Tweaking mixes for headphones.....
Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 2:15 pm
I was just wondering how many of you do this????
I try to get a decent balance of what sounds good on headphones and monitors…. So finish a mix on the speakers, then flip to headphones to see if there are any problem frequencies sticking out and to test the panning properly…
I have found recently that big mixes that sound wicked on monitors often have too much mid in the headphones, usually on deep snares, you know the ones with a bottom at 250, body at 950 and crack at 2…
Has anyone encountered the bloated bottom problem when tweaking for phones as well? As in you cut at 125 ish for clarity on the phones then boost the subs (as in raise the volume not the frequencies) leaving a flabby sub heavy mix that doesn’t crack through speakers and seems like it is bathing in a little bath of bass?
How do you compromise???? Just a few musing really…. I def compromise until it sounds good on both, but what do you trust more? Your phones (which take acoustics out of the question) or your monitors???
Are you mixing for speakers or headphones? I think that is very pertinent question….
Dabrye is a good case in point here in my opinion, drums sound PHAT and FULL on headphones but F’ing weak over speakers, leading me to believe he tweaks for headphones and favours the headphone mix over the speaker mix….
Does anyone go as far as making different mixes for each listening medium?
Does anyone even think like this at all????!!!!????
safe
I try to get a decent balance of what sounds good on headphones and monitors…. So finish a mix on the speakers, then flip to headphones to see if there are any problem frequencies sticking out and to test the panning properly…
I have found recently that big mixes that sound wicked on monitors often have too much mid in the headphones, usually on deep snares, you know the ones with a bottom at 250, body at 950 and crack at 2…
Has anyone encountered the bloated bottom problem when tweaking for phones as well? As in you cut at 125 ish for clarity on the phones then boost the subs (as in raise the volume not the frequencies) leaving a flabby sub heavy mix that doesn’t crack through speakers and seems like it is bathing in a little bath of bass?
How do you compromise???? Just a few musing really…. I def compromise until it sounds good on both, but what do you trust more? Your phones (which take acoustics out of the question) or your monitors???
Are you mixing for speakers or headphones? I think that is very pertinent question….
Dabrye is a good case in point here in my opinion, drums sound PHAT and FULL on headphones but F’ing weak over speakers, leading me to believe he tweaks for headphones and favours the headphone mix over the speaker mix….
Does anyone go as far as making different mixes for each listening medium?
Does anyone even think like this at all????!!!!????
safe