Mixing with headphones or speakers? Or both?

[jamcat]

I was 90% speakers/10% headphones before. Now it’s flipped, often times 100% headphones these days, and I’m mixing faster than before.

Are you using anything like CanOpener or Morphit (or both) with your headphones?

[Uncle E]

Are you using anything like CanOpener or Morphit (or both) with your headphones?

VSX and Realphones.

[jamcat]

VSX and Realphones.

What headphones do you use with Realphones?
How does that compare to the VSX system?

Are you using the virtual listening environments in either?

[Uncle E]

I use 7506's with Realphones. Realphones has a preset for non-original earpads, which is cool because I put memory foam earpads on mine. However, I get better results from VSX and that's probably due to the headphones themselves. Realphones unfortunately doesn't offer correction for my better sounding 7509's.

I use virtual listening environments with both, usually Cinelab with Realphones and Howie Weinberg with VSX.

[Cavey Arrgh]

Not sure I remember many people on KVR discussing APL Virtuoso, but lots of folks on Gearspace.com say they beat the usual suspects (VSX, Realphones, Waves) in terms of virtual room software, even though the program really is meant more for Atmos and immersive mixing over headphones.

I bought it a while back and seems good, but haven't compared to anything other than Canopener. I'm not affiliated with any of these companies.

[justin3am]

I have a pretty decent monitoring setup but I do most mixing in headphones. Nothing fancy, just a pair of DT880s. I use speakers of some sort for reference at various points but I have done mixes without studio monitors on a few occasions.

A friend who has been a professional mix engineer for 30 years has always uses a pair of Grado headphones and a pair of Avantone MixCubes. He'd do reference on a pair of home stereo speakers and a car stereo. He never used any studio monitors but his mixes were very good. I don't think I could work that way but I think it's a testament to the importance of familiarity.

[Igro]

After experimenting with various headphones, I bought AudioTechnica M50x and retired all these correction software altogether. It just doesn't make any sense. What to correct if you like the way your headphones sounds when creating and mixing? (Unless you are monitoring live acoustics through it or something. Which I don't do anyway).

[jamcat]

What to correct if you like the way your headphones sounds when creating and mixing?

Because it’s not about whether or not you LIKE the sound of your headphones. It’s about how TRUE they are, so you can make informed mix decisions that will translate to any sound system.

[Igro]

What to correct if you like the way your headphones sounds when creating and mixing?

Because it’s not about whether or not you LIKE the sound of your headphones. It’s about how TRUE they are, so you can make informed mix decisions that will translate to any sound system.

What is true sound then? Flat? Lol.
If you flatten the frequency response, be prepare, it won't translate well to any system.
If I flatten the headphones spectrum, how do I know even approximately how it would sound on a consumer grade HiFi system? You can't. I did this before. I constantly feel the urge to add the bass to the sound to be it more or less to what I hear on my HiFi system or my headphones while just listening to any music. And you know what? The mixdown almost exploded my HiFi stereo system with a huge bass overdose. So no, these correction software only damage your mixes and full you.

[_leras]

No, you can find EQ correction curves for most headphones, not to go flat, but to go to a more natural room response (Harman) EQ curve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/co ... on_curves/

Will make all headphones better for mixing ( in my opinion ). Some headphones will be able to adjust better and good transient response is still a good thing.

Works amazingly well with my beyerdynamic dt1990.

[Harry_HH]

Both. And check your mix with alternative speakers, as well - e.g. in the car, with your mobile phone etc.

[Igro]

No, you can find EQ correction curves for most headphones, not to go flat, but to go to a more natural room response (Harman) EQ curve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/co ... on_curves/

Will make all headphones better for mixing ( in my opinion ). Some headphones will be able to adjust better and good transient response is still a good thing.

Works amazingly well with my beyerdynamic dt1990.

Harman. I liked that. And it is not a frequency flattening curve.
It sounds though quite different from one correction software to another. I have Realphones and Morphit. This difference fooled me all the time. So I wouldn't advice it anyway.

However, I'm wondering about the guys, who flatten their headphones to death and then mixing that way. Lol

[Uncle E]

Reverbs and panning can be tricky on headphones. A problem you’ll hear with many people who mix strictly with headphones is their reverb levels will be too high and/or their panning adjustments will be too subtle. Tools like VSX, Realphones, etc. create spatialization to help with that.

Regarding EQ correction, people like me who are more used to mixing on monitors than headphones can benefit from studio emulations. They aren’t flat.

[_leras]

No, you can find EQ correction curves for most headphones, not to go flat, but to go to a more natural room response (Harman) EQ curve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/co ... on_curves/

Harman. I liked that. And it is not a frequency flattening curve.
It sounds though quite different from one correction software to another. I have Realphones and Morphit. This difference fooled me all the time. So I wouldn't advice it anyway.

However, I'm wondering about the guys, who flatten their headphones to death and then mixing that way. Lol

I picked up the Crave EQ to apply these headphone correction curves, as it has enough accurate points in it's eq curve. It's on Crave 2 now, and it's a really great high quality EQ with very good m/s.

Any correction take a bit of getting used to. But using these curves I basically don't get any major surprises.

[_leras]

Reverbs and panning can be tricky on headphones. A problem you’ll hear with many people who mix strictly with headphones is their reverb levels will be too high and/or their panning adjustments will be too subtle. Tools like VSX, Realphones, etc. create spatialization to help with that.

Regarding EQ correction, people like me who are more used to mixing on monitors than headphones can benefit from studio emulations. They aren’t flat.

The main speaker in Waves NSX Ocean Way are a really good room emulator. Pretty realistic and can go before headphone correction curves.

I ultimately found that I tend to use this more for spot checking than thoughout mixing.