Home Studio Mastering Headphones.

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Spock

Spock

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This just in, Spock's making a thread for the first time, in a well, long time.

Anyways, so right now I am currently looking for a decent par of headphones I can use to master all of the recordings I am doing for the various metal bands around here in billings. I am currently troubled by the fact that I only have a single pair of some cheap $10 phillips headphones which are alright for listening/gaming but they have a weak range (20-18k), SnR is pretty poor, and like 20mw? I desperately need a decent pair of studio ones.

The problem I am running into, is I have no idea what makes a good studio headphone, the pesky audiophiles all talk about stuff good for listening, but not mastering, and everything else I can find is aimed towards cheapness (lol ipod), or DJ's.

And yes I know you want to get a nice pair of studio monitors , however that is a problem for me. I am literally stuck using headphones, my neighbors have complained a lot in the past about me playing bass (1600w FTW!)and music loudly quite a bit.

So is there anyone that can give me a good recomendation? I am also looking in the $50-100 range if possible (I am unemployed currently)
 
Those look pretty nice, also would something like that work if a drummer needed to use them as monitors for recording?

And it looks like amazon has them as cheap as $33

Edit: Also, do those have decent bass response? I always tend to over mix the bass a bit much as I really cant tell how it sounds on a 1200w car audio system through some cheap $10 headphones.
 
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Any headphone will work, but what will help you is getting to know your monitor source an how it translates in the real world. AKG 240's are nice and flat in reponse but don't work well for bass and drum monitoring, but work great for mixing without causing too much fatigue. In finding a headphone, I would look at 20hz to 20khz response.
 
Well, I usually know how the sound translates into a real world system, Its just hard when you're trying to figure out levels with 2 guitars, 3 individual drum tracks (I split kick, crashes, & toms into their own channels on my 8 track), 2 vocals, and a bass.

I can do it fine if i was just doing bass, or drums, but once I throw in the rest of the tracks, my cheap headphones just fall apart.

I'll look into those AKG's if I can get both my band and my singers side project I'm doing work for to pitch in on them.
 
Any headphone will be better than $10 phillips.
 
Spock
Well, I usually know how the sound translates into a real world system, Its just hard when you're trying to figure out levels with 2 guitars, 3 individual drum tracks (I split kick, crashes, & toms into their own channels on my 8 track), 2 vocals, and a bass.

I can do it fine if i was just doing bass, or drums, but once I throw in the rest of the tracks, my cheap headphones just fall apart.

I'll look into those AKG's if I can get both my band and my singers side project I'm doing work for to pitch in on them.
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That's a good idea to have them pitch in. My band did a project some years ago and they wanted good headphones. Since I provided the free studio time, they chipped in and bought three nice Sony studio head phones (I've posted the models before, sorry don't remember the model). They are $200 ea, and worth every penny. Turned out to be a $600 demo Cd for us and we've used the headphones many times over.

The sony's have better bass response than the AKG for monitoring, drummers seem to like them better also because of their low end response, I don't like them as well for mixing, however. My ears get tired faster with the sony's than the AKG's.
 
Spock,

Are you guys playing anywhere Tuesday or Wednesday night? I'll be in billings visiting my folks.

Prolly not a lot of weekday jams but it doesn't hurt to ask.

:cheers:
 
Sadly, no, our next show is on June 5th, and both of those days I'm going to be finishing up recording with one band, and getting started on my own bands last two recordings the next.
 

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