hey bro :)
I googled this but didn't get any help. I am curious how smart it is to produce in earphones? What problems does it create? What artists do you know produce intirely with earphones? I have had my m-audio IE-20 for like a couple years now (250$ normal price) and I like the way they sound but they are not so good with showing me how bass is going to sound on speakers. Basically I am curious whether It would be wise to move forward using my earphones instead of my monoters. I like this idea cause it is so much work to get a nice acoustic studio.
Thanks
L
I googled this but didn't get any help. I am curious how smart it is to produce in earphones? What problems does it create? What artists do you know produce intirely with earphones? I have had my m-audio IE-20 for like a couple years now (250$ normal price) and I like the way they sound but they are not so good with showing me how bass is going to sound on speakers. Basically I am curious whether It would be wise to move forward using my earphones instead of my monoters. I like this idea cause it is so much work to get a nice acoustic studio.
Thanks
L
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Oregon
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Thu, June 5, 2008 - 2:45 AMNo, for one simple and salient reason.
Though we here with both ears (in stereo, as it were), much of the auditory input to our ears
has to do with hearing things from the right side of our body with our left ear and vice versa.
This so called 'Cross Talk' is completely missing when you listen on headphones (as delicious as it
is to do so sometimes), consequently, headphones give an artificial impression of things like reverbs
and bass sounds that when they are uni directional. The amount of reverb on a mix appears a lot less
when you only mix with headphones.
Additionally, the amount of instruments that are hard panned also appears differently in phones and regular speakers
for the same reasons.
I'm sleeping, just waking up on tour in Berlin so I'm not sure if that explains it well enough but please, someone jump in and continue the explanation if this doesn't answer your question.
Also, one last thought, I know my own monitors so well that I don't use a subwoofer when I mix at home (I also find that it's so easy to
miss the amount of bass frequencies in a mix using a sub unless it's a really good one in a really tuned room) so one thing I always
use headphones for is just hearing the relative saturation of my frequencies in the 30- 60 cycle ranges.
I always periodically put on my Sony pro headphones just to double check that I don't have some really low subsonics that might
skew my mix.
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Sun, June 8, 2008 - 7:08 AMIn addition to Rick's great response, using headphones exclusively tends to cause what engineers call "fatigue" of the ear much quicker than working with monitors. I think it's always good to have a set of decent studio headphones for working with but monitors really are essential.
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Sun, June 8, 2008 - 12:36 PMGreat responses so far-I find headphone to be great for reference-I frequently switch sound source to make sure audio fatigue isn't wrecking my mind. Headphones allow you to get more 'personal' with a mix, but mixing in them exclusively is not a good idea IMHO and will likely lead to bad results... -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Mon, June 9, 2008 - 9:10 PMpeople are going to listen to your beat on headphones. hence, at some point you should check to see youre not gonna blow someone out through headphones.
i think finding a happy medium on as many systems is the best that you can do without hiring a pro. use your car, your sisters cd player, good phones, shitty phones, and your studio to achieve a balance. then remember how your systems respond, so the next time around you can have a more accurate frame of reference. bwowmp bwooooooow -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Mon, June 9, 2008 - 9:53 PMI try to work with earphones as little as possible....Partly due to working so much with them in the past and partly due to the last 12 years of working in construction....I have what would be called mild tinnitus (I think that's the right way to spell it)....the joke goes:" everything I do now is in the key of eeeeeeeeeee". They are definitely necessary when tracking live instruments....but I also used to work on sequences and rough mixes that would sound awful when I tried to translate them to other systems. If you need headphones to work with be aware of the fact that your 100 dollar headphones are not going to be very accurate at determining certain frequencies. I understand that the 600 dollar ones work pretty well though.
www.myspace.com/mortal_engines -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Sat, June 14, 2008 - 3:24 PMthis is a matter of opinion anyways...
i do most of my work in headphones, but i always always always take a listen on monitors too (and when the track is done, i listen to it on every system i can get my hands on too)
david -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Sun, June 15, 2008 - 2:23 AMat this point I am looking at getting a 10'' sub to go with my 2 V8 monoters
thanks for the input yall, it's been carefully considered. -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Fri, June 20, 2008 - 4:20 PM"This is a matter of opinion anyways..."
Gonna disagree. This is not a matter of opinion. Mixing solely in one audio play-back mode is bad in general for the reasons stated above (different systems respond in widely varied manners) and you do experience a much enhanced bass response in headphones (I think due to proximity to the speakers...?) and as Rick mentioned, cross talk is lost and you end up out of touch with your actual mix. -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Fri, July 25, 2008 - 12:25 PMgetting a sub is not going to help your bass problems... if anything it will only make them worse by making you think the bass is great, but really it's still too light. And mixing in headphones is not a very good idea for the reasons that many people here mentioned. That said, here are some things to try...
Try repositioning your speakers in your room... move them at least a couple feet away from the wall and put a duvet or some other kind of sound absorber (foam if you have it, I use a $20 Big 5 Coleman sleeping bag) directly behind and between the speakers... If your monitors have a bass control, TURN THEM DOWN... by like 2 db if you can... that should help you put more bass back in your tracks...
My guess is your tracks sound great in your studio... so what happens when you listen to one of your favorite tunes? Is the bass too loud? Well if so, you might want to try getting your tracks to sound too bassy when you're mixing them. Basically if you listen to a great sounding tune in your studio and you hear some things wrong... then you're going to have to reproduce these shortcomings in your own tracks, so that they sound great on a proper system... does that make sense at all?
Also... if you're mixing in a room with acoustical problems, try getting up and moving around when the song is playing...
you should be able to find a spot in any room where the bass sounds good... so always check the bass from that spot... for me it's either right between the speakers, near my doorway, or just up and to the left of the mixing area. -
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Re: Can earphones replace studio monoters?
Fri, July 25, 2008 - 5:50 PMRe: monitor spacing. A friend of mine was talking to me about how you hear stereo at its best, you want to place your speakers at a precise point. Much easier to draw....but...
Here's what GC says about it though...sums it up:
"The position of the monitors is very important. First, you should be close to the sound: about 2 to 5 feet from the monitors is cool. Mount the monitors at ear level, positioned so that your head points to right between the two. If the monitors are mounted 4 feet apart, you should be 4 feet away from them, so the monitors and your head form a nice imaginary triangle. Angle the monitors so the tweeters are aimed at your ears. This placement should provide more accurate monitoring."
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