Can you mix your music with headphones, or do you necessarily need studio monitors?
This is a question that many musicians ask for their home studio.
Indeed, everyone knows that professionals mix with studio monitors. They sometimes have several pairs. For those with a home studio, however, headphones often seem like a more practical solution and, above all, much cheaper.
However, we regularly hear and read on forums that one should absolutely not mix with headphones, that it is a crime, and that one must buy monitors to hope to produce quality sounds.
Is mixing with headphones really such a bad idea?
Answer in detail in this article! 🙂
Mixing with Studio Monitors
It must be admitted that studio monitors mainly have advantages.
That’s why they are used in all professional studios and in a number of home studios, connected directly to the audio interface.
They are designed to reproduce audio signals accurately. This means they should theoretically provide a flat frequency response and a linear phase.
In reality, of course, no speaker can be perfectly flat for all frequencies. It is even physically impossible. However, most are optimized for a given frequency range, for example, 50Hz – 20kHz.
As a result, they are built to offer the most accurate sound reproduction possible. In contrast, consumer speakers have a colored sound, aimed at pleasing their users’ ears as much as possible.
Generally speaking, studio monitors are also more accurate regarding sound distortion, bass resonance, or dynamic reproduction. That’s why professionals use them: because they allow listening to tracks objectively and thus making creative decisions during mixing.
However, they do have some limitations:
- They are complex to position
- They take up space
- They are difficult to move (power cables, bulkiness…)
- It can sometimes be harder to hear certain details
- Especially for smaller ones (5-inch diameter speakers), the bass response can sometimes be a bit light. Therefore, it’s better to add a subwoofer (dedicated bass speaker)
…and above all, appropriate acoustic treatment is needed.
Without acoustic treatment, sound waves will reverberate throughout the room, and it will no longer be possible to mix correctly. Some frequencies will stand out and resonate, while others will be somewhat masked.
Acoustic treatments are therefore essential but can be quite expensive.
Mixing with Headphones
In comparison, headphones often seem more practical: they take up no space, and you can easily plug and unplug them. No need for acoustic treatment.
Favoring immersion in sound, they also allow (provided you have a good mixing headphone) to hear certain details that might be less noticeable on studio monitors. For example, it is possible to hear small clicks or very short signal distortions.
On the other hand, it’s not a perfect mixing tool.
Its main flaw is that the stereo image is less realistic. Indeed, with headphones, the sound from the left channel reaches the left ear and the sound from the right channel reaches the right ear. The channels are therefore completely separated.
In contrast, with speakers, each ear picks up sound from both the left and right channels. In varying amounts, of course – but the result is that the stereo image is better, which makes it easier to give depth to a mix.
However, it is often thanks to headphones that one can have better control over the bass (especially if you have a good headphone amplifier on your interface or externally)
That said, to counterbalance the small size of the drivers, some headphones (especially closed-back headphones) artificially boost the bass: you hear them better but not necessarily with good definition or at the right sound level.
A number of other aspects should also be kept in mind:
- The level of perception of the instruments’ levels is different (compared to monitoring speakers)
- It is more difficult to properly adjust reverbs
- When mixing with headphones, you get fatigued more quickly because the sound reaches the ear directly. It’s therefore better to take breaks a bit more often
So, headphones or speakers? The pros’ solution
Ideally, you need both.
I know, it seems like an easy answer. But it’s really what professionals do.
They generally rely on monitoring speakers to do the bulk of the mixing process. Sometimes, they even use several pairs of speakers.
In parallel, they use one or more audio headphones for monitoring or to check certain details in the mix.
It becomes a comparison tool.
The solution for your home studio
Should we conclude that mixing with headphones is bad?
Let’s be clear: absolutely not.
If you don’t have a large budget, invest in a good pair of headphones rather than buying poor-quality speakers.
If in your home studio, you don’t have the option to install acoustic treatments (panels, bass traps), also use headphones.
Your desk is in a corner and you can’t move it? …it won’t help to put up acoustic absorbers! In that case, once again, use headphones.
In other words, it’s a thousand times better to mix on good headphones than on monitoring speakers if the room is untreated.
With a bit of practice and if you know the “strengths and weaknesses” of your equipment well, you can easily achieve a very good quality mix without using speakers!
Tip: don’t hesitate to frequently reference your mixes by comparing them with professional mixes, in order to better adjust your effects and levels (volume of vocals, amount of reverb…).
That said, if you want to work in a truly professional manner, have the budget, and your room allows it, I can only recommend that you lean towards monitoring speakers, which will prove to be more practical in the long run.
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