If I can’t use studio monitors, just headphones…

[Ty Ford]

Hello Adam and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Both are top choice headphones for me, however, mixing under phones usually doesn’t translate well on monitors and if your project will be heard over monitors, you need that reference.

With monitors, each ear hears both monitors, so there’s a mix of both. Headphones don’t allow that.

Ultimately, it’s good to check your mix by playing back over whatever sort of system the project is expected to be played on. I know a group that does a lot of museum installations. They do a mix and then play it back at the museum on the intended system and tweak the mix.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Wes Browning]

Ty-

Thanks for the advice. Any chance you could recommend a good set of traveling studio monitors?

Thanks.

[Ty Ford]

Adam,

What are your space restriction? Are you flying, driving? Humping gear in and out of places?

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Wes Browning]

Most of the time its flying. A set of small powered cubes could fit nicely in my gear.

[Ty Ford]

Right, well the problem there is cubes don’t have any low end.

Even the pricey K&H 0110 (11 x 7 x 8) don’t have enough low end to make good judgements.

I have these Bose 5 for use with my laptop, but the control/bass enclosure makes the system pretty heavy. https://tinyurl.com/ybkba3d

Even the 3 comes with a box. Maybe the Bose 2 and making sure you check the MDR7506 for the low end. Still not a great solution and I haven’t heard them.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Wes Browning]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll check out the Bose 5 as an option.

[Jean-christophe Boulay]

Here’s a link to a rather classic Sound on Sound article on headphones mixing.
https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan07/articles/mixingheadphones.htm

Most of the important points are well covered and you should pay special attention to the “Simulating The Loudspeaker Experience With Crossfeed Plug-ins” box around 2/3 down. If you really can’t have monitors around, crossfeed systems can help quite a bit. Mixes should always at least be listened to on speakers before stamping them as final, though.

IHTH

JC Boulay
Technical Director
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com

[Andy Schmidt]

Nice response to an interesting question. As we promote bands through internet methods, we employ headphone monitoring in the Studio or on location as needed. We work with what we have on site. However, during the mixing and mastering process, we listen as we feel our intended audience will most likely approach our music: Through a 2.1 mix. We as well listen through more quality speakers during the process, but we need to know how we are presenting the artists we represent to our respective audiences.