Mixing Headphones (Help ?)

AKG K 701 are my choice for mixing. http://eu.akg.com/akg-product-detail-eu/k-701.html

I have also Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro and Sennheiser HD 650, but AKG K 701 sound best to my ear, and are by far most comfortable on my head. They are open model and higher quality build than DT770 or HD650. Price is also quite fine, cca 180eur afaik.

And, yes, I also use crossfed plugin while mixing on AKG K 701 phones. I use Redlime Monitor, 112dB Redline Monitor . Without such plugin mixing on headphones is impossible for me, balance is just all wrong without it. With plugin it is actually possible to balance instruments initially quite well. Of course you need to check it on several monitors later on, as usual. But with crossfed plugin you can get quite close. And sound is usually much better over headphones in the situation of small home studios.

I preferred the AKG K601 (Open) for mixing over the 701s (I think they were just the preceding serie), but definitely AKG K271MkII (Closed) for tracking.

My brand new headphones should be with me in the next week or so. i am very excited because i have never owned such a professional pair before.

I use AKG K 240 MK II and AKG K 271 MK II. But I also like the Yamaha RH 5-ma (and this one is very cheap).

I have been using DT770 Pro’s for many years. They work for me very well for both tracking and mixing.
People who visit my studio to either record or just hang are always blown away by them.

Hi again,

My brand new BeyerDynamic DT800 Pro Semi Open headphones arrived this week !!

They look and feel great so all i need to do now is test them out…

Paul


Focusrite VRM + AT MH50 (about $250 for the two.)

Talk about flexibility…

Currently having a look at the Sennheiser HD25-1/II as a gift for my son, for mixing on-the-go with the laptop.

Thats good, start him while he is YOUNG !! :smiley:

Ha Ha
He’s over 30!

80 is the new 60, so
30 is the new 10!

:laughing:

i have had the Sennheiser HD440/II since 1994. i use them for my MP3 player (and portable CD player back in the day). In 19 x years i have had to replace the LEAD (cost $20.00 on ebay) which is quite good going to say i have used them constantly and took the all around the world with me on gigs.

Grado. Grado. Grado. :wink:

SR80s are GREAT open headphones for £100 - if you want to you can spend £4000 on Grados (which is an established US family business). If you insist on using headphones for mixing, open headphones are the only way to go for eq’ing, mixing and stereo field appraisal and also critical listening.

They can be useful in the early stage of mastering. For final mastering there is no replacement for quality near-field monitors. (And golden ears :wink: )

Recording vocals or acoustic instruments (tracking) requires the performer to wear “closed” headphones if re-recording the cue/backing track - via headphone “bleed” - is to be avoided.

I hope this helps :slight_smile:

Yes, thanks a lot. Recording this scenario is something i would like to learn and do, but my 1 x bedroom flat is not large enough to cater for this.

The headphones in question are only for doing work while travelling. What I mean is they will be used while travelling on trains (Switzerland here you know), hence the decision for closed back to help isolate. It probably won’t be so much actual mixing (which he primarily does here in my studio in a properly configured monitoring environment) but rather for evaluation and decision making etc while en route.
There are many headphones which would fit the bill in this case, primary consideration being they should not be too bassy which so many headphones are.

Don’t let that hinder you! It simply means you’ll have to take extra care in adding in ambience in the mix. Some find that if you can’t get a decent room sound, best to deaden it altogether and create a virtual room (reverb, delay etc.) in the post. Vocal booths are typical examples of this philosophy in practice.

Thanks, so you mean record the Vocal/Guitar as DRY as possible (but giving the artiste any FX they desire just for the purpose of the recoding in their headphones), and then add the ‘true’ FX in the Post recording.

Yes, there are so many models i did not realize until looking for a new pair this year. This forum really helped me make the right decision and so i am grateful for all the help i received from members.

The HD25-1/II weren’t available so I got a pair of Beyerdynamic Custom One Pros - a little more expensive, but good sound.

That’s it. :wink: