Sound coming from both speakers and headphone

SOUND COMING FROM BOTH SPEAKERS AND HEADPHONE HOW TO
SOUND COMING FROM BOTH SPEAKERS AND HEADPHONE PROFESSIONAL

Crossfeed can make hard-panned sounds appear to come from similar points in space as they would on a pair of frontal loudspeakers, and I recommend it for listening to albums that otherwise seem 'unlistenable' on headphones. Since our heads and ears absorb and reflect sounds at higher frequencies, the crossfeed signals are generally rolled off by a few dBs above about 2kHz. This technique is sometimes known as acoustic simulation.

Some headphone amps, accessories and plug-ins (see the box on page 82 for examples of the latter) provide optional 'crossfeed' that mixes a little of the left-hand channel into the right and vice versa, to mimic the natural behaviour of our ears. You can get used to the skewed spatial response, and you can even enjoy its intimacy, but the one-ear phenomenon remains unpleasant for some. When sounds panned to the middle are played through loudspeakers they are heard 'in front', but the same sounds on headphones appear to be emanating from inside your head. In fact, it can cause headaches and induce nausea over prolonged periods. Any hard-panned sounds will be heard through one ear, which sounds very unnatural. Here, for instance, using Cubase 4 as an example, the pan setting for channel 1 will sound odd on headphones, while that of channel 2 (highlighted) should sound fine.On headphones, you hear only the left channel in your left ear and the right in your right ear. If you want to avoid unpleasant one-ear headphone sounds in your mixes, just back off slightly on those extreme pan settings. This all sounds perfectly natural, because that's how we experience every sound around us. You also hear additional reflections from walls, ceilings and floors. This is due to the 'shadowing' effect of the head, and in particular the external parts of the ears, which act like complex direction-dependent tone controls. When listening to loudspeakers, your right ear receives sounds from the left channel as well as the right, but slightly later and at a slightly reduced level. Many commercial mixes can sound rather weird over headphones.

SOUND COMING FROM BOTH SPEAKERS AND HEADPHONE HOW TO

So it makes sense to test your mixes on headphones, and to learn how to work with 'phones to create mixes that work well on speakers. With occasional speaker reality checks, you should be able to create finished results that sound equally impressive (although different) on both speakers and 'phones. While it's certainly tricky to replace loudspeakers completely during the mixing process, it's quite possible to do about 90 percent of your mixing on headphones. So, with the right approach, getting it right in the cans can result in an even better speaker experience - it's just a matter of adapting and learning to rely on your 'phones. On the other hand, if you work late at night or have a studio with poor acoustics, or a family that doesn't appreciate hearing the same two bars looping round, you might have no choice but to work on headphones! What's more, headphones can expose lots of tiny details in your mixes that you might miss on speakers. Actually, it's rather important to make sure your mixes sound as good on 'cans' and 'earbuds' as they do through loudspeakers, but listening to some commercial material, I'm convinced that plenty of it is never checked on headphones before release.

SOUND COMING FROM BOTH SPEAKERS AND HEADPHONE PROFESSIONAL

There are those who say it's impossible to mix on headphones, but that hasn't stopped plenty of professional musicians, engineers, and producers doing just that. Mixing on cans is often frowned upon, but if you know what you're doing, you can get good results with only occasional checks on monitor speakers.

Sound coming from both speakers and headphone