Discussion about Mixing with Headphones

I believe that this discussion could be beneficial to many of us… Good viewing and good listening to all!

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Interesting, thanks!

Thanks! I’ve seen this before and about him using only cheap Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I recently had a discussion in an other forum about mixing on headphones. A lot of people think it’s not possible to make a good mix on headphones but I disagree.
IMO you can, but you also need to check on other systems like your car and home speaker system. What matters is that you find a way to make this translation. Either you do that in an acoustically treated studio with expensive speakers or use headphones, or both?
In the end it’s all about making a mix that translate to most media used by the majority of listeners.

Thanks, Rene, very interesting. I’ve been mixing more and more on headphones and checking on my speakers rather than the other way around. My room isn’t very good.

Yes it is very interesting. I like how thoughtful Andrew Scheps.

I alternately mix Headphones / Speakers. I do part of the work with the headphones and I check what happens with the speakers or vice versa as needed.

When I finish a mix, I always check with my two pairs of headphones. My AKG K701 whose sound is rather flat and very old headphones dating from the 1970s that an aunt gave me, AKAI ASE-7 whose frequency band is between 30 Hz - 20,000 Hz and very slightly accentuated, really interesting as a sound. I still check my mixes in different systems including my car, Bose SoundLink Mini, my Victrola player and of course with my ipod. Lots of options to check how things sound.

I have a similar process. Here’s a story that sent me down that path. I had recorded a chamber ensemble in a small public room. It included a cello concerto backed by a small string section. As I was playing it back on my speakers, I noticed that a certain low note would always grow loud whenever it was played. I thought that it was a problem with the position of my mics relative to the small room I recorded in, so I notched out the frequency in the master.

Only later did I realize that it wasn’t the public room, it was my room! When I listened on headphones at home, there was no standing wave. But in my room, the distance between floor and ceiling happened to match the wave length of the offending note. The standing wave was in my room!

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