Mixing on Headphones is BETTER than Studio Monitors?! | Blind Shootout Results

[@RaytownProductions]

*What do you think is better? Headphones or Studio Monitors?!? Also, you can grab my FREE Plugin guide here: **bit.ly/plugin-book*

[@aviatedviewssound4798]

what about Dear Reality dearVR MONITOR

[@jesusjimenez8829]

Hey Bobby! thank you for your sincere effort to present this possibility to all colleagues in these difficult times... I'm a senior mixing and mastering engineer for about 45 years now, of which I have used headphones as my main listening system for almost 25 years, in a proportion of about 80% to 20% versus speakers. I have used the HD 650s since they came on the market, circa 2004, and currently my headphone balancing software is Realphones (after being a long time user of Sonar Works...) I want to support your idea by saying that I have had a successful and still current career in my region, achieved almost exclusively using headphones. You can certainly work professionally on headphones!

[@rome8180]

I mix exclusively in headphones. You just have to know what good music SHOULD sound like in them and then it's fine. I mix in a nice pair of open-backed studio headphones (Sennheiser HD 650). Then I check the mix in a different, cheaper pair of headphones. They're close-backed and have hyped-up low end. Once I have the mix sounding good in both headphones, it seems to translate fine. I'm not saying my mixes are amazing. They have issues with them, and I'm still learning. However, I'm rarely surprised by anything when I finally listen in speakers. I've tried the corrective software and I don't find it helpful.

[@seanedwards94]

Think of the corrective software as *another* set of headphones/speakers to check if things translate

[@gregfender]

This was a rad experiment, dude! Also it was awesome working with you, as always!

[@RaytownProductions]

Indeed! Thanks! I had to get to the bottom of all this headphone EQ software stuff haha!

[@213owned]

Really great to get a good side-by-side on these headphone mix assisting tools. Personally, I’ve used Waves NX and headphones for all the demos I’ve been working on for the past year, and the difference is astronomical. Makes for a way better mix, especially compared to my monitors in an untreated room. An important consideration for anyone to make if you’re considering this software is to ensure that your headphones can actually produce the frequencies that your headphone correction makes. For example, I’ve used Sony 7506’s with Waves Nx and I still find myself taking a stab in the dark when it comes to mixing the low end. Even though the eq boosts the low end, the speakers in the headphones can’t produce those frequencies accurately (or at all). All together a great test 👍

[@DerekPower]

This is why I think of the 7506s as tracking headphones. I have the Beyerdynamic DT990 [old school, so 250ohms and all those "old things" =] ] and I use those for mixing and mastering.

[@RaytownProductions]

Great point Jeff! Thanks for sharing.

[@SamirSebbane]

I use HD 650 headphones with sonarworks combined with CLA nx (without correction)

[@Shred_Rocket]

Interesting that I immediately chose the Waves CLA Nx during your first comparison as a good master, but certainly surprising, to say the least. I own a pair of BareFoot Footprint 02 monitors which sound amazing, however, perhaps now I'll lean more to comparing my mixes with the CLA Nx headphone plugin as well. As always Bobby, great analysis work you've done for us mere mortals!!!

[@RaytownProductions]

hahaha thanks man! It's definitely worth trying out! My go to are still my monitors because of the time I've spent on them and the investment, but I see headphone mixing and mastering in my future :)

[@bontempo1271]

This is a great idea, thanks for doing this. The results are actually what i expected. The headphone mix without correction sounded just like the default frequency balance of the Senn HD650s. The Sonarworks correction brought the result closer to your monitors. So, assuming your mastering studio is close to flat, it means that Sonarworks did indeed flatten the response of the Senn HD650s. I could hear a little bit less detail and presence with the Sonarworks compared to the studio monitors mix, but it was close and much much better than the other software. Would like to hear this done with a song that has more room for spatialisation, reverb etc, so we can hear how well spatialisation decisions translate when using headphones, compared to the studio monitors. Cheers :)

[@RaytownProductions]

That is a great point. i hope to do this in the future. Thanks for the comment!

[@BackwoodsProduction1]

Great work Sir!! I’ve been a headphone user for everything for over 20 years. Tho I recently got monitors, I still find myself deep in the phones. I tried real phones and didn’t like it at all. I own the CLA and Ocean Way NX’s and for “a dumb plugin” they are bomb!! Using my JLAB earbuds to listen to the audio of this video, my picks for favorite master are, 1 the version done with the CLA; 2 your original master; 3 the sonar works version. And as a diehard headphones user, this just adds to my point, you can mix and master great music with headphones!

[@BackwoodsProduction1]

I also noticed you didn’t use head tracking (didn’t look like it was on anyway), I found it makes a difference slightly. When you move side to side or turn your head to catch a little something, you hear just that “side” ( which I’m sure you know from you review of the NX plug-ins) I mean your monitors don’t rotate around the room as you move, or your home stereo. NX is definitely the game changer for headphones guys!!

[@RaytownProductions]

I've tried the head tracking and for listening to music it's absolutely amazing. I love the sensation it gives. But for critical listening, I simply prefer to not use head tracking. But you make good points - you could certainly add something that is useful once you get used to it. For me personally, I prefer a static image. Thanks for sharing!

[@poorhouz5051]

I totally agree with you. You can have a GREAT mix or Master from Headphones.... I personally think you will do more adjusting on headphones than monitors... BUT I use both.. headphones 1st then check on monitors to adjust...Dope Video I needed to hear it...Salute

[@charlesduquette8724]

I mix with 2 sets of headphone, the first is a flat and the other is the apple earbuds just to be sure that my mix sound near as possible as my reference bands. After i test in my car, phone and multiple devices in mono and in stereo. The car is not the better, but a good device to test the stereo image, i think, but i don’t use any plugin too simulate anything.

[@LegoBeto]

Lots of good information packed in here.

[@DavidDiMuzio]

What a cool shootout man. Thanks for doing this!!

[@RaytownProductions]

Thank you so much. I was just too curious about these products lol

[@mixourband]

Right on time. I was feeling a bit down after pricing some Focal monitors today. But then I watch your video and felt a less bad thanks a lot.

[@RaytownProductions]

You got this! I know many people that mix on headphones or budget monitors and are crushing it!

[@williamdeane2185]

Great video, Bobby. Really interesting and suprising results. Thank you for doing the deep analysis A/B testing and sharing your findings. Much appreciated.

[@beyondmywildestdreams6942]

Great video man,I appreciate it 👍

[@joshd265]

This is fantastic. Great scientific test. Highly useful!

[@ztfstudio]

I'd love to see what would happen if you used the Slate VSX.

[@Boinzy476]

Do you think it matters that you used open back headphones?

[@mmsoundslosangeles3043]

Probably even better if your headphones were individually calibrated by Sonarworks. I have a pair of Hifiman Sundara with planar magnetic drivers individually calibrated by Sonarworks and Waves NX. I combine the two so that Sonarworks provide the frequency calibration and NX provides the spatial modeling. Think that sounds very much like my monitors in a well treated room. However, I prefer working with my monitors. Think imaging is better and it feels more relaxed not having the sound right into my ears.

[@DenysDnipro]

Thank you - very useful for users from Ukraine, like me. You never know here if it is worth to invest into monitors if your home can be destroyed or you will need to move somewhere not being able to take monitors with you.

[@RaytownProductions]

Hoping for peace over there soon! Please stay safe!

[@paulgreblick]

Your mixes are crazy good. It was surprising & encouraging to see (hear) the NX sound as close to the monitors as they did. (I'm on headphones, though...)

[@RaytownProductions]

I agree! I was some what skeptical about the headphone imaging software, so I'm glad I did the blind shootout to keep me true to my ears 🙂

[@paulgreblick]

@@RaytownProductions I'm very very glad you did this. I bought one of your truly excellent courses and sort of thought that I would only get amateur results if I just used headphones, and I bought two really good pairs of headphones just for the extra referencing. This was truly a gem. Thank you, Bobby!

[@owenlimjiajun4518]

Appreciate your hard works! This is really interesting and good comparison. May I know what audio interface you are using? And any headphone amplifier for your HD650?

[@RaytownProductions]

I use an RME UFX. I also have an RME BabyFace Pro. No need for an additional headphone amp with this setup. I think I have links in the description. Hope that helps!

[@marcsmith8146]

Interesting find. When listening to the versions, I thought the Sonarworks sounded the closest to your speakers. It would really be interesting if you made the same moves when mastering through headphones that you would with your speakers. So starting fresh with Sonarworks and then A/B to see which one sounds better. That does take some time and I understand that but that would be the ultimate test to see if you would even do the same things unless you already have a chain you always go through. If that is the case, then this test would be fine. Great Video!

[@ST-fl5fy]

This was a great comparison. I’m curious if you did the same test using VSX. I use 7506 many years and am thinking of getting HD600 or VSX. I have Waves CLA also. Do you prefer your 650’s over the VSX which I believe you tested once?

[@RaytownProductions]

I haven't tried vsx yet. I was hoping to get a pair from slate to test but they haven't been interested in sending me one. I've heard great things from lots of people but I've also been told from high level mixers that the headphones themselves aren't that great in terms of fidelity (driver response time, self compression, etc) and that the cost is mostly for the software. But until I actually get a pair, I can't say if it's a good move or not. Ive had a good experience with the 650s and nx cla personally, so I know it's possible to get a good sound from those. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

[@princemaxwhoobayangbon1516]

Great job, bro!

[@erkamau9629]

Great, never found a video as yours on this subject ! A massive work! If in the future you will want to repeat it would be great compare Waves Nx with Tonebooster Isone (free legacy version), Acustica Audio Sienna, iK Multimedia Morphit and Focusrite VRM Box. I use these tools in my "prosumer" bedroom studio (mainly Sienna and VRM, this also 'cause VRM is a good headphones amp) and in a 50% proportion alternating my Monoprice M1070 with my studio monitors iK Micromonitor, these with room correction by ARC of iK Multimedia. Very good results, this people say to me :-) , CIAO

[@AndiPicker]

HD600 (selected in nx) and 650 (actually used) are quite different sounding headphones - possibly the mismatch introduced something that influenced your work in a positive way? I use 650s with the Abbey Road S3 nx (doesn't have the ambience control that CLA has) with no headphone correction, followed by Sonarworks in the Cubase control Room and it's pretty much become my go-to work environment. Perhaps give that a try? Nice vid, enjoy what you do.

[@larrycavallucci3258]

Interesting video. So much for treating a room, which is the only thing I have not done yet, BUT maybe now, for at least now, I won't! I have Sonar Works and have calibrated both of my Beyerdynamic 770s and 880s, the 2nd one I use for mixing and mastering, since they are semi-open backed, and 250 ohms. I will calibrate both pairs of monitors soon. Waves has a few types of NX plugins, and CLA is the most aggressive, and fits the style of CLA in his own work, which is different from mine. He's always "pushing the envelope" so the song you used fits that plugin. I also have the Ocean Way Nashville NX and prefer those for what I do.

[@RaytownProductions]

OWN is another good plugin for this work! Just didn't have time to use all the different nx plugins haha!

[@larrycavallucci3258]

@@RaytownProductions I am weaning myself away from Waves slowly but surely starting in Jan 2022. Don't like their "Update Extortion plan". I have also been having problems between Studio One TS and some Waves stuff, I think their WaveShell, where my DAW locks up as soon as I open either a song or a project page. I think S--1's TS has gone downhill since they started that goofball Sphere program, and they now cater to those $15/mo folks, and to HELL with the customers who actually BOUGHT their S/W, Twice for me, V4 and V5 upgrade from V4.

[@mattarena9224]

Great video ,this is something I have been wondering about ,I mixed my album with tascam studio monitor headphones and then remixed all the songs through Kali monitors ,the mixes with monitors were way better than my headphones ,I will be buying the waves one you tested with because I would like to be able to trust my headphone mixes ,I mainly record and mix late at night so this will be very helpful

[@RaytownProductions]

Kali makes some great speakers! Yeah definitely give this a shot and let me know how it goes! Nice thing is this plug-in usually sells for like $29 which is great compared to sonarworks which is like $150!

[@rubenzemog]

Hey nice experiment. but actually those Senheiser are not the best, maybe if you do the same with some Audeze LCD X, Hedd, or something in that range you would not even need the correction software.

[@NebulousWeb]

With Realphones, you perhaps shouldn't have had any of the room/monitor simulation enabled - only the HRTF (crossfeed) and headphone correction should have been applied. The simulation stuff is just a gimmicky method of checking how your mix might translate to other equipment/spaces. You would also have to be very careful with the Density setting, because it would be too easy to add rich bass frequencies to your monitoring, which would make the master sound weaker when you disable Realphones later. I suggest trialling it properly for a month, using it very judiciously and subtly, before making a decision. I don't have any Waves plugins because I don't like the company. Personally I like Realphones compared to a couple of other crossfeed plugins though, and it does improve my headphone mixes. I'm only a hobbyist though.

[@my_name_is_atma]

Yeah, I am a little annoyed with youtubers not taking the time to understand Realphones and then making videos with slapdash settings.

[@MrMixknob]

Maybe you could try embody virtual studio and tell us what u think too.

[@dannyabaldo3191]

years ago my monitors gave out, got some good headphones, recorded, 100's of great songs with only headphones. it works, also my wife is deathly ill and i can not play anything out loud so now i must use them. true, can the monitors i was looking at. i would like to hear all these songs on some good speakers, oh well, saves me from cash on making my room acoustic treatment.

[@evilone10]

On my ADAM i also picked the one from CLA Nx... Good i found your channel few days ago, this afternoon i was trying Sienna from Acustica (it is the only plugin that have my shitty headphones....). I will dig in a bit more as those plugins are a real game changer (for the worst and the best) and it needs your ears to get used to it.

[@phadrus]

Love the more scientific approach.

[@RaytownProductions]

Thanks! I try to do everything as scientifically as possible when it comes to non-artistic mixing and mastering decisions. Cheers!

[@A.o.D1991]

All my songs on my channel are mixed and mastered in headphones sometimes earbuds

[@Noisa]

Idk, man. I tried waves nx, just didn’t work with my hd600s. Funny enough, realphones worked the best for me. Although, I didn’t use easy mode, and spent a couple of hours tweaking (which was kind of annoying) and it was also after their v1.8 update which enhanced a lot of things. Nx just dulled the transients too much. Feel like it’d be hard to set a comp right with it. Just my 2 cents.

[@gerrydaly5409]

Very interesting- thanks

[@robinglass1953]

I would love to see what you think of vsx compared to all these other methods.

[@RaytownProductions]

Same! Trying to get slate to send a pair for a review... No luck yet.

[@TheFrenzyNetwork]

i have my dt 700 pro x and i make just beats and a little bit of vocal mixing how important are these programms like sonarworks ... im not sure if i wanna spend that much and if its gonna help me a lot

[@RaytownProductions]

Well, I didn't pick just the headphone master ever, meaning it was probably one of the worst sounding masters I did. Waves cla nx was one of the best (and only 29 bucks usually). And I did pick sonarworks once I believe so it probably does help improve the sound quality over just headphones.

[@MrChrxtian]

SUB, This is my new favorite mixing channel!

[@EdwinDekker71]

Toneboosters Isone works well for me

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

I use Sonarworks for my monitors, but I find it horrible for headphones. Tone boosters Morphit is my favourite headphone correction plugin. Nice test 👍🏾

[@seanedwards94]

Why do you like it better?

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

@@seanedwards94 it sounds right. If you play a reference track, Sonarworks headphone correction alway sounds "too" flat and lifeless and kinda phasy. While Morphit just sounds right straight away. Sonarworks is great for monitors tho.

[@NVRLOSTT]

i have beyerdynamics dt 770’s is it best to mix in Morphit if i don’t have monitors? hip hop vocals.

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

@@NVRLOSTT I find Morphit for headphone correction on 100% and Goodhertz Canopener 125% crossfeed with 45* angle. You need both of these to get a correct stereo field. I mix on open back headphones but I'm sure your closed backs should still do the job, it will just have a smaller soundstage.

[@NVRLOSTT]

@@NoQualmsTheArtist So you mix with both of those plugins then on the master right when you are ready to mix the track down? is this combination very flat so i’ll know exactly how it will sound?

[@danabarnes4751]

Interesting!

[@saifichouhan]

New subscriber

[@PetrisonRocha]

I think the undefeatable flaw in this test is that once you mastered a song the first time, you already learned what the main problems are. They can be things you wouldn't notice, or would perceive differently, if you were using headphones from the get go, but now that you already mastered it before, you can't help but work on the song kind of the same way again. And if, realizing this, you force yourself to do it different, then you would be just faking.

[@triplebeam23]

It's really not that hard to make some decent room acoustic panels of course your gonna have some downfalls but I can't stand wearing headphones for more then 15 minutes I couldn't imagine doing everything in headphones .. remember you only got to make acoustic panels once and if you do it right they will last you a lifetime

[@ernieg]

sonaworks

[@ELLIOT8209]

All day

[@conradsasinski1171]

Studio Monitors are still the best, although very marginally as compared with the SW, and RPH

[@bigkidband911]

If you really want to put this theory to the test you should try recording, mixing and mastering a song from start to finish with these plugins using headphones. I bet the result will be very undesirable. 😂

[@RaytownProductions]

Just out of curiosity, why do you think that?

[@arnoldziffel112]

@@RaytownProductions People love to throw vague blanket statements out there for who knows what reasons, all of which are fallacious arguments, as they provide absolutely nothing to substantiate their drivel. Truth be known, the person saying this doesn't even know what she/he is saying, they just type it and move on to videos more their speed, like goofballs wallowing-around in bathtubs full of breakfast cereal.

[@lucylebronhernandez8126]

I wish you could do this again on another genres of music. Trouble is your convenience causes a choice hard to convince and take a task to measure meaningful facts. Please use a new genre and point fact statement.

[@BurningBushPedagogy]

so confusing too many variations

[@dougleydorite]

I don’t want flat. I want my monitors to playback whatever sounds best to my ears. Flat response doesn’t have enough bass. It’s sterile and boring. I set my speakers in a spot that gives me way more bass that way I can mix with a lot of bass, how I will like it, and it will translate. Flat is an odd obsession

[@RaytownProductions]

When you say flat, what exactly do you mean? There is a lot of confusion in the mixing world regarding to what flat actually means because headphones are typically tuned to a target. When referring to headphones, we say a headphone is flat when it closely conforms to the target. So flat can actually be not flat in the absolute sense. This isn't the case to loudspeakers where flat means flat in terms of broadband frequency response.

[@dougleydorite]

@@RaytownProductions I am speaking about speakers and measuring listening position. I was ranting sort of.. a bit off topic. But I see an obsession with “flat” all over the place. Headphones are a different animal

[@tomdaigon8707]

That song isn't awesome...ITS AWFUL!