mixing: untreated room VS. headphones

[mtl6]

hey guys, i've searched around on this forum and others but i can't quite find a helpful answer. i'm looking to step up my production to the next level as i'm currently mixing on a combination of shitty macbook speakers and bose headphones. at first it didn't bother me but now i'm looking to improve the quality of my productions, so i want to spend a little money and invest in either mixing headphones OR monitors. i can't afford both.

the problem is that if i buy monitors, my bedroom will be my studio. lots of shit all around the room would probably create some bad acoustics with bass and whatnot. if i bought headphones, i would use canz3d and a lot of double checking on other sound systems to make sure it was accurate enough. i know i'm not gonna sound professional, but i want to get as close as possible. so what's better... for example, a pair of sennheiser headphones, or some krk monitors in an untreated room?

thanks in advance, sorry if there's already been posts on this

[sunny_b_uk]

get some sennheisers, i share a room with my brother & cant really treat my room, u can mix down perfectly on good sennheissers (even self master if you wana take it that far, its possible) also u can mix down late at night without disturbing any1!

[Mammoth]

I'd rather produce with a nice set of Sennheisers or Shures than to use monitors in an untreated room. Just an opinion.

[sunny_b_uk]

and il add that u wont have to be double checking much with good headphones when u get used to using them. u will be double checking several times more if u got monitor speakers in an untreated room..

[skimpi]

you can do good mixes on headphones, if you are good at mixing. but you cant beat monitors really. i dont have treated rooms, and my room at uni is a tiny box, but id rather have the monitors so i dont have headphones cramping my head, you can walk round the room and chill with your tunes playing, you can feel the bass. ALOT more comfortable imo, and you can always check your tunes against others.

[vertx]

akg 240s and focusrite saffire 6

Only real negative of headphones I'm seeing is fatigue...

[jrisreal]

I usually construct the track and do a general mix through my comp speakers because it just feels better. After that, i get on the sennheisers to refine the mix and maybe self master...

...but I don't have monitors or a treated room.

[mitchAUS]

i use monitors in a terrible room. i feel more comfortable using monitors and more confident about making decisions about the stereo field of my track. But i always end up checking on my akg 141's so the shit room isn't an issue when I'm sussing out how the frequencies are working for me in the mix. couldn't imagine going through the whole creative process on headphones, too uncomfortable

[fragments]

I mix in an unideal room (angled ceiling, and the room shape forces me to be in a corner). and check on my hi fi system downstairs, in the car, on headphones...I think and others have confirmed my mix downs come out pretty well. I too prefer monitors...headphones fatigue my ears far too quickly.

[vertx]

People talk about not being able to use the stereo field on headphones in a mix but in my experience it's been the exact opposite.
Listening to a well mixed track in headphones lets you know exactly where things should sit in your stereo field for your own tracks because of the exaggeration and separation of that stereo field, imo there are many more variables to consider with monitors in this regard. e.g. early reflections due to room shape, incorrectly spaced and placed monitors....

[sesshin]

untreated room, + referencing in other setups: home stereo, car stereo, ear buds, etc+.

headphones are a good reference but they have just as many EQ anomalies as untreated rooms do. you need to get up into the big bucks ($2k+ systems) to start getting a flat frequency response.

if you do mix on headphones though it would be good to try a crossfeed plugin that simulates speaker spread; TB Isone, Redline Monitor, to name a couple

[Atac]

Get some open backed headphones if your house isn't too noisy.
It will somewhat recreate the space of monitors, at least more so than closed backs.

About to pick up some AKG K240 MKII's this weekend actually

[komanderkin]

in both cases, using a reference track is essential, imho. you can make a decent mix in non-ideal conditions if you can check your own mix against something you think sounds good.

i'd say use both your monitors and headphones and use a reference track.