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-- Whats wrong with headphone mixing?
Whats wrong with headphone mixing?
Personally I find mixing in my headphones without (cue-split) much easier. why is it that people say that its not the correct way to mix?
I usually beatmatch in my headphones and depending on the type of mix I'm doing.. ie if im fading in and out, I take one ear off to listen to the speakers, but if I'm EQ mixing then I keep them on.
Am I missing a valualbe point in doing this?
There really isn't anything wrong with it until you get a gig playing at a venue that doesn't have a mixer with split cue. Thats why I practice both. After I started to practice using the monitor and the headphones together instead of just the headphones I liked that way better. Its rare now that I will put both ears in the headphones now.
The main problem with true split cue is that very few mixers actually have it. Thats why if you have split cue you should just practice with one ear in the headphone and one ear listening to the monitor, you have the option to mix like that on every mixer. You should also be familiar with the other methods because you could have a gig at a venue that doesn't have a monitor or the monitor could blow or be shit and you can't hear it properly. Its best to be comfortable with a variety of methods to cue your tracks. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with any of the different methods they all work fine if you practice using them.
im going to be mixing on a dmj-600 at my next gig. I don't need split-cue (as Nou said, one channel in each cup) . I mix by hearing both the tracks in my headphones but without split cue. Does the DMJ have this ?
The DJM does. The most common mixers that don't are the rane rotaries which are installed in alot of big clubs.
Personally I always go for mixing entirely in the headphones, but with split-cue OFF. I find it easy for me to match beats as close as possible when they are overlapping each other right into my head, and I can do this without having to turn the volume up to 99% as is usual with headphone/monitor mixing. I don't know if this is true, but I heard once that DJs tend to go deaf in one ear when they use the monitor to cue because it's so loud and they have to turn the headphones up all the way to balance it.
As for split-cueing, I've only enabled it a *few* times when I'm having a lot of trouble finding the beat, like perhaps when I'm mixing in a track that's on a really overplayed vinyl and the kick has been softened to more of a thud than anything else.
Mixing entirely in the headphones is also great for reducing phasing problems in the kicks. I know this is going probably going overboard, but I've noticed that everytime I try mixing using headphones/monitor, one of them will be off sync by about 5-10ms, althought the pitches are set just right. I've gotten used to correcting this by making sure that the track playing on the headphones is nudged ahead by that amount to counter the slight delay before fading it into the mix. Just a small tiny technicality but there's nothing more annoying to me than a mix that sounds like the kick has a cold. =)
know all ways to mix!
i use one ear to the monitor 90% of the time.. the other 10% is sometimes for fine tuning .. if I am not %100 sure it is dead on with the one ear, i will throw both channels into the phones to doublecheck sometimes... *shrug*
Jay
i generally mix using two channels in both ears(it works better)...until i played at a house party using a different mixer than i am used to, and the problem is that the "split cue" will sound different in some mixers, or may not have it at all..mixing with only one ear is the "standard" thus if u prerfect this u will be good anywhere on any mixer
| quote: |
| Originally posted by MR STROKE i generally mix using two channels in both ears(it works better)...until i played at a house party using a different mixer than i am used to, and the problem is that the "split cue" will sound different in some mixers, or may not have it at all..mixing with only one ear is the "standard" thus if u prerfect this u will be good anywhere on any mixer |
It's always good to have an idea what you mix sounds like outside of the phones but the reality of the situation is that it's not wrong to mix in the phones.
You will find that a lot of the older DJs will do it plain and simply because a lot of the older mixers didn't have the option to do anything else. We had to get used to using a monitor with one ear off.
I still prefer mixing in the phones but will always take them off to hear the output too.
The DJM will enable you to mix as you need to.
Cheers
Nem
if u were to switch to one ear headphone monitoring right now, ud be fine as long as the monitors around u are loud enough
Hehe I never mix in the headphones, always with one ear and the other for the monitor. That's how I learned it and will always do it. Only when the monitors are confusing me (bad setup) I listen the multichannel cue, but I'd rather not.
Of course you must be able to link left and right listening, since the monitors will come in right and your cue (headphone) left of your head (or the other way around) 
The monitor doesn't have to be LOUD enough, it needs give you a CLEAR image of the sound, so no delays and whatsoever.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Nemesis44 The DJM will enable you to mix as you need to. |
My biggest complaint about split-cue mixing is that every mixer I've used will place the master output on the right ear, and the cued channel on the left ear. For some reason this feels *very* unnatural to me. Perhaps I'm goofy-eared? Who knows. But my only solution (besides dealing with it) is putting my headphones on backwards. I'll admit there have been a FEW times where I'm spinning somewhere and you'll see me pull off my headphones, spin them 180, and put them back on backwards... sucks to have to do this, but when I'm picky about what I hear in which ear, it's my only choice. Have you seen any mixers that will let you split-cue and choose which ear to place the cued channel in?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJVirgen My biggest complaint about split-cue mixing is that every mixer I've used will place the master output on the right ear, and the cued channel on the left ear. For some reason this feels *very* unnatural to me. Perhaps I'm goofy-eared? Who knows. But my only solution (besides dealing with it) is putting my headphones on backwards. I'll admit there have been a FEW times where I'm spinning somewhere and you'll see me pull off my headphones, spin them 180, and put them back on backwards... sucks to have to do this, but when I'm picky about what I hear in which ear, it's my only choice. Have you seen any mixers that will let you split-cue and choose which ear to place the cued channel in? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Zild Instead of switching your headphones around why don't you just try listening to the cue in your right ear and the monitor with your left? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by MERiDiAN5i2 if it's a 600 or 3000. the cueing system on the 500 is lacking. no cue fader. |
i always mix with the monitor, but will go mix within my headphones for a coupla seconds to make sure my mixing is really what i think it is.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Nou I have a 500 and have no complaints about cue? Cue volume control? It has that, or if you mean a fade betwen PGM and Master or whatever, I never found a need for that since you can cue the main channel. |
I used to mix entirely in my headphones until I had to play at a venue where the sound was so loud I was forced to put the cue in one ear and crank the volume just so I could hear what the tracks I was trying to cue.
Until I got my Rane 2016 I used to headphone mix.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group...e6cca94d148ea8?
After I was forced to cue with monitors it made spinning a lot more fun. I am way more engaged with the crowd and know that I can mix on any mixer.
In my opinion it's just something you need to be able to do as a DJ. It's like beat matching. Even if software can do it for you still need to know how to do it manually or you're not a real DJ, right? Anyway just my opinion but I have lived on both sides of the fence.
Keith
hahahahah it seems as though I'm not the only one who got thinking about this when I first mixed on a Rane 2016! Multichannel cue was always the way to go for me, well actually, it was a neccessity for me. I used the rotary 2016 for the first time last weekend, and upon realising that you can only cue one channel at a time in the cans, I had to mix one ear in one ear out. It actually was very easy, no doubt helped by the fact that the monitors were decent. I feel more confident now, and aside from that, I absolutely love the Rane!
Just too bad that they didn't have a 2016a instead. Is there anyone here that has used a 2016a? Rane says it has "split cue", but seeing as there is some debate as to exactly what split cue is (and multichannel cue), I'm wondering if the 2016a lets you fade between cue and master (multichannel cue, as it has been labeled in this thread).
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