Total newbie question but it's also mixing...

H

Hot_Mess

New member
So I just got my first pair of monitors (Yamaha HS 50M). Up till now I've been mixing on headphones.

This is really a question about mixing on headphones. I think that even with my monitors, I'm going to probably do some mixing on headphones because of my family/privacy/humiliation concerns.

When I plug my headphones (Sony MDR-7506) directly into the computer, my mix sounds great. Just how I want it. But then when I plug my headphones into my preamp (Scarlett 8i6 Focusrite) it sounds quite different. And worse. The bass and the treble aren't as prominent. Also everything is kind of mushed together and blurry.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks!--Jessica
 
Perhaps the impedance of your headphones is better matched to the computer output, or the interface output?

It's also very likely that there's some built-in audio software with a nice smiley face eq going.
I'm certain those things aren't designed to be natural.
 
I agree with steenmaroo, the output from your computer could be eq'd, I would suggest that you use your Focusrite headphone out as it will more than likely give you a truer representation of the mix.
 
The output from your computer is going to be from the computer's OEM soundcard, which indeed has its own coloration of the sound. But anyway, now you've found out why mixing with headphones isn't the best solution!
 
So which of the 2 sounds the closest, subjectively, to the sound you hear from your monitors?

This will tell you which headphone out is the most accurate and the one you should be using.
 
Hot_Mess said:
This is really a question about mixing on headphones. I think that even with my monitors, I'm going to probably do some mixing on headphones because of my family/privacy/humiliation concerns.
Click to expand...

I'm new myself, and I've been trying to avoid making real mix decisions using headphones, for several reasons talked about in this forum and in books and articles. What I will use headphones for is the kind of front-end editing and clean up like auditioning different takes and comping, checking for timing and pitch problems, etc. but I'm not making level balance decisions. This reduces by a few hundred the number of times my wife might have to hear the tracks.:)

J
 
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