I know, it's the age-old question. But I have gone through a lot of trouble to treat my room with bass traps and absorbers to handle mids and highs. Charts and analysis have even proven my room to quite balanced acoustically! Now, I worked on a tune and have mixed it so that it sounds fantastic with my sub and monitors. When I put those headphones on to hear what it sounds like, it is absolute crap! I even bounce the result to see if it is my system, but nope... imaging sucks. Things sound unbalanced and "flat" in the sound space. Nothing gels together. What gives? Why does a really good room and high quality monitors and sub lead to the worst mixes I've ever done since moving from headphones to the monitors? Ugh... Great music, bad production. Jamie

You need to find out if your room is lying or your headphones are lying. So... Burn a CD and play it in your car. Car stereos are the "great equalizers" for assessing mixes. Then play it on other systems, like, if you have a boom box, or, even go to a place that sells stereos and sound systems (or a music store) and try it out on several different systems. That's really the only way you'll know which is lying.

Thanks Ski... I think my headphones are lying, because first of all, they aren't the best quality, especially for mixing/mastering. I just get worried about the headphones mix because there you get a much more intimate sense of fidelity that you would in the car or on a home studio. Considering many people listen through headphones these days, I'm generally concerned about that medium first before a car system. The sonic analysis I conducted using Room EQ Wizard says my room is pretty true with regards to any standing waves, ringing, flutter echoes, et cetera. The treatment is working. It's just a huge difference when I A/B the mix from the awesome sounding monitors to the crappy headphones. I'll take your advice and see if the car and home system sound good. But I know for a fact the headphones are not up to par... Jamie

I wrote an article Here at Mac Pro Video on a product that might be of help. I use it. [url]http://www.macprovideo.com/blog/audio-software/handson-review-arc-system-audio-room-correction-ik-multimedia[/url]

Jamie said, [i]"Now, I worked on a tune and have mixed it so that it sounds fantastic with my sub and monitors. When I put those headphones on to hear what it sounds like, it is absolute crap! I even bounce the result to see if it is my system, but nope... imaging sucks. Things sound unbalanced and "flat" in the sound space. Nothing gels together."[/i] How do professionally produced & mastered releases sound through the headphones? How do professionally produced & mastered releases sound through your monitoring system in your room? Listen to stuff through the headphones that you're very familiar with and have heard in a variety of settings to get your bearings. With any headphones or speaker/room combination, you have to "learn" them. It's good to have a lo-fi monitoring alternative. Not everyone is going to be listening on "money" gear.

Great advice Redlogic!