Hi people,

Long story short (no to bore you with my woes): Can you mix properly ONLY on a MacBook Pro and a decent set of cans?


I was wondering -as many of you are on EDM and similar genres on a MacBook Pro for music production -if you believe that having a MBP and a decent set of earphones could be good enough to lay a commercial mix. I was asked to mix a song but lacked a sound card at the moment, so I loaded up the tracks, did a mix and then hoped for the best to happen. It sounded balanced to my ears, and my friend, who needed the mix for a playback performance on TV in my country, at least did not complain.

I work on an iMac rigged with a MOTU Traveler interface and Yamaha HS50 with HS10 sub, and still I need to A/B my mixes and then re-mix until I get it. My mixing space is too small and I have to make do with it for the moment. Even so, this time I had no such luxury as time to sit in my room. I worked on headphones.

The tools for the Job:

2011MacBook Pro @ 2.2 Ghz Intel MBP Core i7 with 16Gb of RAM
Logic Pro X
Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

Edit:

Any advice on how to best approach mixing like this will be greatly appreciated.

Peace,

Carlos

 

Hi Carlos I have the same computer and I'm not an audio maniac but the quality of the audio out of our comp seems to me less than decent . However make your mix and listen to it on various sources.. I'm sure you will make a wonderful mix!!

 

Well, I like to say: Never use headphones when mixing.. but if your location or equipment doesn't give you another choice..
At least you've got a good pair of cans.
Just know that headphones sound different, mainly giving a stronger bass response and a false stereo image.
The risk is: you'll likely to adapt and compensate for those shortcomings, and your audience will hear something that is different from what you meant it to be.

That's not as dramatic as it sounds.. In the real world, folks are listening to all sorts of different speakers (and headphones). So there isn't this One sound.
(try to) learn translating the headphone-sound by comparing it to decent speakers in a decent room.

 

I'm sure I'm not going to tell you what you haven't already thought of but I'll say it anyway

1st, Go confidently with what you have.

and now the rest....
You may come into balancing & stereo placement issues that sound great on headphones but "different" on a speaker sound stage but I'm sure you are aware of this.
The problem with having no access to speakers (regardless of quality) will mean you have no way of telling what is over or under saturated or misplaced in the stereo image which will/can cause a muddying effect and thus no way of being able to correct it.

If you know your headphones well you maybe able to predict and avoid some issues or you may just get lucky.

Once you have your track ready burn it to cd (or pop it on an ipod etc) and listen to it in as many environments as possible - separates, cheapo all-in-one hifi, car sound system etc.

Ideally see if you can plug your mbp through the above set ups and make adjustments to the finished track in situ and/or take notes for later more comfortable tweaking.

Unfortunately it seems it's about the best you can do in the current situation you are in. I'm sure there are a 1000 & 1 songs made in worse scenarios that sound just fine. *yes*

Good luck.

 

my friend, who needed the mix for a playback performance on TV in my country, at least did not complain.??
I Would say your friend is in trouble, to Answer your Question your highs and lows, and Mix will be Completely off, How and Why would he ask you to do this, without not having any proper Equipment, is behind me ! Strange

 

Thanks a lot for your replies. Undoubtedly, the bad is all mine for letting it happen. The show is a low-to-no budget show and he needed a collaboration. I revisited the mix and it would never cut it. This is one not to happen again.

Best of wishes to you,

Carlos

 

hard to accomplish but yes u can!


imo a key in mixing/controlling/whatever with hp is the playback volume.set it low

the other is that you know your hp well and know/anticipate how the mix sounds on other systems




gl carlos

 

Skrillex does exactly that all the time, writes a track with headphones and laptop, and plays it the same night, so in that way , yes.

If you are meaning a final mix for a cd that is to be released, then i don't think it would be good enough to spot all the problems.

 

See also this topic and my reply