Headphones for producing and mixing

[fluffy_little_something]

I remember in-ear phones from my Walkman decades ago, hated them. They were too close, my big phones create at least a little bit of room, and I like that my whole body is involved, my skull serving as a resonance body etc. And they keep my ears warm in the winter

[JCJR]

Dunno what in-ear phones of walkman were like.

Every set of earbuds that I've received bundled with computers and mp3 players, dunno how many of those crappy things are wasting space in various drawers and junk boxes. Can't throw em away, because they were "free" and maybe when the comet hits I will discover an emergency survival necessity which depends on multiple crappy earbuds.

For one thing, maybe they would sound OK if situated at just the right angle in the ear. Maybe my outer ears are a mutant shape which happens to be 9.3 standard deviations away from human normal, but I never figured out how to get them to stay in my ears except by holding them in with fingertips. No matter what angle they are inserted, no matter whether gently laid into the ear or try to forcibly cram them into the ear, as soon as I let them go they fall right out.

I suspect the numerous "free" earbuds bundled with everything, were some kind of cruel practical joke by consumer electronic manufacturers.

[fluffy_little_something]

The ear buds were these:
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 36164i.jpg
The Walkman was a different, older model, though.

I had the same issue as you: Either I pushed them in so deep that it hurt, or they would come loose again. I guess human ears are just not made for plugging stuff in them, else they would have a proper interface

Since it was all rather arbitrary and sloppy, it was also difficult to achieve a balance stereo sound stage as usually one plug was louder than the other because of a different fit.

Maybe the Sony ones were made for Japanese ears

[mztk]

I remember in-ear phones from my Walkman decades ago, hated them. They were too close, my big phones create at least a little bit of room, and I like that my whole body is involved, my skull serving as a resonance body etc. And they keep my ears warm in the winter

yeah, and it'll keep your dentist rich. shake out all the fillings.
i reckon headphones are worth avoiding, havn't used them for years,
for that very reason. i mean, who want a 32ft basswave in their head?
have you thought of where you'll put the bass traps?

Marshall Jefferson did a Q+A on The Other Site where he talked about using
a valve headphone amp, and that it eliminated listening fatigue. i've no
idea why valve would do that, but anything valve generally sounds a lot
richer (except korg esx)

[fluffy_little_something]

Nothing shaking here Gee, if the bass becomes a problem for your teeth, you have set the volume way too high.
Aren't modern fillings glued to the teeth, anyway? Unlike the old amalgam ones?

[mztk]

i'm not getting into that...

[mztk]

no: in fact: i'm not talking about massive dubstep bass dives and
all that stuff. you wouldn't perceive the point at which it becomes
a danger, that's the point.

[mztk]

its the dentures rattling you want to watch out for.
it bleeds into the audio path.

[3ee]

usually if you push the volume higher, the bass would be perceived lower to the other freqs... I guess it's a natural way how the headphones VS ear works... so this should be kept in mind = don't monitor loudly.

[mztk]

what about having a closed space btween headphone speaker
ad eardrum? that can't be good..nowhere for air pressure to go?
i'm lucky in that i don't suffer from tinnitus, seems quite a few
people do, so i made my choice about that a long while ago,
whther right or not. have low level monitoring most of the
time, use the room as my 'phones. mind you, listening through
a few things done in different places on different speakers,
huge differences, so maybe decent headphones eliminate that?

[Mister Natural]

regarding headphones/earphones for mixing/tracking :

the more = the merrier

I have found using several different models/transducer techniques equates to better mixes

i.e. : if the mix sounds good on your closed-back phones AND your open-backed phones AND your earphones(remember that over 90% of consumers under the age of 30yrs only hear music thru phones/buds) AND also sounds good thru your studio monitors = (Bob's your uncle) it's a good mix

IMHO - the smart investment in 'phones is not just pair of "bad-ass" (as expensive as you can possibly afford)phones but multiple-sets of multiple-types of halfway decent-quality phones

[fluffy_little_something]

regarding headphones/earphones for mixing/tracking :

the more = the merrier

I have found using several different models/transducer techniques equates to better mixes

i.e. : if the mix sounds good on your closed-back phones AND your open-backed phones AND your earphones(remember that over 90% of consumers under the age of 30yrs only hear music thru phones/buds) AND also sounds good thru your studio monitors = (Bob's your uncle) it's a good mix

IMHO - the smart investment in 'phones is not just pair of "bad-ass" (as expensive as you can possibly afford)phones but multiple-sets of multiple-types of halfway decent-quality phones

Glad I don't care for people under 30 in musical terms, this way I can do without the plugs

Seriously, I think one good pair of headphones and ordinary speakers should do. The headphones to take care of the details in order to make sure the music sounds good even when the listener uses excellent gear, and the speakers to check how it sounds to the masses with all their mediocre speakers including computer desktop speakers, TV sets, car stereos, etc., all of which tend to manipulate the sound quite a bit anyway.

If a song made by someone else and praised by critics for sounding great, also sounds great on my specific speakers and headphones, and I make my own song sound similar (regarding the mix etc. not the music as such of course), it is safe to assume that my music will sound great to the world as well.

Also, there is no reason not to develop one's own sound, even if it sounds unconventional to most. That doesn't mean it sounds bad.

[JCJR]

There are so many possible uses. I tend to like studio-type gear, but no longer have any interest in making music that will "translate" to some potential customer's boombox or automobile stereo. I just want it clean and flat for my own enjoyment. If I ever get motivated to publish anything else, it will be for free and whether others get enjoyment out of it is their own business.

Some folks don't care about accuracy, but want it to sound good. Some less-than-accurate systems I've heard seem capable of making about any music sound good. If a person wants to listen for enjoyment, maybe it would be foolish to buy a system that is so accurate that it makes some music sound too terrible to listen to?

When I would go looking for technical audio defects, for job or hobby purposes, I don't want phones or speakers that sound good. I want accurate devices that will expose whatever defects are there to be heard. There are some setups that seem capable of exaggerating defects, making minor defects painful to endure. Maybe some devices do that not by being "clean" but by having "just enough" distortion, that any extra distortion at all in the music puts it over the threshold of perceptibility. Dunno.

It is possibly difficult to find speakers or phones that are all things to all people. Horses for courses perhaps.

Making mixes that "sound good everywhere" is a talent some folks have and some do not. It can be practiced-on, but the talented have a natural advantage out of the starting gate. Supposedly some systems "translate" better than others. Probably so, but it is tricky and in lieu of talent takes a lot of persistence. On headphones maybe vocals sound well-balanced, but on studio speakers the vocals are buried, and then you take the mix to the automobile and not only are the vocals buried, but the bass is gone and the guitars are louder than anything else. Some folk manage to do good work in spite of this, and some folks struggle with it.

[Hermetech Mastering]

HD600's fit your criteria perfectly and translate well to monitors costing five times the price (I know cos I have both!)

[kenobi77]

HD600's fit your criteria perfectly and translate well to monitors costing five times the price (I know cos I have both!)

600's over the 650's? I don't know what differences there are, but it's always the 650's I hear/read about....