Mixing with Headphones - Sonarworks Reference 4 or Tooneboosters Morphit

[Arthur Guidi]

Hello fellow musicians,

I know that headphone mixing will never be ideal, but I´m trying to make the best out of it.

After testing Sonarworks Reference 4 and Toneboosters Morphit, I came up with 2 very different results, and they are so radically different that I´m sure one of them must be way better than the other, or at least it seems that they would bring up VERY different results for mixing and even more for mastering

With both of them set to my specific cans (Sony MDR 7506 plugged in a MOTU):

 Morphit sounds very nice and full, very pleasant to hear and a setting that could sure be used to correct the phones for monitoring or listening to everyday music. 

On the other hand, Reference 4 sounds really "boring" flat, not full and overall dull. (like the general consensus says  an ideal mixing reference should be.)

Now, listening to one mix with Morphit it sounds very close to ready, but with Reference 4 it seems like there´s still a lot of eq and frequency boosting to be done.

I know by heart and read a lot about the importance of a flat reference to mix, but if it is totally or as flat as possible, would it not lead to an "exaggerated" mix result? Because as I said earlier, I would have to boost a loot of frequencies to make the mix sound on Reference 4 as good as it sounds on Morphit.

Can anybody shed some light on the subject?  Because for me is a real mystery how both products are sold like THE solution for headphone mixing, but sound REALLY different.

Cheers!

[David]

Hi Arthur , I do use Sonarworks on my speakers and the mixes translate very well to other systems, 

I do not use Sonarworks for my headphones , Morphit is much closer to my speaker eq.

I use Shure SRH840 headphones. I would expect Sonarworks to be closer but they are not.  

These Headphones are not calibrated buy Sonarworks.  That maybe an option for you is to buy 

a calibrated set from them.   In the mean time I would do a mix using Morphit and a mix using Sonarworks

and see which mix translates better to other systems ,   That is what counts ,