Monitor Headphones.

[Analog-X64]

I started putting some money away a few months ago
for purchasing a pair of Monitor Headphones.

I was planning on purchasing a brand new set.

But a friend of mine, says he has quite a few of them and
I can buy one off of him.

He said he has Closed and Open system ones.

Would be interested in some opinions.

I guess closed system would be like noise canceling?

[analoq]

"Closed" headphones are simply ones where the drivers are fully enclosed on the outside, nothing as complicated as noise cancellation but they do reduce outside noise if you must listen in a noisy environment. Examples from this page:


Closed


Open

Open is generally better for monitoring, closed is better if you need to reduce leakage (e.g. for recording vocals).

I've had a pair of Grado RS-2s for near 8 years now which are open. They've been a fine set of cans for listening and monitoring.

[Commie_User]

Monitoring using headphones is a bad idea as they don't give you a true listen to the sounds you're mixing. The soundscape is misleading and you don't get a true handle on the equalising and other vital devices you need.

They have their uses, for example to get a rough balance or to pick up on some detail ,but it's always best to use the monitors.

A good set for general use is the AKG K240s, similar to the set illustrated. However, I had to make my own replacement cable as the one supplied deteriorated after a month or two.

Anything will do for tracking, as long as they keep the leakage at bay. I even have a pair of road drillers' ear protectors which I can wear over the top of a set of Ipod-style in-ear 'phones.

[Analog-X64]

Open is generally better for monitoring, closed is better if you need to reduce leakage (e.g. for recording vocals).

I've had a pair of Grado RS-2s for near 8 years now which are open. They've been a fine set of cans for listening and monitoring.

I'm setting up the studio in the basement, it will be fairly quiet down there, with only a bit of noise from furnace, which is ok, since I dont plan on doing an vocal recording or microphone work.

an open one might suit me better.

[Analog-X64]

Monitoring using headphones is a bad idea as they don't give you a true listen to the sounds you're mixing. The soundscape is misleading and you don't get a true handle on the equalising and other vital devices you need.

They have their uses, for example to get a rough balance or to pick up on some detail ,but it's always best to use the monitors.

A good set for general use is the AKG K240s, similar to the set illustrated. However, I had to make my own replacement cable as the one supplied deteriorated after a month or two.

I think at this point, monitoring speakers wont do me any good, my ears are used to how things sound through headphones, I've stuck to the mid-range sennheiser headphones so far, but its time to get something better.

I plan to keep things simple, but who knows, I may change my mind later and pick up a couple of Polk's or something.

[LMan]

There are "half open" headphones which are a compromise.

[Razmo]

I would not recommend mixing on headphones either... it's problematic when you set levels, and another aspect is, that you do not get the subtle reverberation of the room when you mix. The result is most usually that when you then play the track in a room on speakers, that some instruments sound too loud suddenly, and others too low, and in most cases the extra reverberation in the room (where most people listen to music anyways) will drown the mix in ambience... simply because you compensate for the lack of room reverberation while setting FX with headphones, by turning the FX up.

This is not to say that you cannot compose using headphones, and that it has advantages. The most important thing while composing is that you have fun, and that it sounds good while you compose... this is easily obtained through headphones, but you just have to be prepared for doing final mixing on a pair of monitors, and maybe do quite some changes. One of the advantages/disadvantages to headphones is also, that the sound image is created "in your head", and not "in front of you"... sound will sound like they originate from within your skull, especially in closed headphones. You therefore get an illusive stereo perspective as well, that does NOT translate to a pair of speakers.

This is one of the things that has always puzzled me in mastering... how they make a track sound good on both speakers and headphones... in my case, it's either good in the headphones, or in the speakers... but then again; I'm not a mastering engineer... I simply do not have the equipment or the money to buy the stuff needed to do it "properly".

By the way, my old Terra Cresta remix was done with Headphones in the whole creative phase, but it took some tweaking on speakers afterwards

[Commie_User]

Indeed. Though it has to be said that you can't mix in any old room because non-uniform accustics can also have their faulty impact on the ambience of your mix. Same for rooms which are too 'wet' or 'dry' sounding. But you can get by with virtually any small room which is papered and full of things which can act as sound traps. (You should see my bedroom; it's so lined with boxes that it's like a studio stores area.)

Proper mastering engineers just have years of skill and experience to get their results. They are often considered to rank above the 'usual' type of mix engineer, though many producers would disagree. I have been recently getting into rudimentary mastering, now that I have some decent mixes under my belt, and it makes the world of difference. It can sound as if you've actually remixed a piece of music from scratch by the end of the process if you even remotely understand what you're up to. ('Remotely' is my level and the results are good anyway. Just proves how much power a mastering session gives you, though a competent mix gives you a boost.)

If you're at the point where a mix sounds good either on speakers or through 'phones, I'd focus on developing the 'pro-speaker' method. I would also make some in-progress mixes to play through all kinds of lower-grade systems too, so you can hear what needs to be done to get a good range on as many systems as possible. As time goes past you'll balance the sounds better in all kinds of ways and the time will come when your music sounds good anywhere.

PS - The noise from the furnace would impact on your perception of the sounds in the mix which occupy the same range.

[Commie_User]

Just in the way of an update, the headphones I used were stolen from my own home whilst my back was turned, when some scumball reached in through the window to take them.

A new pair of AKG K240s cost £55 in the US, yet a whopping £120 here in Britain. On a point of principle I bought them from America, even though I'm still waiting weeks for delivery, and postage costs bring the total almost towards the UK price.

Though it has to be said that the concept of 'studio-quality' headphones is a really a myth. Sound quality's a bonus but the only real criteria for a set of headphones to be acceptable in a studio environment is for them to be soundproofed for tracking.


http://www.boutiquemusicinc.com/e-store ... n/EX25.gif
You know something, the casing and headband of those closed headphones are exactly identical to the road-drillers' ear protectors I used. The only differences are that mine are orange and I have worn personal stereo earpieces underneath, whilst the cans in the picture have their own diaphrams!


During the sixties, Abbey Road used old WW2 RAF cans for tracking, even though they sounded awful, purely because they didn't leak much sound. I like the K240 set because they give decent reality for a reasonable price when relaxing.