Hi Audioseksuals

I want to ask you a simple question. I recently "finished" the first part of my track. (I work differently than the norm, but everybody has his own routines I guess.) Anyway, I have a finished mix (which I'm going to return on for various reasons, that's how I do it). It all sounds good: you can clearly hear elements, highs and lows are fine, etc. It even translates well on my desktop speakers!

The problem is when I go to check it in my headphones. A huge amount of people listen to music through headphones or earbuds or whatever, and every one of us had listened to their favourite piece on them. Well, my favourite piece translates very well on the headphones, mine doesn't. The problem I have is that the panning is way different, as if it was another mix. Some sounds are too strong and some frequencies are different. I'm not talking about "duh buy a good pair of headphones" no.

I want my piece to sound exactly as I want – or at least 90% – on earphones as well. I think I might already know the answer: sacrifice? The same thing you do for mono, kinda. In headphones the stereo image is way more powered/clear/in your face, and there's nothing you can do about it because, well, they are headphones.

What do you do to make sure a mix will sound as close to the original as possible when listened through headphones?

SEE YA

 

One good thing could be to really well know the Headphones you're using to 'master' ('finish') your Track(s).
This way, you can eventually correct some frequencies you know that your Headphones either amplify, or rather diminished in comparison with the other monitoring ressources you usually use ('Studio Monitors', 'HiFi Speakers',... ).

You can also make the opposite... by 'boosting' or 'cutting' some frequencies to try to get the same sound that when 'monitoring' your Track(s) with other means...


Another solution but more expensive could be the following :

'Focusrite VRM Box' (USB powered)





Usable with your Headphones and simulating several well-known 'Studio Monitors'.

 

Last edited: Aug 30, 2016

Maybe... you actually have some phase cancellation (in some instruments) when mixing in stereo speakers and you are compensating it with gain. And when you move to headphones, the cancellation obviously disappears and you get high gains on those frequencies/instruments.

My advice: try to find a common ground between your speakers and your headphones by mixing mono - and compare what you hear in the headphones vs the monitors. Each one will have it's flaws so you have to properly identify them before moving on.

 

I think if the mix sounds drastically different on one and the other source the mastering might need more work. I always cross check between headphones and some sort of speaker to get a workable mix. I think you kind of mentioned it but switching back and forth between mono and stereo as you mix really helps because muddy frequencies can do weird things to the stereo sides (and mono can help identify). Multi band compression and some EQ in the higher frequencies can help make things sound better across different speaker sources but spend the proper time to make sure you don't kill the dynamics. Just my 2 cents

 

Differences between headphone and monitor speaker listening are one of the problematic fields of music editing/mastering.

I suppose we'll never reach a state of being able to say that listening via headphones will near-perfectly represent the loudspeaker listening experience (so that editing via headphones would be sufficiently reliable).

Well, but I know your question is a bit different. You would like to know how to achieve an editing result that sounds excellent on both (or: on many different) kinds of "speakers", i.e. without any preference for one kind of those. Other than repeating the advice by Studio 555 I'm afraid that I don't have the perfect recipe for you in this respect.
But I also doubt whether you'll often get an artistically satisfying result when trying to suit every sort of listening device. If such thing would be possible at all, I think it might result in too small a common denominator (the more if you want to include IEMs and such in the circle of target devices).

However, my way is to give a preference to professional monitor speakers of high quality, and --according to this-- try to approach that listening experience on headphones: This means of course headphones of excellent quality, and additionally use some crossfeed plugin when listening via headphones (112dB Monitor VST plugin, in my case), and furthermore try to correct some frequency response oddities --resonances or other things standing in the way of a perceived flatness of the frequency response of the phones (corrections up to a certain extent only, of course)-- via a plug by MathAudio (HeadphoneEQ).
With regard to these frequency response corrections by the MathAudio plugin: I once tried to replace the MathAudio plug by doing a correction with a normal EQ and a correction curve in relation to the Harman headphone target curve. It worked well on some headphones, but not on others. The problem with this of course is that you have to know the "real" frequency response of your phones; if you don't base your possible corrections on a "correct" frequency curve of the status quo of your phones, the Harman target may be as "true" and perfect as you like, but your personal EQ correction curve then will inevitably be "incorrect"; well, the problem is that there is no single "correct" measurement of your phones, instead you'll get different frequency response curves with different headphone measurement gear; that's why, for the time being, I have given up on working with the Harman target.

But all that does never make listening via phones the same thing as listening via speakers, and in case there are remaining contradictions between editing decisions via phones and the parallel decisions made via speakers, I clearly give the preference to the version chosen via speakers.
And even with that preference, things remain complicated: You have to be aware that how you hear the music on your --perhaps thousands of dollars expensive-- monitor speakers might not be exactly what the average listener in his home will hear via his average HiFi gear and loudspeakers.
Should, for instance, one add a bit more of treble brilliance, with regard to the fact that this average listener won't have the crystal clear reproduction of the HF band as you have it on your monitors?? Etc. etc....

Producing for a broad range of possible playback listening devices might always be something either of too much of a compromise (to my mind) or of being ready to make clear preferences. One may check things on different sorts of playback devices, and if the music sounds satisfying on all or most of them, well, then fine and the better that way. But if there is a sort of incommensurateness between the different devices, I'll go with my monitor speakers and the relevant editing decisions. Because I think if one has to decide between two or more contradicting standards, it is better to use the high quality standard (the more as this higher standard will with greater probability meet the standard of equipment with which the CD reviewers will later listen to your editing work...!).

 

Trust me, and read my post:
Make sure that you have several headphones from different price range, including those that you buy for 1 or 2€.
Mix your track first in MONO, and if you have a old boom box with line in, use it too to mix the track. I use a kitchen radio with line in on it...
May sound stupid, but trust me, if your mix sounds good in a cheap pair of headphones and on cheap speakers, should sound very good
elsewhere... IF, properly mixed

 

I switch back and forth between my studio monitors and my cans all the time as I'm mixing to double check everything as I go. So when I get done, these sorts of issues have not piled up. I also have another not so audiophile stereo to listen on, and I like to listen on a couple friends systems and in a car, too. If I can still hear everything close to the way I want it after all that, I am pretty close.

 

Try the mixchecker plugin.

 

Thanks everybody, answers were very helpful.
My concern was not strictly about "making a good translation" but "making a good translation for earbuds/headphones", but I guess a perfect match just isn't possible because you listen very differently with earphones

Thanks, quick and good answers all,
love

 

I guess that just isn't the way to go. A good mix will naturally average on mostly every system. Take your favorite records/singles (professionally mastered and published) and play them in all your cans and speakers. They always average. What is lacking in one is accentuated in another, and they are never off by so much that your attention is distracted. That's a professional mix. If your mixes don't translate that way, your mixing still needs work. End of the story. You don't mix or master for one piece of media (unless it's for iTunes and its precise guidelines). You mix well or not (my struggle too).

 

Plus, as long as you don't have some 100,000 bucks for studio equipment, the best you can do is to stick to one listening source. This is a tip from experience. If you use the same source over so many years, you just know how it has to sound like to translate well.

The point about stereo field is simple to explain. With a speaker set you listen to music coming from the front with a certain angle. Therefore you tend to overly pan to compensate the assumed lack of stereo field. With headphones you hear the music directly from the side to your ears, which gives a wider stereo field impression. Just be more careful with the panning, when using speakers. 50% panning to any side is considered full stereo, on digital consoles/mixers/daws.

 

Your post is 100% true, but how do I explain this?
The way you listen to a track in headphones, is different when you listen to it the normal way, because the sound is pushed directly into your ears. If I pan something totally to one side, I can still hear it in my other ear: that doesn't happen when you use your cans. Do you understand what I mean by this?

EDIT: tulamide just anticipated me by a few seconds about the stereo field Exactly what I meant. What does this exactly mean? "50% panning to any side is considered full stereo, on digital consoles/mixers/daws."

 

True, but there's no problem with that. I don't understand the beware over the two listening media. If one isn't used to using earphones, I suppose they'll eventually adapt. But you know what you're talking about. You don't risk mixing wrongly because the different media are playing against you. If a potential listener who isn't comfortable with headphones listens to a good mix on headphones, their brain will struggle and eventually adapt to the new environment. Their brains will "do the math." I still sustain there's no need to mix for headphones.

 

I haven't listened to music in headphones for a long time, maybe that's the reason I find it weird... Listened as a listener, not as mixing/producing.
So yeah, I think you are most definitely right, shouldn't worry that much about that. Thanks a lot, this forum never ceases to amaze me for the quality of people on it