OK cans or OK speakers?

[bluedaffy]

So I have a good friend that is in high school and is starting to get interested in the mixing the music he makes. He looks to me for advice (not the best source, but I'm glad to help when I can), and he recently asked me a question that I found myself stumped on as well. I have mentioned to him in the past that mixing should be done on speakers and not on headphones. Yesterday he asked me what is the lesser of two evils, mixing on decent headphones, or budget monitors? I didn't know what to tell him so I told him I'd take his question to this forum.

These are the monitors he has connected to his setup XD3 CERWIN VEGA 2 Way Powered Desktop Speakers
-----I've heard these speakers before at his place and they actually sound pretty nice for the price, from what I remember from listening to them from a mixing perspective I could tell that they probably wouldn't cut it because the bass doesn't extend much below 100hz or so, and what it does create down there gets kinda sloppy sounding (I imagine it's because of the 3" woofer and the reliance on the port for low frequency production). The mids actually sounded not only good but great in my opinion. The highs are 'alright' but lacks response upwards of 10khz.

This is the pair of headphones he has Sennheiser HD 428 - Closed Headphones - stereo sound with powerful bass - ambient noise isolation
-----I actually had this pair and gave them to him to use because I had acquired a surplus of other headphones. They aren't bad at all, not amazing, but not bad either.

He doesn't have a job yet, so buying expensive gear isn't a possibility. I told him I'd post his question here and let him know what others thought, but I said in the meantime if I were him I would maybe EQ and shape the sounds with the cans if they allowed him to hear the spectrum better, and to do the actual mixing of levels, compression, and reverb with the monitors and then reference his mixes on as many different systems as he could. What you all think? Thanks.

 

[Massive Master]

I could probably go a year without touching my headphones (maybe I have - I honestly don't recall last time I used them). I can't go a day without my speakers.

That said, there is somewhat of a "chicken-or-the-egg" scenario taking the room into consideration.

THAT said, either way is going to be extremely limited in scope.

 

[RAMI]

For less than $200 bucks, one get a decent amount of room treatment done.

I've always said that I'd rather have a pair of average home stereo speakers in a well treated room, as opposed to having the best monitors in the world in an un-treated room.

Room treatment isn't as glamorous as a nice new shiny piece of equipment, but it's probably going to help you get good mixes 100 times easier.

 

[drtechno]

speakers for mixing

I recommend this to all the people I teach:

the list:
a monitor switcher.

a single full range speaker in a box

a set of computer speakers or Idock speakers.

a set of normal house speakers

a set of nearfield monitors

and a set of P.A. Speakers with a pair of subs.

db meter (its alway good to review your mixes at different accustic db levels)

Use the headphones as tracking tools to tweak mic positions. In post they can be helpful for eqing, but I don't recommend long term use of headphones.