Hello Everyone,

Here is something I posted on another thread about headphone use. Its just my 2 cents worth but I thought it might be relevant.

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A good STUDIO Headphone is an ABSOLUTE MUST !! Buy one that was DESIGNED for STUDIO use and spend at least $100 on one or as much as you can afford. AVOID consumer and DJ models. Average consumer models are usually NOT designed with a flat frequency response. DJ models have a heavy hump in frequencies that help you hear the headphone in a loud ambient environment . . . like a night club. My personal choice is a Sony 7509. I know this headphone intimately because I've used this model for many years.

Everyone can hear. There are far fewer number of us who has LEARNED TO LISTEN. Yes, CRITICAL listening ability IS AN ACQUIRED TALENT . . . and it takes as much time, effort and PRACTICE to develop this talent as it takes to become a good guitarist.

Everything we have ever heard in our life time is a result of the sound source and ITS REACTION to the environment. This is the difference WHY you sound different in the bathroom compared to the living room.

If you do not have a properly "treated" Listening room (where you mix your music), the headphone eliminates the "environment" to a minimum. The only "environment" left is the air space between the headphone diver and your eardrum.

Each HEADPHONE sounds different . . . even within the same "model number". The more you pay . . . the less are the minor difference within a "model number". Flatter response you get from a good pair of headphone is usually not as pleasing as listening to a nice stereo system. This is because the "pleasing environment" we are used to has been eliminated. "Consumer" headphones have built-in EQ curve to replicate the "missing environment". So, if you mix to a "consumer" headphone and you play the result in your stereo system, some areas of the EQ curve can become over or under emphasized.

Once you buy your "reference" headphone, its time to start the learning process. This is a LEARNING process and it requires many hours of listening. You need "REFERENCE TRACKS". You need to select CD tracks from your CD collection that you think they SOUND great to you. These tracks don't necessarily be one that you are fond of . . . just the ones with production quality you want to emulate. These reference tracks should contain a wide range of genre. Include few examples from Orchestral music like Movie soundtracks to solo acoustic instruments and everything in between. If you decide to burn a reference CD, make sure you do in a WAV. file format so there are no digital compression is involved.

Now its time to spend MANY HOURS of LISTENING. Concentrate on trying to isolate and listen to each instrument or an area of frequency range. Learn to listen in parts of the sound as well as the whole. eventually you will learn YOUR headphone's sound and begin to trust it.

It is often helpful to listen to a reference track while mixing to check your progress. If the production quality of you mix comes close the the production quality on your reference track . . . then the audio CD you burn should translate well in your stereo system.

If you compare your work against a reference track from a "Big Label CD" . . . through YOUR headphone, then your work should come very close to or equal a commercially produced CD !!

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I try not to change headphone brands, specially when I've spent many critical listening hours to "learn" my reference headphone.

Several times in the past, when I did some work in large studios, I always had my reference headphone and my reference CDs with me. My headphone was my point of reference during the progress of the project.

Ed Layola

www.pointconceptionstudio.com