All home studios need at least one pair of high quality headphones. The best studio headphones will both A) block out outside sound and B) accurately represent the audio that they’re playing back. For mixing, this second feature is crucial, as you don’t want consumer oriented cans coloring the audio you’re trying to mix. For recording, it doesn’t matter so much if the music is accurately represented since the earphones are only being used as monitors. Many musicians add click tracks, reverb, and other things to the headphones mix that will not end up on the actual recording to energize the performance.
Home Studio Mixing with Headphones
Ideally you’ll want to mix on monitor speakers, not headphones. But often out of necessity, you might mix late in the evening, when significant others and/or neighbors won’t appreciate you blaring your tasty new mixes. So you end up mixing with headphones. If you know how to compensate for them, you can get a decent mix that way. Read the rest of this entry »
