newbie in mixing

[jerberson12]

i monitor my music in two ways. my headphone and my monitor speaker(old crap). I use my headphone and try to mix it the way it is nice. When i use my monitor speaker, mixing seems differ. example a guitar plucking i hear on a 100% Right Pan on my headphone sounds too loud but sounds just enough in the monitor speaker. A Kick drum sounds enough on my headphone but barely hear it in the monitor speaker. And most of all while listening on a stereo mode on a headphone, i hear all the sounds but switching to mono mood and i cant hear the Right PAn, only the left PAN. Well guys any help?

 

[13th_Omen]

Don't use headphones!! Most headphones add at least a little bit of coloration to the actuak sound. Not to mention the fact that the speakers are right up against your ears and you hear things louder. I only advise mixing with headphones if a: that is all you have, or b: if you need to listen to a certain sound or something you need to pinpoint that you aren't hearing on your monitors. As far as monitors go, get good ones... ie. Mackie Hr824s. They make all of the difference in the world!!!

 

[jerberson12]

Oh right thnx pal, appreciated it

 

[c9-2001]

good studio headphones can get a nice mix if you know what your doing.. when i first got my 20/20's it took some time to master mixing on them, but with my AKG 270's.. i had far better mixes..
now i mix with the 20/20's.. and go back and listen to the mix loud in the headphones and ride the faders if i need to.. my mixes come out very clean..

 

[Ed Dixon]

It boils down to the quality/accuracy of your speakers as compared to the headphones. Either can be very good/accurate or lousy.

One simple test is to use each, mix until it sounds right. and then burn a CD from each approach. Take the CDs somewhere else to a good stereo system and listen. See which one sounds better.

Ed

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Article......

Whad'ya Mean I Can't Mix With Headphones???

 

[ron82]

heres something i heard about headphones, which i found really appropriate:

"use your monitors for mixing, your headphones as magnifying glass" - if i translated it correctly..
but i think "magnifying glass" is the right word.. i hope

 

[Track Rat]

That's right Ron. Lots of things wrong with mixing on headphones. One is, when you listen to speakers in free space information from the left speaker still makes it to your right ear and info from the right speaker makes it to your left ear both with time and timboral differences, and depending where you are in the "sweet spot" it can change. With headphones, this interaction doesn't happen. And bass reponse is EXTREMLY colored. Now you can get used to the frequency response part of the problem to some degree by training your ears but the spacial thing is hard to get by.