monitor headphones vs monitor speakers

[Equality 7-2521]

do MONITOR HEADPHONES do the same job as MONITOR SPEAKERS by giving you the "TRUE" sound or not?

a yes no answer and a little explanation would be great

thanks

 

[MIKELABZ]

IMO YOU WOULD NEED BOTH TO MAKE THE FINAL MIXDOWN EVERYTHING PROOF.

HEAPHONES ARE GOOD FOR IN-DEPTH LISTENING AND SPEAKERS ARE GOOD FOR OVERALL LISTENING. ONCE YOU HAVE MASTERED YOUR TRACK USING THESE MEDIUMS THEN OTHER MEDIUMS SHALL FIT INTO THEIR MOLDS ACCORDING TO THEIR QUALITY. SO AMKE SURE WHEN CHOOSING SPEAKER AND HEADPHONE MONITORS THEY ARE OF GOOD QUALITY, BECAUSE THEY WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE SOUND THAT COMES OUT OF OTHER NON STUDIO MONITORS THAT MAY PLAY YOUR TRACKS.

 

[vitaminman]

Hey,

To get a true representation of your music, you should monitor with speakers...the biggest reason I've heard about is because your ears hear audio from both speakers, which is how the music will be listened to in a car, home stereo, etc.; with headphones, you are getting discreet channels sent to the left and right ears and are therefore missing out on some of the music.

Headphone monitoring is not bad, though, because in my opinion you can really hear some of the details that you might miss out on with speakers. That, and you don't piss the neighbors off!

Take care,

Nick

 

[beats18]

I would recommend you jump back and forth from headphones and monitors. However don't pan in headphones because they give you an inaccurate stereo field perception. Also, headphones eliminate all the room distortion you get such as early reflections and standing waves.

 

[jnxe]

a good pair of headphones are fine, it would be good if you had monitors but they really are not needed, panning is no problem with headphones either.

 

[Kevin A]

Mike said it first, use both, but if your trying to save money, get your headphones first. The only difference between the 2 is the headphones will not give you sub Bass,monitors will. As for all that other stuff, I call it not knowing how to mix oppose to inaccurate representation of sound. Learn How to MIX. Having the right equipement is only 25% of the job.

You can also do mono mixdowns if your wondering how it will all sound together.

And also, if you haven't been trained, or have done some real in depth research, chances are if you have monitors, they are in the wrong position according to your room size, this will throw your mix off and send you back to square 1.

 

[beats18]

Originally posted by jnxe
a good pair of headphones are fine, it would be good if you had monitors but they really are not needed, panning is no problem with headphones either.

Obviously you dont read MIX magazine but what I meant was that the pan position won't translate as accurately back to the monitors as you think. But then again I obsess over the detail of a mix.

 

[Chedda]

i use both, like someone said, going back and forth, to try and get a happy medium between the two.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

I don't know but the mix coming Thru my Sony headphone monitors is different from the mix coming from Event 20/20 monitors, I don't know if I would rely on a headphone mix as the truth of the actual sound even studios use at least 2 Pairs of monitors to reference certain frequencies and speakers that it might be played in, the biggest misleading part of the mix are mids and bass.....sometimes it could sound perfectly well in the headphones but when you play it back on some monitors you will need to raise the output level of background instruments like strings and pads, sometimes the snare can even be buried in the mix but headphones will make it sound ok......

 

[CooGi_dice]

i use headphones but only becouse i dont like to play my tracks loud when im creating them, and i only realy use them when i sample...

using headphones for the whole mix doesnt make sense, even with an expensive pair of headphones, your mix will always sound weak when you demo it in ya car or stereo...
ive had to make tracks on headphones only in the past and the bass and other sounds would be weak and then other sounds would not be the same as when i was hearing them threw the head phones.

 

[MIKELABZ]

YO COOGI,

WHO THAT IN YOUR AVATAR?

 

[mono]

if you aint got at least 400 bucks for some monitors, some good headphones will do a better job than anything else you use. after mastering with them, you can compare to your hifi, and car stereo anyway

 

[Ash Holmz]

mix with monitors... final touch with headphones

 

[Equality 7-2521]

ok thanks for that. big help guys

 

[Formant024]

I think it really depends on what kind of nearfields you're using. We have a set of headpieces including the AKG's which I found best but they're still not giving me the definition. In fact, I stay in the hotspot and for what low frequencies concern, I stand in the corner of the control room to feel 'em. Headphones can't do that, so I wont use em on mixdown or when mastering.