I have a question and since i cant buy anything anymore without the help of this forum here it goes. I need some  headphones for mixing/mastering. Before anyone dogs me about it i know this is not the way to mix but realisticly, its about the only way i can.  Im sure im like most people in which i cant listen to my monitors that much cause ive got my wife watching tv ive got neighbors, i dont have kids but im sure alot of u do and im sure everyone mixes til all hours of the night like i do. Therefore, I need some really good headphones. So the people out there that does the majority of your mixing through headphones, what are u using? Ive read some reviews at guitar center on a few brands like the Sennheiser HD650. The reviews are pretty good but id like to hear from people that i know will be using headphones the same way im using them.

Cheap 30 quid sennheisers. Although mine was 20 pounds. Say 40 dollars. And don't think about it too much as you are going to be listening to your mixes anyway on other systems right? Like your car stereo.

Thats one of the problems. When i put a mix on my ipod and play it in my truck which has a really good system it doesnt sound at all as good as it does through the headphones that i now have. What sounds good through my headphone has major eq problems through my truck system. I seem to be going in circles tryin to mix and eq audio hoping its gonna sound good on a good sound system. of course when i play commercial released music in my truck it sounds great.

What happens when you compare commercial music to your mixes on your headphones?

Sennheiser HD280 Pro - they were about $85 at Guitar Center. They're not going to replace my Mackie HR824 monitors, but sometimes it is useful to have a decent headphones option. Like Alex said (or maybe I paraphrase), "reference, reference, reference". Listen closely to "known to sound good" pro mastered music on all sources (monitors or cans) frequently. Compare your song to theirs, back and forth. It helps. Good luck!

The commercial music sounds as it should in my truck or headphones. Honestly i dont go back and forth from my mixes to commercial but i will cause im definitely doing something wrong! I'm beginning to get a little frustrated. I'd like to think im getting better at mixing but sometimes i feel like im going backwards.

It's perfectly possible to mix great sounding music on headphones. But you need a pair of good quality headphones that have as little color as possible - I have a pair of ATH-M50's and they're fantastic for mixing. 

But what makes all the difference is if you mix through a speaker simulator like the Focusrite VRM Box. They recreate the tonal characteristics of various studio monitors and home speakers (e.g. laptop, desktop, TV, home hi-fi etc) so that you can hear how your mix is going to sound on a variety of systems. What they don't do is fully recreate the experience of listening on speakers, but they do offer a diversity of sonic perspectives to check your mix against. If it sounds good on every simulation on the VRM Box, there's a very good chance it's going to translate well to a variety of real world speakers as well. Probably one of the most useful purchases I ever made. But you have to pair them with a good quality pair of cans. 

I would not recommend Sennheiser, i got Sennheiser HD 380 PRO , and to me they are
to bass heavy and Lack some mid range.

You could go to your local music store and test:

Audio Technica ATH M50 /  AKG K271 MKII  /  Beyerdynamic DT 770.

I have not tested any of those, but read Reviews.
And i vill try to get one of those myself.
 
Also consider this: http://global.focusrite.c...dio-interfaces/vrm-box

I know this sounds like a poor suggestion, but I've been having good luck mixing on headphones with Apple iPhone earbuds. I have a variety of other high quality headphones. I've been led astray when mixing with good headphones because I might put too much bass in, or might have too much high range or whatever that makes it sound great on good headphones but out of whack on other systems like a car stereo.  But I experimented with the Apple earbuds and found they sort of already cut out the highs and lows. So if I can get the mix right for them I've found I've had surprisingly satisfactory playback through speakers on other systems.  I don't think it's the preferred way to mix, but for headphones mixing those are my current preferred headphones - because of the results I'm getting.  Definitely not as fun as listening to the good headphones, but gets better multi-use playback.

lawajava


I know this sounds like a poor suggestion, but I've been having good luck mixing on headphones with Apple iPhone earbuds. I have a variety of other high quality headphones. I've been led astray when mixing with good headphones because I might put too much bass in, or might have too much high range or whatever that makes it sound great on good headphones but out of whack on other systems like a car stereo.  But I experimented with the Apple earbuds and found they sort of already cut out the highs and lows. So if I can get the mix right for them I've found I've had surprisingly satisfactory playback through speakers on other systems.  I don't think it's the preferred way to mix, but for headphones mixing those are my current preferred headphones - because of the results I'm getting.  Definitely not as fun as listening to the good headphones, but gets better multi-use playback.

I don't think there's anything wrong with using low-grade headphones for mixing, as long as they're not your only reference. In fact I've heard a lot of pros saying that they keep, for instance, a pair of cheap laptop speakers on the studio and check the mix on them regularly, because of the feedback they give about the mid range. Same thing as pros mixing on Auratone speakers in the past I suppose (Auratones were used extensively by Quincy Jones to mix the Thriller album as an example).