Monitoring in headphones.....

[Dave Elyzium]

OK heres the deal...I was working on a track earlier today and was monitoring through some headphones cos me missus was sleeping...anyway: through the phones the track sounded lush - sweet spacious verbs with nice top end, punchy kick and bass and the whole thing was stickign together nicely in that self-compressing type of way (if you know what i mean)..but then I took the headphones off to play it through my speakers and it was shite!! totally dry and flat with no punch at all...now when i adjusted reverb levels etc and put headphones back on it was swamped in mush!!! well pissed off......

I'm monitoring at present through technics hi-fi speakers (pretty good as far as hi-fi spakers go) but te one thing that im not sure about "proper" monitors is this:
all the magazines goes on about the imprtance of having to have "acurate" monitors to hear whats "really" going on with your mix BUT if i'm listenign to some banging trance or techno or whatever on my hi-fi and like what i hear, then try writing similar material so it sounds just as good on my hi-fi speakers, isnt my track then going to sound the same in a club as said record would???
i know im openinng myself up for a slating for being so dumb so please enlighten me people!

[go|plastic]

This is from Computer Music's 202 Power Tips:

Can the cans
Never use headphones to mix. Contrary to popular terminology, there's no such thing as stereo headphones. When listening through two separate earpieces, music is heard 'binaurally' and the effect is quite different to listening through speakers. It makes accurate mixing all but impossible.

maybe this is what you experienced...?

if i'm listenign to some banging trance or techno or whatever on my hi-fi and like what i hear, then try writing similar material so it sounds just as good on my hi-fi speakers, isnt my track then going to sound the same in a club as said record would???

Probably not, because the tracks you would try to "simulate" in sound quality wouldn’t be perceived accurately through hi-fi speakers in the first place... something to do with the frequency response not being flat in hi-fi's... so they add "things" to the original sound.

I'm not really sure about what I just wrote so I hope someone else will reply to this too... for your sake :D

[DJZeMig_L]

Hey,

Appart from a totally "fake" sense of volume, u loose stereo , also reverb sounds really detailed and lound when it's not... also u should make account for the fact that yer ears will probably get tired way much sooner with headphones that with speakers.. so they end up atenuating and enhacing certain frequencys so u get a totally wrong ideia of yer sound..

most people recomend (wisely) that u listen at confortable volumes because of this...

So headphones r good 2 sketch up a track or even struture it but final mixing/ tweeks should happen on a new day with "fresh" ears...

Also if u use hp make sure u use linear ones...

your idea on the hi-fi is preatty right but u got it in reverse.. u should use linear spks and then go back 2 check yer mixes on an Hi-fi/ car stereo etc.. get as many sources as possible... don't take the sound of any as absolutly right.. make an average... is if something sounds wrong every where then it must b wrong...

the prob with listening on hi-fi is that u r listening 2 something that has been eq'ed 2 sound a certain way (bring on the bass and the highs)... now this could eventually b ok but not all hi-fi's have the same "eq"..

hope this makes sens 4 ya m8,

Z

[Basil Rush]

Yeah, it's decorrelated sounds or something that sound louder in headphones, these sounds include white noise, reverb and widely panned stuff really, it all gets louder, so you can have it sounding quite wet in the cans and it'll be ok on speakers....

Swap reguarly between cans and speakers for half decent results when mixing...

[Dave Elyzium]

your idea on the hi-fi is preatty right but u got it in reverse.. u should use linear spks and then go back 2 check yer mixes on an Hi-fi/ car stereo etc.. get as many sources as possible... don't take the sound of any as absolutly right.. make an average... is if something sounds wrong every where then it must b wrong...

trouble with me is that once ive worked on a tune for a few days and done a couple of rough mixes, i just take the easy road and settle for 2nd best and send my stuff out cos i cant concentrate on the one trrack for day after day gettign the mix spot on....i really need to learn more about mixing and stuff cos its just a few tweaks and a bit of polish for me TBH

[DJZeMig_L]

that's just right mate... with time u learn how 2 compensate for stuff..

also the more u work the more u get a good balance of things...

Z