Thread Mastering with headphones?

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Brendanos

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First post

1 Posted on 02/26/2004 at 05:13:26

I'm working with a sony hi-fi making house music, which is not an ideal setup, but a good set of monitor speakers and amp can cost over a grand.
However some headphones from Sennheiser and Bayerdynamic have freq. responses as wide as 5Hz to 35,000KHz, and cost quite a bit less. Plus the added bonus of no complaints from your neighbours.
The only problem I see is the 'feel' factor, i.e. those sub bass frequencies in a typical house kick drum that you can't hear, but make your pint walk across the table in a big club.
Any suggstions? Should I save a couple of grand for Tannoys and soundproofing, or is it worth splashing out a few hundred on a good set of cans?[color=red][/color]

revrb

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2 Posted on 02/26/2004 at 14:30:44

when i cannot crank up my monitors (behringer truth b2103 whatever speakers) i use some audio technica headphones ..uh...."ATHm40fs" sometimes for mixing, sometimes tracking, somtimes mastering....

does the trick, as long as you let your ears take a break every now and again, if you keep them on for long, you may loose the feel for what youre trying to accomplish, and end up removing frequencies or making other bad dynamic changes because your ears are fatigued...

nihility0000

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3 Posted on 03/01/2004 at 19:18:43

in my experience you should never master a song or mix a song at high volumes. but not to low either you have to find a happy medium. your ears have built in limiters and when listening to a song a high volumes it makes all the tracks seem level. it is your ears way of protecting themselves. if you do mix at high levels then listen to the mix at a lower volume afterward. you may find that there is too much bass or to much high, or it could just sound absolutley horrible.

also, cans are usefull for mastering or mixing because you can pick up things going on in the audio a lot better. but it is not advised to do all of the mixing and mastering in cans. cross reference with moniters. both are valueable to the process when used together but can be quite unvalueable when one is just used.

davechm

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4 Posted on 03/09/2004 at 08:28:18

Behringer HPS3000 or AKG K55?

Dave

Brendanos

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5 Posted on 03/15/2004 at 02:08:57

Thanks all for your tips.
Yeah I got a pair of Sennheiser HD280 pro, and they're amazing! I beleive that there are more expensive monitoring headphones on the market but these ones are incredibly clear and accurate.
If you ever get them though, make sure to break them in, leave them plugged into a cd player on repeat for a couple of days.
I make house music so the sub bass (<100Hz) is essential and these phones go right down to that range with great accuracy.

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