Originally Posted by Heartbreaker
For those of us in this situation, does anyone have any tips on how to make this work the best it can? The other night, I was mixing on my best pair of open-backed headphones, and it sounded good. I switched over to Airpods, and it sounded perhaps a little different, but overall still good. Then I listened in the car, and it was way off. And not just in the expected ways, such as more low end. The vocals were suddenly too prominent and the EQ on the guitar solo sounded totally different. I find the wild differences in different environments very frustration. Any tips for how to get a good, consistent mix that works everywhere, without monitors?
Take a look at something like Realphones. They emulate the experience of mixing in various systems. I also listed a number of other products in a prior post.

It provides a number of useful features:

  • It emulates different environments, such as high end monitors and car stereos.
  • It compensates for different headphone frequency responses.
  • It decreases the stereo effect from using headphones.


You'll still want to check the mix in real world listening conditions, but it can greatly reduce the mismatch you're currently getting by mixing on headphones.

These go on sale on regular intervals, so you might wait before picking them up. Or you can check out some of the other lower-priced alternatives.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?