What Are The Best Headphones For Music Production?

What’s up fam!

Today we’re going to be talking about headphones - specifically headphones for producing music. If you do a google search on this question, you’ll be led to a bunch of different articles looking to sell you expensive gear. So, I decided to put together a quick list on what you need to know before buying a pair of (affordable) headphones for the studio.

What Are You Using The Headphones For?

When looking at headphones, you’ll want to first decide what you’ll be using them for. The blog title says music production, but that can mean a lot of things. Are you using your headphones to build your track, record live instruments, or listen back to mixes? Each of these variables can affect your selection.

First of all, let’s talk about closed back or open back headphones.

Spike… what the hell does that mean?

Headphones can be closed back or open back. This simply means that the speaker in the headphone is either enclosed or open on the side that isn’t facing your ears. Open back headphones, like the AKG K240S are more transparent, meaning that the sound they create is more precise and accurate to what you’re actually creating. Essentially, headphones are small loudspeakers that push sound towards your ears. When the cone of the speaker moves, it sends sound waves both in the direction of your ears and also in the opposite direction. The sound that is sent away from your ears can reflect back towards your ears if your headphones have a closed back. Open back headphones don’t have that problem and are great for mixing if you’re in tight spaces and don’t want to drop money on a pair of monitors or acoustic treatment.

However!

These headphones aren’t great if you’re using them to record live instruments into microphones. Because the backs are open, the sound from your headphones will escape and bleed into microphones. If you’re tracking instruments live, I recommend finding a decent pair of closed back headphones like the Audio Technica ATH M49x or the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (250OHM). These headphones are workhorses that will last quite a while if treated right!

The last thing I want to touch on is headphone use. The headphones I listed above are great for creating music or recording music. However, they may not be the best when it comes to reviewing mixes. When reviewing a mix, you should always listen back on multiple speakers. Take a listen in your car, take a listen on headphones, and take a listen on some monitors. In order to feel out the practicality of a mix, you should always listen on multiple sources - not one set of headphones! 

Headphones can be a huge factor in your production environment. But, they probably won’t make or break your content. Choose a pair that feels comfortable to you and works for what you’re doing, and you should be good!

Keep making music!

Spike