Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
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Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Suggestion needed: which headphones to buy to mix & track my music with?
dear people of the forum hello you all.
I need your experience to understand what kind of headphones to buy.
The situation is this: because of personal issues, I’ve been forced to leave my flat where I had set-up my production studio across the years.
I do make house and techno music and I always mixed through a pair of Yamaha NS10m monitors driven by a Yamaha P1600 amp.
Now, where I am currently living, I don’t have the possibility to play music loud or even at normal volume, specially in the evening, when I am home from work and have the time to mix.
So that, I need to buy a set of headphones I’ll mix and track my music with. I did try several “studio monitor” models from the major brands so far, but to me each one tends to add colour and eqing out of the final mix, and I’m scared that, if I’ll mix and master through these headphones, they’ll translate the final mix wrongly and without respecting the image I had in mind.
Could you suggest me a set of headphones that are really transparent and using which I can be sure that what I hear through them will be what it’ll end up being recorded on tape, without colouring or masking the signal?
Thank you very much indeed to you all in advance
Luca
Bologna, Italy
Comments
Hi Luca, and welcome aboard! Search the forum for headphone discussions, as there a few. Here is one to start...
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/14344/mixing-headphones-on-the-not-quite-pro-level/p1
Samson SR850 open backed are what I use, ridiculously good (I.e. flat, uncoloured sound, comfortable to wear, able to handle highs and lows without distortion) for the low price, currently £38.50 on Amazon in the UK, lots of good reviews from public and press alike, the lead is permanently tethered and not replaceable which might be an issue if you give them a hard life but mine are for my home setup only and I look after them. Very pleased with the purchase, made my iPad app noodling purposeful.
ATH-M50x. I sold mine out of necessity but very good. If you're willing to go a little higher. Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro. Check the version. The 80 ohm have no issue being driven by ios. If you get a different version you may need a headphone amp to drive it properly. I've had mine (80 ohm) since 2006 and they are simply amazing.
I'm also using a Dt770/80 Ohms with iOS. It's a closed type headphones model with noticeably more pronounced bass than e.g. AKG models. It's comfortable even during longer sessions, large enough for most ears and it works well at lower levels, but if you want a very clear and transparent-sounding model, better look elsewhere.
This is driving me nutz!
My Lulu cat bit the cord into a million pieces and left me with no headphones. After searching my place, I found a mediocre headphones. I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and returned to my desk and found she chewed the second headphones into another million pieces. 2 pairs of headphones damaged and decimated within 2 hours!! Lesson learnt - she lost my trust. I learnt to always keep an eye on her and my headphones.
I searched and searched the whole place and found an old earbuds and thought I was back in business. Last night I was in the kitchen and took my eyes off my desk and the kitty for just a couple of minutes and she bit my earbuds into a million pieces again. 3 headphones ruined and vaporized in a week’s time.
Since nobody would solder or repair these damaged ones, I ordered 2 pairs of earbuds off eBay last night but for now my projects got stalled until I receive the earbuds. I would go crazy in the meantime with nothing else to do. I don’t know what sadistic pleasure she derives by biting off my cords when she has a dozen cat toys lying on the floor, ready to play.
Cats are terribly untrainable and she doesn’t understand when I tell her it is daddy’s toy and show her, her toys for several minutes repeating to her what is mine and what is her’s but the moment she sees the cord, she forgets everything and goes bonkers again! Her learning ability reminds me of Groot.
How to keep a cat off our equipment?
When I was buying headphones I decided on audio technical mt40s. So I guess I put my money where my mouth is.
I think any of the suggested ‘phones will end up being decent. I had a budget and bought the best headphones I could for that budget. Or at least the ones I liked the most.
They’re good. I like em.
@MobileMusic
I feel your pain. I don't have a cat, but I have a teenage son who makes beats on the subway, and therefore I have at LEAST 6 pairs of headphones with a dead cord. In the past I have used the Radio Shack non-solder jacks, but they fail quickly.
I have a soldering iron, but I don't know how to use it.
Is there a good, reliable instructional video on how to repair headphones? It's such a scam; they all lose connection in the same place, roughly.
Are cats really made for living inside a house?
Is your cat still alive anyway?
For mixing I think the Sennheiser HD650 is probably the best option, but they will need an amp if you want to drive them at louder volumes.
They’re not going to sound like NS10s though, so if you’re looking for that kind of sound (more treble, less bass) then you might want to consider something like the AKG702.
Get cheap phones, plug into wall socket. Cat will learn lesson.
Any of the AKG range , even the dirt cheap k52 are good enough , or the 72 or 92,
Or my favorite the Akg studio 240.
You really don’t need to spend a lot.
Just get some that sound good to your ears.
I’ve just tracked a whole album with Apple ear buds cos I find them comfortable.
Get something that works for you.
I think the bigger travesty here is that you find the Apple ear buds comfortable.
Kidding of course, but that's pretty awesome. I always give mixes a listen through earbuds when I'm trying to master. One of the standards now I guess.
Most domestic cats are scaredy and would love to stay indoors home alone all day than go out even for a minute of walk with the owner. I take her out everyday to make her social and fearless but she is still at like 10% lol. When I adopted her in Jan, she went missing within 10 minutes for a whole day out of fear.
Cats think they are serious and we humans are silly. But figure this - why would they go bonkers chasing after strings, cords and laser lights which are not real toys? Who is silly haha? If she sees a tiny bug in the kitchen (once in a blue moon), she keeps camping out on the kitchen floor - all day and all night - for days looking for more bugs, even though there are none. Epitome of patience and vengeance! She doesn’t kill them - just plays with them like a battery-less/live toy by restraining their movements if she finds one. I keep telling her not to kill anything unless she intends to eat them.
I brush her teeth everyday but she returns my favor with broken cords and stalled projects
Well, I can totally understand her putting her freshly brushed teeth to good use by biting cables to pieces instead of killing bugs.
I bet that's how the name "Blue Tooth" was invented. No more cables to bite.
Unacceptable lag while composing
BT is good only for playback listening.
Sure, I was just kidding. Bluetooth audio isn't made for musicians.
Although in fact it only matters when you play live. When using generative sequencers or arps or composing inside the piano roll or with a score sheet, BT is an option.
Status Audio CB-1 $69 !!!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BDX1IVW/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_gbUHDbD0MX9AJ
I have been AMAZED by how great these sound for the price. I would put them on par with cans in the $200+ range. They also have an open back model.
I have a friend who is a studio engineer and immediately bought a pair when he heard mine, so that he can leave his $400 cans at home when he is touring. FWIW...
How much do you want to spend?
I’d like to keep it around $100-150....
btw thanx u all for your appreciated comments so far....
Sony MDR 7506 is what I always use. They are awesome for finishing tracks
I bought the audio technica ATHM50 over a year ago from all the online recommendations I have seen.
I have ended up not liking them at all. I actually prefer the cheaper M20 model.
I’m probably going to try something else soon.
Get Sennheiser HD-650 and never worry about headphones ever again.
Keeping it in the Yamaha family. Yamaha MT5 headphones. I have them, great for the lolly and within the budget. They do more expensive ones in the MT range, but, the MT5 is hard to beat. Based on the monitor series you mentioned
Actually, they feel familiar in a certain way, and if they sound the way I think, think I’ll go buying them soon!
There’s one or two reviews on YouTube, one by a German geezer in which he goes into great detail. I like them, they’re light, comfortable, there is a slight bass lift but not much. Pretty transparent for closed back, great for listening, easy to power with iphone/ pad. Think Yamaha made them too good. I have the white ones and they look great, lead is very long, so that’s a minor point. Little known secret they are, no idea how they compare to the monitors, but there’s some reviews and you’ve probably read them, let us know how you get on, if you get them. Cheers
Get some of the nail varnish you put on kids nails to stop them biting and apply to your wrecked headphones and see if she still tries to chew them ... if she doesn’t then buy with confidence again my friend 😁 our cats used to chew a Rafita type lamp until I tried this n it seemed to work , that n a water pistol 😂
Never heard of nail polish trick, gotta try that. Thanks.
However, spraying water on a cat (to discipline or even for fun) will result in her losing trust on us.
Rub the leads of your phones with shoe polish or something stinky, though not any unpleasant stink to humans. Cats noses very sensitive might put her off
These look worth a try...
https://www.musicradar.com/news/behringers-dollar35-studio-headphones-look-strangely-familiar
I have had the Beyerdynamic 770’s. Really good. Then i was given a gift of AKG K271 MKII Closed-back Studio headphones. I didn’t like them at first. They seemed too quiet, very flat which is good and disregarded them only to come back to them when I started getting my head around mixing better. Now I use them for a lot. I will use a few different pairs of various headphones to reference my music. I use a couple of pairs of my leisure phones, Urbanearz because they make everything sound good. I do my best to mimic a few different sounds from phones and speakers from within my AKG K271 MKII’s. I know that if my tracks sound good in those they typically sound great on a proper system.