I started mixing on headphones almost exclusively from home a few years ago because of the less than optimal acoustics, but didn’t tell anyone, because of the stigma. Needless to say, once I got used to them, people have said the mixes sound better than they used to. Nice to get some backup here.
To be frank, i love mixing on speakers, but the mixes I do on my headphones always sound better, i also use reference mix when mixing on headphones, and it allows me to understand the sound better. As my studio is in my bedroom with a horrible, or more precise, none acoustic treatment, i can't trust my speakers :)
Same thing here (meaning: didn't at first tell anyone, started to get super good feedback, then started to talk about it and found out a lot of people are in the same boat :) )
Andrew is absolutely awesome. Most engineers think that THEIR way to work is THE way to work. I love when Andrew mentions that whatever works for you IS a good approach. Coming from one among the best in the world, it makes me feel less weirdo about the way I do things.
I absolutely love his philosophy. He's so matter of fact and very, "as long as you get there in the end, what's the difference?" It's like...cut the BS and just do the thing.
I came back to this video since it's upload 2 years ago. Priceless insights from two veterans. Probably the most important video on headphones out there.
Everytime I see an Andrew Scheps interview, I feel like he's overall telling me that things are going to be ok. And I like it! (Not to dismiss all the great knowledge he shares, of course)
He always reminds me of my best college professors. Everything he talks about I just understand afterwards, it's not me memorizing what he said, I understand what he was talking about and why it makes sense. My mixes are still not great, but I think they're getting better because of him. haha.
I love this. I’m a producer/writer more than a mix engineer (so grain of salt) and my experience has been that the best listening environment is the one you know best. After that, get some second opinions (car, earbuds, different speakers etc). If it still feels good in other environments, then it is good :)
The very first mix I ever did was done almost entirely with Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones. And to this day, I begin all of my mixes with them and use them as my main reference.
Wow - I have to mix on headphones and then check on speakers and it is always the vocal reverbs and level that I have to alter. This was a reassuring bit of chat. Cheers
This is really interesting, to hear from two professionals of this caliber talking realistically about headphones and mixing, too often you just hear technical information and why or why not to do this.With todays audio environment being what it is and professional level studios being at a minimum, mixing this way has in part become a necessity and more widely accepted, but lets not lose sight of the fact that when you have the kind of professional experience these guys have then your mixing decisions are far more accurate and calculated than the average!
The Engineers Engineer :) his work on the Low Roar albums is just sublime - so beautiful. I love listening to him talk and I trust what he says :) cheers Mr Scheps !
This was so helpful. I as too have been mixing with a small JBL speaker for overall levels, as well as mixing in headphones to get pans correct. Works great. I'm also in a small apartment with terrible acoustics so my Rokit 5's are definitely outta the question.
Reassuring stuff! I really feel I can hear and adjust the minutiae in headphones better than my (half decent) monitors. Plus I'm usually working late at night and my studio (dining room) is below my daughter's room so blasting it is not an option! Definitely reassuring to hear a great saying they do a lot of their mixing in cans!!
I tried the mdr-7506 for mixing, they were very comfortable and sound great in the low end. To my ears, my particular pair had a significant resonance around the 3khz area making some material difficult to mix.
Thank you for this video. Been having this conversation for the last 20 years and so many detractors. Now we can just say hey Andrew says it’s cool, leave me alone.
I have a feeling that after this interview the 7506s are going to become the NS10s of the 2020s.
3 года назад
Definitely, with the difference that people don’t have a clue why the ns10s were so popular in studios, they just saw the white cone in pictures and went to the stores to get them.
Putting in a vote for HD650's. Just gave mine an overhaul after 15 years. New earpads and headband padding, and good as new. Love it that you can get parts easily.
@@ruthlesscutthroat4030 the k702s a have been my main squeeze for some time now. absolutely insane how perfect their sound stage is and how detailed they can get, especially the low end
I heard Finneas explaining how his sister records her vocals holding the mic in her hands ( and there are videos where you can see it while she is sitting on her bed ) Folks, whatever works.
“Whatever works” is generally what people say when they’re too lazy to learn the right way! Only drive 140 mph once you know the speed limit and the curves of the road....don’t justify lazy recklessness! That said If we all waited to learn music theory and how to mix before we started we wouldn’t ever get started but it’s unfortunately common that people go from knowing nothing to being know it alls that refuse to go back and learn the proper way to write, record and mix songs after they get a few people who like their music (or at least didn’t say it was garbage)....break the rules once you know them and why they are the standard. Break the rules only when you are making a better choice! For instance, holding the mic in your hands is pretty pointless and is nothing to brag about. It could hurt your vocal recording if you aren’t holding still and serves no purpose that I can think of. In fact I didn’t know she did that but it explains why she always sounds too close to the mic & haunts my soul with her weird ass whispery (yet boxy and unsubtle) music...
Andrew Scheps saying “whatever works for you” has a completely different meaning than your bedroom producer buddy or local SoundCloud rapper saying that....Andrew says that after years of trial and error, studying other people’s workflow and testing what actually works best for him. Most others are justifying bad habits they’ve had from day one when they didn’t have a clue what they were doing and have music that doesn’t hit like it could if they stopped trying to take shortcuts. It’s also one thing when the industry standard calls for $50,000 ducks to monitor your mix on vs $100 pair of headphones, but most of the time the difference is $0.00 and people are just too egotistical or lazy to look up a five minute video on how it’s done properly! Especially with recording and mixing there is objectively a right way and a wrong way to do a lot of shit. You can’t mute a channel then try to tell me that you can “feel it maan”....it’s muted, scientifically, 100%, no if’s and’s or but’s, period! The things you can do on your master buss without ruining the song for instance are far more limited than the endless number of ways you could fuck it up! That’s where knowing the standard way can help save you a lot of time and headaches. Saying “whatever works” has led to far far more undisciplined garbage than hits and it’s time it’s said! Mixing is hardly strenuous work (it’s frustrating but you aren’t gonna break a sweat unless you’re really out of shape) so why not at least attempt to work as hard and as professionally on your music as a miner does at the mine or a carpenter does at the construction site. I don’t know about you but I’d rather buy the house built by pros who did it the right way than some guy who tells me “whatever works” while he stands proudly outside the dilapidated shack he just built!
@@logicalconceptofficial I didn't read the entire two comments you wrote but please don't call Finneas and Billie Eilish lazy or "your bedroom producer buddy". I think they have shown that even when they were broke that they could bring out great songs with whatever worked for them at the time. If you are going to reply with a long comment I won't read it btw.
This is so liberating. I've been mixing with K240's and really enjoying the results because I've learned them. However I always felt that I was missing out for not using fancy monitors. Not anymore , thank you sir!
Ever since i moved to an apartment, i switched from working on monitors to headphones. I had such a difficult time getting my mix right. After a couple years, my mixes have gotten so much better. Much more balanced. Less pluggins are being used. More contrast. All because of this man, God Scheps
I recently started mixing with Headphones, and I really think they help me achieve better results faster. I have a question for Andrew, and that is what A/D conversion audio interface do you use with your notebook? Thank you very much for all the info! It's a great help!
This is great. There is this unfounded stigma against using cans for mixing yet lots of guys do it as well as Mastering engineers. I've only been using headphones for about 8 months, and then will reference against my Dynaudio BM5A MKIs but am really enjoying it. The OLLO Audio S4X I bought punch way above their price point as well.
I mix primarily on headphones. The key as Andrew mentioned is to know and trust the headphones sound. Listen to lots of music as references on them to understand how they handle the frequency range, you'll know what's possible if your mix is right. I use speakers to test the bottom end "feel" and overall presence/punch of the mix, you can't always get that from headphones. I'll also play the mix in my car, my phone, some other Bluetooth speakers for a few days before signing off on it. This gives me a good cross section of perspectives on how it performs on different devices. Considering that many people listen to music on headphones now days, it's completely possible to deliver great mixes using them primarily. Know your cans, use speakers for a second opinion but do the workhorse share on them for sure. Big tip, for general mixing tasks work at a lower volume level to save ear fatigue.
Thanks Fab,Sony MDR7506 I bought a pair of these after listening to Andrew, Go try them and listen for yourself wish i had known about these 10 years ago, Thanks Fab and Thanks Andrew,
To be honest, I'm mixing more on my headphones than on the monitors. He's right, once you get used to it, that's what makes you bring the right decisions.
Working with headphones: Someone already wrote "stigma". That's exactly what it is. I mix (hobby) and master (professionally) with AKG K812s 90% of the time. I use Genelec 1038Bs, Yamaha NS10ms, Avantone "EvilTones" Mixcubes actives and my car stereo as well as my mobile phone, car stereo etc. But in the end, every decision is made on headphones. And it works. More than that, I recently bought the holy grail of headphone amps, the Benchmark HPA4, trying to replace the Lehmann Black Cube. But to be honest, I still like the amp in the RME M1610 Pro the most. So, eat that :) For less than 4k, I have my reference. This may not work for you, but it works.
It's so funny how Fab starts explaining to Andrew how he mixes. Meanwhile Sheps has mixed for Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Black Sabbath, Adele, Metalica, Linkin Park, U2, Justin Timberlake, Lincoln Park, Jay Z, Quincy Jones, Alanis Morrisette, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi just to name a few. So, Shep doesn't need to hear how you mix stuff Fab. YOU need to hear how Sheps mixes. LOL !
Just because somebody says you shouldn’t mix on headphones doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. And you also you shouldn’t need this guy to tell you it’s ok to use headphones. You should do whatever works for you.
Yeah, but the people who tell you you can't mix on headphones will tell you professionals/masters don't do it, so you can never get masterfully professional results if you do...good know that's not really true. Same with itb...
Well glad to hear I'm not the only one. Mixing on headphones is something I have to do, because my room is not treated and I only got a pair of 30€ "Speakers" that are 20 years old with a sub (that came with them). When I'm done mixing on my headphones (and they are good and expensive) it always turns out there's too much reverb and usually the vocal is too loud. It also happens that the balance Drums/Vocals/Instruments is off. But I instantly hear that on my cheap old speakers. It then becomes a painful process of going in on headphones, trying to fix it, bouncing it, hearing it on speakers again - repeat. I really think the only reason Mr Scheps is able to mix on headphones, is because his ears are way more experienced and capable then mine. I'd love to have a treated room and a pair of decent speakers. I know I'd be able to mix quicker and better. Another thing about headphones is: I don't like to wear them. It's tiring to my ears.. it just doesn't feel right. Conclusion: Some may be able to mix on headphones, but for some it's a pain.
It's so crazy to me that they BOTH feel their mixes are too wet when they go back to speakers! I'm just the opposite! Reverbs, especially, sound SO much more obvious to me on headphones! Now I wonder if I'm doing something wrong or if my speakers are doing something wrong! lol
The reason for this phenomenon (which I also know quite well) is that dry signals sound way drier in headphones, so normally you compensate for that by turning up artificial ambience. (not talking about loooong reverbs) Speakers however don't need as much ambience because the sound reverberates in the room the speakers are in. So you are normally more cautious with ambience when mixing on speakers.
Why did someone edit out the ambience on this? Love the topic and these two have taught me SO much. The editing is really distracting. By the way, I am listening on my new, as of today, 7506 headphones.
I could mix in headphones it if I were sitting in those leather chairs holding a glass of Cognac, a cuban cigar and wondering if I should pull out that Shakespeare book behind me
i started mixing on akg 702 before i bought my first pair of studio speakers. terrible choice. sonarworks makes a huge difference there. wouldnt recommend without custom eq. i heard the audeze lcd 2 is a great mixing headphone. would like to try that
Personally I mix on 2 sets of speakers and headphones, but I do most of my mixing on my main 8" Mackies, then I use the headphones and smaller speakers to double check a few things. Then I also like to check my mixes in my car and if possible on a full stack of speakers at a club or something.
I can't believe he mixes on 7506 headphones. I have a pair and I love them for low-end and for checking whether or not the mix is too bright, but there are no low-mids at all. Whenever I try mixing on them, there's always a problem with mids being too muddy, not enough mids or too muh mids.
Hi. great advices! i am worried about hearing loss. How can i know my headphones are too loud? well obviously my ears hurt but is there a way to measure decibels or something to know when my headphones are just too loud
Yea but he mixed on speakers for decades though. So, when Andrew Scheps says he's mixing on headphones, that doesn't mean you should do it. Learn on regular speakers. Remember that. Proof that he is on a whole other level 17:59 - This whole video can be summed up: 18:08
I think it’s funny that people seem to talk about how panning sucks in headphones. But I’ve listened on headphones almost exclusively since I was a little kid. On speakers, I can’t pan anything wide enough because I’m used to hard panning on headphones ha
It's definitely subjective to each mixing engineer. Some people have the ability to perceive their mixing environment the way Andrew does, but some people can't. People like myself, do better when I mix in a good room, with good speakers. I'm not as good as Andrew though, so it's the reality for each of us.
I'm a musician not an audio engineer and it might sound naive but i've always felt like, sure if you mix on 4000$ speakers, in a nice studio room, anything is gonna sound good, at least it's never gonna sound terrible. A good (not excellent) quality pair of headphones will really bring out the flaws in the mix and like he said, are not going to be enhanced or modified by the room acoustics. I've always been more effective doing my first mix in my 200$ bose headphones and then checking it in my monitors rather than the opposite ; the monitors will always hide the flaws in the mix thanks to their natural punch and warmth.
Maybe it is a great idea turning vocals a couple of dB down, if it is intended that they fit better in the mix, not just once but in iterative levels clearly down, it is not that awesome or exciting to listen to something which is intended to be louder exactly opposite, however that could force someone to work even more on that pleasing edge but also it becomes really clear what will be masked by other elements. However not forgetting bringing vocals back up again a couple of dB louder at final stage. If there are 10 songs in one go, it could be difficult to really get that focus as the embedding of the singer or acoustics changing during different songs or even that style called 'switching' during one single. I guess same principle applies to yamaha ns10 monitors as they are slightly lower q so it pushes someone to do the mix as good as possible. So it is a lucky luxury to have a speaker, which brings the q down in some alternative style a bit different than by clipping. The really annoying part of headphones is their different bass response, where as example on phones or blues teeth speakers just zeroes out the side signal or zeroes out everything starting below 30 Hz and making everything thinner below 100 Hz. However calibration doesn't replace the missing generative, part just tricks the listener to a more equal loudness curve if you know what I mean. If that speaker sucks at 200 Hz calibration could just replace the curve around that for that matter, however not giving that extra speaker at 200 Hz which is high quality. A whole other story as room calibration. So is parallel compression really compression after a limiter or is that saturation and distortion to bring back that missing part of harmonics? There has to be a tool which can filter out the perceivable loudness to really find that out. However there is anything like a "desaturator" or a "dynamic dc offset filter": an eq or a comb filter would be too clumsy. Where an easy solution would be a multistage audio file which can be revisited after destruction or a classic AB comparison. Could explain why some love harmonizers, exciters and opto compression on vocals as they bring more weight but not as wet just like a spicy ingredient. Headphone virtualisation is really not just crossfeed but reverb / convolution as well. The psychology behind that is: headphones removing the room sound completely and naturally our brain bias configured when something coming from space, it could be a natural response to bring up reverb levels up mixing on headphones exactly because of that phenomenon and because reverb sounds pleasing than a constant bite. And of course the change is massive auditing on monitors back again. There could be same surprises switching a mix strictly to mono, switching the phase or flipping LR channels. But mixing on monitors and finally switching over to headphones could as well be surprising. Generally a strictly monitor mix sounds more boxy, tuby and unnaturally on headphones because monitors are having a wider range, every single detail comes out which is not fun at all.
I got a pair of Beyerdynamic 1770 pros when they were on sale last summer. I really like them. I can’t mix in the cheaper headphones because the bass is so exaggerated that it hurts my ears.. my ears are very sensitive. They don’t produce much bass though, & I have to go back & sort the low end, so I get what he’s saying. Are there any headphones that produce low end better than the beyerdynamics, without exaggerating it too much?
Guys..i think Andrew is meditating daily. If you work, have things to do, stress or anthing other than have peacefull mind, dont expect to do stuff like him. Meditation is crazy stuff, it boosts IQ, memory, focus, gets cortisol down and you go in day with almost 40% more energy. Joe Dispenza is the guy to listen to about that. I know i dont want to have just any monitors, i can't do acoustic stuff right now so i am on headphones, sold my 8" monitors coz that was just chaos in my room. I've bought Sony 7506 on his recommendation and i could not do anything right, it was crazy, i could not mix on those headphones. They are clear and there is detail in it, space, but i cant.. there was no life in it. I have 15 years old Senn PX100 which i love and they have huge amount of distortion on low end which is baaad but can be worked around with a little fart reference speaker..but...i dont have my name on Jay Z's stuff tho.
7:30 PERIOD! 8:40 extremely important, 9: 50 dead balls on! 14:20 IMHO determine what is audio real, use a line level or plugin spectrum analyzer to learn to recognize these frequency differences, WITH self preferred reference CD's and a few different monitors PLUS the shitty car stereo. If it all sounds the same, then it all will sound the same! 14:15 can be a bit confusing possibly cause of video cuts? So, let me say, as I interpret this part, IF your headphones ALWAYS have a frequency that doesn't match your hopefully vast array of speakers, it should also be an obvious visual in the DAW analyzer , or analog rack spectrum analyzer showing these undesired frequencies. Pretty simple stuff :) So, that being said, the end result is to bring the CAPTURED (recorded)audio to a living room! SO, if the band sounds "XYZ" when recorded and your neighbors speakers play back "poopeeedooo"", you either fukd up or your neighbor needs FLAT speakers!
I can mix in headphones because I listen to music in headphones . In fact I listen to headphones more than I listen to daily music on my studio monitors . I have headphones I trust when I listen to other people’s music so why not trust my own
