[cel4145]

The one thing about mixing though is that I wouldn't use EQ.

Why not? Audio engineers that are mixing with studio monitors most likely have to use some EQ. It's too hard to get a flat response out of speakers in a room without it, and especially to get midbass and sub bass to respond correctly. A finely tuned set of parametric EQ filters applied to the digital signal before being converted to analog for playback isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[gavisthename]

That's some great advice Cel. I have a set of Yamaha HS50m monitors with the Yamaha Hs10w subwoofer, but the room I mix in is rubbish, so I would probably be making my life harder by angering the room nodes with my subwoofer. This is why I think it's safer to rely on my headphones for dialling in the right amount of bass. One day I will hopefully get a studio to work in that I can acoustically treat without angering the wife!

Planar magnetics sound interesting, I'm gonna look into that. I've also ordered a "Subpac" which sends bass vibrations through your body whilst you listen to your headphones. This might help me get the right levels of bass if I can feel it in my body as well as hear it. For those that haven't checked out the Subpac yet, I suggest you do that now!

 

[cel4145]

Yeah. It's so hard to get a sub to respond correctly at the listening position even with EQ if you happen to have any nulls.

But check out the Fostex T50RPs and mods. This guy has carefully documented all his mods with measurements, so you could duplicate them. Looks pretty easy to get them to +/- 2db for the bass and highs. Not that hard, and way cheaper than buying the more expensive planar-magnetics:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/618659/fostex-t50rp-incremental-mods-and-measurements

Here's a link to that modders work and a lot of others: http://www.head-fi.org/a/fostex-t50rp-modification-summary-links-wiki

So no more than a couple hundred cost for very flat over ear phones.

 

[stacker45]

Quote:

+1 for the Audeze LCD2 best base I have ever heard apart from its older brother the LCD3.  I wouldn't say that these are the "best" mixing headphones though.  Have you tried playing around with the EQ settings? sometimes that can really bring out some more base.

 
I think you mean bass, not ''base'', my main language is French, and even i know this

 

[Zashoomin]

Quote:

 
I think you mean bass, not ''base'', my main language is French, and even i know this

I have never been very good at spelling or checking my spelling.  And my first language is Japanese sooo 

 
Quote:

Yeah. It's so hard to get a sub to respond correctly at the listening position even with EQ if you happen to have any nulls.

But check out the Fostex T50RPs and mods. This guy has carefully documented all his mods with measurements, so you could duplicate them. Looks pretty easy to get them to +/- 2db for the bass and highs. Not that hard, and way cheaper than buying the more expensive planar-magnetics:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/618659/fostex-t50rp-incremental-mods-and-measurements

Here's a link to that modders work and a lot of others: http://www.head-fi.org/a/fostex-t50rp-modification-summary-links-wiki

So no more than a couple hundred cost for very flat over ear phones.

Its a lot of fun to mod them as well.  I have a pair and honestly they are what got me on a very steep and slippery slope.  My wallet might not as well exist anymore.  

 

[gavisthename]

Yeah. It's so hard to get a sub to respond correctly at the listening position even with EQ if you happen to have any nulls.

But check out the Fostex T50RPs and mods. This guy has carefully documented all his mods with measurements, so you could duplicate them. Looks pretty easy to get them to +/- 2db for the bass and highs. Not that hard, and way cheaper than buying the more expensive planar-magnetics:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/618659/fostex-t50rp-incremental-mods-and-measurements

Here's a link to that modders work and a lot of others: http://www.head-fi.org/a/fostex-t50rp-modification-summary-links-wiki

So no more than a couple hundred cost for very flat over ear phones.

Yah I had a quick look into these fostex cans, and its the first time I've heard about the term "modding". Seems like an interesting project to have a go at. I am absolutely pathetic when it comes to DIY so hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult for me. My only about the fostex is they aren't open backed headphones, so not sure how they fair in the way of sense of speaker like space. Maybe combining with a cross feed plugin might do the trick.

 

[cel4145]

I was thinking about this some more. In some ways, over stressing about sub bass (which I would call below 60-50hz) may not be that important unless you are producing classical or for rounding out the harmonics in the drums and bass lines in rock, jazz, or blues. Think about it. 99.9% of the people are probably not hearing it close to as recorded, if at all. Many setups don't reproduce those frequencies whatsoever; if they are using bookshelf speakers without a sub, the rolloff is pretty steep on most below 50 to 60hz, and certainly iPod docks aren't doing it. Maybe they are using headphones with heavy roll off or too much bass or bass boosted headphone amps. Or full home audio setups or car audio equipment where the sub and/or towers can't produce enough bass output for the room/car to match the rest of the spectrum. And then, even if the setup is a good match in SPL output, many don't calibrate it properly and/or overly boost the bass. And let's not forget about the room acoustics nulls and peaks. In most cases, sub bass is just inherently hard to get right without lots of money and effort and EQ

So very, very few people are able (or choose) to listen to it in even close to the actual reproduction. I think you do the best you can without stressing about it, and then listen to it on a few different headphones and with your sub to see if it's sounding pretty good on different equipment with different bass response. That is the norm for the very large majority of people (lol).

 

[gavisthename]

Well I produce techno music, so sub bass is super important for me if I want it to play back properly on a club PA system. At the moment I'm doing what you suggested, running around playing my mix on loads of different systems, making tweaks then constantly repeat the procedure. It would be nice to save some leg work

I'm urinating against the wind in my marital bedroom/studio so was hoping to get as true to the sub as possible with headphones and crossfeed plugins. I'm definitely going to look into planar magnetics like you suggested ...