In this video I’ll be explaining when is the right time to use your headphones for mixing. Do subscribe for more videos like this and ring the bell to keep up to date with our notifications and deals.
It’s an unwritten rule that music producers should ideally be using speakers to monitor their mix, as headphones don’t give a realistic soundstage and can fatigue your ears quickly. However, in some cases mixing on headphones is actually better than using monitors.
To be blunt, many musicians make the mistake of mixing on great speakers but in rooms with very poor acoustics. This leads to bad EQ choices and inaccurate low end. In this kind of situation, using decent headphones will result in a much more accurate mix as it takes the room out of the equation completely. Buying a good set of cans can also be considerably cheaper than an equivalent set of monitors, so budget-conscious producers should consider using just headphones when starting out.
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5 Responses
I continue to make music with headphones due to housing conditions. This article was very helpful.
I can totally relate to that! Neighbors don’t enjoy music blasting at 3am 🙂 thanks for your comment!
It’s a terrible headline, people can go the wrong way. Even without looking at dsonic programs.
I think this kind of information shames the resource it is posted on, ADP I am disappointed.Mixing on headphones is a forced measure of desperation, it should not be encouraged and endorsed.
The article and video clearly state that mixing on headphones CAN be better depending on the situation. Saying mixing on headphones is purely a “forced measure of desperation should not be encouraged or endorsed” is a fairly extreme statement! I mix on pro monitors on my desktop and mix with headphones on my laptop almost exclusively. Honestly, try to consider all the people who simply can’t afford to have a noise isolated, professionally treated home studio and a pair of top notch studio monitors… at APD we want the joys of creating music to be accessible to everyone, even if they can’t afford super expensive gear. So yes, in many cases, mixing on headphones is better. In other cases, mixing on monitors is better, absolutely. It’s all relative and subjective. Thanks for your comment but I think that reaction is a bit extreme 🙂
I just think that mixing is a difficult subject (very difficult especially for beginners), it’s not really a topic for a 1 minute video.
There are a lot more factors to consider. What kind of headphones to use and even so it is still “necessary” to check the mix, at least on hifi speakers.
My first reaction might be really bit extreme, but I also work mostly with headphones for certain reasons including neighbors and I don’t know how you can only mix on headphones, there are things where headphones just can’t show the real picture of the sound, especially when you’re a beginner.
Music should bring joy and everyone should be able to do it, but in further music requires minimal investment, you can do 95% of the work on headphones, but the other 5% is very important to finish it on monitors. Let it be monitors for $100.
I have a small 5″ monitors, so I use realphones in addition, but every time I switch to monitors I notice that there are problems that need to be fixed, it’s not frequency problems, mainly problems with balancing instruments, panning, depth.
I mean when, for example, audiojangle rejects a track because it’s only mixed with bad headphones, which leads to a bad translate for the mix, after which you get very upset and can’t realize the reason.
There are people who can mix well in headphones, for example Dave Pensado, but they are used to the headphones, they know how it “approximately” will sound on their monitors.
A beginner who has no monitors, only headphones, doesn’t know what it really sounds like and can make “very” many mistakes including equalization.
Thanks for the reaction, I started out with headphones without monitors and it brought a lot of frustration.
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