My beginner experience finding Mixing Heaphones so far

This club has a nice mix of beginners like me and more experienced people so I think others might benefit from a discussion about my headphone quest. Tell me if you can relate:

Context: My current headphones are Beyerdynamic dt 770 pro 80 ohm (not the 250 ohms version, I wasn't too confident my Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen could drive them), I bought them as an all purpose kind of headphone to start off with:

For tracking (It bleeds the click track a little bit though, so I got cheap in ear monitors for whenever the playback quality isn't very important and only the tempo marking is).
For learning the basics of music production and mixing with the intention of publishing well represented songs (not suuper professional but well balanced music that translates into multiple audio systems).

So far I used these closed back headphones for the entire production stage with no Eq correction (they are good enough for recording, tracking and ball parking sound design) and only later - when switching to more of a "mixing" mindset - I place an Eq with a correction curve in the master track I got from github (I am always careful not to render the song with the Correction Eq Curve on):

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/crinacle/GRAS%2043AG-7%20over-ear/Beyerdynamic%20DT%20770%20Pro%20(80%20Ohm)/README.md

(I don't actually use correction software like sonarworks or dsoniq Realphones, I cut costs were I can).

The problem is! I have the chronic beginner limitation issue, little frame of reference... I can't really know if these Headphones are serving me well for critical listening or not... I haven't mixed on other headphones yet. Now I am thinking that maybe a pair of open backs might be a significant improvement and might help me even in the learning process, making certain details more apparent, the transient information more obvious which makes compression easier to learn, frequency separation more detailed to help with identifying problematic regions, resonances, with identifying harmonic saturation changes, to perceive stereo image better, etc....

I understand Andrew Scheps mixes primarily on Sony MDR-7506, and that shows that if you know your headphones you can mix on sub-optimal cans, but it only works if you get used to their sound profile and know how to navigate a mix with them. It is more demanding in that way. Since I am at the beginning and not used to anything too much yet, my mindset is to make my life easier where I can.

My question is:

Should I expect a significant difference with an upgrade to €200–€300 open backs?

Should I invest in a pair of Sennheiser HD 600/650 or Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X? (or maybe something else...) - The HD600 series is known for quiet bass response and the dt 900 for brightness, what is your preference for overall mixing?

Sorry for the big post 😂

10 comments