joshwyatt's Reviews

Great review. What did the Audio Engineering class have to say about mixing on headphones vs. speakers?

@pkennethk Been a while since the class, so based off some notes I can't believe I still have, and personal experience: Headphones give a lot more detail, as the speaker is right against your head so they’re good for the more subtle, nuanced, detail oriented work such as finding imperfections in the recording, eq tweaking, dialing in effects, etc. Monitors on the other hand are usually quite a bit more expensive than headphones, but SM’s are much more accurate to a real life scenario. A lot of people listen to music in cars or clubs (although probably not much these days,) so having a comparable equivalent to that in a studio setting is recommended. Although, monitors depend pretty heavily on the quality of the room they’re in. If you had 2 pairs of the same exact SM’s and you put one in a perfectly treated room and one in a room with no treatment, they would sound like completely different monitors. Even if you put them in a semi treated room they would sound substantially better than if there was no treatment whatsoever. So generally if you have a low budget, are in an untreated space, or need a more mobile setup, headphones are probably the way to go. If you have a half decently treated room, and have the budget, monitors are the better choice. If having both is an option, mixing on speakers first will help get the mix to a good place, and then going in with the headphones for the more detail oriented work will help give your mix a better sound.

@joshwyatt I appreciate you taking the time for a thoughtful answer SO MUCH. Thank you :) EB moderator @arhumsiddiq is a great example of someone here that has treated their room and calibrated their listening devices to great effect. His mixes are a million miles away from classic rock/pop, as are his compositions, but you can just tell when someone is really nailing exactly what they're going for. I'm at that stage where I need to treat & calibrate like the two of you are advocating for if I'm going to rise to that next level... adding a pair of big, comfy, open-back 'phones that can take advantage of a nice external preamp is probably a good idea too. I always check my work done on SMs against my trusty beat-to-hell HD280s, and I know I've got a problem when something really jumps out on one but not the other. I still don't trust headphones for judging "club bass", but I bet someone with a great headphone setup and good instincts could crank out a club banger without ever bringing SMs into the equation.