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Mastering.com Members Club
30.1k members • Free
4 contributions to Mastering.com Members Club
9d •
My beginner experience finding Mixing Heaphones so far
This club has a nice mix of beginners like me and more experienced people so I think others might benefit from a discussion about my headphone quest. Tell me if you can relate: Context: My current headphones are Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 80 ohm (not the 250 ohms version, I wasn't too confident my Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen could drive them), I bought them as an all purpose kind of headphone to start off with: - For tracking (It bleeds the click track a little bit though, so I got cheap in ear monitors for whenever the playback quality isn't very important and only the tempo marking is). - For learning the basics of music production and mixing with the intention of publishing well represented songs (not suuper professional but well balanced music that translates into multiple audio systems). So far I used these closed back headphones for the entire production stage with no Eq correction (they are good enough for recording, tracking and ball parking sound design) and only later - when switching to more of a "mixing" mindset - I place an Eq with a correction curve in the master track I got from github (I am always careful not to render the song with the Correction Eq Curve on): https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/crinacle/GRAS%2043AG-7%20over-ear/Beyerdynamic%20DT%20770%20Pro%20(80%20Ohm)/README.md (I don't actually use correction software like sonarworks or dsoniq Realphones, I cut costs were I can). The problem is! I have the chronic beginner limitation issue, little frame of reference... I can't really know if these Headphones are serving me well for critical listening or not... I haven't mixed on other headphones yet. Now I am thinking that maybe a pair of open backs might be a significant improvement and might help me even in the learning process, making certain details more apparent, the transient information more obvious which makes compression easier to learn, frequency separation more detailed to help with identifying problematic regions, resonances, with identifying harmonic saturation changes, to perceive stereo image better, etc....
0 likes • 5d
@Mike Fear Makes sense, Topping has an interface too (E series), the DAC and the AMP measures super well, so do the ADCs. Plus it has S/PDIF, so it can still be used as just an Headphone DAC/AMP in the future if I need it.. I will research a bit more before pulling the trigger but you certainly helped a lot! Thank you
1 like • 2d
@Martijn Van Beek You mentioned the focusrite coming short with 250 Ohm headphones and I agree, at least for the 3rd generation 2i2 that I own. That is why I will probably buy a topping E4x4 pre interface. The interface Headphone output performance is key for mixing on headphones, that is the most notoriously weak component of most interfaces budget/mid range. I did a little more research after the comment from @Mike Fear about how a good DAC/AMP is necessary to match a good set of Headphones. I am mostly considering 3 specs to make my decision: - Output impedance is key - the lower the better (1.03 is great!) - Output power across all impedance levels - with special focus on the 32 to 300 range were most headphones are placed - and THD is obviously important - the lower the better across all frequencies and especially in the low end were it often creeps up. The Harmonic distortion is also important if you intend on using corrective Eq because it might raise the level of an already problematic distorted area. I'll post an image with Julian Krause measurements. The topping measures fantastic, if I ever pick new headphones I won't need a dedicated DAC/AMP for it, this interface Headphone amp already has that level of performance across the board. If this interface didn't exist I would go for the SSL 2 MKII - pretty decent headphone amp measurements). Still waiting on audient to make a good enough headphone amp for the ID line. When that happens I get it, for the preamps are very high rated by just about everyone. Note that in the image the measurements for the SSL interface is for the MKI, not the MKII 😅
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Feb '24 •
Plugin links
Post links in this thread about any plugin recommendations, free plugins or plugin discounts.
3 likes • 21d
Youlean Loudness meter is the best free one, and the pro version is really good! but I will give Goodheartz some love for their free loudness meter, as it has one function that is very handy for me. It calculates the difference between the audio's loudness and a target loudness you can easily define, then you press "apply" and it does the matching for you. Saves me the trouble to calculate the difference for myself and pull up the utility tool in Ableton to adjust the gain (may sound silly, I find it a useful quality of life thing 😂) https://goodhertz.com/loudness/
1 like • 21d
Oh how about a classic? Paul X Stretcher: https://sonosaurus.com/paulxstretch/ It does... it's own thing.
22d •
Some tips for orchestral programming
Hello all, for my solo metal project, I would like to write a little classical piece, of course with samples. Which banks could be interesting and cheap :) and do you know some good YouTubers, or books for newbies? Regards
2 likes • 21d
As for youtubers, my favorite is Christian Henson for orchestral stuff. He is a very good educator, his main channel is now renamed to be the same as the company he owns (Crow Hill): https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrowHillCo/videos I think he made the original Spitfire's tutorial for the BBC Orchestra free plugin back when he was one of the founding partners of Spitfire. Vienna Symphonic Library has one that was very publicized called Big Bang Orchestra (never tried it actually, can't speak to it). As a complement you can also find lots of free orchestral elements (especially strings) in the Piano Book website (sooooo many great free stuff), on spitfire Labs (again loads of free stuff, curated and high quality) and on Vaults (similar to Labs). https://www.pianobook.co.uk/ https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/ https://thecrowhillcompany.com/free/
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22d •
If Santa offered to bring you a single piece of audio gear…
What would it be? Right now… for me it would be a toss up between a Massive Passive, Pultec… or The Swift from Thermionic Culture. I’ll let you know if I decide 🤷♂️
2 likes • 22d
An old Sears Catalog acoustic guitar like a Harmony, Stella or Silverstone maybe. I would mod it to make a rubber bridge guitar like the one Ariel Posen plays on the song Dawn. People often use rubber bridges as another layer to use as texture in the stereo image or as a quiet fingerpicked accompaniment in a stripped down song (all valid), but I would love to just make it sound as strong and alive as Ariel did.
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Active 2d ago
Joined Dec 19, 2025
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