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Mixing with headphones?


Bapu

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Due to living/work from home conditions I use cans to record and mix.

I use SONARWORKS. It comes with profiles for my ATH M-50s and my STATUSONE. I also have a custom profile for a pair of Sennheiser HD-598s.

I also have the the Slate headphone system.

As well as the Ultimate Ears reference monitors.

I also use my HD600s to check the mix.

Edited by Bapu
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Mixing with HD650's here..... uh  and hear ! I'm getting on in years and moved to different house in which I lost a nice home studio set-up and exchanged it for a new dungeon! Headphones are real save for me right now.

 

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Personally, I wouldn't mix with headphones. If I do (which is very rare) I only use them when I had tame some harshness in the vocal to make sure it's not overly compressed with a multiband. You need a really good pair of sensitive headphones for this. Also, when a percussion burried deep in isolation. 

Otherwise: I don't mix with headphones and there's nothing wrong with mixing on headphones - it's a preference thing. 

There's big hit songs out here that was solely mixed on headphones / and users should not be discouraged to use them or to train their ears with. 

There's some really good decent pair of headphone that is cheaper than most entry level Studio Reference Monitors. 

These brands include:

AKG K52

ROLAND - H5

SAMSON SR850 

SENNHEISER HD 200

Just to name a few . . . I actually own all 4. 

I personally LOVE the AKG 712 pro Studio Reference Monitor Headphones. It's a bit more pricier though.

I only have these 5 pairs. 😅

Edited by Will_Kaydo
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12 minutes ago, Will_Kaydo said:

I personally LOVE the AKG 712 pro Studio Reference Monitor Headphones.

My favorite headphones for ... basically anything, including mixing. I also have Sennheiser HD650, and use them occasionally, but 712s have more definition and better scene. With plugins like Sonarworks (or Toneboosters' Morphit) and ARStudio 3 one can easily make great sounding mixes.

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14 minutes ago, Soundwise said:

My favorite headphones for ... basically anything, including mixing. I also have Sennheiser HD650, and use them occasionally, but 712s have more definition and better scene. With plugins like Sonarworks (or Toneboosters' Morphit) and ARStudio 3 one can easily make great sounding mixes.

Yes, you can't go wrong with the 712's. The information in detail it project into the ears, are just crazy.

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I tried Sonarworks and I cannot make any mixes sound good using it. I think the correction used on my phones (Sony MDR-ZX110) have way too many highs and my ears start hurting after I use the profile for about an hour or so. In the end, I often resorted to using the headphones without anything and checking the mix using EXPOSE and SPAN.

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Love mixing (and listening) on cans. In my teen years, I listened with phones out of necessity, the parental units didn't want to hear my music blasting away. I got way into The Moody Blues and the deep sonic landscapes they created in the studio. I still like "headphone music," David Tipper and Chris Zippel are a couple of fave sound sculptors.

These days, I tend to have a delayed sleep phase, where I sleep from about 3AM to 11AM If I want to mix past 10PM, and that's usually when I feel most creative, it's all about the headphones.

I just leveled up on the ATH front, going from M40's to M50's after a side-by-side test. Most reviews say that the M40's sound very close to the M50's, with subtle but audible differences in tonal balance. In my opinion, nuh-uh, no way, not even close. I put on a Chris Zippel mix that had water sounds in the background that were vivid with the 50's,but with the 40's, I could only barely identify them and that after I heard them on the 50's. Soundstage was way better, with the 40's it sounds like the soundstage extends about 2" away from my ears, with the 50's it's more like 6" or beyond.

The first time I tried them on a project I've been working on for months, I heard this weird sound buildup between the kick and snare that I eventually controlled by gating the tail of the kick resonance. Never noticed it before. So I like how revealing cans can be.

I also like my Superlux 681 EVO's. The tonal balance is similar enough to the M50's that it's not jarring to switch between them.

I prefer to finalize things, especially mastering, on the speakers, but I check and reference on a variety of listening systems, including the car and my Altec Lansing Mini Life Jacket.

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On 3/10/2021 at 1:23 AM, Soundwise said:

My favorite headphones for ... basically anything, including mixing. I also have Sennheiser HD650, and use them occasionally, but 712s have more definition and better scene. With plugins like Sonarworks (or Toneboosters' Morphit) and ARStudio 3 one can easily make great sounding mixes.

I was looking at the AKG 712's. They are $550 at Sweetwater and Guitar Center but $389 from AKG on Amazon. Makes me wonder if the ones on Amazon are fake? That's quite a price difference.

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6 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I was looking at the AKG 712's. They are $550 at Sweetwater and Guitar Center but $389 from AKG on Amazon. Makes me wonder if the ones on Amazon are fake? That's quite a price difference.

Since Samsung acquired AKG (along with other companies, like Harman, DigiTech) the prices have skyrocketed. You can still find NOS AKG headphones. AFAIK, Amazon policies prohibit selling fake product.

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3 hours ago, Soundwise said:

Since Samsung acquired AKG (along with other companies, like Harman, DigiTech) the prices have skyrocketed. You can still find NOS AKG headphones. AFAIK, Amazon policies prohibit selling fake product.

Samsung. Grrr. Not a big fan of them anymore like I used to be. 

I have an old pair of K240 MKII's. They sound good but I've never been able to get a good mix on them. I ended up getting far better mixes in a bad room with my speakers about 4 feet away from the wall and me about 2 ~ 3 feet from the speakers. But with the headphone software available now I'm wondering if a better pair coupled with software would be good. On the other hand, if I bought everything I felt I needed right now I'd be about $15,000 in the hole. 🙁

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On 3/9/2021 at 4:25 PM, Bapu said:

Due to living/work from home conditions I use cans to record and mix.

I use SONARWORKS. It comes with profiles for my ATH M-50s and my STATUSONE. I also have a custom profile for a pair of Sennheiser HD-598s.

I also have the the Slate headphone system.

As well as the Ultimate Ears reference monitors.

I also use my HD600s to check the mix.

Put this on your list-

https://www.sienna.studio/

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On 3/12/2021 at 5:02 PM, Shane_B. said:

Samsung. Grrr. Not a big fan of them anymore like I used to be. 

I have an old pair of K240 MKII's. They sound good but I've never been able to get a good mix on them. I ended up getting far better mixes in a bad room with my speakers about 4 feet away from the wall and me about 2 ~ 3 feet from the speakers. But with the headphone software available now I'm wondering if a better pair coupled with software would be good. On the other hand, if I bought everything I felt I needed right now I'd be about $15,000 in the hole. 🙁

For monitoring grab yourself a pair of beyer 990 and a 770 for takes , those and sonarworks and you will never fe'el the need to look elsewhere ...

And yeah i tried heaphones up to 1500 euros .. from focal to akg ... senneheiser ect ...

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I have the Senny 280HD pro for recording acoustic guitar because they have some of the best isolation and let me hear what I am actually recording as opposed to the sound of the acoustic as I am playing, combined with what I can hear through the phones, which confuses me. I also use them for video work for the same reason, great isolation.

I also use the Senny 380HD pro for tracking vocals, they are a bit more comfortable and have good isolation also, especially since I changed the pads. They are also good for electric guitar and bass, they don't have the slightly brighter sound of the 280's.

Then I have the Senny 598's for mixing or general listening. I like these as they have a low impedance and single straight long cable, they are also very comfortable, with the velour ear pads, you can literally have them on your head all day. Sometimes I forget they are there and get up and walk away from the computer until the cable reminds me they are still on. One time I remember looking for them in the draws while they were still on my head. 

I also have the Morphit correction software which works on all my phones but I am having a hard time with it. When I do a mix with it, I end up with less than satisfactory results. It seems better to mix without it, just through the phones themselves. I love the idea of headphone correction software but it doesn't seem to work that well for me. Perhaps the other ones are better.

I did have the ATH M50x as well but I couldn't find a use for them. They did not have good isolation and I couldn't eq my guitars or voice how I like when tracking, they seem to defeat whatever you try to do with them especially in the midrange if your going for that scooped guitar sound. I also didn't like the sound of them, seemed very digital to me, my voice and the guitars sounded unnatural. They are probably better for EDM music I guess but to each their own.

I am also considering getting the Beyerdynamic DT990's to give them a try, that would be my next purchase. I worried that getting higher impedance phones might give me a problem with sound levels from my audio interface (UR44) but Steinberg have said that lower impedance phones should be used with their USB powered audio devices and the UR44, because it is mains powered is recommended to take up to 300ohm phones, so I should be right with the 250ohm Beyers.

Edited by Tezza
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I have the AKG 702's for mixing\mastering have a similar curve to the 712's but less pricey.

image.png.de869e34c0c93546990f4b9b224bae31.png

I have recently bought a pair of status cb1's specifically for tracking as they are closed back (less bleed)and not expensive. plus they are good to sense check mixes without calibration as they have a bass end boost.

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I have a few pair of headphone that I use through Sonarworks.

DT880 Pro
Avantone Pro
ACS IEM Custom Encore
Slate VSX

I have a really good pair of Studio monitors (see sig) but I am really getting into the Slate VSX.
Looking forward to the next software update for the headphones and some BigFoot emulations coming too.

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I'm intrigued about mixing with headphones, but I worry about what that might do to my ears (which are aging rapidly at this point, like the rest of me). 

The only decent pair I have are Sennheiser HD 212Pro. I think they have enhanced bass though, so their usefulness for mixing may be limited.

Shane mentioned Rin Tin Tin, by which I take it he means Tinnutus. I have that big time, all the time. I have to take anti-inflammatories for arthritis, and also use Tylenol daily, both of which cause that. As does listening with headphones. so I never use them anymore. 

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46 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

Have you run the demo?
Thoughts?

t

I tried the Guru plugin for a few hours with my spot checking phones, dialed them in & it sounded pretty good. Better than SonarWorks which is the only other software I have as I don't really don't care to mix on cans.

This isn't 'select a preset & you're transported into a million dollar studio' type software, you need to spend time with it & set it up..I am curious about the environments they have planned to release, cars, different speakers etc..hopefully some will be included in the demos..

The trial period should roughly a month so so I plan on casually using it from time to time.. I still find mixing on my mono cube more gratifying!

 

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