I read that you need to mix a song using studio monitors and not headphones. I don’t understand why that matters. Can someone explain in plain english the reason why?
Thanks
The main reason is that headphones do not give you a true picture of what your song sounds like. All stereo information is exaggerated; unless you have very expensive phones, the bass response is likely to be attenuated, or exaggerated. Plus, ear fatigue will be a problem during extended mixing sessions.
All that aside, it is a good idea to check your mixing with phones, just as you should check it with a car stereo, a pair of dinky computer speakers, a boom-box, and any other playback systems you may have a available to use. When your song sounds at least okay on as many systems as you can check, you know your mix is good.
Good luck!
'til next time;
Tony W
It is just as wrong to mix just with headphones as it is just with studio monitors - sort of. After laying down the tracks the way we want, we use headphones, studio monitors and we burn a copy and take it out to the car and have a listen. It’s even not a bad idea to listen to it on a boom box (if it sounds good there, you are getting close to a good mix).
The “sort of” clause is because headphones do give an unrealistic reference, due to their nature of being very close to the ears and very separated left and right. For isolation of a problem, you can’t beat good quality headphones.
For live gigs, I use headphones constantly (on and off the head), but always reference everything to what I’m hearing from the speakers, stage, reflection, etc.
If you want your mix to sound good “everywhere”, you have to listen to it everywhere, or wherever you possibly can.
Is that plain enough English?
Paul
Lets first define two terms (not official definitions, my definitions just to avoid argument).
Mixing - Establishing the proper level of each part in a recording relative to all other parts. May also include adding of certain effects such as reverb and compression.
Mastering - Primarily, to impose appropriate equalization curves on the mix so that it has the appropriate mix of high and low frequencies when played on a wide variety of playback devices. Also, compression to limit the dynamic range of the program, sometimes known as fighting the loudness war (louder sounds better to many people).
Whew. OK nobody can argue with these definitions cause they are mine and mine only. Now back to the headphones question. Mixing as I have defined it can be done quite well using headphones if they are good headphones, and you can hear the full freqency spectrum. The only real shortcoming may be that the spread of the stereo field might be exagerated with the headphones, compared to speakers, so that instruments are not as spread out across the stereo field as you expect when playback is through speakers.
You will be unlikely to be able to do a good job mastering (as I have defined it) because headphones will not have the same type of frequency response curve as the devices that most people will use for listening to the music. To master you need to listen to the recording on good, bad, and indifferent systems, and balance the sound so that it sounds good on all of them.
T
OK see now that Vanclan beat me to it, said the same thing. Good grief Wynot too.
(vanclan @ Jun. 22 2007,15:06)
QUOTE
It is just as wrong to mix just with headphones as it is just with studio monitors - sort of. After laying down the tracks the way we want, we use headphones, studio monitors and we burn a copy and take it out to the car and have a listen. It's even not a bad idea to listen to it on a boom box (if it sounds good there, you are getting close to a good mix).
The "sort of" clause is because headphones do give an unrealistic reference, due to their nature of being very close to the ears and very separated left and right. For isolation of a problem, you can't beat good quality headphones.
For live gigs, I use headphones constantly (on and off the head), but always reference everything to what I'm hearing from the speakers, stage, reflection, etc.
If you want your mix to sound good "everywhere", you have to listen to it everywhere, or wherever you possibly can.
Is that plain enough English?
Paul
The "sort of" clause is because headphones do give an unrealistic reference, due to their nature of being very close to the ears and very separated left and right. For isolation of a problem, you can't beat good quality headphones.
For live gigs, I use headphones constantly (on and off the head), but always reference everything to what I'm hearing from the speakers, stage, reflection, etc.
If you want your mix to sound good "everywhere", you have to listen to it everywhere, or wherever you possibly can.
Is that plain enough English?
Paul
I definitely see what you are saying. In my particular case I listen to music 95% of the time with headphones, so I think it is fine to mix with headphones for my needs.
Thanks.
(tspringer @ Jun. 22 2007,15:20)
QUOTE
OK see now that Vanclan beat me to it, said the same thing. Good grief Wynot too.
As the old saying goes "Great minds thinks alike... fools seldom differ"
Headphones give a very different stereo image than speakers do.
When listening through headphones, your left ear hears only the left track. Your right ear hears only the right track.
When listening through speakers, your left hear hears the left side more than the right, but the right side is there also, and it’s delayed by going around your head. This delay is actually very significant in terms of stereo imaging. This is especially important if you use any phase- or delay-related stereo imaging techniques, like “clone and drag”, pitch shift doubling, stero chorus, stereo reverb early reflections, and actual stereo recordings (depending on the type of stereo recording), to mention the main ones.
And if you’re not using any of these techniques but simply “mono panning”, then you’re probably mixing a pretty boring mix. (In the case of only mono panning, then the effect of headphones is simply to make the mix sound wider. In the case of more sophisticated techniques, it’s more complicated but yeah, it does sound wider.)
I completely disagree that mixing can be done in headphones and mastering requires monitors. That implies that EQ is the main issue with headphones, or else that stereo effects aren’t tailored during mixing. Both of these are false.
It is true that EQ always sounds different in headphones, even real nice flat ones. That doesn’t really matter much: if you LISTEN A LOT (to commercial music simiar to yours) through anything that is ACCURATE, then your ears learn and compensate. You need ACCURATE monitors so that something isn’t missing or horribly mangled – “you can’t mix what you can’t hear”. But headphones do tend to be accurate so that’s not the issue.
The bottom line is a mix sounds different any way you monitor it; and a good mix sounds good through them all. But the advice against mixing in headphones is good advice based on decades of experience.
BTW, I do most of my mixing in headphones. Not because it’s better, but because I make compromises for my living situation & being able to mix at night and it’s just a hobby. Plus, I’ve been doing it long enough that I have an idea how to compensate – somewhat anyway. The bottom line for me is that I’m not going for the very best results I can get. I’m going for the best results I can get with certain big compromises I make for my living situation. I’m sure my mixes suffer as a result, and it’s ok; they’re good enough for my purposes which is to annoy friends and family with my CDs. 
In other words, if you’re serious, do as I say, not as I do. If you want to compromise, fine – but it is a good idea to learn what compromise you’re making first.
BTW, most home studios have monitors set up all wrong anyway. Are your speakers close to the wall? If so, you might as well stick to headphones.
The short answer is that headphone mixes tend to sound good only when listened to on headphones, whereas a monitor mix tends to sound good on both speakers and headphones.
A hallmark of headphone mixes is that center-channel stuff such as kick, snare and vocals tends to be way too loud compared to the panned tracks. Certainly knowing this (and the other reasons why we advise against mixing on headphones) you can learn to compensate and mix well. But generations of engineers have found more consistant good results by mixing on monitors.
(Captain Damage @ Jun. 23 2007,03:37)
QUOTE
The short answer is that headphone mixes tend to sound good only when listened to on headphones, whereas a monitor mix tends to sound good on both speakers and headphones.
A hallmark of headphone mixes is that center-channel stuff such as kick, snare and vocals tends to be way too loud compared to the panned tracks. Certainly knowing this (and the other reasons why we advise against mixing on headphones) you can learn to compensate and mix well. But generations of engineers have found more consistant good results by mixing on monitors.
A hallmark of headphone mixes is that center-channel stuff such as kick, snare and vocals tends to be way too loud compared to the panned tracks. Certainly knowing this (and the other reasons why we advise against mixing on headphones) you can learn to compensate and mix well. But generations of engineers have found more consistant good results by mixing on monitors.
Good answer!
Old article but still valid:
"Whad’ya Mean I Can’t Mix With Headphones?
"
http://www.bluebearsound.com/articles/headphones.htm
Eyup!
Problem solved?
Steve
Good post, Steve.
For folks who are going to mix in headphones despite the drawbacks, this plugin is a great idea.
But it’s still a bad idea to mix through headphones.
Frankly, I’ve read all the reasons and theories, and I suspect we don’t really understand all the reasons. Suffice it to say that experienced engineers find that it just doesn’t work very well!
But for us home-boys, where the target is not pro-quality results, and where it’s more important to get something done while the baby sleeps than to produce the best mix, well, we can get away with it and simply suffer the reduction in quality. I sure don’t recommend it, especially for folks who are in the early stages of the learning curve.
A few people I know have tried that plugin. The results were not favorable so I have ignored it and stuck to my nearfields. Most complained about weird phasing artifacts… Shoot! I oughta just grab it and see for myself…
One other thing that is often over looked on the headphone issue… bone conduction. Some frequencies are accentuated when wearing cans because of conduction through the bones and dense tissues.
I mix with the cans in the early stages and then run everybody off and turn on the nearfields when I am ready to “finalize” a mix.
D