Today I spent some time at ’studio timw’ with some friends who were pretty new to the music producing scene. Soon enough, the question of why I mixed with monitors as opposed to just headphones came up. This question has actually become somewhat a legend in the music scene, especially amongst those who are just starting out, as well as those who have a fair amount of experience.
Firstly, let me clarify that headphones are not useless and are valuable tools. They help critical listening for noises, pops and clicking, many of which are often not audible on monitors. They also bring to surface sonic flaws on individual tracks and/or mixes, as well as provide ‘monitoring’ when tracking, where true monitors would cause unnecessary leakage. And that pretty much sums it all up.
You may have noticed I left out the use of headphones in mixing. True, but that is because headphones are simply dreadful mixing tools. In fact, headphones are pretty much useless tools for any tonal or EQ change decisions. Reaching this stage, my friends explained how using headphones would remove any problems with room acoustics, and thus should make track mixes much more consistent. However, we know that audio-engineering is full of clear-cut theoretical techniques that often turn out to be the no-good way to handle things. Undoubtedly, headphones remove problems with room acoustics, but if you think about it, they actually place your ears in two separate, tiny rooms, which surfaces two main problems:
1: Distance and Isolation:
When you use headphones, your frequency response changes because your ears are so close to the drivers. Thus, bass and mid-range waves become distorted. Your stereo imaging also becomes distorted because each ear is separated from the other.
Seeing that my friends were slightly unsure of what I was trying to explain, I pulled out my Korg RADIAS, and tweaked up a patch through headphones, allowing my friends to decide what they considered sounded good. I played the patch again, but this time through my monitors, and we all agreed that the patch sounded awful. In fact, at least 90% of the time you will hear a distinct difference in sound. The example above was used with a simple patch; imagine you were working with an entire mix. Actually, try it yourself: make a mix with only monitors, and then again with only headphones. The headphone mix will definitely always sound completely off.
2: Different ears on the same headphones:
We’ve already established that imaging and response is distorted when using headphones, but it doesn’t stop here. Each set of ears hears differently. This is because one’s cilia (the ear part responsible for distinguishing frequency vibrations) is exclusive to that individual. This point is really important because it means that a single song, when listened to through the same headphones, will sound different to each person. If you felt understanding mixes using monitors was tough, imagine the complications with headphones.
Now you’re probably wondering if there is a difference using monitors, and there is. When you use headphones, you hear a ‘personalized-response’ effect, which is emphasized because of the closeness of headphone drivers with your ears. When using monitors, the room helps balance the sound’s frequency-response, allowing production of a more consistent sound to each person who listens. On the other hand, headphones are typically touching your ears, and so there isn’t a room to help balance frequency-responses.
It’s actually quite simple. Headphones complete their appropriate tasks effectively, but are restricted to these tasks. You wouldn’t use a hammer to unscrew a bolt right? So don’t use headphones when mixing, and get yourself a set of monitors!
Article adapted from Blue Bear Sound.
July 23rd, 2006 at 1:51 am
Coolness even though this is not my area.
July 23rd, 2006 at 4:45 pm
great article! now i will send people to this site when they argue it!!
July 23rd, 2006 at 8:14 pm
kenny sent me dis link some really good points dere.
you mite wana rite an article on the diff monitors avaiable too
Jeff
August 5th, 2006 at 12:31 am
I agree with what you are saying. It is better to mix with monitors, but it is not impossible to mix with headphones. I have a home studio. I also have a roomate and neighbors that make it very difficult to use monitors, considering that most of my production is done during the late evening. Over the years, I have learned to adjust for the way that I mix with headphones. I do find myself remixing after I have had a chance to listen to the track on something other than headphones, but I find myself doing that even if I produced it using monitors. That’s just the nature of the beast. My point here is to use monitors first if you have the option. If you don’t, use your headphones, just be prepared to do a little more final mixing before you will have a final product. Check out my tracks on myspace.com/1routedown. 90% of the tracks on there were mixed entirely with headphones. It’s not impossible, just harder and takes longer.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:19 am
This would explain why so many of my tracks sound horrible.
August 8th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Not to mention, it makes your head spin after 10 hours of capturing andf remixing sound with headphones… perspective is definately better with monitors.. invest, y’all!
August 8th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Thanks for the comments guys!
Rob: Obviously, if you have no choice, you use what you have. But I think monitors are pretty important in the producing / mixing cycle, and so should be one of the first things you save up for.
Gnostic: Got monitors yet?
Jahn: I’ve experienced that… It kills!
October 16th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
I ran across your site while just surfing around, wanted to say hi and I like the blog.
November 28th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I am a monitor fetishist, but I have to disagree with your argument here.
Think about the trouble a good producer has to go through when mixing on a new pair of monitors to be confident and comfortable that he/she is mixing properly. While it is true that good monitors are superior to headphones, I believe that one can make a good mix on just about anything.
Even with the most accurate sound system in the world you’ll be dealing with all sorts of EQ distortion from the room and the way the sound bounces back into your ear. This, among a lot of other factors, will require a couple weeks of “getting used to” while your brain compensates for the sonic errors and allows you to comfortably mix on the setup.
While not recommended, it would possible for your brain to reach that same compensation from headphones or even normal computer speakers (provided they had a good frequency range).
Finally, I always advise that a producer has 2 or 3 speaker setups (including headphones) to mix on before even bouncing a track.
Many times after a bounce I’ll bring my laptop out to my ghetto loud car stereo and master it there…since I can’t count the times that my car or another system has showcased flaws that my 2,000w monitor setup had missed.
December 2nd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
There is a lot of truth in this article, although I don’t agree with the last part about the individuals cillia response curve being exaggerated when using headphones. It seems to me that if the hearing system is non-linear, that non-linearity will be applied to all incoming sounds uniformly, regardless of whether they have room ambience on them.
It’s also worth knowing that some people do manage to get useable mixes out of cans, although it is tricky to get right IMHO. Some of the Beegees’ 70s disco tracks (which sound pretty darned cool) were apparently mixed on cans as the monitoring in the studio they were working in was so awful.
My main issue with headphones is that to my ears at least most of them sound dreadful..
February 6th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I agree with this completely but I do think it is very possible to create a good mix with headphones as I have done before. But only if you understand exactly what the differences are. Check this article too http://www.headwize.com/articles/lxh2mix_art.htm
June 28th, 2008 at 3:36 am
There’s some real mystery going when I mix with my AKG 271K headphones. I can’t explain that yet, but I have a track which I mixed to sound AWESOME on these. When I play the track in my hi-fi audio system (’70s Kenwood amp, big 702 Mission speakers), or even a mid size panasonic integrated system, it will also sound awesome !! But then when I got to my car and play it, it sounds like SHIT compared to what is played on the radio at the time. Can’t explain this, kind of tine, muddy and lifeless, while stuff played on the radio is clear, loud, open and full.
If it sounded like shit at the first place, how come it does sound awesome on the “big” audio systems ??
Can someone explain this ?…