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mixing headphones on the not quite pro level?

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Comments

  • Like @Tarekith, I prefer closed back types or IEMs, so I can really focus on things.
    I think it's worth saying that we live in an increasingly headphone-centric world these days, something to bear in mind regarding mixing.

  • @Telefunky said:
    if you have a fat bass while mixing a club tarck, it WILL burst the woofers... 100% certain
    (in that domain they are not exactly fun, but you get the idea pretty fast what's ok)
    it's less stress for ears and I use them constantly for bass playing - for their tight image

    In most cases if you mix on bass-heavy cans your mixes will end up with less bass, because of the false image your headphones are giving by emphasising the bass to your ears. This means that on other systems the bass will be comparatively lacking.

    Tight (or thin) sounding bass will have a better transient response at the expense of accurate frequency definition.

    And for a lot of people its highs that are fatiguing rather than lows.

    All this shows that there is no right or wrong, it's all very subjective and down to taste. What works for one person might not work for the other, the crucial thing is to find out what works for you.

  • I did quite a bit of research into this last year and ended up with Shure 440. They are cheap but have a rep for being balanced. I also have AKG 240 which I've been using for about 15 years and they're quite comparable (semi vs closed however). I've heard the new ones are not as good though ...

  • edited July 2016

    another sony guy here :)
    they are good enough for Ben Burtt and David Lynch (I saw pictures on set)
    so they are good enough for me :D
    I have them since 20 years, when I killed them, I just bought the same again, can't complain

    beyerdynamic dt 770/880 are nice too

    I have some sennheiser hd25 too, I hate them, the bass knocks my brain out.

  • @Tovokas said:
    I have the Sennheiser 280 Pros, which are right about your price. They have a nice clean sound, and are relatively flat, but I had to learn to compensate for their lack of bass. (I preferred my previous Audio-Technica ATH-M50's that unfortunately died an early death: the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever used that sound fantastic). Also, another shout-out for Waves NX on the desktop. I'm in a situation where I can't use my monitors, but I've been very pleased with how well my mixes are transferring using the virtual mix room.

    I had the Sennheisser 280 Pros before and find the 380s really improved the sound and lack of bass.

  • @gonekrazy3000 said:
    I'm using an Akg K240 Mk II and I'm pretty happy with them. Although I have paired them with a Subpac S2.... The combination is sublime :)

    aghhhh subpac.......so jealous. I want one of those so bad. how do you like the subpac?

  • That subpac thing looks pretty cool.

  • @Tarekith said:
    I have Focal Spirit Pros too and think they're excellent cans for the money. I know a few people who've had issues with them breaking, but I haven't experienced that with mine either. I used to use 7506s for years, good cans for the price, but I always found the low end was hit or miss.

    I use this on my master bus when mixing with my 7506's and it has helped them translate better.

    http://www.thestringnetwork.com/viewtopic.php?t=5632

    I made a preset in pro-q (and one for reaper when I'm working in that) that I use on my master. Just remember to disengage it when you bounce your mix. Luckily I've never left it on accidentally... Meaning 50% of the time I have to re- bounce.... ;-)

  • @Tovokas said:
    I have the Sennheiser 280 Pros, which are right about your price. They have a nice clean sound, and are relatively flat, but I had to learn to compensate for their lack of bass.

    I recommend the Sennheisers as well. Never noticed a lack of bass (mine sound very full with smooth extension into subfrequencies) but a smaller friend had the same complaint, he had to squish the headphones in a little bit, to get good bass response. I think it has to do with how big your head is changing how tight the headphones are. What seems like is happening is a little difference in distance from your ear changes the frequency response, which i'm guessing will happen with lots of headphones, not just these.

  • Tascam TH-300X are great workhorse headphones.
    MF regular price is $99 ( list price $199), but they show up as a SDOTD every few months for $39.
    I have a pair and two spares.
    Recommended.

  • @Tarekith said:
    Maybe consider some in ear options as well. I find that in general the low end with cheaper in ears is better than with cheaper cans.

    @JeffChasteen said:
    Tascam TH-300X are great workhorse headphones.
    MF regular price is $99 ( list price $199), but they show up as a SDOTD every few months for $39.
    I have a pair and two spares.
    Recommended.

    sdotd ? were at?

  • @Processaurus said:

    @Tovokas said:
    I have the Sennheiser 280 Pros, which are right about your price. They have a nice clean sound, and are relatively flat, but I had to learn to compensate for their lack of bass.

    I recommend the Sennheisers as well. Never noticed a lack of bass (mine sound very full with smooth extension into subfrequencies) but a smaller friend had the same complaint, he had to squish the headphones in a little bit, to get good bass response. I think it has to do with how big your head is changing how tight the headphones are. What seems like is happening is a little difference in distance from your ear changes the frequency response, which i'm guessing will happen with lots of headphones, not just these.

    Makes total sense that the physical fit / individual anatomy effects the sound. It is not all just magic coils and electricity in the end. I find the cups for the 380s are much larger and completely enclose my ears / hug my head perfectly, much better than the 280s which kind of rested on my ears. Headphones are like shoes really and once you find a pair that works, buy another just in case they discontinue them.

  • @eross said:

    @Tarekith said:
    Maybe consider some in ear options as well. I find that in general the low end with cheaper in ears is better than with cheaper cans.

    @JeffChasteen said:
    Tascam TH-300X are great workhorse headphones.
    MF regular price is $99 ( list price $199), but they show up as a SDOTD every few months for $39.
    I have a pair and two spares.
    Recommended.

    sdotd ? were at?

    Stupid Deal Of The Day at Musician's Friend.
    Sorry, I got a little abbreviation happy there.

  • haha oh yeah I love that store and their stupid deal of the days

  • I mixed an album & a few EPs using AKG K271s. They're closed back, though, and I think this has contributed to buggering my hearing right up.

    Currently using Beyerdynamic DT990s, which are much more comfortable over long periods but the compromise is that they do colour the sound a little in the low frequencies.

    I'd recommend either, but I do believe the ALGs are a lot cheaper these days.

  • @sleepless said:
    I mixed an album & a few EPs using AKG K271s. They're closed back, though, and I think this has contributed to buggering my hearing right up.

    Currently using Beyerdynamic DT990s, which are much more comfortable over long periods but the compromise is that they do colour the sound a little in the low frequencies.

    I'd recommend either, but I do believe the ALGs are a lot cheaper these days.

    what did the Akgs do to your hearing? did they damage your hearing, or just through your hearing off for mixing?

  • You can mix with any headphone, getting consistent and reliable results, as long as:

    1 - you tune your ears by playing back through them a lot of hi-quality reference tracks you know well;

    2 - you do ocasional fact-checking on speakers; the more speakers, the better;

    3 - you have good spectral analysers such as the ones in the FF plugins - worth first to use them to analyse those tracks you know well for bass response etc.

    4 - you deal with subsonic issues by aggressively rolling off sub-bass frequencies - most speakers (non-subwoofers) won't reproduce anything lower than 40 Hz.

    That said, obviously your life will be easier with a high-end open back headphone (sorry to disagree with you, @tarekith) such as the HD650 I have. Good, reliable closed backs would be better suited for working on noisy environments, and for that I use my HD280s.

  • P.S.: not to mention other workarounds: A/B'ing with your reference material in your DAW, and also checking the mix in mono periodically. Auria (both Pro and regular) has a "mono" button switch in the master track strip.

  • @eross said:

    @sleepless said:
    I mixed an album & a few EPs using AKG K271s. They're closed back, though, and I think this has contributed to buggering my hearing right up.

    Currently using Beyerdynamic DT990s, which are much more comfortable over long periods but the compromise is that they do colour the sound a little in the low frequencies.

    I'd recommend either, but I do believe the ALGs are a lot cheaper these days.

    what did the Akgs do to your hearing? did they damage your hearing, or just through your hearing off for mixing?

    My hearing is damaged, although I don't know if the AKGs are completely to blame. But wearing closed-back headphones 12 hours a day, every day for 3 years can't have helped.

    Coupled with 7 years of DJing without ear protection, cupping Sennheiser HD25s to my left ear, I've been through hearing loss, severe tinnitus, ear infections....I now find mid-hi frequencies severely unpleasant, like the whole left side of my head is filled with grinding metal.

    Anyway, as I say...not sure how much my overuse of the AKGs contributed to this..

  • that's heavy load on ears, for shure... (sorry to read that)
    but it's not about the brand, any closed model can quicky lead to acoustic overdose
    open backs seem to have less impact, but first of all they don't change the sound image as much as closed ones
    (that is an entirely 'artificial' environment, infamous for those in-head projections of sources etc)
    for me the AKG K-x01 series is the closest you can to a speaker image
    but they have a very pronounced top end
    in my case it compensates for (natural) high frequency loss, but younger folks often find them unpleasant
    cans are a very personal decision - not much right or wrong

    cheers, Tom

  • Ath m50x

  • @Telefunky Yeah, I was really just stating that my closed backs - which happened to be AKGs - might have damaged my hearing. Indeed, it is a potential hazard with closed back headphones in general.

  • @sleepless said:

    @eross said:

    @sleepless said:
    I mixed an album & a few EPs using AKG K271s. They're closed back, though, and I think this has contributed to buggering my hearing right up.

    Currently using Beyerdynamic DT990s, which are much more comfortable over long periods but the compromise is that they do colour the sound a little in the low frequencies.

    I'd recommend either, but I do believe the ALGs are a lot cheaper these days.

    what did the Akgs do to your hearing? did they damage your hearing, or just through your hearing off for mixing?

    My hearing is damaged, although I don't know if the AKGs are completely to blame. But wearing closed-back headphones 12 hours a day, every day for 3 years can't have helped.

    Coupled with 7 years of DJing without ear protection, cupping Sennheiser HD25s to my left ear, I've been through hearing loss, severe tinnitus, ear infections....I now find mid-hi frequencies severely unpleasant, like the whole left side of my head is filled with grinding metal.

    Anyway, as I say...not sure how much my overuse of the AKGs contributed to this..

    Not to play doctor over the Internet or anywhere else, but are you sure that's not something else? Grinding metal feelings from frequencies of its actually causing pain may be a sign of something else. Worth looking into maybe (sorry, I'm a social worker, that kind of thing catches my attention).

    That being said, I do sound a lot and feel like I'm always trying to tame 2k-5k, and I don't have hearing loss that I know of, I've been wearing custom ear plugs and in ears for a long time and keeping the volume low.

    Someone mentioned the shape of headphones affecting a person - akg 240 make me feel dizzy. I got beyerdynamic ear pads for my Sony 7506 a few years ago when the ear pads bit the dust finally, and although the sound changed slightly, causing me to relearn them to a degree, they are super super comfortable.

  • I can't go without my KRK KNS 6400, best Headphones I have used and I tried a bunch of them. After having started to mix on those I even sold my Studio Monitors. Haven't had Studio Monitor in years.

  • I've just ordered a set of AKG 702s after auditioning headphones in store for about 3 hours. Don't know if I've made the right choice yet, but those were the 'phones (in my budget range) that impressed me most.

  • @o_imseng said:
    I can't go without my KRK KNS 6400, best Headphones I have used and I tried a bunch of them. After having started to mix on those I even sold my Studio Monitors. Haven't had Studio Monitor in years.

    wow that's saying a lot that you sold your studio monitors, and mix on these. I think I am defiantly gonna try those out

  • edited July 2016

    Cheap is not really cheap.
    Expensive is not really expensive..

    Had the same pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 headphones for ten years. They still sound gorgeous, still in great shape. I will get DT880s when they die, which seems like it will happen (crossing fingers) after another ten years.

    Of course the headphones in my avatar sound the most natural.

  • @eross said:

    @o_imseng said:
    I can't go without my KRK KNS 6400, best Headphones I have used and I tried a bunch of them. After having started to mix on those I even sold my Studio Monitors. Haven't had Studio Monitor in years.

    wow that's saying a lot that you sold your studio monitors, and mix on these. I think I am defiantly gonna try those out

    I can't really say wether that will hold up for you as well. I got used to this headphones in such a way I can compensate the shortcomings from mixing on headphones pretty good. There is some physical restraint as to the bass frequencies beeing difficult to judge without monitors and subs but up until now nobody has complained.

    I did the SP Electro, SP Link Sounds and the newest Soundpack Tough Trance for Novations Launchpad all with Headphones, my last releases everything was done on these KRK Cups.

    Try it out.

  • I'll vouch for any sennheisers you can afford I've had a pair of the 280s I think for years and they're just accurate, assuming your mixing skills are competent, what you hear is what you get.

  • With headphones it really does seem to be worth spending as much as you can afford; I had had my AKG K270s for as long as I can remember, since 1999 I think. They were destroyed in a freak forklift accident 2 years ago. ( which means I used them nearly every day for ~15 years ) When they died, I cried. I loved those 'phones. Been making do with some K44's, which are actually rather spectacular for the £20 I paid for them. I miss my K270s

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