“I need a pair of speakers to start my studio” - Common saying
The fascination with studio speakers is something you keep seeing among home studio owners. While having a decent pair of monitors can be extremely satisfying and productive, it can also be a barrier.
Here is why I think mixing with headphones can actually be a great thing.
The first reason is the most obvious one. You are creating a barrier that should not be there. We can all agree that instead of creating barriers, you should down.
Can you start mixing and get experience with a pair of headphones? Obviously yes.
It is much cheaper than speakers. So you save some money and get the ball rolling. No excuse for not starting practising your art of mixing songs.
(And even if you already have a pair of monitors, headphones can be a good option. I use headphones all the time)
A great thing you get from mixing with headphones is consistency. That means that you will know that piece of equipment very well and very soon, due to the fact that is always the exact same source you listen to. (And to know your gear is one of the main skills one can have) On top of that you can mix in the bar, on the bus, on the airplane anywhere you so please… also if you have a room mate or if you want to mix late at night… headphones is your answer.
Another great point is clarity. The main problem with home studios is that they do not have the sound treatment professional studios do. They might (and should) have acoustic treatment but in that aspect it can not compare to professional studios. ( It is indeed the main difference between home and so the called pro Studio).
So with headphones all of that goes away, you get it straight from the source. Hence you don’t need to do acoustic treatment at the beginning, you safe in speakers and acoustic foam. You save twice and you start at double the speed (Pretty good deal, if you ask me).
On top of that you get more precise sound. You know when you are listening to a song on headphones and you hear some details that you hadn’t before. Well, the same goes for mixing, you will notice the subtle changes you make in a mix in a more clear manner.
So here it is... my case for mixing with headphones.
(I am not saying this is the best or only way to do it. I am saying that you can start doing it like this if you are worried about the money. And It's a excellent way to get your mixing skill developed and get great results)
Let me know about your experience and what you think.
Hope you go make some great sounding music.
I have to disagree with you on this one.
First of all there is no real bass in headphones. No matter what you think, bass is something you feel not hear. You feel it in your chest, your whole body. For real bass reproduction you need a big membrane to create air pressure. What you think you hear as bass in your headphones is just your mind playing tricks on you.
Second: with headphones the stereo panning is incorrect. Music is made on speakers and should be mixed and listened mostly on speakers, there's a good reason for that. In a ideal stereo situation the speakers are 45 degrees towards the listener, making a triangle with even sides, this is the so called sweet spot, where the sound is centered.
When you mix on speakers and put a sound in the left speaker, for example, you hear it with both ears. With headphones this is not the case, they ruin the imaging and will lead to issues in the mix.
Also listening to headphones can lead to hearing loss and can make your ears easily tired.
Yes, there are some situations where it's good to have a good pair of headphones. But in most cases ignore them in the studio, except for referencing.
If you are on a tight budget and just starting up, I still would recommend buying cheap studio monitors than a pair of monitor headphones to get you start mixing.
Don't believe me, ask Sheldon.
Hey, thank you for your comment.
Yes the low end is always a tricky part of mixing and in headphones or smaller speakers you do lose it. (I am actually a Bass player and a night sometimes I don’t even played them with headphones, I just put a hoddie and play it acoustic, the vibration does the rest)
Panning is for sure better served on speakers, as everything else. The idea of mixing with headphones is that you do not have to worry about the sweet spot or bass traps or different room acoustics, that for beginner can be quite tricky.
Actually I have told beginners that I have had as students , to mix 70% of the song hard left and hard right. One of the reasons being most people do not listen to music dead centre of the speakers And that allows them to progress much faster and they end up being pretty good at panning once they gradually explore it more.
(Allow me the suggestion, but there is an amazing book about panning and mixing in general “Zen and the art of mixing”)
What I am trying to say with this article is that, if you are starting out you can get some headphones and go for it. There are many issues such as ear fatigue and you will need to use your laptop speakers for reference. Again not saying it is the best or only way.
I do have a pair of speakers and 98% of my mixes are done there, using headphones and laptop speakers as reference.
But I have mixed tons of songs with my headphones without turning on the monitors. Even “Andrew Scheps“ (one of the best mixers of all time) mixed an entire album with some headphones. The album was mastered at Abbey Road and they did a “Flat Transfer,” meaning they did not change it at all.
Thanks for your comment and reading the article. I do know a lot of people who would not mix with headphones ever.
As the saying goes: It's not the gear, it's the ear.
Exactly!!
Yes, you definitely have a good understanding of how the lower frequencies work. Bass is a feeling more than anything else and is missing on headphones.
I am not a fan of mixing on headphones.
I prefer doing it first on my studio monitors, then check it on a hi-fi and finally listen to it on a cheap box like kitchen radio, phone, car stereo.
Eventually changing something. I don't even pre listen it on headphones at all, the concern is that the low quality players are missing parts of the sound, so I need them to be heard even on those. On headphones you can hear everything, so no worries.
Yeah, I could not agree more that you should reference it in some small cheap device. (Like the story of Micheal Jackson and Quincy jones, when they set a small radio on fire with the mix heheh)
My method is studio monitors and then first headphones for reference, only when it is well advance I go for laptop monitors.
Thanks for you comment
Mixing with headphones is great IF the listener is going to use headphones too.
The reason studios use monitors it to get it to sound right no matter what the track is played back on. Most studios also have a crappy boom box to play the track on too, because even using a great set of monitors requires the end user to have great monitors too to get the same effect, so, they play it back on a cheap speaker system once they're close to a final mix and see if it sounds good still and make adjustments accordingly, usually needing to add more bass or separate the frequency ranges.
Yes. That is what I do too. Either in my personal studio or professional ones.