Mixing with headphones...

gibs · Post by **gibs** » 03/04/2006 - 8:44

mixing with headphone IMO require at least a 300Ã¢â€šÂ¬ headphone...

my 30Ã¢â€šÂ¬ phillips headphone sucks a lot...waste of time...

I prefer waiting for daylight than mixing by night on this shit....

Post by **LMan** » 03/04/2006 - 9:16

The headphones should be very good, not very expensive. I don't think you need to spend *that* much.

Vosla · Post by **Vosla** » 03/04/2006 - 21:11

Just for you professionals and ambitioned amateurs to laugh about:

This is only remotely linked to remixing but if I happen to do noises for other people, I have to use headphones for "post-production", because playing the sound aloud would turn a lot of people mad...

My "equipment" is cheap, old or both. Headphones give me often a hint to clicks, hisses and high-pitched noises in a sample, something that would be"drown" when put through my ITT HiFi 8031 Amplifier.

If I can't figure out why a sample doesn't work on the ITT, I go back to the headphones for routing out errors (such as fan-droning from my PCs).

gibs · Post by **gibs** » 04/04/2006 - 6:25

LMan / Remix64 wrote:The headphones should be very good, not very expensive. I don't think you need to spend *that* much.

I think the minimum to mix & master, without having to change the sound once played on the hifi, is the Sony MDR 7509....

http://www.proaudioreview.com/december00/Sony-Web.shtml

Romeo Knight · Post by **Romeo Knight** » 04/04/2006 - 8:00

That's all blabberblabber.

Seriously:
The most important thing is and will ever be: knowing your monitoring system, knowing your acoustics. Getting a feeling for it. Knowing how it sounds on high levels, on low levels, knowing its frequency response. Knowing it compared to other systems. Even knowing your own ear, how your musical receptiveness changes during mixing sessions, and so on.
If this is provided the actual quality of the equipment is not really important anymore. Not for producing pop music in the broadest sense.
(For 20 years audio engineers all over the world mixed professional productions on Yamaha NS-10 nearfield monitors that just sound like a huge pile of shit. Anyway, every studio had to had them to be "compatible". That is the real world.)

gibs · Post by **gibs** » 04/04/2006 - 8:05

Romeo Knight wrote:That's all blabberblabber.
Seriously:
The most important thing is knowing your own ear

Romeo Knight · Post by **Romeo Knight** » 04/04/2006 - 8:20

You know, Gibs, for faking quotes you can choose death penalty or 24 hours listening to your own re...ehem..DJ Subslash's IK+ remix.

gibs · Post by **gibs** » 04/04/2006 - 8:28

Romeo Knight wrote:You know, Gibs, for faking quotes you can choose death penalty or 24 hours listening to your own re...ehem..DJ Subslash's IK+ remix.

I prefer death penalty

best tool for mixing :

Tonka · Post by **Tonka** » 04/04/2006 - 11:52

OK - after listening to all of your comments, I have decided that rather than spend copious amounts on headphones or monitors that I would spend moderate amounts on these:

M1 Active 520 monitor speakers (with 'Low Frequency Density Switch for acoustic space adjustment of the monitors' - probably a load of bollucks, but it suckered me in! Apparently you can adjust the sound relative to where your speaker placement is and the acoustics of the room)...

-link removed per request from djdeals-

Aaaannnnnddd, these:

AKG 240DF

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/options.php?id=781

End of the day, if I ever get THAT good/rich/famous, I'll get some other poor bastard to mix my tracks for me!!!

Thanks all

Tonka

skitz · Post by **skitz** » 04/04/2006 - 19:38

Tonka - you complete and utter bugga! Now I want those speakers - M1 Active MK2's look old in comparison

Tonka · Post by **Tonka** » 04/04/2006 - 19:51

skitz wrote:Tonka - you complete and utter bugga! Now I want those speakers - M1 Active MK2's look old in comparison

Ha-ha! Skitz has geriatric speakers!...

Oh c'mon, you KNEW that was a comin'

In all seriousness though, these are retailing at other places for Ã‚Â£250, so that pretty much swung it for me (that and their portable(ish) size and the low frequency thingamajig). They have some big brothers too (if you have the space)...

-link removed per request from djdeals-

Tonka

DHS · Post by **DHS** » 05/04/2006 - 12:04

While i understand the importance of monitor speakers, i can't use them.

My audio system is so "consumer" you couldn't believe it.

Tonka · Post by **Tonka** » 05/04/2006 - 13:26

DHS wrote:While i understand the importance of monitor speakers, i can't use them.

My audio system is so "consumer" you couldn't believe it.

Funny you should say that because the Yamaha NS10 monitors that Romeo was taking about earlier in the thread, were (allegedly) used so widely for that very reason - they sounded just like consumer hi-fi speakers! Go figure

I'm really starting to get the impression that a mix is kinda like a remix: you just can't please everyone! Some will think there's too much bass, some not enough and blah blah. As the mixer obviously can't cater for everyones audio system, you can never create the 'perfect' mix... Just have to do the best you can, I guess!

Tonka

MogBog · Post by **MogBog** » 06/04/2006 - 7:36

DHS wrote:I still do think that mixing with headphones is like swimming without arms.

Amen, ... my neighbours do not think so

Before I sometimes did mixing in two steps:
Headphones - (at night when I had to be still) main sequencing/ sample edit..
Stereo - (at daytime) adjusting sound levels and other modulators...

Now I do only the last, trying to not play too loud after midnight ...
It's like recording the elguitar without the distortion and than apply it after, impossible to fine tune the soundscape...

sumppi · Post by **sumppi** » 06/04/2006 - 9:14

For production and generic listening I have two pairs of Sennheiser HD600 headphones (one for work and one for home) which are just awesome regarding sound quality and comfort, but for the final mixing headphones are never good enough.

For mixing I use Genelec 1030A's that work pretty nicely even though they really would need subwoofer (which I can't afford) to go low enough on the bottom end.

To verify mixes I use my livingroom setup with very basic Infinity speakers, small headphones (AKG Porta Pro) and maybe the most important of all: Powerbook's built-in speakers. If the mix works fine on all those, it's done.

Sumppi

Mixing with headphones...

Well, here it is...