#Headphones for mixing live sound how to#
#Headphones for mixing live sound professional#

In fact, it can cause headaches and induce nausea over prolonged periods. Any hard-panned sounds will be heard through one ear, which sounds very unnatural. Here, for instance, using Cubase 4 as an example, the pan setting for channel 1 will sound odd on headphones, while that of channel 2 (highlighted) should sound fine.On headphones, you hear only the left channel in your left ear and the right in your right ear. If you want to avoid unpleasant one-ear headphone sounds in your mixes, just back off slightly on those extreme pan settings. This all sounds perfectly natural, because that's how we experience every sound around us. You also hear additional reflections from walls, ceilings and floors. This is due to the 'shadowing' effect of the head, and in particular the external parts of the ears, which act like complex direction-dependent tone controls. When listening to loudspeakers, your right ear receives sounds from the left channel as well as the right, but slightly later and at a slightly reduced level.

Many commercial mixes can sound rather weird over headphones.

#Headphones for mixing live sound how to#

So it makes sense to test your mixes on headphones, and to learn how to work with 'phones to create mixes that work well on speakers. With occasional speaker reality checks, you should be able to create finished results that sound equally impressive (although different) on both speakers and 'phones. While it's certainly tricky to replace loudspeakers completely during the mixing process, it's quite possible to do about 90 percent of your mixing on headphones. So, with the right approach, getting it right in the cans can result in an even better speaker experience - it's just a matter of adapting and learning to rely on your 'phones. On the other hand, if you work late at night or have a studio with poor acoustics, or a family that doesn't appreciate hearing the same two bars looping round, you might have no choice but to work on headphones! What's more, headphones can expose lots of tiny details in your mixes that you might miss on speakers. Actually, it's rather important to make sure your mixes sound as good on 'cans' and 'earbuds' as they do through loudspeakers, but listening to some commercial material, I'm convinced that plenty of it is never checked on headphones before release.

#Headphones for mixing live sound professional#

There are those who say it's impossible to mix on headphones, but that hasn't stopped plenty of professional musicians, engineers, and producers doing just that. Mixing on cans is often frowned upon, but if you know what you're doing, you can get good results with only occasional checks on monitor speakers.