Favorite headphones for mixing ?

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 9 Feb 2016 6:11 am

My trusty Sony MDR 7506 headphones finally died. I have had them for over 20 years.
My in ears sound good but I could use a clear and flat set of headphones.

Thanks,

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 9 Feb 2016 6:27 am

They still sell the Sony's. I bought three pair last year for my home studio.

But, I don't mix with headphones, I use my studio monitors (JBL LSR308's).

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 9 Feb 2016 6:52 am

I just edit with headphones when I need to but I would like a set that is pretty accurate.
I may stick with Sony pro level ones but I might as well see what else is out there.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 9 Feb 2016 7:10 am

Grados...George Massenburg says you can hear the grass grow in them...been using them forever....

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 9 Feb 2016 4:04 pm

Koss KTX-PRO.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 15 Mar 2016 12:37 am

Bob, Iâ€™ve been using Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Closed-Back Professional Studio Monitor Headphones, and like them really well. Mind you I donâ€™t have much experience with others... that said, I mixed this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdgwbEE ... nfph3pjxjg ) at 2 in the morning because I couldnâ€™t sleep... My wife however was able to sleep, so I mixed two steel tracks and added effects with the headphones and then played it through my Studio Monitors
( Event 20/20 Bas ) and didnâ€™t touch it after that. Iâ€™m sure there are better, but for 170 Iâ€™ve been happy with them.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 15 Mar 2016 3:21 am

Open back Grado headphones are one of the most important pieces of gear I own. I don't do any mixing, but since I don't have any kind of real monitor setup in my basement they allow me to do overdub work at home without destroying my ears. And they're incredible for live sessions when some things are in the room and some are in the phones. Everything just blends together so naturally.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 15 Mar 2016 10:38 am

I got the Grado SR325e headphones and they are a serious upgrade from anything I have ever had. I am astonished by there clarity and depth. Plus they seem to be totally neutral which is important for my uses. The open back might not work for everybody but they do really sound great.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 15 Mar 2016 3:04 pm

Attention - guys who are the only one in the house that wants to stay up until the wee hours doing music.

This is a great plugin. Most home studios don't have room treatment, or if they do, it's not always accurate. So, mixing with headphones is often a better way to go. This plugin makes headphones sound like listening through monitors and mixes in the right amounts of signal to each side to address the total stereo separation presented by headphones. It's free for 60 days. I use it a lot.

https://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

RC

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 16 Mar 2016 7:35 am

Rick Campbell wrote:Attention - guys who are the only one in the house that wants to stay up until the wee hours doing music.

This is a great plugin. Most home studios don't have room treatment, or if they do, it's not always accurate. So, mixing with headphones is often a better way to go. This plugin makes headphones sound like listening through monitors and mixes in the right amounts of signal to each side to address the total stereo separation presented by headphones. It's free for 60 days. I use it a lot.

https://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

RC

Looks like a good alternative Rick... So what did I do wrong... Iâ€™m using a Mac, but donâ€™t thing Studio One knowâ€™s its there... and it is on the computer... any ideaâ€™s on how to find with Studio One?

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 16 Mar 2016 8:02 am

I've got the Audio Technicas, the Sonys MDR 7506s, but my favorite is always my Beyerdynamic DT 990s that I bought in the late 80s. I would buy Grados next, as I've had several pairs of their lower cost headphones that I really liked.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 16 Mar 2016 9:16 am

Dale Rottacker wrote:
Rick Campbell wrote:Attention - guys who are the only one in the house that wants to stay up until the wee hours doing music.

This is a great plugin. Most home studios don't have room treatment, or if they do, it's not always accurate. So, mixing with headphones is often a better way to go. This plugin makes headphones sound like listening through monitors and mixes in the right amounts of signal to each side to address the total stereo separation presented by headphones. It's free for 60 days. I use it a lot.

https://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

RC
Looks like a good alternative Rick... So what did I do wrong... Iâ€™m using a Mac, but donâ€™t thing Studio One knowâ€™s its there... and it is on the computer... any ideaâ€™s on how to find with Studio One?

I'm on Mac also. You have to put the license file in a specific place on the hard drive to get it to work. It can be a little tricky, but it should show up in your effects browser. The email they send you will outline the installation procedure and provide the license file. I didn't have any problems getting it to work, but a buddy of mine said it took him awhile until he broke down and followed the instructions exactly.

RC

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 16 Mar 2016 9:22 am

RC[/quote]

I'm on Mac also. You have to put the license file in a specific place on the hard drive to get it to work. It can be a little tricky, but it should show up in your effects browser. The email they send you will outline the installation procedure and provide the license file. I didn't have any problems getting it to work, but a buddy of mine said it took him awhile until he broke down and followed the instructions exactly.

RC[/quote]

OKAY

, Iâ€™ll try the instructions... I was able to move all the files from the the left to the right... AFTER I put the key in a folder on the desktop... or does it need to be in no folder at all?.... or maybe I need to restart Studio One... Iâ€™ll try that
Thanks Rick

Rick Schacter · Post by **Rick Schacter** » 16 Mar 2016 12:14 pm

Great find, Rick!
Thanks for telling us about this plugin.
No more "loud" mixes from my basement late at night.
This should make my neighbor happy and could even wind up saving my marriage. Lol.

I have to admit,like Dale, it did take me a while to figure out how to load this plugin.
But everything is working great now (in Logic as well as Studio One).

Rick

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 16 Mar 2016 8:46 pm

I'm not sure that figuring out how to stay up all night while the wife sleeps is a good way to prolong the marriage. I guess it could go either way. Maybe age is a factor.

I do know that making a lot of noise while they are trying to sleep is a definite way to get in the dog house. Then there always the problem of you're sitting in the music room, minding you own business, working on music...... with your headphones on..... and all at once they barge in and ask you in a shrill pissed off voice "are you deaf? I've been hollering for you for 10 minutes"

RC

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 17 Mar 2016 4:38 am

Glad you like the Grados...they truly are amazing...

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 17 Mar 2016 6:39 am

There's a current thread on the Cakewalk Sonar forum about "headphones for mixing". The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones are mentioned a lot.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 17 Mar 2016 8:20 am

The "never mix on headphones" is an old school analog policy. In the digital world, its a different story. I read an article about it recently somewhere and it mentioned some popular recordings that were mixed on headphones, and some big name engineers were in agreement. In a professionally designed studio with acoustic treatments that were designed based on computer measurement using a reference mic, etc.... monitors probably sound very true and representative of the mix. However, in the home studio where it's a spare room, with all kinds of music twanging instruments sitting around, and sound waves bouncing off of everything, headphones might be a preferred way to mix and master.

RC

Rick Schacter · Post by **Rick Schacter** » 17 Mar 2016 6:15 pm

[color=darkblue]Rick Campbell wrote:I'm not sure that figuring out how to stay up all night while the wife sleeps is a good way to prolong the marriage. I guess it could go either way. Maybe age is a factor. [/color]

Ha! Ha! We're not quite that old yet.

Regarding the wife asking me, "Are you deaf"?:

When I got my hearing checked, the technician told me that my hearing starts to drop out right in the frequency range where kids and women's voices are.

I asked the tech. if she could copy off a graph so I could show it to my wife.

Rick

Rick Schacter · Post by **Rick Schacter** » 17 Mar 2016 6:18 pm

Rick Campbell wrote:The "never mix on headphones" is an old school analog policy. In the digital world, its a different story. I read an article about it recently somewhere and it mentioned some popular recordings that were mixed on headphones, and some big name engineers were in agreement. In a professionally designed studio with acoustic treatments that were designed based on computer measurement using a reference mic, etc.... monitors probably sound very true and representative of the mix. However, in the home studio where it's a spare room, with all kinds of music twanging instruments sitting around, and sound waves bouncing off of everything, headphones might be a preferred way to mix and master.

RC

Headphones could also be a great way to cross reference your mix too.
I'm planning to use both, my near fields and my headphones.
While I'm at it, I'll probably go pick up a pair of computer speakers too.

Mark Wayne · Post by **Mark Wayne** » 10 May 2016 10:24 pm

Another vote for the Audio-Technica ATH-M50x's. Been using them (and the 40fs's) for many years.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 11 May 2016 1:03 am

I too use phones for checking the mixing but do use the ref monitors for most of the grunt work mostly to avoid fatigue.

I have a several pair that are in that $100 each range and they all sound the same to me. I lean towards a bright set of cans...

Here's the deal, if we are mixing for a retail CD the game is different than mixing for an MP3 Stream site. The MP3 Stream sites, all of them, have a hard stop at 16KHZ and who can really be sure about the bottom end but it is near 80 HZ.

IF we upload a wav file to a streaming site, they will compress it to their format , if you upload an MP3 they will compress it again ! This is common for each of the Streaming sites.

Just keep this in mind as we are mixing with our 20 to
20 KHZ cans !

probably 90 % of music is played on IPhones or MP3 players these days with $25 ear buds...or less...

PURPOSE.

werner althaus · Post by **werner althaus** » 11 May 2016 7:52 am

Sony 7506's are good but they don't age very well and their degradation in sound creeps up on you slowly. I have to use headphones for mixing location sound all the time but I wouldn't recommend doing it at home, even in a compromised control room setup. What's missing, cross-feed plug-in or not, is the subconscious head-movements we make to keep our localization of sound calibrated. Everybody does it, you constantly move your head within the sound-field to project the sounds you hear to the exterior of your head as opposed to them originating inside your head. That's what heaphones do, especially in mono, the soud-field moves with you as you move your head and as a result the sound seems to originate from the middle of your head. If you think that it doesn't matter because you work in stereo, think again, listen to the M-signal of your mix and you'll realize that there's a ton of mono in your stereo. I'd much rather "learn" my room and monitors, deficiencies and all than listening to cans more than I absolutely have to.

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 11 May 2016 8:17 am

Rick Campbell wrote:Attention - guys who are the only one in the house that wants to stay up until the wee hours doing music.

This is a great plugin. Most home studios don't have room treatment, or if they do, it's not always accurate. So, mixing with headphones is often a better way to go. This plugin makes headphones sound like listening through monitors and mixes in the right amounts of signal to each side to address the total stereo separation presented by headphones. It's free for 60 days. I use it a lot.

https://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

RC

Thank you for posting this.
While I record very little, mostly just for exchanging with friends, family etc., I am always using headphones.
It keeps me from bothering others in the home with my musical screeching.
The only drawback to that is headphones do not sound natural to me as far as sonic placement is concerned.
It kind of makes me want to shake my head to rearrange the sound at times.
I am going to give this program a try and hopefully it will help.
Thanks,
Have a good day.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 11 May 2016 11:08 am

Larry Carlson wrote:
Rick Campbell wrote:Attention - guys who are the only one in the house that wants to stay up until the wee hours doing music.

This is a great plugin. Most home studios don't have room treatment, or if they do, it's not always accurate. So, mixing with headphones is often a better way to go. This plugin makes headphones sound like listening through monitors and mixes in the right amounts of signal to each side to address the total stereo separation presented by headphones. It's free for 60 days. I use it a lot.

https://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

RC
Thank you for posting this.
While I record very little, mostly just for exchanging with friends, family etc., I am always using headphones.
It keeps me from bothering others in the home with my musical screeching.
The only drawback to that is headphones do not sound natural to me as far as sonic placement is concerned.
It kind of makes me want to shake my head to rearrange the sound at times.
I am going to give this program a try and hopefully it will help.
Thanks,
Have a good day.

Larry,

I really like the Redline Monitor plugin. It's not the holy grain substitute to a well tuned room and expensive monitors, plus many years of experience that the pros have, but it serves the purpose quite well. Understanding, I want my music to be as good as possible, but I'm not willing to go to a pro studio where they have microphones hat cost more than all my equipment combined. Like you say, most of this music is going to friends, family, etc... and they will like it just as well as if it was recorded in a studio with pro studio musicians and pro gear. Also, I do it all myself with BIAB, drum machines, MIDI, etc... and I couldn't do that anywhere else, and on my spare time schedule.

I ocassionally do demos for songwriters and they want the best music, mixing, etc... and I give them my best effort for the money I'm charging them. They want to pitch the song to someone in Nashville. Let's be realistic. Nashville producers couldn't care less about our playing and recording abilities. They've got pro quality musicians and engineers falling over top of one another looking for work. It's the song and hook they are after. They will hear, in their minds, what they want to do with it in the final production.

RC