using headphones as monitors

[hornblas]

I use AKG K141. I've used them for years. Great sound and seem to last forever.

[little boh peep]

these sennheiser's HD280

I have these, and while their sound quality is good enough for writing, I wouldn't mix down in them. Hardly any bass comes through.

Really comfortable though! Sennheiser should make easy chairs out of the padding on the earpiece.

[joseph-j]

You could go for all these things, but an option I've found to be really useful - a flatmate who's a studio sound engineer. The cost? A constant supply of Galaxy chocolate and Dr Pepper. Pretty cheap by comparison.

Sorted.

Ok, so he's more used to Sugababes than dubstep, but he'll come round to it eventually.

[jtransition]

The spec on the Tannoy Reveals does not do these speakes any justice,I think when they are quoting the frequency response of speakers they are talking about accuracy (eg they are accurate down to 65hz )I use these speakers in our production studio and they definitely go below 65hz.We have also compared the Tannoys to Genelec1032's and whilst the Genelecs are better it is important to recognise that they are 2G'S more expensive.

For late night production head phones are ok but not for mixing.Buy yourself a pair of Tannoy Reveals preferably the passive model link this up to a good power amp (Samson will do) and you will be fine ,You do not need to worry about going down to 20 hz because your basslines do not need to be that low and most club soundsystems do not reproduce that low anyway.

cheers for the reply, great to get sum advice of the 'master' hehe

ill def look into the reveals..
i know you dont need to go all way down to 20hz, but, for example, these tannoys say they go down to 65 Hz, surely you need to monitor below this though?


as for headphones.. i reckon its between the sennheiser hd580 and akg k240s

[foamo]

cool, what model Reveals do you use?

ive hunted around and found:
Reveal 6 passive for only £135
Reveal 5a active for £210 (or are actives really not the way to go?)

or am i still looking too cheap?

ive also heard good things about Alesis MK2 around this price too

cheers

[jtransition]

Let me add that every single time I've attempted to mix late night on 'phones, I've always utterly ballsed it up. Every single bloody time. The temptation to make it sound 'exciting' on 'phones always ends up with fatigue and hyped levels that sound like shite the morning after.

I've come to this same compromise - Mix during the day on my monitors, but only ever put things together, sequence, produce, compose on the headphones.

Another good thing I've been doing is summing my master buss into mono and using just ONE monitor to mix with. This sounds crazy, but you CAN pan around in Mono and find the sweet spot for your elements. A trick I learnt from some clever blokes sat behind the big desks. It's easy to concentrate your balance on one speaker, then back over to stereo for finesse and stereo tweakage. Plus, if you get it sounding good on one speaker, in two it'll really sing.

Also, I keep the levels down most of the time. I rarely go above 9 'o clock on the amp when mixing. It's easier to 'feel' the texture of the track and listen for holes. I only whack the volume every now and again to feel the thing and see if it's working. Tracks mixed at low volumes work at all volumes. Tracks mixed loud are often a bit hyped and have difficulty translating to other systems.

I'm mixing on Dynaudio BM6As during sociable hours and using K240s for late night antics - Seems like a good compromise.

Agreed

i'll consider myself corrected! but how low should you go? i had always thought lots of weight between 20 and 40hz was a good thing.

It all depends on the bassline and the tune,I think it is important to concentrate on what the tune sounds like first and then worry about the sonics .I do not want to encourage people to mix using spectrum analysers.

also, how come ppl reccomend against active monitors?

I am not against active speakers ....Its just that when I compred the active VS the passive the Passive model and my Quad amp sounded much better.

hey j so if we cut 20-25 or 30 or whatever will we get more bass
weight

No

[forensix (mcr)]

hey j so if we cut 20-25 or 30 or whatever will we get more bass weight

no but you'll get more headroom

[elgato]

big up for the tips man, if you dont mind i have a few other questions...

are these the ones you mean?... http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop ... ct_id/6424

what amp do you use?

and would you recommend a sub or not?

[batfink]

The spec on the Tannoy Reveals does not do these speakes any justice,I think when they are quoting the frequency response of speakers they are talking about accuracy (eg they are accurate down to 65hz ).

yeah they normally measure LF extension at the -3db or -6db point. so it wouldn't be flat to 65. but like you say that doesnt mean they don't go lower, its just that they get quieter and quieter the further you go below 65hz.

back to the orginal topic, i do like hd580's, mainly cos any other phones ive tried have made my mixdowns sound crap on everything else. Admittedly my mixdowns are a bit iffy full stop but i think they give a pretty good imrpession of whats going on. imo etc.

[tim]

bump in the hopes that jason sees this and gets the chance to answer elgato's questions

[mrhope]

I created most of my songs using headphones. Usually things sound different when I play them on speakers, but often the difference isn't really bad.

However on some songs, nothing works right when mixing on headphones. The songs sound perfect on headphones and then on speakers everything is lopsided. Often some bass frequencies are too loud and a few things in the midrange sound imbalanced.

I am using some Sennheiser 280's and they sound great, but I can't depend on them for truthful sound.

Oddly enough, I did some really good mixes on some muffled-sounding Sony headphones. It's all unpredictable.

I'm getting some monitors this week, but since my room isn't treated and the computer monitor has to sit between them, who knows what sound I will get out of them.

[j_j]

hd 25
and good luck