Headphone mix is the preferred technique?

[simon lyn]

I'm having to mix on phones due to the timing of my job and the thin ceiling to my landlord's suite above. I got to thinking of the possible upsides:

1. Increasingly, almost everyone I know (including me) is doing the majority of their music listening via ear/headphones. It's simple, portable, convenient and inexpensive. If this pattern were to continue listening on speakers could become a minority practice, then perhaps I *should* be mixing on headphones...

2. I could resource a reference quality headphone monitoring environment (Benchmark H1 headphone amp/AKG K701 headphones, eg) for about the same price as a budget conscious speaker set up

In practice I'd probably get good quality headphone setup plus something like Auratones to make sure my mixes weren't completely barking...but what do you think, am I just rationalizing the limitations my current monitoring environment, or should our mix/monitoring techniques align with the predominant listening mode of the public?

[moo the magic cow]

I believe it was martin walker who did a great piece on this a few months back. There was even a freeware crossfeed plugin that could simulate* a speaker mix, or get you closer to one.

*i'm certain i'm using the wrong word here.

[Shreddie]

I remember reading somewhere (probably in an issue of SOS) that mixing on cans is often frowned upon by many in the industry. Even the thought of that makes me boil!!
I just feel that they're wrong for so many reasons. Some of which you've mentioned but I'll list all of my thoughts on the matter.

Firstly, most of us at home have less than adequete acoustics which means monitor speakers (no matter how good they are) are a poor choice in many cases. Headphones on the other hand are not affected by the rooms acoustics. Speakers have a relatively small "sweet spot" which you must stay in for accurate mixing. With headphones the sweet spot is always with you. Small amounts of digital clipping, clicks etc can be hard or even impossible to hear even on quality speakers. It sticks out a mile with quality phones though! Following on from that, good headphones can resolve more detail than speakers on the whole. Headphones usually have a much wider frequency response than speakers (mine are nominally flat from 8Hz to 30KHz).

Now onto the listeners. Who at home listens to their music in an acoustically sound environment, on good quality, correctly placed speakers and remains in the "sweet spot". Very few indeed I should imagine. The vast majority out there will most probably be listening in a poor sounding room on some cheap little radio or computer speakers, probably stuffed in a corner 1 foot apart or maybe one on top of the other!! And they're going to be moving around the room too. Or maybe they'll be in that other less than acoustically perfect environment... the car! Either way the chances are that few will actually be able to truly appreciate the effort that you've put into the mix!
As for the listeners who use headphones. It's the only environment where we have a good amount of control over what the listener hears so it makes sense to mix on and for headphones.
The downsides to using headphones? Well, big speakers do look nice. And the squashed face if you get "tight" cans!!

For me there's no contest. For the price of a budget pair of monitors you can buy a top of the range pair of cans. I simply don't see the logic in using speakers in most cases, as a result, quality monitors are way down on my list of studio gear to buy. They're right after the beer fridge!

[Steve Hill]

Well you've basically argued the essential point here: a home is simply not the place to make really great recordings, for all the reasons you mention.

You then present headphones as a "cure" having admitted that all of the symptoms are untreatable.

The problem is that with headphones you get the right signal (only) in the right ear and the left signal (only) in the left ear. In a real listening environment with speakers, you're going to hear some output from each speaker in each ear, and you're also going to hear reflections from each speaker... the room reverb. This is true of any control room, however well treated. A well-treated room is designed not to kill all reflections stone dead (and it would be virtually impossible to work in if that happened).

After reflections, there's EQ to consider. Headphones will be giving you a pretty true EQ (e.g. flat=flat) whereas room modes will be adding and subtracting at various frequencies... again, even in the best listening rooms.

I concede that headphones are sometimes the best option in very poor conditions, but they will never get you all the way home. If you want that Grammy, at some point you're going to have take it somewhere where you can hear it on decent monitors in a decent room and, in all probability, adjust some pan and reverb (and probably also EQ) settings. That's just the way the world is.

[nukegroup]

There was even a freeware crossfeed plugin that could simulate* a speaker mix, or get you closer to one.

*i'm certain i'm using the wrong word here.

Here.

[Sam Inglis]

I won't dispute that a good set of monitors in a nice acoustically treated room is the ideal, but I think there's something to be said for the idea of mixing on a good pair of headphones *IF* that's how you listen to a lot of music anyway. If you're familiar with how music tends to come across on a playback system, you can compensate to some extent for its faults or quirks. For instance, if you listen to enough music on phones, you get used to the differences in the way they represent stereo, and you'll be able to mix your own material without being misled.

[Shreddie]

For instance, if you listen to enough music on phones, you get used to the differences in the way they represent stereo, and you'll be able to mix your own material without being misled.

I should've mentioned something like that. Stick with what you know wherever possible. I'm wearing headphones for a good few hours everyday and have been since I was about 14. So I should have a pretty good idea of how a mix should sound on cans. I'd probably be terrible if I tried to mix on speakers to be honest!

[narcoman]

For instance, if you listen to enough music on phones, you get used to the differences in the way they represent stereo, and you'll be able to mix your own material without being misled.

I should've mentioned something like that. Stick with what you know wherever possible. I'm wearing headphones for a good few hours everyday and have been since I was about 14. So I should have a pretty good idea of how a mix should sound on cans. I'd probably be terrible if I tried to mix on speakers to be honest!

let's make the easy arguments:

In a well treated room a good mix person can make a mix that will work well in any room and on headphones. It doesnt follow the other way round.

[ghellquist]

In my experience a mix done to sound good on speakers sounds good on headphones. The other way is not, in my experience necessarily true, quite often mixes that sound stunningly good on headphones sounds real bad on speakers. But we all have to live within limitations, so a mix done on good headphones is better than no mix.

Gunnar

[Martin Walker]

I believe it was martin walker who did a great piece on this a few months back. There was even a freeware crossfeed plugin that could simulate* a speaker mix, or get you closer to one.

And since no-one has posted a link to my feature entitled 'Mixing On Headphones', let me do so now

It was published in SOS January 2007:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan07/a ... phones.htm

There are also various crossfeed plug-ins available to make headphone listening sound more like that of loudspeakers. In that feature I recommended the freeware Canz3D plug-in ( www.midnightwalrus.com/Canz3D ) for Mac users and Crossfeed EQ ( www.ohl.to/about-audio/audio-softwares/crossfeed-and-eq/ ) for PC users.

To those we can now add SKoT's VNophones ( http://vellocet.com/software/VNoPhones.html ) for both platforms, and a new one I've discovered since writing that feature that's very good - HDPHX ( http://refinedaudiometrics.com/products-hdphx.shtml ).

Actually, it's rather important to make sure your mixes sound as good on 'cans' and 'earbuds' as they do through loudspeakers, but listening to some commercial material, I'm convinced that plenty of it is never checked on headphones before release. With occasional speaker reality checks, you should be able to create finished results that sound equally impressive (although different) on both speakers and 'phones.

Martin

[Zukan]

Martin,

Excuse the invasion but I thought I would adjust one of the links you provided.
Crossfeed EQ

[simon lyn]

Thank you all for taking the time to discuss this, it's been really informative and answered my concerns. Many thanks also Martin for the links- I will certainly explore this further.

To tie this up for myself I wondered what would be the value of a good speaker mix as the primary production output in a scenario where most people were auditioning and listening to music on earphones?

[Steve Hill]

I suggest you back up and rephrase your own question. Including people listening to radio in workplaces, in cars, in bars and restaurants, and on home sound systems, not to mention clubs, why do you conclude most people now listen to music on headphones?

Once music is ONLY mixed for that audience, my guess is a lot of the mainstream audience will be left behind.

Also, nobody mixes for the lowest common denominator (and I'm sorry but compressed mp3 files through cheap earbuds are just that). They mix in the hope - and sometimes the expectation - that someone somewhere is going to listen on a system that will do their work justice.

Including of course anyone handing out awards...

[Martin Walker]

Martin,

Excuse the invasion but I thought I would adjust one of the links you provided.
Crossfeed EQ

Good idea - I've just tweaked my original post and modified the link.

Martin

[Martin Walker]

I suggest you back up and rephrase your own question. Including people listening to radio in workplaces, in cars, in bars and restaurants, and on home sound systems, not to mention clubs, why do you conclude most people now listen to music on headphones?

Once music is ONLY mixed for that audience, my guess is a lot of the mainstream audience will be left behind.

I agree with Steve, which is why I said above "Actually, it's rather important to make sure your mixes sound as good on 'cans' and 'earbuds' as they do through loudspeakers". You can't mix for one format and ignore the others - you have to attempt to make your mixes sound as good as they can across the widest range of formats, INCLUDING 'in-ear' listeners.

Martin

[Bradley Steenkamp]

Simon,

I do a lot of my mixing on headphones with good results. I think it often depends on the material you are working on and what you intend to do with it. I'm mostly mixing live gig recordings for unsigned bands with very little money! I use headphones to setup my mix and then tweak if further when listening on decent monitors.

What I have learned over the last couple of years is that I would rather mix using a £200 headphone setup than a £200 set of monitors in an untreated room.

Provided you use good reference headphone and cross check on a variety of system (everything from the built in speakers in a laptop to car soundsystems, hifi systems, earbuds) then it is possible to achieve very good results.

[Commander]

I certainly wouldn't recommend mixing solely on headphones. Everything sounds wonderful in there and you'll get a bit of a ruse awakening playing a headphone mix back on speakers. I sometimes check a mix on headphones but I would never dream of mixing using them.

Speaker mixes translate fantastically to headphones. Headphone mixes seldom translate well to speakers.

[matt keen]

Martin: do you use a posh headphone amp when you are mixing or do you run the headphones straight out of your interface?

So, how essential is it to have a dedicated headphone amp for mixing?

I take HD650's straight out of my Motu.

PS - always have to double check on stereo systems and I pay to have stuff mastered at very good quality studio

[Martin Walker]

Martin: do you use a posh headphone amp when you are mixing or do you run the headphones straight out of your interface?

So, how essential is it to have a dedicated headphone amp for mixing?

I take HD650's straight out of my Motu.

PS - always have to double check on stereo systems and I pay to have stuff mastered at very good quality studio

Well I used to plug my Sennheiser HD650's into my Emu 1820M, and have done a lot of mixing with that combination with occasional real-world loudspeaker checks (you need less reverb for instance when listening through loudspeakers, since the room adds some of its own to 'glue' the mix together), and like most of us I always check mixes on several systems before declaring them finished. I wouldn't say that having a dedicated headphone amp is essential.

However, a few months back I splashed out on a Lavry DA10, providing me with superb sound through my ATC monitors plus a significantly more sophisticated-sounding headphone output. I feed the DA10 from the S/PDIF output of my Echo Mia soundcard (bought way back in 2001), since the DA10 removes jitter on the way in, and I'm extremely pleased with the results!

Watch out for my comparative review of several standalone D/A converters and their many uses in the studio and on location in SOS shortly.

Martin

[oggyb]

I certainly wouldn't recommend mixing solely on headphones. Everything sounds wonderful in there and you'll get a bit of a ruse awakening playing a headphone mix back on speakers. I sometimes check a mix on headphones but I would never dream of mixing using them.

Speaker mixes translate fantastically to headphones. Headphone mixes seldom translate well to speakers.

Agreed, headphones make you sound like an awesome mix engineer, I've had a few of these mishaps in the past, and when you play the mixes back to your "clients" you'll probably have to use a hi-fi system that makes your hard work sound like mushy peas and razorblades.

[matt keen]

Martin: do you use a posh headphone amp when you are mixing or do you run the headphones straight out of your interface?

So, how essential is it to have a dedicated headphone amp for mixing?

I take HD650's straight out of my Motu.

PS - always have to double check on stereo systems and I pay to have stuff mastered at very good quality studio

Well I used to plug my Sennheiser HD650's into my Emu 1820M, and have done a lot of mixing with that combination with occasional real-world loudspeaker checks (you need less reverb for instance when listening through loudspeakers, since the room adds some of its own to 'glue' the mix together), and like most of us I always check mixes on several systems before declaring them finished. I wouldn't say that having a dedicated headphone amp is essential.
Martin

Thanks Martin
It would get better headphone amp if I had the money - so your answer is reassuring.

Look forward to the new article you mentioned.

[220414]

I mix through headphones first and get everything sounding how I want it and then I take the headphones out and mix (anything that doesn't sound right) through the monitors. AND THEN I mix through the headphones again. I repeat the process for mastering.

So it's:

headphones -> monitors -> headphones

[kcseb]

What I have learned over the last couple of years is that I would rather mix using a £200 headphone setup than a £200 set of monitors in an untreated room.

Provided you use good reference headphone and cross check on a variety of system (everything from the built in speakers in a laptop to car soundsystems, hifi systems, earbuds) then it is possible to achieve very good results.

True, true and true Bradley. I do it mostly on headphones but flick to various systems as a reality check, plus to iron out any biases that are inherent in my headphones (e.g. frequency humps, the cross-feed effect thingie, stereo width, etc.). With a combination of the two the world is your oyster.

I also think flicking to mono every now and again is a good wake up call, as is listening really quietly...the latter can really force you to refine your mixes, it's great for level-balancing amongst other things.

[kcseb]

Besides I wonder if too many people in 'pro' environments are overly reliant on their systems. In other words they're so confident of their setup's accuracy that they don't ref on other systems...maybe their setups ARE very accurate, but there's still the issue of re-gaining perspective. OK it's also done by stepping away from a project and coming back with fresh ears at a later time...but I say don't underestimate the benefits of ref'ing on various different setups and environments.

[EnlightenedHand]

The purpose of mixing is to present the audio material so that it sounds the best on the widest variety of playback systems. If you mix on headphones you are shooting yourself in the foot because headphones create two little custom acoustic environments around your individual ears that vary from person to person. Thus you cannot predict what will translate to each person while they are listening to headphones. Also, the proximity to the drivers causes the dreaded proximity effect, (remember that), to overstate the bass frequencies. Then still there is the fact that all headphone designs differ so that combined with the proximity effect and the custom acoustic environments that cans put around your ears makes for a terrible moving target for the mix engineer to aim at when trying to get translatable mixes.

Mixes that are done by experienced and skilled hands, (and ears), on an accurate, well designed and calibrated monitoring system, in a properly acoustically treated room will translate to headphones 100% of the time. The same cannot remotely be said of mixes done on headphones. In short, it's a bad idea. Think about it. Do you really think that engineers would WANT to have all of the hassle of finding, paying for and housing a proper mix studio if it could all be done more efficiently and just as accurately on cans? Of course not. The one thing any professional engineer that I've met has wanted was a way to do it better. But though it's been tried before, headphones have not proven to be reliable mix tools. But nobody has to take my word for it. I suggest you try a mix on cans and then do the same mix on a great monitoring system, in a great room and then see which one translates to the widest variety of playback systems. Don't fall victim to the absurd notion that everyone is primarily going to listen to music on headphones. That's simply not true. There are televisions, cars, elevators, clubs, home stereos, movie theaters, motorcycles, hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, telephones etc... Headphones and earbuds are but one playback medium. They obviously aren't new and they certainly aren't the wave of the future.

Check THIS article out

Liz