Original subtitles

hello and welcome back to the channel

today I'm going to be talking all about

headphones because in one of my previous

videos where I talked about the

importance of studio monitor calibration

and mixing on studio monitors I got the

same three questions over and over again

firstly what about just mixing on

headphones can you mix on headphones

secondly what ohm value of headphones

should you use

so what resistance of headphones 32 ohms

250 ohms etc and what's the difference

and thirdly which are better for mixing

and mastering open back or closed back

headphones and why so that's what I'm

going to be talking about in this video

it's all about headphones so let's just

dive right in I want to quickly say that

as I talked about the negatives of using

headphones I also have solutions for

most of these problems so you just wait

a few minutes I've got a lot of

actionable tips and advice you can use

to get a much better response out of

your headphones most of the questions

focused on can you just mix in

headphones why do you need studio

monitors so that's what I'm going to

start with basically when is it a good

time to grab the headphones and when

might you want to rely on studio

monitors so firstly there's loads of

things that headphones are fantastic for

which is why I would recommend all

beginners just simply start on

headphones they're cheaper for a start

than investing in a set of studio

monitors they're also obviously far more

private so you can use them anywhere and

they also sound the same anywhere

whether you're on a bus in your studio

in a living room they're gonna sound

pretty much the same whatever you use

them and because you don't need to worry

about how your room is interacting with

the sound as long as you know what good

music sounds like on your headphones

it's usually a really good reference to

go towards another positive is that

they're excellent for fine editing tasks

especially if there's noise in the room

listening for clicks pops distortions

and also when setting reverb trails like

reverb times and delay settings using

headphones and just getting really

locked in and closed in on what you're

doing it can really be helpful

however there's plenty of times when

headphones start to fall down and this

doesn't mean that you can't mix on them

of course you can but it means that

there's areas where studio monitors just

Excel and the first thing is that it's

really difficult to gauge your stereo

separation properly on head

because they're almost too perfect they

give you all the right channel in the

right ear and all of the left in the

left ear and there's no crosstalk

between the two channels so what this is

is when you're mixing in studio monitors

this is my right hand studio monitor

that's my right here might be flipped

for you the way I hear the right channel

is actually that I hear it in my right

ear and a bit of it in my left and it

also bounces around the room and I hear

the sound in a very spacious way whereas

in headphones you simply hear only the

right channel in your right ear and this

means that things tend to sound really

wide and separated in your headphones

even if you try to do a mono check so

you press mono on your interface or on

your mixer the sound in the headphones

is still really separated so it can

actually be hard to gauge how

instruments are sort of folding on top

of each other and mushing together

whereas in studio monitors you just get

this more spacious sound where you can

typically tell where instruments are

stepping on each other quicker

another reason is fatigue and the

enjoyment of music so often especially

in hot climates if you've got to wear

headphones for four five six hours it's

going to get really hot often sweaty and

just becomes really heavy and

uncomfortable and I know that sounds

like a really pathetic problem it's not

something I actually deal with in my

studio because it's really cold here I

live in Scotland but especially if

you're in a hotter climate so if you're

you know many places in the States or in

India or potentially in southern Europe

especially if it's a hot or a humid day

listening in headphones can become

really fatiguing and just not enjoyable

whereas studio monitors there's no

pressure on your ear you've got a good

airflow and it's not really something

that you have to worry about another

potential issue along with the mono

compatibility is checking for phase

problems and it's not always a problem

in headphones it does depend on which

type you have but anyone that's ever

recorded you know live drums bass

guitars you know that getting everything

in phase and also with the correct

polarity really really matters and often

engineers find it easier to check the

phase on studio monitors it can

absolutely be done on headphones

especially if you know what you're

listening for but it can sometimes be

harder to list

Alfre especially if you're new to

critical listening and finally the last

potential issue with headphones is that

many many people said but what if I'm

listening on flat headphones it isn't

that okay and the thing is there is no

such thing as a flat pair of headphones

as far as I'm aware almost every pair of

headphones even mixing and mastering

headphones have their own tonal balance

profiles just it's down to the

electronics the drivers the shape the

size your own ears everything will

affect the curve of the headphones so to

speak I'm oversimplifying it even my

favorite headphones right now not at all

sponsored these are extremely bright in

the high-end they've got a nice little

bass boost on them as well I really

really enjoy that but they are not flat

the way that my studio monitors are flat

when I've calibrated them so although

you could simply listen to a lot of

reference tracks and then your own music

to gauge how you should be mixing the

issue is if your headphones are overly

bright it can mean that it can be really

difficult to judge the clarity in the

mid-range or if they're really Basie it

can be difficult to be accurate and make

really precise and accurate moves down

in the low end however these problems

I've mentioned I have a couple of ways

to get over them so firstly as for the

mono compatibility issue a tip that a

friend of mine gave me which also helps

for the overall balance of instruments

is actually to just plug your headphones

in turn the volume up really high

separate the cones out a little bit just

like this and then hold them away from

you or put them down on your desk and

then just listen to your song and also

listen to a few bits of other music and

often this gives you an idea of how it

sounds when everything sort of mushed

together the way it might be on a phone

speaker or small pair of speakers and

when I only had headphones this was a

really really good tip it often helped

me tell when a vocal was far too loud or

quiet or whether high hats were being

lost under the mix or were far too loud

so genuinely try it seems like a little

bit of a gimmicky trick but it did help

me and it might help you to now as for

fixing that crosstalk issue where you

really should be hearing the right

channel in your right ear and your left

ear and the whole room there's a couple

of software's which I do not use and I'm

not sponsored by the companies so I

don't even own these softwares

one is can opener by good hurts and

another I think is waves and X and quite

a few people swear by these and also

loads of people would never go near them

what these do is they feed a bit of one

channel into the other and they also

simulate more of sort of an acoustic

room space I suppose so there's a lot of

you know complex algorithms and coding

that I do not understand that goes into

them but the advice here is that there

are several mix engineers and producers

who do rely on tools like that when

they're traveling where they can only

use headphones and I thought I should at

least mention it to those that might be

curious see if you can get a free trial

or something like that test it out it

might be for you

and then that issue about the headphones

not being flat well just in one of my

previous videos as I mentioned sonar

works for flattening your studio monitor

response sonar works has a headphone

addition where you can actually flatten

out the response of your headphones so

they've measured the response of

probably hundreds of headphones at this

point and you can also have yours

individually calibrated for a perfect

response and just in the same way that

their plug-in and standalone software

flattened out the response of your

studio monitors they can do the same

with your headphones this tends to have

mixed results between people whether

they like it or dislike it but there's

no doubt that it makes it flat

personally in my headphones I've over

the last three or four years I've become

so accustomed to the sound of these

wonderful headphones that it was a bit

odd for me at first especially in the

top end but when it came to the bass it

really just extended it made it sound

really really good so I do turn I do

turn the headphone addition on to check

the bass at least but I do quite like

the sound of my headphones so if you're

struggling with your headphones it might

be worth checking out those three

software's that I just mentioned okay so

I'm gonna move on to the next question

now because I think I've covered the

sort of headphones versus studio

monitors debate and I hope that's helped

a little bit the next is what ohm value

of headphones should I have some

headphones simply come up one and others

such as these bio dynamics or ver

dynamics they come in different options

from 32 ohms 250 ohm versions so you've

got low and high own versions people are

asking which should I get and why and

which ones sound best

now it all depends on what you're going

to be plugging it into so if you're

listening to music or mixing from a

smartphone or a laptop with a headphone

output you're going to want a lower own

value because these headphones require a

lot less power or gain to get a really

really high volume so if you're just

listening on your phone or your laptop

you won't need to turn the volume all

the way up and you'll still have a super

loud super full signal however if you

get at 250 or a 600 ohm pair of

headphones and plug those into your

laptop output or your phone even with

the volume maxed out you're not likely

to get the right amount of volume that

you can actually hear what's going on

it's going to be very quiet in your ears

even though the volume is maxed out and

to properly drive these higher ohm

headphones you want to make sure you

have a decent audio interface I've

managed to get a really good volume out

of all of the audience interfaces and

I'm sure other people can comment down

below what they use whether it works or

not but typically if you have a good

headphone amplifier or a good audio

interface you'll be able to drive 250

ohm headphones no problem at all now

when it comes to the sound quality

differences between the two so in an

ideal situation you're in a studio

you've got a headphone amp or an

interface which which headphones sound

better

I believe along with many many other

professionals and audio files that the

higher ohm headphones just sound

generally better typically a deeper

richer bass response kind of a wider

deeper soundstage it's quite difficult

to put this stuff into words and kind of

vocalize it but just generally a better

image better sonic image I suppose and

for many people just for the sheer

enjoyment of listening to music as a

hobby typically you'll see people using

higher ohm headphones

however I think a lot of people

including myself in a blind test would

not guess correctly every single time it

really does depend on the source

material if you're listening to a

low-quality mp3 file or you're streaming

at a low quality I I don't know if I

could even tell the difference being

completely truthful whereas if I'm

listening to a very high quality file

that's been fantastically well mixed a

mass

I would be able to tell the difference

between a higher ohm headphone and a

lower ohm headphone but they're both

gonna deliver excellent results and it

typically matters what brand you choose

on what type of headphone tends to

matter a bit more than just obsessing

over own values and finally I'll try to

keep this last question brief whilst the

difference between close back and open

back headphones but more specifically

which one sounds better for mixing and

mastering most people will know you've

got two general classifications of

headphones you have closed back

headphones like this if my camera will

focus which has a hard shell on the back

that prevents noise leaking out into the

world and keeps things quite private

even without any active noise

cancellation technology and then you've

also got open-back headphones that look

a little bit like this where they have a

grill or a mesh on the back which allows

sound to escape and also sound from the

room to leak in to the headphone as well

long story short I much prefer open-back

headphones for mixing and mastering but

there are times when closed back

headphones are far far superior firstly

if you're not in a private environment

and you need to listen to what you're

doing and there's people talking or

there's noise you definitely want to use

closed back headphones you won't be able

to use open-back headphones if you're

traveling if you're on a plane or a bus

or any kind of noisy environment or even

if there's people talking in your studio

it's gonna really bother you because

you're gonna hear absolutely everything

however when I used to produce in a duo

or whenever I have artists on is quite

nice because when I put these open-back

headphones on I'm not wearing them for

fashion clearly I can hear what

everyone's saying and I can also hear my

own voice really clearly so I don't feel

like I'm being as antisocial and locking

myself away but in a lot of cases this

openness and lack of privacy is going to

be an issue another one is for recording

which I wasn't really going to talk

about which is that because sound leaks

out of these headphones everyone else

can hear what you're listening to sound

will leak into the microphone the

metronome will leak out so they're not

really great for recording you can get

away with it but it's not ideal but I

think by far the main reason people

choose between them is comfort and audio

quality so firstly the open-back

headphones are usually in almost all

brands

are more comfortable there's air flow

and the heat can get in and out so they

typically stay at a really nice

temperature on your head no buildup of

like sweat or heat or anything like that

and sometimes they're even lighter than

the clothes back versions because

they've got a grill there's less

material so often there can be a little

bit less pressure on the headband again

these are really known issues for a lot

of people but it's worth mentioning and

then when it comes to the sound quality

the open-back headphones are just so

much wider deeper more spacious now

there are times when closed back

headphones sound a bit better

often the bass can sound more punchy but

not necessarily deeper or full but with

the open-back headphones it was a really

interesting experience when I first

tried this and when I listened to any

new music it's a completely immersive

spacious experience of sound completely

different to anything else that I'm used

to hearing you hear all the instruments

separated around your head everything

feels extraordinary 3d and for the sake

of pure enjoyment this is what I usually

like to listen to music on first just to

really gauge a song and just enjoy it

but also this quality of having a really

wide and deep soundstage means that I

find them excellent from mixing I find

it much much easier to judge stereo

width and panning decisions and also

just overall balance with these on my

head as opposed to a pair of closed back

headphones and although I said the bass

was a little bit more punchy with the

closed back headphones or even a lot

more punchy I find the bass in this is

just deeper and more enjoyable and a

fuller sound even if it's not quite as

fun or punchy or pokey potentially

depending on the genre of music you're

gonna listen to and mix one might win

over the other but I know so many

engineers and myself included just

prefer open-back headphones when we can

but that does depend on being in a nice

quiet environment and knowing that

you're not gonna bother anyone with all

the sound that's leaking out as for any

recommendations for which headphones you

should use any brands that I prefer now

most people know that I've used bio

dynamics for years I just find them to

be absolutely bomb-proof and I've really

enjoyed listening on them they always I

can

pads off wash them they always come up

really clean and good the pads are

really large really soft and it means

that one when they're on my head I kind

of just forgot they're there sometimes

they feel like there's like little

pillows on my ears which is really nice

this is not a sponsored video but I know

the bio dynamics are widely trusted as

almost an industry standard in

headphones and some people like the look

of the mic whenever I'm wearing them in

my tutorials I'm definitely not wearing

them for the sake of fashion that's for

sure I'm wearing them for the function

of them and they sound really really

good I also have quite small ears and

quite flexible so having something that

sits over my full ear really helps

because if something presses on to my

ear it tends to just call a lot of

build-up and heat but other brands that

are fantastic are audio technica I've

used those before and I know that a lot

of people swear by Sennheiser headphones

typically these brands with a long

heritage of headphone design they tend

to not mess anything up usually their

headphones end up being really

comfortable really accurate and just

sound great where it's often the newer

or younger brands that are trying all

sorts of crazy wacky designs typically

they only work for a small fraction of

people and they're not perfect for

everybody anyway I hope I've cleared up

those three questions I don't want to

drag this out any longer so thank you

very much for watching I hope that

helped any questions at all drop them in

the comment section down below I'll be

trying to answer as many as possible but

thank you very much for watching and I

hope to see you in the next video - hope

you have a great week bye for now