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Any tips for mixing with headphones?


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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Helios.G said:

Also, at low volumes, things that poke out too much or are too prominent in the mix are easier to hear than when it's all loud.

It is sort of a audio fact that everything sounds better when loud. The wall of sound will mask a million imperfections.
It’s like a lot of big concerts I go to these days and it’s massive db of low end. The punters think that this is good sound. I stand there going I can’t hear the keyboard, the hi hat, the BU vocals etc. 
Other than live concerts nobody listens to music at that level at home or while wandering about with ear buds on. 
So absolutely you need your mix to sound great at all levels and starting at the very lowest level will get you there faster.  
I rarely mix at anything over 80-90 db. 
 

Edited by John Vere
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2 minutes ago, pwal³ said:

i'm sure someone's mentioned it already, but having a reference track in the same style to compare to is useful

And level matching it to the one you're mixing 

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11 minutes ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Yes. Route it straight to your interface outputs, completely bypassing your master fx bux

BTW does the new Sonar have a dedicated Control Room feature yet?

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5 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Not that I'm aware of. What would you expect from such a feature?

Pertaining to this topic it keeps the studio separate from the mixing area. No need to worry about turning off any hp / room correction software monitored but not wanting rendered. ( or any tools monitored over speakers like clicks, metronomes, talkback, metering, scopes, referencing) No need to import or make  templates, use of simple presets to quickly load up different studio environments or routing scenarios.

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It's worth investing in good quality headphones. I'm a fan of Sennheiser 650's. At one time in life I had a relatively well treated room (homestudio wise ) I was very surprised how well they translated to between decent sets of monitors.

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Thanks for all the great advice guys. My biggest concern right now is just not hurting my ears again. I think, as Duncan mentioned, I mainly need to retrain myself to mixing at lower volume. And def taking more breaks.

 Btw, a few of u mentioned the dBs u mix at. I assume yall were referring to the monitor spkr level. I read online that u could also test the dBs of headphones by using a dB meter phone app and placing the mic of the phone inside the cup of the headphones. I'm sure it wont be the most accurate but maybe it'll give me a rough idea.

I havent tried it yet cause Im still resting my ears but it'd be awesome to know what dBs I'm mixing at.

Also, as much as I'd love a pair of modeling headphones, I'm just a poor guy. Eventually I'll try to get something with spkr modeling. For now, I see myself doing it the old school way and trying it on diff systems until I learn my headphones.

If that doesn't work out, I'm just gonna email Bob Clearmountain and see if he does charity mixing for the financially challenged. (Hey, it might work ?)

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On 6/11/2024 at 8:37 AM, T Boog said:

...

Also, as much as I'd love a pair of modeling headphones, I'm just a poor guy. Eventually I'll try to get something with spkr modeling. For now, I see myself doing it the old school way and trying it on diff systems until I learn my headphones.
...

Check out HoRNet VHS - it's only €10.99 ( ~ $12 US ).  It supports over 280 models of headphones.

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29 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Check out HoRNet VHS - it's only €10.99 ( ~ $12 US ).  It supports over 280 models of headphones.

Wow, Thanks bud! I've already started looking up reviews on it. Have u tried it out urself or heard any good feedback on it?

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Just now, T Boog said:

Wow, Thanks bud! I've already started looking up reviews on it. Have u tried it out urself or heard any good feedback on it?

I've got it, but haven't really used it much.  Seems to do what it says on the tin.

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40 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

I've got it, but haven't really used it much.  Seems to do what it says on the tin

Forgive my ignorance but what if my current headphones are not supported? Is it something where I can tweak it to match my headphones or is having one of the supported headphones a must-have for it to work properly.

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if you've been doing anything with room measurement software (e.g. REW or ARC etc) you might be able to use REW to measure your headphone response and create a usable EQ curve to flatten it (something akin to what the soundid reference product does (and which i believe has a lot more supported headphones etc).

Edited by Glenn Stanton
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2 hours ago, T Boog said:

Forgive my ignorance but what if my current headphones are not supported? Is it something where I can tweak it to match my headphones or is having one of the supported headphones a must-have for it to work properly.

You don't have to use the headphone correction - you can enable the room simulation on its own. The adjusted frequency response won't be 100%, but it will give you the room imaging/cross talk etc.

Alternatively you could download (or measure) the frequency response of your current headphones and chose a headphone model with the most similar frequency response.

Lastly, you could try contacting HorNET so see if they'd include your headphones in their model list.

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