mixing studio vs headphones

[steevio]

But yeah, a poor acoustic environment need not be the end of the world, you just gotta work harder and educate yourself and do a heap of A/B'ing with quality recordings.

very true, my studio is a case in point. its far from a perfect environment, but with lots of referencing you soon learn what it should sound like in there for it to be 'right'.

contrary to what No Affiliation said above, in my studio i have to the bass sounding louder than i would expect for it to be 'right'. this is totally down to your individual space, there is no rule of thumb, the perceived bass will be different in every studio.

headphones - yes you can get by with headphones, but if you are serious headphones alone are not a good option, i worked as a sound engineer for many years, and no-one i know in the industry would rely totally on headphones to do a mixdown. someone on here posted an example a while back of an artist who totally produces on headphones, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
from my own personal experience headphones are not a good option for working with reverb, they always give an exaggerated sense of reverb, which doesnt translate. sure it makes your reverb sound amazing but, there is a tendency to underdo the reverb level. i'm sure there will be people who argue against this, its just my experience of it thats all.

[AK]

headphones - yes you can get by with headphones, but if you are serious headphones alone are not a good option, i worked as a sound engineer for many years, and no-one i know in the industry would rely totally on headphones to do a mixdown. someone on here posted an example a while back of an artist who totally produces on headphones, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
from my own personal experience headphones are not a good option for working with reverb, they always give an exaggerated sense of reverb, which doesnt translate. sure it makes your reverb sound amazing but, there is a tendency to underdo the reverb level. i'm sure there will be people who argue against this, its just my experience of it thats all.

Yeah, that's a funny one, I find I get better reverb levels when I check them through my headphones, I have a tendency to apply what I think is too much when monitoring them through loudspeakers. Then, when I listen back through headphones, I am always uncomfortable about how much reverb I have applied. It doesn't seem noticeable through my monitors though.

I'm not sure whether it's the rooms I have used ( physical rooms not reverb types ) or what but I'm a lot happier when I set the reverbs with headphones on, esp. drums. I like to use a a bit of reverb over the drums just to take it away from a silent background and glue them a bit but when I do this through monitors, I'm always over-doing it, it's like I have trouble setting subtle reverb levels this way. Dunno, but that and things like stereo width on certain sounds, and little tiny details, I find I pick up on through headphones. Any EQ type decisions though, I really don't like doing this way.

[steevio]

I have a tendency to apply what I think is too much when monitoring them through loudspeakers. Then, when I listen back through headphones, I am always uncomfortable about how much reverb I have applied. It doesn't seem noticeable through my monitors though.

this is exactly what i'm saying, it always sounds like theres too much reverb in headphones, therefore the tendency is to back it off, but in the real world of rooms and their own reflections it wont be enough. if you cant hear enough reverb in your studio from your monitors, there's a good chance there isnt going to be enough in a club or someones bedroom.

[simonb]

i don't think they fully replace monitors but using both together, even in a bad room improves things a lot.

I've found that using a combination of headphones and monitors beats the sh!t out of just one or the other. My new "studio" is in the living room of a Victorian tenement flat with stone walls so it's not a bad room by any means but definitely not perfect. Especially when it's hot and I have to open the windows and hear all the noisy students and/or boy racers Still better sounding than previous bedroom studios but I find that the headphones help get things right. I've not got the money for acoustic treatment just now and it'd be quite nice to actually use the room as a living room too sometimes so I don't want it to be completely "studio-like"; not to mention it's a rented flat. The next step is to buy a place with a spare room but that's not gonna happen for a long time yet...

Re: reverb in headphones, I try to get a happy medium between monitors and headphones, seems like a decent compromise to me. Then again I'm not at the "pro" stage yet (although my recent productions are improving by leaps and bounds technically which is a pretty exciting time, won't go on about that though ) so take my advice with a pinch of salt.

[lem]

I have a tendency to apply what I think is too much when monitoring them through loudspeakers. Then, when I listen back through headphones, I am always uncomfortable about how much reverb I have applied. It doesn't seem noticeable through my monitors though.

this is exactly what i'm saying, it always sounds like theres too much reverb in headphones, therefore the tendency is to back it off, but in the real world of rooms and their own reflections it wont be enough. if you cant hear enough reverb in your studio from your monitors, there's a good chance there isnt going to be enough in a club or someones bedroom.

I work on headphones quite a lot, over at Studio B (my girlfriends house ) and its always bit of a lucky dip with whatever I am working on. I find it especially difficult to get the bass right.
I have noticed the reverb thing and found a temporary solution;
Send other elements of your track to a small/quiet reverb, or even the same one. Keep the level down quite low, just enough to give that sense that you are in a room. Then apply the reverb you want get right and it doesn't seem so loud. Then when you take it back to the studio you can mute that 'dummy' reverb.

Slightly ot, but Steevio does the 909 kick ever sound really buzzy through headphones? I always found that mine did, but on records its never there.

[hydrogen]

Slightly ot, but Steevio does the 909 kick ever sound really buzzy through headphones? I always found that mine did, but on records its never there.

Seems to be the case with most internal soundcards that ive used... Always some kind of distortion from low bass frequencies.

[AK]

I have a tendency to apply what I think is too much when monitoring them through loudspeakers. Then, when I listen back through headphones, I am always uncomfortable about how much reverb I have applied. It doesn't seem noticeable through my monitors though.

this is exactly what i'm saying, it always sounds like theres too much reverb in headphones, therefore the tendency is to back it off, but in the real world of rooms and their own reflections it wont be enough. if you cant hear enough reverb in your studio from your monitors, there's a good chance there isnt going to be enough in a club or someones bedroom.

I know where you are coming from mate, totally agree, I am happy with how I judge reverb now though but it certainly isn't for everyone. It's just something I'm used to doing now and I'm kinda used to it, the previous post was more from an angle of when I started using headphones - which came about through late night sessions.