Monitors or Headphone's

[whoisp]

What do you use and why for mixing and Mastering? 
 

What headphones, monitors and who uses a sub? 

[craigb]

When I did recording and mixing, I started with near-field monitors, then used headphones, then used PA speakers and, if I was really going to do it correctly, I would have played it in my car.

 

[Light Grenade]

Both.  Ultrasone Pro 1480i headphones that I know inside out, and small Genelecs that I switch to periodically. 

Both sources don't necessarily have to be great. One 'good' monitoring source, and just something for a different perspective can be enough. Personally, too many monitoring options confuses me. I'm comfortable with two sources that can I learn well, along with Izotope Tonal Balance Control (or similar) on the master to keep me in check. 

The more I switched/added monitoring options, the more I ended up fighting the mix. 

[whoisp]

12 minutes ago, Light Grenade said:

Both.  Ultrasone Pro 1480i headphones that I know inside out, and small Genelecs that I switch to periodically. 

Both sources don't necessarily have to be great. One 'good' monitoring source, and just something for a different perspective can be enough. Personally, too many monitoring options confuses me. I'm comfortable with two sources that can I learn well, along with Izotope Tonal Balance Control (or similar) on the master to keep me in check. 

The more I switched/added monitoring options, the more I ended up fighting the mix. 

I totally get you.  I had some Yamaha HS8 and got rid of them and went back to my old rare Lars & Ivan 2.1 system. They are only true 14RMS but the signal to noise and the 20Hz to 22KHZ range is all i need but i can hear the nuanced sound better at close range as they sit right in front of me on the desk  for testing. i prefer my cheap pair of Sony MDR 7506 as my ears are just trained to them over my ridiculously expensive waste of money Sennheiser. Ive also got a nice pair of Bose but use them to track in vocal booth so I'm not moving cables round all the time

[Bapu]

99% of the time it's headphones for mixing even though I have a pair iLoud MTMs with built in ARC correction.

As craigb says, the real test is the car, which I do.

 

[InstrEd]

25 minutes ago, Bapu said:

As craigb says, the real test is the car, which I do.

And soon you're have to test in your Hovercraft ?

[whoisp]

11 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

And soon you're have to test in your Hovercraft ?

I have Bluetooth headset in car, not a great sound test haha

[hockeyjx]

12 minutes ago, whoisp said:

I have Bluetooth headset in car, not a great sound test haha

No usb at all? 

[daveiv]

7 minutes ago, hockeyjx said:

No usb at all? 

What is this, 2022?

[Zargg]

Hi. I mix mostly on monitors, with IK ARC 3 (room calibration, and Sonarworks 4 (for HP's calibration).

I often check on HP's during the mixing process.

I have a pair of Fluid FX80's and a pair of IK iLoud Micro's as my monitors, and BD DT770 and AKG K240 as HP's.

All the best.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Zargg
Spelling

[bats brew]

always monitors.

 

i only use the cans for tracking, checking mixes for tiny stuff.

 

you'll never get a mix that fully translates properly thru headphones.

[Russell]

46 minutes ago, Zargg said:

 with IK ARC 3 (room calibration, and Sonarworks 4 (for HP's calibration).

 

If you don't mind me asking - Sonarworks also does speaker/room calibration - why do you use ARC instead? is it that much better or . . . ?

[whoisp]

55 minutes ago, batsbrew said:

always monitors.

 

i only use the cans for tracking, checking mixes for tiny stuff.

 

you'll never get a mix that fully translates properly thru headphones.

The headphones these days have become a secret weapon of many mixing and mastering engineers. I find headphones are far better for the quality control and finding issues but test on monitors. Its fining that balance and the right monitors that your ears prefer. If someone can't get amazing results with AKG Pro Audio K371  5 Hz To 40 Khz they need to give up, well they need to give up if they can't even do it on a pair of Sony MDR-7506 haha 

[Zargg]

1 hour ago, Russell said:

If you don't mind me asking - Sonarworks also does speaker/room calibration - why do you use ARC instead? is it that much better or . . . ?

I feel that ARC 3 has a more "3D" sound to it, compared to SW 4, which feels more "2D". I don't know which other way to describe it.

I haven't tested the latest SW version though.

[bats brew]

4 hours ago, whoisp said:

The headphones these days have become a secret weapon of many mixing and mastering engineers. 

I'm sorry. I just don't think that's true. 

Please offer some links to professional mixers and masterers that say they primarily use headphones.

 

I cannot find any myself.

[Jacques Boileau]

7 hours ago, batsbrew said:

I'm sorry. I just don't think that's true. 

Please offer some links to professional mixers and masterers that say they primarily use headphones.

 

I cannot find any myself.

Andrew Scheps

[craigb]

On 11/8/2022 at 5:27 AM, whoisp said:

 

Monitors or Headphone's?

 

 

                                                                                 Or...

 

 

                                                                                 ???

 

                                        ?

 

[Sheens]

Tried Reloop 8 inch speakers, Adam 7 inch monitors + subwoofer, Auratone 5C cubes, Equator 5 inch coaxial monitors.

Several AKG cans, several Sennheisers, several Shure's, several Audio Technica's and some Sony.

And I did the 10.000 hours of practice.

I can tweek the bass for hours while the eq is in 'bypass' and hear the next day there isn't any bass at all

Also my internal BPM clock and roundtrip latency in my ears/brain is drifting like crazy, I'll tweak the attack/release for an hour and think it's ok.

Then next day I'll hear it's WAY too fast or slow haha......so I gave up

But Manny Marroquin uses 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Sheens

[bats brew]

4 hours ago, Jacques Boileau said:

Andrew Scheps

when you can mix as good as Scheps, 

i say go for it.

if you are a beginner mixer,

forget it.

 

[bats brew]

FWIW, in the article i read of scheps discussing headphone mixing, he did mention that for his ears, he can only mix on MD7506s and cannot mix on anything else and make it work.

 

any good headphone with a decent range, you can train your ears to understand what you're hearing, versus how it will translate.

 

but we're talking about scheps,

not guys on a BBS mixing at home.

Edited November 10, 2022 by batsbrew