Just curious how you folks mix. It seems like most people listen to music on headphones nowadays rather than speakers. Do you focus more on how your mixes sound in headphones or are you still trying to find a happy medium with all types of outputs?
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asking somebody how they mix is a VERY extended question…
I use headphones, because I don’t have the resources to use speakers.
The chance is most people will listen to your music on headphones, so focus on mixing with them, I say. If you plan to go into live performances or similar, definitely use speakers to mix.
I actually use a soundbar with a subwoofer, to make sure that my bass is nice and fat. (I make Hard dance and bass music, so…)
I also listen to my mix on crappy speakers to make sure it sounds good, because the chances are most people won’t be listening with high-quality audiophile/mixing gear anyway.
One last point, you’ll never see me write a song in:
C
C#
B
A#
The frequency range just SUCKS. I like to stick to D# - A most of the time.
Fair enough, I’m still pretty new to it but I figured most people are walking around with Airpods all the time so maybe that should be the focus. Having said that, I definitely still do the old school car stereo test.
Interesting point on the keys, I’ve never noticed that but I generally make tunes in minor keys so maybe that’s it.
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Any scale is fine, but the sub just doesn’t hit right for some keys, so it’s not a great choice to pick the above.
F# is probably the best key for making beats, imo, It’s got good range for chord progressions and basically sits exactly in the middle of the octave, so have a play with it.
Also note that sitting at certain distances away from your speakers will give you a completely different sound, so beware of that
It’s important to consider your target audience, too. If you want your music to translate to as many mediums as possible and to be as accessable as possible, you might at least want to get a feel for how your tracks sound on Airpods, Beats headphones (do they still make those? I have no idea) car speakers and whatever other mediums people might casually use.
Quite frankly I hope people using at least half of those things despise my music altogether or would never even find it in the first place, but it’s sometimes important to remember that most people aren’t listening for the mix, anyway, and they will look past a shitty mix if the music rocks.
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I did my first mix ever on a pair of cheap PC speakers, and when I heard it on an equally cheap set of headphones for the first time I was shocked how much I couldn’t hear on the speakers. I have been mixing and mastering on headphones ever since - 13 years now.
There are things you have to work around with any audio system. As you spend more money and get better equipment it becomes less of an issue, but issues will always be there. There is no setup that will help your music translate like what you hear in your head to everyone else’s setup. As far as what I want my music to sound like, I want the point to get across. Even if their setup can’t play it, I usually want people to know there is a bassline (unless I don’t, I’ve done songs that way too). I want the drums to punch through the mix. I want to have things spread out and not right on top of each other. That will come across differently on different systems, but I can make the decisions that will support that on headphones.
The only real universal downside with headphones is the lack of crossfeed/soundstage. Fundamentally, everything in headphones is going directly into your left or right ear. That is different from how sound behaves coming out of speakers into a room and then into your ears, you get a mix of the two speakers in both ears. If you can find the budget/computer power to do it, I highly recommend a room simulator to go between your DAW and your headphones. That can add crossfeed between the two channels, and if you’re lucky it can also simulate different rooms. I have one that is a studio setting most of the time, but it also has clubs, cars, phone in a cup, etc. I wouldn’t spend big money on a room simulator until you have really good headphones you know you want to keep for a long time. But once you have those great headphones, a room simulator will really put them over the top.
That’s how I mix and I am certain that to improve on my headphone setup with speakers/room treatment I would have to spend over $20,000. So I’m not going to be making any changes any time soon.
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Mix according to frequency intensity and range.
Gotta find a balance between both.
Haven’t read through everyone else’s responses yet, so sorry if I’m repeating
Because of the space my studio is set up in, i pretty much am forced to mix in my headphones despite having pretty decent monitors. I am pretty familiar with the output of the monitors and headphones in relation to how things sound elsewhere, but it’s mostly just an additional reference at this point and not my primary.
I do use SoundId reference pretty much always for both my headphones and monitors, as it gets close to a flat response, It’s not perfect, but it does give a bit of a clearer picture.
I always listen to my tracks on various other audio devices as well as a sanity check after i have made changes to a mix, including both my car and my truck, my phone speaker, some Bluetooth speakers i have, and in-ear headphones. I usually find that between all of these I get pretty close. I’ll often notice things that need to be dialed in further by listening on these other speakers.
I have some good metering plugins and visualization software, but these hardly ever tell anything aside from the sonic components of the track, so they are mostly for double checking visually for things like kicks and bass overlapping too much, phase issues, thing like that. You can normally hear these things if you’re paying attention, but its nice to have as a a sort of rubber duck.
Ultimately, I use a bunch of different things in combination, and dial in that way when I’m mixing. It’s also good to take breaks if you’re doing longer sessions or working on a project with more dynamics, I usually find that if i come back after a few hours or days, i notice something glaring that i didn’t notice during the last pass.
Just learn your headphones and any other devices you use really well and you’ll get a sense of what your track actually sounds like with that information.
Lots of other great advice here from skimming responses. Good shit everyone.
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One thing I’ve noticed with my airpods as well as cabled in ear apple headphones is that there is some pretty substantial boost in the low end that I don’t get in my monitors or studio headphones.
I imagine that for most casual listeners this is ideal, because people want the bass to be nice and meaty, but it always bothers me a bit because i want a bit more of the balanced sound a lot of the time. I like to do a lot of weird sound design stuff though where i want more “moving / textural” components, so i think that tends to be where most of my personal challenge comes from.
I want my bass to come through the “correct” amount, so sometimes i find it hard to strike a balance between those types of headphones, and the gear I typically use when listening to music in my studio or on my record player. Hot take, but i actually turn my low end eq and sub down (i know, some of you probably think I’m crazy) in my car and truck (especially my truck, it sounds quite muddy and flat honestly, even with well mixed stuff)
I’m not making “bass” or really hard focused music normally like @Mecha_Twitchy, but there is plenty of overlap in some ways because for certain instances I want beefy low end with that crisp sharp mid/mid-high complement.
For me, those types of sounds tend to be a bit more forgiving with airpods and things, but you still have to work to get the balance between those two components sounding good between different speakers.
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@RFJ used to mix in his car. Forget checking your mix in the car, just move your studio rig in!
As others have said, use what you can afford to mix on, but referencing your mix on multiple systems and making notes is very important. Adjust mix later. Studio reference ID is a great tool to have, as well as a plugin like Sonible True:balance or similar. Izotope have one too.
Also, i find Airpods pro 2 to make most mixes sound better than they actually are. They have some kind of magic secret sauce. So I don’t trust them!
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You make a lot of great points, thank you. I got some mid range monitors for my “studio” fairly recently and it’s night and day. I’m still pretty new to EDM (having played in a punk band and done some other solo rockfish stuff) so this is pretty new to me. I’m kind of used to guitar layering and spending a week sitting around while the drums get done so it’s been interesting learning.
I’m also aware that because it’s dance music, it might get played in a club (where thy EQ the ever living shit out of songs) so it’s even more confusing. What sounds fantastic at medium volume on my monitors is both grating and muddy when you crank it up in the car. It’s an art form, isn’t it?
Mastering is a whole other thing I don;t really get, but I’m learning. Thanks for everyone’s insights!
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What monitors are you using.
Cheap monitors, despite their advertised use case of being “flat” actually tend to be coloured. Especially smaller ones. Two of the most common brands KRK ROKIT and Yamaha HS8 have a bass and treble boosts. This means that you will likely end up with dull sounding mixes that sound great in your room but not anywhere else. Most small rooms tend to have nasty modes that can either highlight or kill your bass. In your case it might be killing it (your sitting in a null) and so you’re overcompensating the bass in the mix and thus it translates poorly to the car, which tends to have excited bass
Who in the club is EQing the shit out of songs? If you are referring to DJs…just mix the song so you are happy with it. Yes, DJs will do things like cut everything but the lows in one song and cut the lows but nothing else in a second song and play the two songs on top of each other, but you need not worry mixing your tracks in a special way because of what DJs do.
Overall, if you aren’t in a properly treated room, whatever you decide to use as your primary mixing tool (headphones, monitors etc) learn them really well and test your mixes on as many devices as possible. I always use my hifi, bluetooth speaker and the car. If I can get a song sounding similar across all three, I usually call it done.