Mixing in Headphones, Monitor, or Speakers?

This topic has 17 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 13 years, 2 months ago by Dizzle.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

1 2 →

Author

Posts
November 6, 2012 at 7:58 am #31429

Terry_42
Keymaster

Well most of the time in smaller venues or bars, the output of the sound system is sufficient.
Large venues and clubs will usually have monitors in the booth for your sound. I have never had a problem with delay, even in the days of turntables.

November 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm #31458

NORRIS Sydnor
Participant

Terry_42, post: 31585, member: 1843 wrote: Well most of the time in smaller venues or bars, the output of the sound system is sufficient.
Large venues and clubs will usually have monitors in the booth for your sound. I have never had a problem with delay, even in the days of turntables.

Cool. I’ve just become somewhat concerned because I’m playing in a small corner at the bar I’m playing and the speakers are faced away from me. However, I do still hear them pretty well and I used them that way with no monitor. I like to make EQ adjustments while playing and I’m not sure if I’m hearing the full effect correctly by listening to speakers that are pointed away from me.

I’m probably being a tad bit overly critical about this. I’m sure it sounds good to the audience.

Thanks for the reply, Terry.

November 7, 2012 at 7:37 am #31496

Terry_42
Keymaster

No Problemo,

Yes in corners there can be a slight “sound coloring”. But if you at least sometimes practice at home with decent monitors you have the “right sound” in your ear and the move on the EQ or F/X dial and hence it will not matter that much.
In very rare cases do I put the master in my headphones a bit to adjust something, but not all mixers or controllers allow you to do this (thankfully my Terminal Mix has such an option).

November 7, 2012 at 8:47 am #31507

DJ Yaka
Participant

Terry 42 is right. In small bar venues the sound system should be more than sufficient for mixing.

As for mixing in headphones, I recently DJ’ed a dance set at a silent disco. This meant that all of my mixing had to be done in/via my headphones. I can honestly say, mixing with nothing but your headphones for 5 hours straight is a “different” experience. It wasn’t until that night that I realized how much I actually use the club sound system when mixing.

IMO it’s all down to what suits you and what you feel most comfortable with. As Long as it sounds great…then who cares? 🙂

November 7, 2012 at 6:50 pm #31523

NORRIS Sydnor
Participant

Thanks Guys. I’m going to use the Master Output Sound from the speakers. I will walk around to the front of the speakers every now and then and listen out for necessary EQ Adjustments

November 8, 2012 at 8:04 am #31547

Terry_42
Keymaster

I always wanted to do a silent disco, sadly not had the chance yet. Must be great fun.

November 8, 2012 at 5:58 pm #31576

Coltrane09
Participant

WOW! I haven’t heard of a silent disco until now… Looked it up on Wikipedia and I’m blown away. That does look like fun!

November 27, 2012 at 4:10 pm #32681

Richard Driver
Participant

Had to learn to mix in the headphones because my roommate and I had different hours. Takes some time to get used to but I think its a skill every Dj should at least try to do. Murphy’s Law, monitors may go out or something. A good Dj should be able to adapt and overcome.

November 27, 2012 at 4:37 pm #32692

DJ Yaka
Participant

Dj R. driver I totally agree, it can’t do any harm

November 27, 2012 at 4:43 pm #32693

CalVic
Participant

Agree R.Driver, and likewise, I’m at home with parents and thus I really cannot play out my music. So I’ve been mixing in headphones for years. It’s kind of odd using the monitor. But I can do both proficiently

November 27, 2012 at 6:40 pm #32704

J-Zed
Participant

Coltrane09, post: 31732, member: 2800 wrote: WOW! I haven’t heard of a silent disco until now… Looked it up on Wikipedia and I’m blown away. That does look like fun!

2nd to this

It looks unbelievably fun, the idea of 2-3 djs competing for fans sounds amazing, especially if you don’t know who is listening. It would be mad fun to watch the dance floor to figure out who is in tune with you.

November 27, 2012 at 8:37 pm #32714

Ess Jay
Member

DJing a silent disco was such a weird feeling for me. Luckily they do them quite often at my Uni, so hopefully will get another one soon.

November 28, 2012 at 12:46 am #32719

Maximlee
Blocked

Ess Jay, post: 32870, member: 2540 wrote: DJing a silent disco was such a weird feeling for me. Luckily they do them quite often at my Uni, so hopefully will get another one soon.

Silent discos are wrong… there is no atmosphere… i simply would not dj one

November 28, 2012 at 12:25 pm #32749

Ess Jay
Member

Each to their own. I find it has a completely different atmosphere. People could sit and have a drink and socialise, whilst others can dance the night away listening to 3 different DJ’s. And there are no noise complaints.

November 29, 2012 at 8:30 am #32861

Milos Djordjevic
Participant

Watch out for the corners getting “boomy” as a lot of the low frequencies can get trapped there as they’re less directional than the mids and tops. I did a bar the other night and preferred one headphone and one open ear (I was setup next to one of my speakers) to hear my mixes. The headphone served to basically let me hear the upper end as the woofer was maybe 4 feet from my head!
Author

Posts