Your best tips for getting a better sound through headphones?

laxu

laxu

Fractal Fanatic
So I'm pretty happy with how my Axe-Fx 2 sounds through Genelec studio monitors but when at times I have to use headphones I usually am left wanting. I understand that it will have compromises compared to using studio monitors etc. but I'm sure I can get it to sound better than it does now.

Please give me your best tips on getting better sounds for headphone use!
 
Compare the sound to some official isolated guitar tracks, taken from pro mixed songs.
See if it sounds any better or worse.
Note, that you can't get it better than that.
 
Hi laxu,
Try to emulate the reverb of your room really closely with a reverb block (probably a second reverb block). With no effects or anything on a dry guitar sound, make a mental note of the room sound with the genelecs, then put your headphones on, and enable the reverb block and tweak it until the reverb is as close as you can get to your room. Keep doing this until you can hardly hear a difference between the sound of the dry genelecs, and your headphones with that reverb block.
Now....save that reverb block, and add it as the last block to your favourite sound. It doesn't matter that you already have a reverb block - this one is your room. Put your headphones on and have fun.
Thanks
Pauly
 
pauly said:
Hi laxu,
Try to emulate the reverb of your room really closely with a reverb block (probably a second reverb block). With no effects or anything on a dry guitar sound, make a mental note of the room sound with the genelecs, then put your headphones on, and enable the reverb block and tweak it until the reverb is as close as you can get to your room. Keep doing this until you can hardly hear a difference between the sound of the dry genelecs, and your headphones with that reverb block.
Now....save that reverb block, and add it as the last block to your favourite sound. It doesn't matter that you already have a reverb block - this one is your room. Put your headphones on and have fun.
Thanks
Pauly
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll give it a try. This is only for practice purposes so I'd rather not involve a DAW and plugins but just use what is available in the Axe-Fx 2 itself. I've tried using the room simulation in the cab block and that seems to help a bit too but I need to try your suggestion of a second reverb block.
 
Duplicate patch, rename for reference, and retweak using the techniques previously mentioned. I find the room and reverb trick a good one as well as cutting some low end in either the amp block also adding a PEQ at the end and toying with that a bit will yield some pretty satisfying results.
 
To me there 's two directions where headphones can tend to:
1.
The ones that sound like a studio monitor. Hard to get a good sound on them because they show every detail and if it the patch is not awesome it sounds crappy on them. They are for tweaking at least...not something to have lots of fun. Tools not toys!
2.
The ones that make everything sound nice. Useless for tweaking but fun to play with. Toys not tools.

So the question is, which of the two kinds do you asked about?
For 1 try the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro. To me a tool. YMMV.
For 2 try some in-ears (at least midpriced ones, no cheapos), they always add some glance and it is pure fun.
 
666was999 said:
To me there 's two directions where headphones can tend to:
1.
The ones that sound like a studio monitor. Hard to get a good sound on them because they show every detail and if it the patch is not awesome it sounds crappy on them. They are for tweaking at least...not something to have lots of fun. Tools not toys!
2.
The ones that make everything sound nice. Useless for tweaking but fun to play with. Toys not tools.

So the question is, which of the two kinds do you asked about?
For 1 try the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro. To me a tool. YMMV.
For 2 try some in-ears (at least midpriced ones, no cheapos), they always add some glance and it is pure fun.
Click to expand...

I actually have Beyer-Dynamic DT 990 Pros. Also have AKG K272 HDs and they sound pretty good for guitar, drastically different from the Beyer's though.

Far field IRs sound pretty good but they are hard to find, the only ones I have are the ones built-in.
 
I don't usually like reverb unless it's a deliberate part of the sound, all it does to me is smears the sound in the mix and makes it harder to hear what i'm playing, especially for something like metal or rock rhythm guitar.

For single note noodling or ambient stuff it's fine, but then you would use it anyway.

One thing I have noticed with my 2 different Beyers (DT-250 and DT-990) is I have to cut the 125 HZ range quite drastically, more so than monitors, don't know if they have some peak there.
 
I tried the second reverb block yesterday. Using my G&L Legacy with a JTM45 model + 4x12 Greenback IR and setting the second reverb to simulate a small room I did get a pretty good sound. While of course not as fun as what I get from the studio monitors, it was still fun to play. I also added an EQ to turn up the highs a bit as I felt those were a bit muffled with the headphones.

I'll have to try the 125 Hz thing. My room has a peak in that area too so maybe I don't notice it on headphones.
 
Glad it worked!
Another thing I thought of today - if your headphones sound a little different to the genelecs, you may be able to apply the same theory to an eq block as we did the reverb...ie, put your head real close to the genelecs ( to remove some of the room sound) and then stick the headphones on dry, and try to eq so they sound just like the genelecs. with that, and the reverb block at the end, you'd have to be having more fun...and they are portable!
Thanks
Pauly
 
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