There are mixed opinions regarding mixing and mastering with headphones. Binge-watch a series of videos on this topic, or bury yourself in a slough of articles, and two camps form, those that believe it’s alright to mix and master on headphones and those that don’t. Both sides put up a great argument and have their points. I know people who get good results mixing on earbuds. From listening to both sides of the debate, the framing of the question needs to be corrected. Instead of asking if it is alright to mix on headphones, shouldn’t the question be when it is OK to mix on headphones?
For example, you are an audio engineer working in a large studio with an acoustically tested room and expensive monitors that are out of reach of most people. Do you use headphones, monitors, or both? You’re in your four-foot by four-foot closet that you turned into a studio because it was the only available space in the house; one monitor is sitting on the spare dog crate placed on the floor, and the other monitor is on the clothes hamper facing your forehead, do you mix on your headphones or use your monitors? We can walk through hundreds of scenarios like this. Mixing with headphones depends on your situation and the results you can achieve. For example, there is no way I can get better results in my studio with monitors over headphones; however, despite all efforts, that has more to do with my tiny square studio, which has the worst acoustics imaginable. So I use a mixture; I primarily mix in my headphones and check the mix on my near-field monitors.
The problem with mixing on headphones is you lose the center channel; your left ear hears one speaker, and your right ear hears the other. When listening to monitors, your left ear hears both the left and right monitor, with your head acting as a baffle, and the exact reverse happens for your right ear. This creates an openness you can’t achieve with headphones. Then there’s the issue of sound waves reflecting in the ear cup of the headphones and the headphones’ frequency response. How can you deal with these problems?
One workaround is to mix on open-back headphones. They sound more natural because you can hear what’s happening around you, and the sound waves don’t become trapped in the ear cup. With open-back headphones, others can hear what you are listening to, and you can hear others. So keep that in mind when using open-back headphones; it’s best to find a quiet place to mix and master your music.
Waves and other companies make software that tries to solve the center channel issue by allowing for what they call crosstalk between the left and right headphone speakers. The software asks for the measurements of your head and uses a head tracker or a camera to track the movement of your head. When you move your head, the plug-in adjusts your headphones’ left and right balance to mimic the change in the sound you’d hear if listening to reference monitors. We still have the issue of the frequency response of the headphones to consider.
Sonarworks makes a software program that provides EQ’ing for various headphones. They measured the frequency response of different headphones, created an EQ correction, and created a profile. If you get the software, select your headphones’ make and model, and the software loads up the EQ correction for your headset. Since even the same make and model of headphones can have a slightly different EQ curve, you can order headphones that have been profiled or send yours in for profiling.
As in most cases, some say this type of software colours the sound. They may be right, and you shouldn’t use software like this; maybe they’re wrong. So remember mixing on headphones may or may not work for you, but it’s another consideration if you want to mix on headphones or your situation demands it. Thanks for reading; I’m just a music teacher having fun; catch ya on the next one.
