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....

I often think about what our mission is at Mastering.com. It's something that's constantly in flux. On the surface, it's pretty simple... to become the world's #1 audio school. But why bother? Why is that important? Ultimately, it comes back to music. And I believe that music is undergoing a radical change right now (along with many other forms of art). The act of creation is shifting. AI is forcing us to ask questions about what music and creativity means. And without going on a massive detour around all the different reasons why music is important (maybe another time)... I keep coming back to one core idea: Pure creativity. Being a "purist" is not always a good thing... But the more time goes in, I keep coming back to this word. -- → What is "pure creativity"? Pure. What does it mean? A quick Google defines the word as: "Not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material." There are so many ways in which the creative music making process can be adulterated in today's world. I think it will become increasingly important to defend against these influences as time goes on. There are many practical decisions you will need to make as a musician and artist that will become increasingly vital. -- → How much of the production, mixing and mastering process do you hand off to others? Since you're reading this and you're on our mailing list, it probably means you've already decided that taking the production process into your own hands is important to you. I think this will become increasingly so, and the alignment and ownership of all elements of the music creation process will help you create in the purest way possible. Of course, there is a benefit to collaborating with third parties, and it simply depends on your goal. But the ability to write, record, produce, mix and master music yourself puts you, the creator, at the center of it all. -- → How much are you willing to use AI? This is the big one, and the talking point.