Studio Monitors Vs Head Phones

The age old question: "Should I mix with monitors or headphones?" This question gets asked all the time. And for good reason. There are situations where may have to use one or the other. For instance you may have a full time job and have to mix late at night. In that case, headphones may be your only option so as not to wake everyone else in the house. Or maybe you can't afford monitors and all you have are some headphones. Whatever the reason, it's a decent question to ask. So what's the answer?

Whatever works for you. 

The best answer I can give you is simply to use whatever works for you. Which one do you feel gets you the best results for your mixes? Go use that one! It's really just a matter of opinion. With that said, I will give you some pros and cons of both so as to help you decide. 

The Pros and Cons of Headphones

Pros

• You don't have to worry about room noise
• You can hear the little details that you can often miss in monitors
• They are generally less expensive, at least for starting out
• They are portable and great for mobile recording

Cons

• They fatigue your ears way faster
• Mixes tend to sound awesome on headphones, but not translate well to other speakers

The Pros and Cons of Monitors

Pros

• Your ears won't fatigue near as fast
• Mixes on monitors tend to translate better to other speakers
• Often times they have better frequency responses, especially in the low end

Cons

• You have to take into account room noise
• It's harder to hear the intricate details of a mix

Honestly, it would probably good for you to use a mixture of the two. I would suggest primarily mixing on monitors so as not to fatigue your ears, and then check your mix on headphones. Often times you might notice a little thing or two on the headphones that you missed with the monitors. In general though, it's really up to you. Find out what works for you and then practice and learn what a great mix sounds like through that medium, whether it be monitors or headphones.