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Headphone mixing

Do a lot of you use this method? I used to soley keep one headphone on one ear (playing the cued track) and the open ear to the live track. But I have a Numark DXM06 Mixer that allows you to hear both in the headphones so the other day I gave it a go and watched my mixing improve greatly. So is this a method to stay away from? I didn't do it in the beginning because I felt like I was cheating in a way. But I dunno, if it helps I guess why not take advantage of the feature I have on my mixer.

Thoughts?

i use only that method. im useless at one ear headphones, one ear speakers. but i have no monitors and crappy speakers...

i've heard you should stay away from this as if you go to a gig and their mixer doesnt have this feature, youre pretty much screwed.

but i doubt i'll ever do gigs

Best bet is to learn both...

And then use the one ear on and one ear off method until you perfect it. Once you do, you're mixing will improve again.

Remember:
1. Not all mixers in clubs have split-cue, or even the ability to listen to more than one channel at a time. (Rane 2016's, Urei 1620's, Phazons, etc.)

2. In a really loud environment it's very hard to differentiate two tracks in the phones (at least I found it hard).

3. One ear on/one ear off lets you hear the floor and what you are doing, which is always a good thing.

But if the booth doesn't have monitors, then you have to be able to mix in your headphones. Just be flexible!

quote:

Originally posted by simms327 i use only that method. im useless at one ear headphones, one ear speakers. but i have no monitors and crappy speakers... i've heard you should stay away from this as if you go to a gig and their mixer doesnt have this feature, youre pretty much screwed. but i doubt i'll ever do gigs

i find it easier just using 1 ear with headphones and 1 to the speaker.

I learned to mix, beatmatching solely in my headphones, but if you plan on ever playing out you have to master the one ear on, one ear off method.

for a year and a half I beatmatched in my headphones only, my first gig comes up and low and behold, the club had the old Rane rotary that only lets you cue one channel at a time.

The only times I ever mix solely in the headphones is if I'm working on a demo or some other set I'm going to put out, OR in a rough case scenario playing out where you've got no Monitors and terrible sound in the booth (A common occurance in Wisconsin, I assure you).

1. cue channel a (channel b = master)
2. blend cue a with master channel
3. mix with headphones on, listen to the master channel. this way you can beatmatch more accurately because there's always a huge problem with reverb on the floor so what you here coming from the PA isnt what is really playing...
...nevermind

I dont really think about it too much... so long as i can hear my cue'd track I will be happy as a seal with a ball...

quote:

Originally posted by simms327 i use only that method. im useless at one ear headphones, one ear speakers. but i have no monitors and crappy speakers... i've heard you should stay away from this as if you go to a gig and their mixer doesnt have this feature, youre pretty much screwed. but i doubt i'll ever do gigs

Pretty much the same thing with me. I can't really even turn my music that loud because it will disrupt my family.

quote:

Originally posted by s3nate Pretty much the same thing with me. I can't really even turn my music that loud because it will disrupt my family.

that too. sometime i dont even turn the speakers on, and use only the headphones, so i dont piss of my neighbours.

99% of the time i'm mixing in my headphones only. every once in a while, if i happen to be doing nothing at home in the afternoon on my day off i will bump w/the monitors. this only happens a couple times a month.

also, monitor placement (to a lesser extent, fidelity) matters a lot.

try to have the monitors around ear level. even a medium sized bookshelf stereo system will work. i remember how it was always
a nightmare for me to mix using my old rack system. i always had to bend over/crouch to align my head w/the speaker to get a good beatmatch. or i would have to really turn it up, then really crank up my headphones = ringy ears after a few minutes.

after a while, you just get used to it. and your ears will start zero'ing in on errors just like they do on headphones. just have a concentrate extra hard on what you're doing in the begining.

Personally I need monitors. Barring that I find mixing off the delay with no monitors to be easier than going inside the headphones. Oddly enough I learned to beatmatch initially inside the headphones.

This is my preferred way of mixing though lately Ive been having split cue in one ear and the other to the speaker. Its kinda the best of both worlds imo.

quote:

Originally posted by Protege This is my preferred way of mixing though lately Ive been having split cue in one ear and the other to the speaker. Its kinda the best of both worlds imo.

Same here...

but what bout the Big djs in gigs? what method do u guys think they use?

quote:

Originally posted by Hasneez Same here... but what bout the Big djs in gigs? what method do u guys think they use?

I would think they mix in the headphones being that I don't see why they would be a using a mixer that doesn't have this feature.

Nope, you never see the "pros" mixing anyway then one ear on, one ear off.

Once you master mixing that way, your ears become so well tuned in that there is no need to mix in the headphones.

And a lot of pro's prefer classic rotary mixers! Look at Stereo in Montreal, it's one the most renound clubs in the world as far as sound goes, and they have a UREI 1620 mixer (no headphone mixing options). And people LOVE that system

quote:

Originally posted by DOOMBOT I would think they mix in the headphones being that I don't see why they would be a using a mixer that doesn't have this feature.

i am sure everyone has their own little techniques and tricks, it comes down to what you are comfortable with and what works for you though after you get the basics of mixing down.

here's mine,

i learned to beatmatch only using my headphones. i invested in a good set of monitors soon after and learned to mix on them as well. a very good thing to do is to play out both tracks on your monitors without headphones when you are still in the learning stages. you will be able to pick up everything that you do with a lot better perception this way.

ten years later and this is how i do it playing out at gigs or at home when using my monitors,

i listen to both master (playing) track and the cue track through my headphones at first for fine tuning (both earcups).

i then adjust level/bpm/eq etc for incoming track or sample and proceed to mix when the "timing" is right.

in the process of now being "in the mix" i continue to listen through the phones for accuracy.

once everything is a go and i am right "in the mix" i then take one earcup if not both off to listen to the monitors or live pa. this tells me the truth of what is really happening with the mix (what the audience will hear). if i feel something is off then i place one or both earcups back on to check if anything is off and adjust if need be.

works like a charm for me everytime. hope i did not confuse the fuk out of anyone! lol.

Been in 4 clubs so far with my Traktor laptop system and none of these places had monitors (normal situation in dives ). So I mix in the phones, which I would do anyway even if they had monitors. Works for me and I don't need to worry about whatever cueing system they have on the club mixer or compensate for the different sound of the monitors in each place.

There is no right or wrong way and there is no cheating unless you use ableton... :P

Try and master both, thats the best thing obviously, and it will be very very very rare that you'll come across amixer theses days in clubs and bars that dont have a decent cue facility, even that rane rotary has been updated with the option to split cue.

quote:

Originally posted by zizack I learned to mix, beatmatching solely in my headphones, but if you plan on ever playing out you have to master the one ear on, one ear off method. for a year and a half I beatmatched in my headphones only, my first gig comes up and low and behold, the club had the old Rane rotary that only lets you cue one channel at a time.

Running into this situation (at a store, luckily not at a club) was where I learned how to use 1 ear on the phones and 1 ear on the monitor speaker since I wasn't able to cue more than 1 thing up at a time.

I was told by the elders of the midwest rave scene that learning how to mix on different systems and in different situations would only make one a better DJ. My mixing skills greatly increased after ditching the all headphone mixing.

These days I'll use the split cue whenever a mixer has it, since it is essentially the same thing as 1 ear on the headphone and 1 ear on the monitor (ie cue on 1 phone and master on the other phone).

i've only ever used the "one ear on the cans, one ear to the speakers" method, ocassionally i'll try to mix without headphones all together.

by the way a recent thing i've noticed with my mixing is that whenever i try to do things perfect and write little notes to myslef about mixouts etc i almost always screw up the transition. but if i just wing it, and trust myself the mix turns out perfect, i think its because i'm feeling the music more this way.
anyone else notice this? i guess its kind of a good thing.

-sonykc

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_RoKo by the way a recent thing i've noticed with my mixing is that whenever i try to do things perfect and write little notes to myslef about mixouts etc i almost always screw up the transition. but if i just wing it, and trust myself the mix turns out perfect, i think its because i'm feeling the music more this way. anyone else notice this? i guess its kind of a good thing. -sonykc

yeah, i pretty much go into the club with an idea of a few songs I'd like to start out with, anything else after that is just feeling out what direction to take the mix based on the crowd. no preconceived notion of what I'm going to play any given night.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_RoKo i've only ever used the "one ear on the cans, one ear to the speakers" method, ocassionally i'll try to mix without headphones all together.

And how the f*ck do you mix with no headphones?

quote:

Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7 And how the f*ck do you mix with no headphones?

autosync on mk6s ?

Mixing without headphones is good and really isn't a big deal.

Just find the first beat and whack it in at a good place and then match on the fly. It will make your beat matching very quick.

The more you DJ the easier this will become.

I use whatever method is available but will gladly use both headphones if the option is available. Just make sure you know how to use all of them.

And just for the record I have seen Marco V use both cans too.

All DJs will tell you that it depends on the environment and what it allows, then they will revert back to their prefered method if it's available.

Sure you don't see the pro's doing this that often, but most pro's have been doing this for a long time and back in the day there were not many mixers that allowed you to mix in the phones.

How you que your records up is totally irrelevant compared to how you sound when you drop your mixes. If mixing in both cups makes you better then the previous guy then do it.

Cheers
Nem

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