Good cans, vs. really good cans

Guitarhacker
Mixing on cans..... yup, I've done it a time or two. I have some cheap ($30 bargain bin on sale) Yamaha cans.  But I never do the final mixes on cans...... without testing it and checking it on the monitors.
 
 
If you learn the cans and really have good ears I think it's possible to get a decent mix on cans. BUT.....as was pointed out, the cans you buy in the stores tend to have BIASED sound designed into them...... fat heavy bass, bumped mids..... all in the attempt to get a signature sound and make the music EAR CANDY to their customers.
 
In this business/hobby, we don't want "ear candy" in the studio. We want..... or hopefully so, the closest approximation to the actual truth in the music..... let the end user add the ear candy...we just want it to work on as many system/platforms as possible and sound good.

Danny Danzi
Whew mixing in cans....definitely possible but you may have to scope out quite a few pair before you find the ones that work for you. OR....if you notice you're bass light/bass heavy, you could always try and somewhat compensate with an eq in line to sort of flatten them. Just don't export with the eq enabled. I'd not even want to try something like that, but then again, it depends on how extreme things are.
 
Cans are strange animals. Sometimes you get a pair that is cheap but they rock, other times a pricey pair can suck. The best ones for me have always been the AKG-K 240 DF's. They don't make them anymore though. A pair went on me a few months ago so I replaced them with the AKG 240 studio model. Huge difference for the worst in my opinion. The studio version sounds good, but they don't sound like the mix I created. So I'll be on a mission this month to try and find something that compares to the K 240 DF's I have left that work. They have a model that took their place, but no one ever seems to have them for me to try.
 
Sennhesiser has some good cans too...but it depends on the model and when they were made. For example, I remember bitflipper saying he had a pair of the HD 280 pro and they sounded bass light to him. The ones I have here, made a few years later, are loaded with bass to the point of me having to run a little high pass at 60 or 80 Hz to calm them down a little.
 
We just got a deal on 5 pair of KRK cans for the other studio. I'm not sure the model number right now, but when I used them for tracking vocals they sounded quite impressive. I didn't really spend a lot of time with them nor was I mixing with cans that night, but I plan on checking them out a bit more extensively to see how they sound while referencing a mix. I'll let you know how they sound as well as the model number if you're interested? Sorry I can't be more helpful.
 
Here's what I'd suggest if it's possible for you:
 
1. Most online music stores have a return policy. Use it and abuse it. Seriously. That's the price they have to pay having a "shipping" business like that where you can't physically be there to try stuff out.
 
2. If you have a store that has a nice line of cans there, bring a few mixes you know like the back of your hand and reference them. You'll know when you hear the right set of cans....I promise. You may also want to bring some individual instrumentation CD's along with you. This shows you how instruments sound by themselves and this can help paint a better picture for you.
 
For example, mixes sound good in my AKG studio cans...but there are elements that I would change if I were mixing in them. My guitar sounds don't sound like they do in my 240 DF's, which sound so close to my real monitors, it's scary. So when I hear my guitars in the Studio AKG's....I know they aren't right. There are some other things that are strange in them as well. If I would have tried them first without just buying them from Guitar Center, I would have never purchased them. So this round, I'm going into things totally different. The KRK's we bought were a deal...which you try to jump on when you own a studio and can get these things in quantity for a fair price. People just need to hear stuff at a decent quality....we don't need to impress them in cans. :)
 
Anyway, good luck John. I've been here man...and it's frustrating. Especially if you can't have monitors due to apartment or family etc. That's what made me mix on cans exclusively. While I had pretty good results, I didn't mix anything that made me truly smile until after I was in a place that allowed me to have the right monitor rig. Hopefully you'll fair better than I did when I was in your situation.
 
-Danny

dcumpian
Out of curiosity, how much better are the Ultrasone's from the standard ATH-M50's everyone always recommends?
 
Regards,
Dan