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Hey everyone,

I am doing some basic mixing with various songs I can find on the internet to mix, nothing professional, just working on my mixing skills, and I am looking at buying some headphones to use. My question is, would Sennheiser HD-202's do the job? Any other options at a similar price range would also be helpful, monitors are not really an option at the moment.

Thanks in advance

Comments

RemyRAD Mon, 04/04/2011 - 21:43

Here's the lowdown on trying to learn how to become a better mixing engineer. Headphones are not the answer. Small inexpensive self powered monitors would be a much better investment. Mixes on headphones never sound right on speakers. Mixes on most any speakers almost always sound good on headphones. It's that learning curve between how to establish the difference between your headphones & monitor speakers that is the key item to learn. Sure, as a broadcast engineer, a lot of us have mixed on headphones. Mixed on very nice, very familiar headphones with many hours of established differences between the headphones and our speakers. In days gone by, back in the 1980s, I typically used KOSS Pro 4AA's when I had to mix music on headphones. It became painfully obvious that when the mix sounded good on headphones, it was total mud on speakers. So I eventually learned how to push up the mix on my headphones until the bass sounded right and then reduced it until it sounded too thin on the headphones. And personally, I don't like mixing on closed ear headphones. They're nowhere near as realistic sounding in comparison to speakers as " open-air" types. I'm still using a pair of 11-year-old Sennheiser HD 545's for critical headphone mixing applications in low noise environments. In higher noise level environments I utilize the HD 280 which really don't relate well to speakers. The 202 is usable once you learn what it sounds like in comparison to a decent pair of monitor speakers. Little cheap KRK's, Tannoy's should be looked into. That's the only way to get it right. And it doesn't come easily.

You must love your headphones.
Mx. Remy Ann David