Mixing with cans only - or one ear in the phones, one on the monitor.. Bit of a silly question but who cares.... These days do Professional DJ's still mix using one ear on the cued track and the other ear out "live" listening to the monitors..... OR do people stick to cue faders meaning they can have both tracks playing with their headphones on... without using the monitor. When i had a pair of decks and a mixer last year or so, i used only the cue fader with my cans on to do all the mixing and stuff - is this only a beginner technique or something?
I use only the headphones while cueing up a track, as me hearing in my right ear isn't as good as my left, so I find it easier. My mixer doesn't have a cue-fader though so i just listen to them both at the same time... But once it comes to the mix i take the headphones off and listen to the moniters, as they are more accurate than the headphones for mixing! Most dj's I have played with use one headphone and a moniter when cue-ing up though, although it all depends on how good the moniters are to be honest!
i mainly use one head phone, but have been using both headphones more just to see what its like. like dave says i dont find it as accurate listening in the headphones, maybe thats just cos im so used to doing it the otherway. id probs only use both if the monitors were shit though.
If there arent any decent monitor i just keep my headphones on all the time! Cos i you take them off u cant hear a thing! and if the speakers are miles away u get a delay. So when u check the records in your headphones, it sounds out, when it isnt, and u correct it, and its all over! I hate trying to Mix without monitors...
I dont quite get your there - are you saying you prefer monitors or what? Surely mixing with only headphones gets you the most perfect sound (no delays since your getting the outputs of each channel pumped directly from the mixer into your headphones) ?????????
Personally i prefer have some luvurly big, clear monitors, that drown out all other noise from the other speakers. Cos the i can take my headphones off during the mix, just bringing them upto my ear when i need to check the speed of one of the tracks. Cos they u have the best of both worlds IMO, Being able to switch between what the club hears, and what is going on with the records...if u get me... Mixing only with the headphones is hard, cos u cant just check if a particular track need alteration at the same time as listening to what is comming out of the speakers...
I only ever use one headphone I wont play events with poor sound set ups. I have refused to play events when I don't have a decent enviroment to work in. same as what Revel said
Isnt using the headphones on a cue fader good for pre mix checking to make sure your beatmatched and levels are right? once again, newbie questions - just interested
Yeah, I reckon its a pretty good way to check levels if you ain't got a cue led. I have the tune thats on playing through the headphones then just quickly tap in the tune I'm mixing in while adjusting the gain until they sound right. (does that make sense?)
DJing is about the ability to mix 2 sound sources using your brain and stuff, there's no point in using 2 headphones and depending on a cue fader when the chances are if you ever play a club the mixer aint gonna have one, your fucked if you can't use 2 ears an your skills to accurately beat mix, bad practice mate. anyone can keep pushing the record till it goes in phase. it's not hard.
yeah, all good BUT, the sound playing LIVE out of your main output is slightly delayed from what you hear on your headphones due to electrical resistance from wires+cables (and also from the actual sound travelling thru the air to your ears) and that. If you're mixing in you're bedroom and your main speakers are right next to you, it shudnt be a problem, but if you've got a massive club with cabs and bass bins set up all over the place, the output from your cans is slightly ahead of what's playing on the dancefloor. In fact, this effect can cause quite a problem for big outdoor events like glastonbury because since they have two tiers of speakers, one set at the front and one set at the back, if the sound playing was from the same output, it would cause an interferance effect, making music sound muffled. I think the main outputs have to be put on some sort of delay circuit, or speakers would have to be set-up in some sort of parabolic arrangement. Can you tell i'm an engineer?
So it looks like things have come full circle - surely every club mixer has a cue fader these days? I can fully understand the whole "purist" additude of wanting to do it the more skilled way of one ear on the can, one on the monitor - but this is 2004 eh,.... CD decks are here to stay and it seems like it makes more and more sense to have both sound sources playing in your ears at the same time with the minimum chance of sound delays from crappy monitors etc etc.... ?? Once again, total newbie obersvations - just interested
hmmm got a cue fader but very, very rarely use it, prefere to toggle the headfone utputs between the 2 tracks to judge sound levels as i have no input level meters i could see it being handy if the setup was really, really poor and you had the delays and stuff. i might have a mess about tomorow and see what complete headfone styley is like
