Studio headphones are a very important part of your recording and mixing experience. The right headphones can make a session much more pleasant while lower quality models can really take away from it. While you should never mix exclusively in headphones, if you are going to use them for this use at all you definitely will want to make sure you have the right set.
Great Studio Headphones
First lets talk about studio headphones in the context of recording. Whether you are just laying down your own tracks in your spare bedroom or recording a whole band in a pro studio, you will definitely want everyone to be able to hear what they are playing in the mix as well as have a good sounding overall tone so they are happy with what they hear. For this use, monitoring, most nicer headphones will work as long as they aren’t to enhanced (have there own eq boosts) or deficient in any areas you should be fine. There is another side of this though and that is comfort and this will come in both for recording and mixing, but in a recording context you should just remember that you are always trying to make you clients feel as comfortable as possible so you can get the best performance you can.
Mixing with Studio Headphones
When it comes to mixing in studio headphones there are a couple things to keep in mind. Again you should never mix only in headphones or any one medium, but when you are mixing in headphone you want to make sure you have a good “flat” (no boosts or cuts in eq) response so you are actually hearing your mix and not your headphones version of such. This is true with monitors as well you should always mix with a flat eq so you can do what you need to in your mix to make it sound full. The other as I said above is comfort this is possibly even more important when in comes to mixing, as you could be sitting for along to inside headphones and when your lobes start to hurt believe me it really sucks. As you know you should take a lot of breaks during mixing to let your ears and mind recover but of coarse that doesn’t always happen, but try to keep the volume down as not to impair your ears as they are our most important tool as engineers.
Studio headphones can cost anywhere from fifty to hundreds of dollars, just know what you are looking for and budget what you can spend. Talk to some people who mix or record and see what they think and maybe look up some reviews of specific pairs online. Then head to your local shop and pick up a pair.
