Mixing on headphones
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:10 am
This came up in the latest Nur Ein round's reviews. Here are good reads to start:
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... headphones
https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/best-m ... eadphones/
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/mixin ... great-mix/
The main things to worry about are low frequencies and panning.
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... headphones
https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/best-m ... eadphones/
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/mixin ... great-mix/
The main things to worry about are low frequencies and panning.
Because headphones sit so close your ears, high frequencies sound louder than they actually are. To compensate, headphone manufacturers add a high-frequency roll-off.
Because you don’t FEEL the bass thumping in your chest, like you do with monitors…some headphones compensate with a slight bass boost.
Because headphones struggle to reproduce the LOWEST OCTAVE of bass frequencies…some compensate with an additional boost to the higher octaves of bass frequencies.
Go easy on the panning, keep things balanced, and keep in mind how panning may effect the apparent loudness of a track in your mix very differently on headphones vs speakers.The problem is, stereo images sound noticeably wider on headphones compared to monitors.
And it’s no surprise, since studio monitors sit in front of you…and headphones sit over your ears.
Also, there’s the problem of center-panned instruments. On monitors, they sound like they’re out in front of you. On headphones, they sound like they’re between your ears.