Phil: Home Studio Mixing/Monitoring Question.

[Josh33]

 

Hey Phil, sorry if you'd rather me post this somewhere else but I know I can always get a hold of you here and some others might be interested.

 

Basically I'm in a dilemma. My home recording set up is growing and I'm looking to self release a solo album over the next few months. I've gotten a good bit of gear that I'm happy with and I'm hoping to start tracking next month. Right now i don't have anything good to listen back on for mixing though. I've been using crappy Alesis M1Active 320 monitors and crappy earbuds. I really want to get something i can use for listening to my mixes after tracking.

 

Ideally, I would get both new monitors and headphones but with my budget and timeframe, I'm not sure that's possible. Headphones seem ideal for me right now because I can use them for both tracking and mixing.

 

I guess basically what I am asking is.. Are there any headphones out there that are worth the money for both tracking and mixing or should I just save my money and attempt to get some headphones for tracking and some really nice monitors for mixing, and if so, can you suggest anything. Do

you suggest primarily mixing on monitors or are some headphones suitible in certain scenarios?

 

Basically everything i have farts out with any sort of low end and volume. Im using a lot of Moog Minitaur synth stuff and fat drum machine sounds along with traditional guitar, bass, etc.. I don't really have a set budget but I'm trying to keep things low, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that if I really have to spend the money on quality, I am more than willing to step up and buy the high end stuff.

 

Okay, sorry for thinking out loud here.

[t_e_l_e]

for mixing headphones have only limited use, e.g. spotting phase issues, or spotting some glitches or sound cracks which get lost when listened on monitors

other than that all headphones, f**k up the low end (every one does it, they do just in different way depending on the model), and also they cannot reproduce the stereo image
cause stereo image is something which needs room, with headphones attached to your ears the room is reduced to zero you just have two mono signals independent going two each ear and the real stereo impression is lost...

so you definitely need headphones for tracking and monitors for mixing, everything else depends on your budget

[V]

I wouldn't say the stereo image is really gone on headphones. Put on some headphones and listen to a 3d binaural recording and you get a very good sense of stereo image to the point where it can feel like someone is actually moving around your head.

I definitely agree that they will typically attenuate bass like crazy though. However they're not useless for mixing entirely. You can sometimes get a better idea of your midrange and treble especially on a guitar track if you listen in headphones and you can also get a good sense of relative levels for things like dialogue and some sound effects if you are working on voiceover or movies. What you definitely need to do though is only use them as a rough tool and fine tune with some decent monitors. Especially bass eq.

On a reasonable budget I like the sennheiser um...I forget which model but they cover your whole ear and are like 100 on amazon.on

[Josh33]

 

Awesome guys, you definitely answered my question, thank you. Now just to find the right pair of headphones and monitors. I was looking at the 100 Sennheiser and Sony ones.. those can pretty much handle tracking without being too expensive then?

 

And how about monitors then.. kinda hard without a set budget but I would like to keep it around the $500 range but can go more if it's really needed. Just sold and amp so I have some money to work with. Any front runners?

[gambit]

buying a pair of KRK monitors was probably the best musical purchase i ever made.

i did a bit of research beforehand vs Alesis and whatever else was in my entry-level budget and they seem to be well-favoured.

i went with the KRK Rokit5's, but they obviously make better models that might be in your price range. but from a few years use i reckon i'll stick with KRK's for any future purchases i make. really chuffed with them!

[Phil O'Keefe]

Mixing on headphones vs monitors? I'd much rather use decent monitors... some people mix on headphones, but I don't normally recommend it. Having said that, monitors are only part of the monitoring equation - the room the monitors are in, and their (and your) location in the room all play a big role in what you hear. What can you tell me about the room you'll be setting up in?

As far as good monitors, yes, I do like ADAMs a lot - A7s (now A7x) are good speakers.

As far as cans (headphones) tracking and mixing are two different tasks, and most headphones are usually better at one or the other, and very rarely both. Generally, the most accurate sounding headphones are open-back models, but they "bleed" like crazy, which makes them unsuitable for tracking - the sound of the click track or monitoring mix from the open-backed headphones tends to bleed into the live vocal or instrument mic(s). Closed-back headphones often don't sound quite as accurate as the better open-backed units, but they don't bleed.

For open-back headphones (occasional mixing and spot-checking recordings / mixes for sonic gremlins), I like the Grado SR-125 a lot. They don't work for tracking though - for that, the Sennheiser HD280 is a good choice. So are the KRK KNS-8400. Both have good to excellent isolation. The Audio-Technica ATH-M50's that were mentioned earlier are also good cans. I also have various Sony, Fostex, and AKG headphone models that I use for tracking... there must be a couple of dozen sets of various cans floating around here...

...I'd still rather use monitors to mix on.