've got pretty decent -- albeit homemade -- bass traps that greatly reduce my space's boominess. I also have a couple of smaller acoustic panels hanging along the longer walls.

The feedback most assuredly helps -- thanks.

 

[Dogbreath]

I've got pretty decent -- albeit homemade -- bass traps that greatly reduce my space's boominess. I also have a couple of smaller acoustic panels hanging along the longer walls.

The feedback most assuredly helps -- thanks.

de nada...

 

[jndietz]

Monitors will give a better representation of what you are mixing. Headphones, in my opinion, give you a false sense of the stereo field, as well as color the sound a little differently. While they can assist in the mixing process, monitors should be used initially.

 

[stainlessbrown]

I've known a few folks who've gotten amazing mixes on cans, but for the majority of us, the opposite is true... though no guarantee our mixes are any better with monitors

I think it gets overlooked quite often that our ears are not perfectly matched and our brain compensates, so it's easy to understand how folks are unaware, not to mention often not wanting to admit to personal defects. Both sound levels and frequencies detected may different, in some case quite a bit. It could be from an ear infection as a kid, working around machinery, LOUD musical instruments, etc.

In a room our ears hear the reflections from around us, with headphones you have 2 isolated sources-

ultimately, it's not how it sounds in your mixing environment, but how it translates to the real world... a place where I've failed many times, feeling good about a mix, only to hear it somewhere else with a lot less enthusiasm