Is a noise-canceling headphone like the Sennheiser PXC 450 appropriate for audio production and mixing?

Answer 1

Everything that the other tutor states states here is absolutly true , however with that being said, the answer is no.,

When your listening or monitoring music, accuracy of the sound monitoring is important, therefore no sound cancellation should ever be used. The reason why has to do with how sound cancellation technology works. When you are listening or monitoring your audio for professional distribution, the accuracy of whats being heard inside the headphones is paramount; the accuracy of what you hear dertermines what decisions are made in how you process the audio in post production.

Sound cancellation technology works by listening to the environment your in and produces a sound inside your headphones to cancel environmental sounds and noise from the outside. Therefore, if you are in a different environment from when you first listened or recorded the audio, the headphones will add different sounds inside of your headphones. Even tho this technology is great for enjoying music, it isn't a good idea to use anything that introduces sound into your listening environment because it will influence your processing decisions.

Because its very important to hear everything in your sound accurately to make appropriate decisions in post production, sound cancellation is counter productive to getting professional results....

More technical details about sound cancellation technology is beyond the scope of this answer.

Importantly, understand that sound isolation is very important for making professional level production sound, is NOT the same as sound cancellation!

Discussion of the difference between the two concepts is also beyond thew scope of this answer.

Good luck to you, and please feel free to ask any other questions here in the forum or messsage me directly... always happy to be helpful!

Answer 2

The best thing you could do with whatever headphones you own is learn your headphones. This is done by listening to a lot of music but don't just jam. Listen to commercially mixed music and understand how loud the bass sounds in your head phones, how are the hi frequencies. When you learn how your headphones responds to frequencies you will make better mixing decisions.