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-- Mixing In Headphones Good/Bad ?
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i started off doing it through the headphones because it was easier, however i am trying to learn one ear off one ear on now. i can do it right now, however its nowhere near as accurate as headphone matching. i figure its a good skill to be able to mix one ear off through the monitor, and get it tightly beat matched. you can get it exact, but its much harder, when its right, you cant actually hear the beat in your headphone exactly, it becomes one with the other beat. hard to explain!
I started off with using just headphones and now I can use just one cup just as easily. It's like learning to beatmatch all over again if you're trying to use one cup now.
The reason I changed is because whenever you play in a venue with a ridiculously loud sound system (ie Turbo Sound) it is incredibly hard to listen through just the headphones. If you cue both channels in the headphones, the master track will always overpower the cued track. The place is just simply too loud. You can't block the noise and the chest-banging beats. So the only way to mix during those moments is to cue the cued track with the headphone cup and to use the monitor as the master cue. This allows much more flexibility for many reasons:
1) If the cueing the cue track is too low in volume, you can just up the headphone volume
2) If the master cue is too loud/quiet, you can adjust the monitor/booth volume
This allows for flexibility in adjusting the amount of each channel you'd like to hear. Some mixers have those 'crossfader' cue options but those rarely ever work. Also, it's still a bitch to beatmatch even with that feature since the venue is way way too loud to hear anything. You'll end up pumping up the headphone volume louder and louder to a point where your ears start hurting like hell.
But if whatever works for you works well, then use it. Only change if there is a need to change. Squawks!
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| Originally posted by JohnSmith totally man, i can't understand how that is even possible. I can get the speed right, but i can't get em matched at all. I tried it last night, just for kicks. I had them going the same speed, and it sounded tight to me, just the cued track in the headphones on one ear. but then i put on both ears, and put both tracks on cue, and the incoming track was like half a beat behind the live! they were the same speed, but way off alignment. my ear can't compensate for the difference in time from the speakers to my ear i guess, even though my speakers are only about 6 feet away. hmm.. does the math: sound travels 1,087 feet per second. it takes 0.00552 seconds for sound to travel 6 feet to my ears. a standard 140BPM track has about beat every 0.43 seconds it seemed to me to be off half a beat, so 0.215 off, but it really should only have been 0.00552 off. so, end result. my ears are fucked! |
Anyone live in NYC??? Im gonna need a shit load of help figuring everything out... I could probably do it on my own, but it would be better to see how someone does it, learn it, use it, and change it to how you feel it would be more comfortable...
the way i do it is (setting my headphone cue xfader to somewhere so the incoming ch. is a bit softer than the one playing) is beatmatch in my headphones. once i'm satisifed, i flip my headphone cue to only play the incoming ch. and find my cue point. then remove the phones from one ear to listen to the currently playing track, still holding my cue point, and at the right time, i let go of the incoming ch. then i quickly put my phones back on the other ear, flip the headphone xfader to the center, and check that i let it go just right. most of the time it's fine, so i just take off the headphones completely, turn the bass all the way down on the incoming ch., and introduce the track at the end of a bar.
this way you hear what the audience (real or imaginary) would be hearing. often the sound from your phones will fool you into thinking you have a good or bad beatmatch, b/c w/ the phones the bass is exagerated.
and true, at clubs it's a bitch to beatmatch in your phones though. both times i spun at a club, even with the monitor turned down, the noise was still too loud, so i did turn up the volume on the phones too much.
i used to beatmatch w/ one ear, but in my bedroom it's easier in the phones. but i guess for the clubs it's not.
Re: Re: Re: Re: my way
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| Originally posted by shawnb yes i am. i hope u know wat a loop is, lol. no offence. |
... its just i think we was talking about TTs since u can get the exactly speed on TTs,.. and u cant on CD Decks, at least in the denon ones i have tried
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| Originally posted by JohnSmith totally man, i can't understand how that is even possible. I can get the speed right, but i can't get em matched at all. I tried it last night, just for kicks. I had them going the same speed, and it sounded tight to me, just the cued track in the headphones on one ear. but then i put on both ears, and put both tracks on cue, and the incoming track was like half a beat behind the live! they were the same speed, but way off alignment. my ear can't compensate for the difference in time from the speakers to my ear i guess, even though my speakers are only about 6 feet away. hmm.. does the math: sound travels 1,087 feet per second. it takes 0.00552 seconds for sound to travel 6 feet to my ears. a standard 140BPM track has about beat every 0.43 seconds it seemed to me to be off half a beat, so 0.215 off, but it really should only have been 0.00552 off. so, end result. my ears are fucked! |
yeah totally! but like i said, the delay is not THAT much, that it should be a half a beat off. I guess a lot of it is psychoacoutic. and also, some of it is reflections, which could take longer to get to you.
someone suggested this was just due to not practicing enough, i don't think so.. i mean, i DO need to practice more, but cueing with one ear, cued track only is just not accurate, there will always be that delay.
and i'm pretty sure that ALL mixers allow you to hear both cued tracks at once i believe(with the exception of Rane maybe?) that's fine, it doesn't need a cue pan (mine doesn't have one) i can just crank the gain up a bit.
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| Originally posted by JohnSmith yeah totally! but like i said, the delay is not THAT much, that it should be a half a beat off. I guess a lot of it is psychoacoutic. and also, some of it is reflections, which could take longer to get to you. someone suggested this was just due to not practicing enough, i don't think so.. i mean, i DO need to practice more, but cueing with one ear, cued track only is just not accurate, there will always be that delay. and i'm pretty sure that ALL mixers allow you to hear both cued tracks at once i believe(with the exception of Rane maybe?) that's fine, it doesn't need a cue pan (mine doesn't have one) i can just crank the gain up a bit. |
thats the only way I can mix...I beatmatch in my headphones...
I tried using the headphonez to mix only but I find that it's a LOT better using one can with the cued up track I'm bringing in and the other ear that's "off" hearing the master line instead. It's just easier IMO.
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| Originally posted by Kid Lax i used to have this problem i'd be able to beatmatch them fine, but the track i would be cueing up would always be a bit slower than the live track (or it might have been a bit faster...i don't remember) regardless its all about practice i used to use the excuse of it being my shitty amp but then i got better and better and realized it was just my skill level and about being able to cue both tracks in the headphones in all mixers...you're probably right about this but have you ever played in a loud club and tried to have both tracks playing in the headphones without a cue pan? its nearly impossible try cranking your headphone levels up to about 80% and having 2 tracks cued in the headphones without a cue pan...and you'll see what i mean its even hard to use the cue pan in a loud environment...depending on how loud it is, it sometimes just sounds like racket and you have to concentrate for a few seconds to try and distinguise the different sounds i find that i spin 100% better using one headphone strictly the cued track...and the other the master from the monitor...and then when im mixing i take the one ear off and go strictly by the monitor...you gotta hear what the crowd is hearing you have to realize that the sound coming out of the speakers isn't the same as coming out of your headphones...the levels can be completely different based on what headphones you use and then you have to take the amp into consideration and what settings they have...and then the type of speakers, amount of bins/highs, etc. etc. spinning in your headphones is a gamble when playing live imho |
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| Originally posted by JohnSmith my ear can't compensate for the difference in time from the speakers to my ear i guess, even though my speakers are only about 6 feet away. hmm.. does the math: sound travels 1,087 feet per second. it takes 0.00552 seconds for sound to travel 6 feet to my ears. a standard 140BPM track has about beat every 0.43 seconds it seemed to me to be off half a beat, so 0.215 off, but it really should only have been 0.00552 off. |
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