I experienced with some small new headphones and was very surprises who useful they were (specially for mixing the low frequencies)
One of the biggest difficulties when mixing my songs is the deep bass range. It is particularly challenging to separate the normal bass from the so-called sub-bass and not let it blur into a mush – a problem that I have mostly noticed on other systems with very dominant bass. To better solve the problem, some years ago I bought bass-heavy speakers and bass-heavy headphones (for 180€), which helped to a certain extent.
When I was traveling a few weeks ago, I decided to listen to an earbook during the flight and needed some small cheap headphones, and bought small in-ear ones for only €11. When I was exhausted from the earbook, I came up with the idea of checking the sound of my current songs with these small headphones during the flight – after all, I want my music to sound good even on bad equipment. When I finally listened to my music, I was extremely surprised about the dominant sub-bass of my Ice Ages bass drum when I put the headphones deep into my ear. This sub-bass, which usually causes so many problems, was now very clear and distinct, but still powerful and loud.
Finally, I decided to use these headphones while mixing and was able to discover all sorts of small errors in the sub-bass area, which I could hear more clearly than ever before – thanks to the headphones. I could distinguish the bass drum from the bass melody more clearly than ever before and determine exactly how strong bass frequencies I could allow for the bass melody so that the bass drum still sounds clear and powerful.
But I must warn you, don’t take my experiences as irrefutable truths, I never studied sound engineering and learned everything on my own – not everything I say has to be right for everybody. If I explain to a professional sound engineer that my favorite headphones for bass mixing only cost 11 euros, he will probably run away like the pope from the devil But I don’t care, because I know what helps me, even if it might not help others at all. In addition, these headphones are especially good for determining bass, for other areas more expensive headphones are probably more suitable.
And for all those who think it’s worth the risk to invest €11 to check whether I’ve talked nonsense or wisdom:
They are called “JBL Tune 110 – In-Ear”
