story2rewrite
Well-known member
I ordered the sony mdr's. Just wondering if I can use them on my computer as an audio monitor. Has anyone done this?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Using Headphones as monitors?
- Thread starter story2rewrite
- Start date
Never, ever, ever mix from headphones. Period.
They're great for checking things like minute adjustments in stereo spread, or for listening to a source for faint problems, but never mix/eq/master from cans. What you hear there will have nothing to do with what you'll hear on a speaker system, and once you go to play it on a TV, on a home theater, or in a real theater you'll suddenly realize that you wasted all the time you spent on sound.
They're great for checking things like minute adjustments in stereo spread, or for listening to a source for faint problems, but never mix/eq/master from cans. What you hear there will have nothing to do with what you'll hear on a speaker system, and once you go to play it on a TV, on a home theater, or in a real theater you'll suddenly realize that you wasted all the time you spent on sound.
Unfortunately, headphones, even very good ones, do not provide the flat frequency response or proper imaging needed to produce final mixes. They do have their place, such as for tracking, and doing rough slice and dice, striping, housekeeping, and such. I would not use them for anything requiring eq, image placement, dynamics, or mixing.
story2rewrite
Well-known member
Darnit. Just trying to save some dough.
What am I looking at for a decent pair? Suggestions would be great.
What am I looking at for a decent pair? Suggestions would be great.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
There is (or was) a box that simulates a surround stage with earphones. It actually works quite well but when you could buy them they were around $1,800, so you would be saving money buying speakers.
A couple of points. One is that, depending on what your mixing, you don't want completely flat response (at least out of the system). What you don't want are hyped R&R home speakers. And B you need to get some proper pink noise and an SPL meter along with those speakers.
THere are a lot that would work for you probably. I'm assuming your looking for near field monitors. I like Yorkville YSM-1's and they are pretty affordable. I have heard that the EVENT 20/20's are nice but I don't think they are sold anymore. Audix Hot House speakers were also pretty decent in the very affordable range.
A couple of points. One is that, depending on what your mixing, you don't want completely flat response (at least out of the system). What you don't want are hyped R&R home speakers. And B you need to get some proper pink noise and an SPL meter along with those speakers.
THere are a lot that would work for you probably. I'm assuming your looking for near field monitors. I like Yorkville YSM-1's and they are pretty affordable. I have heard that the EVENT 20/20's are nice but I don't think they are sold anymore. Audix Hot House speakers were also pretty decent in the very affordable range.
Steve House
Veteran
Proper monitors are not cheap. Bare bones minimum is going to start at about $500 or $600 for the pair and it goes up from there. Plus you must also give some attention to room acoustics and calibration and that will likely mean spending some $$ on that side of the equation.
There's a new cheap focusrite box that does DSP room/monitor virtualization, although I haven't tried it: http://www.focusrite.com/products/vrm/vrm_box
Also the Beyerdynamic Headzone's a professional headphone monitoring system (which does a similar thing, but in surround- with a head tracking system that moves the sources with your head), but that's about £2000. I've tried this- it works.
http://www.polaraudio.co.uk/distributedproducts/beyerpages/headzone.html
Neither will be as good as a well treated room and decent monitors, but could let you work in situations you normally wouldn't be able to
Also the Beyerdynamic Headzone's a professional headphone monitoring system (which does a similar thing, but in surround- with a head tracking system that moves the sources with your head), but that's about £2000. I've tried this- it works.
http://www.polaraudio.co.uk/distributedproducts/beyerpages/headzone.html
Neither will be as good as a well treated room and decent monitors, but could let you work in situations you normally wouldn't be able to
Gohanto
Veteran
Everyone's got their own view of what "decent" is honestly. Professional grade work? Internet for friends to watch?
But in my opinion is comes down to two things...
1. What's your true, honest budget?
2. What room are you using to mix in? (dimensions, wall/floor/ceiling materials, windows, curtains, ect...)
The 2nd question deals with room acoustics, and if your room isn't setup well, you won't be able to tell the difference between low and high end monitors anyway, and you really should get to a studio to mix.
http://www.auralex.com/ has a free room analysis link on the website, you basically send a sketch of the room and the info I mentioned above, and they give you suggestions on what acoustical treatment is needed and where it goes along with explanations for why. (Obviously you can buy treatment from whoever afterwards, or just build your own, but they usually give excellent, specific advice for people not already familiar with acoustics and how drastically it changes how good a speaker can sound)
A quick note on DSP "room correction". I've done testing on a few systems, and the largest issue the cheaper (ie below $10k) ones is that they can't tell the difference between issues that can be corrected electronically (frequency response peak from a single reflection) to those that can't (cancelations, flutter, ringing, ect...). Especially in an untreated room, they can actually do more harm than good in my experience. In a treated room where the major acoustical problems have been fixed with absorption/diffusion, they can definitely help tweak a system up a notch provided it's setup correctly)
But in my opinion is comes down to two things...
1. What's your true, honest budget?
2. What room are you using to mix in? (dimensions, wall/floor/ceiling materials, windows, curtains, ect...)
The 2nd question deals with room acoustics, and if your room isn't setup well, you won't be able to tell the difference between low and high end monitors anyway, and you really should get to a studio to mix.
http://www.auralex.com/ has a free room analysis link on the website, you basically send a sketch of the room and the info I mentioned above, and they give you suggestions on what acoustical treatment is needed and where it goes along with explanations for why. (Obviously you can buy treatment from whoever afterwards, or just build your own, but they usually give excellent, specific advice for people not already familiar with acoustics and how drastically it changes how good a speaker can sound)
A quick note on DSP "room correction". I've done testing on a few systems, and the largest issue the cheaper (ie below $10k) ones is that they can't tell the difference between issues that can be corrected electronically (frequency response peak from a single reflection) to those that can't (cancelations, flutter, ringing, ect...). Especially in an untreated room, they can actually do more harm than good in my experience. In a treated room where the major acoustical problems have been fixed with absorption/diffusion, they can definitely help tweak a system up a notch provided it's setup correctly)
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story2rewrite
Well-known member
Wow. People are great on here. Thanks for all the info. I did here about the yorkville's before. A few people said they were good. I'll have to look at the room as well. That's something I totally didn't think about.
The particular project I'm working on now is for a web series. I was hoping the headphones would be good enough to monitor but I probably shouldn't cut corners. I have some producers that might want to check it out so it would be a bad move to cut corners if it doesn't work out.
In the future, I'm in a coop with friends doing documentary work and narrative so the sooner I get the right stuff the better. We just purchased some g3's, ntg3 with poles and so forth so I probably shouldn't half ass at the very end.
Where's a good place to get the yorkville's or other possible setups?
This is very helpful. I'm printing this out for reference so I can get it right. Any other advice would be great. Thanks in advance.
The particular project I'm working on now is for a web series. I was hoping the headphones would be good enough to monitor but I probably shouldn't cut corners. I have some producers that might want to check it out so it would be a bad move to cut corners if it doesn't work out.
In the future, I'm in a coop with friends doing documentary work and narrative so the sooner I get the right stuff the better. We just purchased some g3's, ntg3 with poles and so forth so I probably shouldn't half ass at the very end.
Where's a good place to get the yorkville's or other possible setups?
This is very helpful. I'm printing this out for reference so I can get it right. Any other advice would be great. Thanks in advance.
Kolor-Pikker
Well-known member
The only exception I can think of is for binaural recording, where the mix is done exclusively for headphone playback, though it's also a very niche exception. It would actually be pretty neat to see more things with dual-audio options for headphones and speakers, but it's also a lot of work, so...
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
That looks interesting. The catch to all of these is you can't really calibrate them and since films are mixed by ear in a calibrated room it is a bit dodgy. I did notice though that with the Lake box (the one that retailed for $$$ because it wasn't that "in your ear" sound it wasn't nearly as fatiguing.
I use a pair of B&W speakers for monitors and they are amazing. I tried to like nearfields, but they didn't sound good on mu home stereo, so I switched to regular speakers and EQ'd the room with acoustic baffles and denim slabs (which makes more of a difference than the speakers). I think the B&Ws cost $500 and i expect they will last forever with the Kevlar cones.