you guys have any experience with headphones that you think give you a good idea of how things will sound on a loud system? mostly concerned about bass, thump, kick, and how that will translate onto a big system.

 

No headphone, not even the hi-end Sennheisers will translate low end & how it responds in a real room. Out of all of the genres NOT TO MIX on headphones, EDM would be #1. They can serve in EDM mixing, for thing like stereo width, reverb, delays ect ect, but definitely not for the entire mix...

 

Have a look on the Sound on Sound site, They did a headphone mixing article and guide a while ago.

 

Do you have access to a really loud thumping system on a regular basis? Because you can just keep making reference mixes, try them on the system and make notes about tweaks, and then dial it in that way... because yeah you will never get bass heavy enough headphones to accurately represent what you're going for

 

Headphones doesnt work for that job - period! Buy some monitors you can rely on because you know them well, and do the job!

NB: Some people will prolly tell you that some monitors are better than others (they could be right), but if you know your monitors well (no matter how cheap they are) you can do a superb mix etc!

Still I´ll prefer a pair of good monitors! ..... lol - If I told you what monitors Im using, ppl would think Im a moron, but still, Im actually making pretty good mixes with them, and make some good money for my work

 

For mixing I used the AKG K601. Once I had to use AKG K142 HD and was surprised of how well the mix sounded. I did a better job in the midrange with these, but I could hear the bass quite good to not overemphasize it. The funny thing is those are cheaper than the K601. But when it comes to bass at high volume you will need to check on Speakers because bass is not only heard but also feeled.

 

i only use head phone to get a reference on how wide some of my panning is and what the song will sound like on a mp3 player

 

no such thing. these headphones are no different than a 5 dollar pair from your local all-purpose variety superstore.
this brand is one of the biggest scams in the audio industry.

 

AKG are good
Sennheisers pap

BUT

beyerdynamic dt770s (80 ohms version straight cable)



Monitor speaker is best is bullshit they dont tell the whole story especially sub bass

THEY (770s) HAVE BASS (you will hear the SUB and the harmonics, speakers may only play the bass harmonics (upper bass))

set up a Low cut EQ (on off test) on you project master channel (solves no sub situations like car stereos)
set a MONO (on off test) utility on your project master channel (solves mono pa situations and stereo problems)

Try them in a shop

 

yeah, i'm a new apartment and the walls might as well be chicken wire. i've already gotten complaints about noise. this ia tough transition to make. having used to my monitors blaring. but sounds like the occasional daytime check at a nearby nightclub will have to do.

 

you dont need a daytime check

DT770s bro, thump the shit out of the bass.

they are EDM faves

the sound on your head = the sound when you get to a club (100%)

 

So I've struggled with this one for 10 years now, and I don't have any answers, but here are a few things to think about.

So you know where my experiences come from:

1). I've never had a huge budget for equipment or had the chance to work in a real studio mixing environment, so I've always had to work in rooms in apartments and houses, which are not ideal for getting a true monitoring sound from speakers. The low bass is *always inaccurate below 100 Hz and the low mids are *always inaccurate between 200-350 Hz. To see where your room has inaccuracies, walk around when a track with a lot of bass is playing and you'll hear pockets of loud bass in corners and near walls. That means sitting in front of the speakers is not giving you true sound. Also, turn on a sine wave tone and run it through the frequency spectrum from 200-500 Hz and at certain points you'll hear your room boom or thin out because of phasing issues. To mean, that means I can't ever accurately mix in pseudo-studio areas with monitors.

2). Closed back headphones won't ever really sound accurate for mixing because they're totally negating the sense of room, and especially in lower-cost headphones, bass response is either missing or overemphasized, and there are funny and random emphasis points in the 400-900Hz range.


So my suggestion for making the best out of a mix in a non-professional environment is:

1). Buy the best "flat" open-back headphones you can afford. I ended up choosing a pair of Sennheiser HD 595s. Listen to your favorite music on them as much as you can to hear where the midrange and bass inaccuracies are. Take some time to listen to your favorite music on whatever monitors you are using, then put your headphones on and adjust the volume so it sounds the like it has the same volume as your monitors at a comfortable level. Headphones on, headphones off, on and off while you're listening, and makes notes of what ranges sound different.

2). Pay attention to your meters all the time. Have your level meters on while you're composing and mixing, and learn to associate what you see on the screen with what you hear. Your ears may get tired over time, but meters don't lie about energy levels.

3). While you are composing and mixing, have a track in the session that you like the sound of. Turn the level down on that track somewhere around 10dB, and you can roughly match levels to it even during the mix/premaster stages. If you are constantly metering and referencing to sounds that you like, the quality of your monitors or headphones won't matter as much as your ability to analyze and match to professional work.

4). If you have a headphone mix you're happy with that sounds about how you like, then put it on your monitors and turn it up as loud as you can to do final tweaking. Then go back into headphones, make sure it still sounds right, and you should be good to go. At that point you can be pretty certain that your mix will sound acceptable both on speakers and in headphones.

- rx

 

But if you can, do it. You will always learn from that.

True. And also for headphones.

I make my mixes with a Creative Gigaworks T3 system and a cheap pair of Audio Technica ATH-FC700 (50$) to verify some details.
This is not recommended by the so-called "experts", but I have 15+ years experience, which helps me to translate the musical information ... it's about being able to compare what you hear and what it will sound, for example, in a club.
Also I'm using a Sansa Clip mp3 player and my laptop crappy speakers, then I compare with professional productions.
Another trick is to walk around in your room, obviously it will sound different, but if it's still sounds good everywhere, so your mix is good (remember it's the same thing in a club/rave/live concert).

The point with monitors is to have a room perfectly well treated and most people do not because it's expensive, requires specialized knowledge and people are lazy ... not to mention the neighbors!
In addition, you need several pairs of expensive monitors to do serious work.

I'm not saying that good monitors are useless, but remember that this is also an industry.


To summarize, if I had only one advice to give: Compare. Compare. Compare.

 

ATH-M50s. I don't like mixing in headphones, but you have to reference your mix in monitors and headphones. (Well, you don't have to, but I do and get better mixes)

 

FFT plugins are also useful.

 

Audio-Technica ATH-M50s
They are simply amazing, and till I get a sub to match my monitors, they are all I use.

 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD Stop giving in to the snake oil these people are trying to sell you & go get yourself some OC703 & a decent pair of NF's already!!!!

 

No one here is selling anything...
The op asked, and this is in the thread's title, "best headphones for mixing & mastering edm"

While your argument of nearfields vs. headphones is perfectly valid, neither nearfield monitors nor room treatment materials are headphones.

The poster later added,

So it seems that he already has monitors, and really wants headphone advice.

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Seriously?
You are really telling this guy he should mix and master on headphones rather than monitors because they will be more accurate?
Headphones are really not ideal for monitoring full stop and where they really fall down is sub bass. Although you may be able to hear the sub frequencies they will not be accurate I’m afraid.

/epic facepalm


well ok, he wants headphone advice?
Here it is....
If you think mastering on headphones is acceptable, quit now.
Mastering is something that you should never attempt if you think you can do it on headphones...

If a mix done on headphones sounds good in a REAL club with a flown system that is setup properly, i will eat my hat!

 

Lol! I certainly agree that "Mastering" quality won't be achieved with headphones.
That said, I would say that "mastering" quality for club or other performance can.

Whatever you think of Skrillex (he did get all those Grammy nominations and has a huge following),
he does all his work on his bus and in hotel rooms while touring, using Beats by Dre (crap headphones for the money).


Taken from My link
"Skillex is constantly on tour. As I said before he constantly makes music on the road anywhere he can. He travels with multiple MacbookPros (1 live, 1 toy/production mac and a backup). He uses Beats By Dre headphones, does everything on the trackpad and smokes a lot of cigarettes. Everything is in the box. He has stated in a recent interview that he makes tracks during the day and plays them out that night."