Soungs Great In Headphones, SHIT in speakers....
Swayze
14,705 Posts
Beatmakers.... Does this happen to anybody else? You're working on something with the headphones, and the shit is great, so you are like "yeah, let me hear this through the speakers..." and then its like uh.... this sounds weak!Sometimes its fixable just by messing with the levels and eq and stuff, but I swear, shit always sounds better in the headphones. almost to the point to where I don't even want to hear my shit out the speakers for fear of letdown.ugh. what the fuck.
Comments
Yeah, I know man, but I live with a lady who doesn't want to hear the same shit looping for like 2 hours. And also, I like to chill out on the couch with the laptop while she watches TV and work on tracks with the headphones on.
but I guess "don't use headphones then" was the obvious answer, right?
YOU LIVE IN CALI, DUUUDE
For panning and certain reverb/various effects, headphones can be very useful, because they offer a clearer stereo image (in most cases) than speakers do.
Certain speakers are better than others, same goes for headphones, so you will want to use a decent pair of each.
I prefer using monitors for pretty much the entire mix, but headphones can be a viable option if you learn what to listen for.
It's 50/50 for me. Sometimes I think "oh damn, this is nice", then I'll play it on my car and the emphasis on everything is ass-backwards. You know, you have the keyboard chop up in the front, and in your headphones the drums were centered and upfront, but in the car the drums sound like a cardboard box, despite how many times you think you tweaked it. Yeah, you tweaked it to the point where it sounds like a cardboard box, and yet in your mind this was your final mix.
Car test is important, but if you know someone that has a good setup, play it there. Hell, go into Best Buy and lie, say you want to buy a new stereo setup but want to test it out. Play your track, and test it. Take mental notes, then go back.
I know when I do my stuff, I create final mixes but it's "Final1", "Final2", "Final3"... because I know I'm going to hear something that I'm not going to like, OR I may come up with a countermelody and I want to add that underneath, maybe with a keyboard sample, guitar, or strings.
Its possible to learn how to mix on headphones. Timbaland does it all the time supposedly. Its definitely easier though to use monitors. Even if you are mixing at a very low volume.
In fact, if you can get shit banging at a low volume, and still keep the recording levels hot, then you know you are all fucking set! go out to your car and bang that shit!
headphones are binaural... meaning the two channels are in complete isolation from each other... with the illusion of the center blend created in your mind.
i only use phones as a final mix test personally. and then i check them on the ipod phones (the crapiest on the planet) and the sony mdr7000s. everything sounds awesome on the sony's.. so i don't trust them.
i occasionally use phones when im recording or when i want to work and be quite .. but i'd never make any mix decisions with them.
get yourselve some decent monitors.. log the hours on them. you'll soon find your mixes sound near identical accross multiple systems. if your doing things right anyways
My point in my original reply was to say test it with all listening methods possible, for a good sense of what your song sounds like.
I'm curious to see what MESH has to say about this cuz he's the one who always schools me on stuff but I have learned from personal trial and error that a decent pair of studio minitors can really help. Even though I only use a set of cheapy KRK rokit5's I noticed it made a huge difference right away. Before I bought them I researched a bit and found countless positive user reviews. They also have a pretty good uniform bell curve(it's all about the bell curve). Some producers swear by those Yamaha's that we see in all the rap videos but I have not confirmed the sound on those and I suspect they may be overrated.
In an effort to not annoy the lady of the house perhaps you can do most of it in the headphones and just the final mix on the monitors. That way she will only have to hear it like 50 times as oppesed to 500.
they're not overrated, they're shit, that's why people use them, i.e. if it sounds good on those, it sounds good on anything... they're just reference monitors... most people who have 'em have another pair of something good... (if these are the ones i'm thinking of...)
re: headphones... never use them to mix. if you have to, get to "know" your headphones... i.e. if you do stuff for a while on the same headphones, you can kinda get used to the difference between the headphone mix and reality...
NS-10's. Its funny cause people always think they're picking up the best of the best when they get those things. I mean, not that they're bad, but I always hear people that are new to them complaining about how they suck.
Its really more about learning to mix on something than it is finding some magic pair of speakers. Personally, I still use this old pioneer shelf system that Ive had since I was 16 as an amp. Its a 2.1. system and I know it front to back. Ive switched to better monitors, and Ive got event 20/20's as well. but I think I will ALWAYS keep that little pioneer system cause I know it so well.
Mixing to headphones is not advisable, but it is possible if you learn how to do it.
that and a lack of scooping in the mud zone.
one of the best things you can do to your tracks / mix is rolloff the freqs bellow 20hz and above 20khz. This is beyond the range of the human ear, and beyond the freq range of wax BUT your speaker will still be pumpin these frequencies making them drive harder and thus effecting the overall sound quality.
Hmmm. Thats interesting. I do like to boost the treble in my drums to make them sizzle. I should check those frequencies though. Also I compress the fuck out of everything. All the literature out there says not to, but fuck that! crank it up!!!!! makes that shit loud!
if you boost frequencies your bascially just adding more volume to the mix which can make things even more congested.
that said i do tend to boost and cut... neither more than 4 dbs and both on pretty narrow Q's.
i've sorta given up on compressors for the most part.. occasionally on the bass and the kick but that's about it.
i tend to think its better to capture the dynamics of the playing than to squash all the notes to make them all hit hard all the time.
final thought. mix quietly. i try and set the levels of the instruments with the speakers on a barely audible volume... get the balance here... and then turn it back up to regular volume... this can really reveal the tonal balance of your mix.
that's truer than you think man.
i try and keep my mixes pretty quiet.. focusing mainly on the balance / levels... give the mastering dude shit at -4db and have them crank it up.
the more headroom you give the mastering dude the more you're gonna hear those large dollar compressor / limiters in action.
if you hand in a zeroed mix you ran through the waves ultramaximiser there aint much dude can do.