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Originally Posted by ZOKROX
1) Do studio mixing engineers want a "universal" standard of "flatness"
or even care?
There's no such a thing. It's not about "flatness" when you're working in a studio, it's about having monitoring equipment that will give you a representation of the sound you're working on so that it will sound equally as good wherever else the song will be played, be it in a club, on a cheap mono radio or a hi-fi system.
Normally, in a studio there's at least 2 monitoring systems: one which is precise, that will give you a non-coloured sound and reveal everything that should not be there, i.e. the sound of sheet music being turned-over by a musician, or over-compression, or unbalanced stereo field. This will generally be a set of speakers that are relatively small, that will sit closer to your ears on top of the mixing console as to negate unwanted sound reflections from the walls, etc... The other system will be generally much larger, typically with a least one 15' bass driver in order to give you a different image of your song. Good for checking that the song is balanced in the lower-frequencies. Good also to impress the "suits" that want to hear something "bombastic" when they come to hear on what their $$ has been spent!
2) Studio mixing engineers use headphones that most closely match the
sound of their studio monitor speakers.
Errr, no....Actually, quite the contrary. Headphones are just anothher source for checking the sound material in a studio. With headphones, you check whether the soundstage is the way you intended it to be: are the back-up singers too much spread-out, for instance? The only criteria for studio headphones is that they should represent the whole audio spectrum, and be revealing. You won't find Grados or Alessandros in many sound studios. Mainly AKG or Sennheiser and Fostex T40. Headphones are very rarely used for mixing but, as I said, just to give you another point of reference. In my experience in working in pop music studios (basically, for non-classical music, for lack of better terms), headphones are not the main concern by far. It's much more a consummer hi-fi thing I believe.
3) So why don't studio monitor speaker companies get together with
headphone companies to make mixing headphones that sonically match
specific studio monitor speakers?
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Because that would be impossible as you have to take into account the sound reflections produced by any speaker as the sound bounces around the room (whether uncontrolably, or in a controled way). In other words, even if a headphone would have similar sound characteristics as a peaker in an anachronic chamber, the real-life results would not match: the sound from headphones are right there in your ears, whereas from the speakers, it's another story.
If you're trying to get to the point of finding out which headphones you should buy for studio mixing, I would say that any would be good as long as it reproduces the whole freq. spectrum, and as long as you also have some decent studio monitoring speakers (Dynaudio, Genelecs). The point is that once you KNOW the sound of your headphones, it becomes a relative judgement as to what constitutes a balanced mix. Let's say that your headphones are a little bass-heavy. Once you know how a good mix sounds in YOUR headphones (because you've checked it with your speakers too), then it's ok. The song might sound boomy in your bass-heavy phones, but you know that at a certain level of "boominess", it translates into the "right" mix.
To give you another example: Yamaha NS10 are a very popular choice in sound studios. They're cheap, consumer-based speakers, lacking any bass extension below 80Hz. However (a golden tip here for any of you who happen to own a pair), here was the tip for getting the bass right: turn-up the bass until the bass driver starts to "flap" (as it becomes unable to handle the bass freq). At that point, roll-off the bass just a tad, and there's your bass balance. Of course, at this point, you would switch to other monitoring sources (better speakers, headphones) to check your mix. The point I'm trying to make is that once you know your speakers or headphones, no matter how inadequate they might seem, you can get a decent mix, as long as you know how a good mix will sound on THOSE speakers (or headphones).
A.
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