(assuming no access to a well treated room)

plugins like Abbey road 3 studio room or NX Oceanway

I just wanted to ask, are you convinced you make better mix decisions using these for headphones?

and how can i be sure this is the case that I am making better mix decisions when hearing through these plugins

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 6, 2021

I'm not entirely convinced. If there is no well treated room then I'd suggest you buy the best studio headphones you can get for your budget, get used to their sound and use these plugins every now and then as an extra reference source ("how would my mix sound in this room or in that room?"), not as your main monitoring. But that's just like, you know... my opinion

By listening to the mix you did with these plugins on as many sources as you can, i.e. headphones, cheap earbuds, boomboxes, your car, etc. If it sounds good on all sources (and on par with reference tracks) then you made good mixing decisions.

 

Last edited: Oct 6, 2021

My 2 cents on the topic, you have to learn any mix environment you're in. I used Sonarworks Reference for awhile and found that I just had to relearn how a good mix sounded with a perfectly flat frequency response. I found that what I thought sounded good through that flat response was too bright and bass heavy. I found it was just a step back. I know very well how my headphones sound. I don't want something that will change that. As far as my room goes, it's far from perfect but I know how things are supposed to sound in it. When I've been to studios with better treated rooms and better monitors, I had to learn how that sounded. While the frequency response might be more "flat", I'm still not used to how flat sounds and I have to learn it.

A quick way to check if these plugins might work for you, is listen to some reference tracks through them, do they sound better? More natural? Or worse?

In my opinion, don't bother with the headphone monitoring plugins, just learn your headphones. Treat your room the best you can. You can make your own acoustic panels with Roxul or Corning's 703 for a fraction the cost of Auralex or the like. You can even make your own diffusers with plywood and 4x4's for penny's on the dollar. If you can't treat your room, just spend some time learning how it sounds. If you have any really horrible artifacts happening, make a monitor eq yourself. My room when untreated had a really annoying 120hz resonance, so I just kept an eq on the master with a big narrow duck at 120 hz. I had a pair of DT990 headphones that just had a real lack of bass response. So I made a monitor eq for those that just boosted the sub in a way that sounded natural to me. And if I needed to really investigate the sub region I'd use a monitoring plugin (ie Airwindows Monitoring) to solo just the sub frequencies. Not ideal but it worked for me.

Anyways that my 2 cents on that.

 

You bought the software and are using the software - so you have confidence that it will make your mix better. A lot of people use the room correction software. Mixing On Headphones www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mixing-headphones
Tips for Producing and Mixing with Headphones www.izotope.com/en/learn/tips-for-producing-and-mixing-with-headphones.html

Yes, because you simulate the room like in the real studio.

The longer you've been making music and the more your brain knows frequencies, the better the result. The quality of the headphones and the software used are also important. It is best to use listening monitors for the final inspection.

It's always about the room, if the room is very good - the mix will be very good. The rooms at home are often very bad, which is why you try to make a room corrector with certain plugins. Headphones are not suitable for assessing rooms, or in other words, headphones do not depict rooms. That's why you use these tools such as: Waves Nx Ocean Way, Blue Cat Audio - Re-Head, ToneBoosters - Morphit, SKnote - MixingRoom and many others.

Spoiler: Possible sources of problems when mixing in headphones

Possible sources of problems when mixing in headphones

Changed stereo perception

Headphones form an almost self-contained system on the ear. In principle, stereophony is just a work of our brain - it combines two mono sound sources that arrive at our ears at the same time into one sound with a corresponding room layout. The music from the two loudspeakers hits both ears at the same time, albeit with a delay due to the different distance to the speaker. In contrast, the sound of the right loudspeaker in the headphones cannot be heard in the left ear and vice versa. There is therefore a lack of important information for the stereo localization of the sounds. In a sense, there is no space. The problem of the mono center goes hand in hand. While this is in front of your head with speakers, it is between your ears with headphones.

Phase cancellations are not audible

If the sounds of both loudspeakers cannot mix, phase cancellation is unfortunately not audible either. Because these only occur when the sound waves of both mono audio signals meet - wave troughs and peaks cancel each other out. This can also be observed in many amateur productions that were only mixed in headphones. The effect of effects like stereo widening, chorus, phaser, and others that affect stereo behavior become very difficult to assess. The only thing that helps here is listening to another system with real speakers. Source: www.delamar.de

 

Last edited: Oct 6, 2021

For me, marijuana and a touch of vodka does wonders for mixing! [not really]

Headphone monitoring plugins are shit.

Just learn your headphones' sound, just like your speakers. Listen to some of your reference material. Always keep them handy.

When your ears are tired they will absolutely play tricks on you. Remember to take a sleep before mixing or mastering. Actually divide the process in three stages: making the track, 2nd day, mixing tht track, 3rd day, mastering the track.

I tell you, this will make your mixes sound much better, and make your production of songs much easier.

Cheers!

 

I find fresh ears is better before mastering! because you pick up on mistakes that you did not realise was there the day before!

 

Plugins help, considering:
- you're headphones are already decent.
- you can confirm the translability to different systems.
- I'm not using the individually calibrated settings, and that's why I always use several headphones.
- Stereo is poop, even if you use CanOpener and that sort if. Acustica's Sienna is quite good but still not speakers.

I'm using Sonaworks Headphone Edition. I've been getting good results with HD650 and 880Pro.