Mixing Tip #10 - Mixing with Headphones

So you made it to the last tip, well done. You'll be pleased to know, though, it's all been a load of bollocks! I know - mad aren't I. I bet you are too now.

Ah, just kidding.

So, mixing with headphones? Don't! Do never test!

Headphones (these days) come in various guises: Open, Closed, Semi Open, "Studio" etc., each have their uses but not for mixing.

One of the major problems you'll encounter is panning: Let's say you want to pan the hi-hat over to the left. Having done so, you then lower its fader so it sits further back in the mix.

A couple of hours later, you listen back through your monitors and... you can't hear it!

With headphones, you see, the sound is pumped directly into your cranium via small speakers - so everything is obviously louder. More importantly, though, the frequency-range won't be faithful - particularly with regard to bass frequencies (small speakers, see).

Additionally, phase cancellation will be hard to spot.

Headphones can be very useful for really "zooming-in" to problems of a compositional nature, such as catching hard to hear out-of-tune (or out-of-time) notes.

Just remember to remove the headphones immediately after and not to get drawn into fiddling with levels and stuff. Hey, it's easy to forget you have them on sometimes - been there.

The end

Well I have to admit, when I began this series of 10 mixing tips, I had a few ideas in my head to cover, but lacking the female's natural ability to multi-task, I quickly forgot what those ideas were (within 10 minutes of writing the 1st tip actually).

Further Reading

But we got there. And I think I managed to include (in some form) all that was initially intended. Of course, it does not (and cannot) finish here - there's much to cover. But don't forget, we have our exclusive mixing tutorial (and interview) with Sound Engineer Rick Snoman, which covers a lot of ground, and it would be almost negligent of me not to mention his most superb book, "The Dance Music Manual - Tools, Toys and Techniques", which has become the acclaimed bible by many on both the subject of mixing, and on composing the various of the dance music genres.

Obviously, TheWhippinpost will return to this most essential subject again, and again, and again, until you do me for harrassment. So make sure you bookmark this site, NOW!