Mixing Headphones (Help ?)

I asked in here before buying my last pair of cans, and I was told to buy Grado SR80. Street price is about $100, and I love them! Nice, flat response in my opinion.

Note that they are open ear headphones.

Ta mate, though i think i am going to go with the BD DT800 250ohm.

Availability of Grado’s really depend on where you live though, there are none to be found in my area :wink:

I bought mine online.

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and while tracking vocals, you can keep one cup off your ear, sound muted. Magic.

As for mixing. If the mix sounds good on these, it must sound good on anything. Mixcube of headphones.

Thanks Arimus,

i will remember that one cup off the ear trick !!

Ta.

Paul

Great thread!

I came across this via another post and thought I’d add my 2-bobs worth!

I am an Ex-pat living in Santiago, Chile who was limited with what I could bring over and thus had to opt for some headphones to do everything!

My ‘local music expert’ (actually a guy I trust & have dealt with for many years) recommended the Beyer DT770 PRO 250 Ohm for me based on use/quality/budget/flat response. My primary use has been for tracking (hence closed), but also for everything else. I had to compromise the advantages of open headphones for the preference (and advantage) of less audio bleed while recording. And yes, as someone posted, closed ‘cans’ are fatiguing!

But, I have found Beyers excellent for my purposes. They are not perfect - there is a bit of a push around 4khz, but I try to take that in to account. I guess you’d need to do the same when using studio monitors in imperfect rooms anyway!

So, I do my best with what I have and hope that more attuned I get to the response of my headphones I can get the best out of my recordings!

I have the BD DT880 Pro’s for mixing, and the BD DT770 Pro’s for tracking. Sometimes for mixing I switch them just to hear things differently. They are both comfortable, sound fine, and of course have the reputation of being very flat/unflattering. They don’t sound identical, but I can’t verbalize what differences I’m hearing yet.

The 880s are 250 ohms, I drive them with my Omni I/O interface with a lot of volume to spare, and I can also plug them into my laptop and hear things great.

The hardest thing I found when mixing on cans was that I could hear sounds panned to the sides (reverb, or wide synths, for example) so much more prominently than when I put the same mix on speakers. I’m learning to compensate, very clumsily still, so that things sound good on both cans and speaker monitors. Man, this stuff isn’t easy!

Thanks Alexis,

I have the BD DT880 Pro’s for mixing, and the BD DT770 Pro’s for tracking.

Whats does ‘tracking’ mean please ??

The hardest thing I found when mixing on cans was that I could hear sounds panned to the sides (reverb, or wide synths, for example) so much more prominently than when I put the same mix on speakers. I’m learning to compensate, very clumsily still, so that things sound good on both cans and speaker monitors. Man, this stuff isn’t easy.

This is something which i am tryring to get to grips with, and why i am interested in the results you describe from your BD DT880’s. i am very new to mixing and until 6 x months ago i could not hear any recording techniques like ‘panning’ simply because i have never really listened out for such settings before. But since January i have started spending some time each day listening to the ‘panning’ of instruments on various cd’s (thru my current pair of Senheisser headphones). i am starting to hear things now but it really is not easy to say for certain the positioning of certain instruments. Obviously this is due to my ‘ears’ having not been trained in this particular area.

‘Tracking’ in this case means recording audio through a microphone. If someone is singing, while also listening to the rest of the song through headphones, it is possible that the music coming through the cans is picked up by the microphone, which is usually considered undesirable.

The DT 7700s are a “closed” design, with plastic all around the outside to help the sound stay “inside” the headphones and away from the mic. The DT 880s are “open”, so a lot more sound gets out. That’s fine if there is no microphone around, like when mixing, maybe not so much when tracking.

For the rest of it, sounds like you are on the right path, a little “listening exercise” every day! Others can give you far better advice than I, but maybe one exercise to try (if your version of Cubase supports it) is to listen to a commercial track with the pan controls full wide, then shrink the panning field so the blue area becomes smaller and smaller, until ultimately it becomes mono. At each stage of narrowing of the stereo field, it should sound different.

Happy tunes!

Thanks Alexis,

Thats very helpful mate.

For the rest of it, sounds like you are on the right path, a little “listening exercise” every day! Others can give you far better advice than I, but maybe one exercise to try (if your version of Cubase supports it) is to listen to a commercial track with the pan controls full wide, then shrink the panning field so the blue area becomes smaller and smaller, until ultimately it becomes mono. At each stage of narrowing of the stereo field, it should sound different.

Do you mean i import a regular mp3 recording from a cd, Pan the left and right hard, and then gradually bring the left and right to center ?? If i import a cd then will it not just be placed in one single channel ?? To perform what you are suggesting would i not need the song to be in two channels (one for the left audio and the other for the right) ??

Thanks,

Paul

Hi MJL - You’re very welcome!

As far as importing a CD, most of them nowadays are stereo, which means they have a left and right channel that are not identical. You will be able to visually confirm that when you compare the shape of the waveforms after you import the CD. But yes, the other part is what I meant - open up a panner with a separate left and right control, then stepwise bring them each to center, listening and comparing after each change.

Like I said, there are going to be much better ways to listen to panning which other guys here can help you with, but that’s just a way to get started.

Have fun! :smiley:

Thanks a lot Alexis,

But yes, the other part is what I meant - open up a panner with a separate left and right control, then stepwise bring them each to center, listening and comparing after each change.

i will have a try out over the weekend mate :smiley:

Paul

Thanks guys,

i just ordered a pair of BeyerDynamic DT880 Pro Semi Open headphones, 250 Ohms, for 210 GBP (from Absolute Music Solutions). Really looking forward to receiving them next week :mrgreen:

All advice given by everyone was much appreciated !!

Ta,

Paul

Beyerdynamic DT-150

You mean these are the one the ones which you own ??

I’m BIG fan of AKG K702’s… bit more expensive but wonderful! less hyped in the bottom end than some cans, i find this advantageous if i’m wearing them for a while as it helps prevent fatigue… because of their open backed design they’re quite similar to listening on mid fields in a lot of ways… a much more open and natural sound field than closed back cans, sounds more like stereo than binaural :smiley:

Don’t forget that your new cans will most likely need a fair ‘burn in’ period too… mine took about 300hrs of continuous playback before they really settled down… a bit like letting a decent bottle of red wine breathe… the difference is quite dramatic before and after the burn in… they were quite scratchy and harsh in the upper mids and highs out of the box but after burning in they’re smooth as silk!

I’ve been looking at AKG headphones for a good while now, can’t really justify the cost but I really want one :sunglasses:
+1 for open back headphones though, my Sennheiser HD515 sound way more natural than any other closed back headphone I’ve tried.

Thanks Mat,

i had no idea whatsoevar about this at all !! Thats very interesting and helpful to know.

Cheers,

Paul

Has anyone used this site before ?? :-

i saw it tonight advertsied on the SoundIron VSTi page and watched the introductory video. Just wondered what anyone else thought about it (ie. is it just another waste on money !!) lol