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I used to aggressively push the opinion that headphones could not be used exclusively for mixing. Not anymore.
Waves NX in conjunction with Sonarworks headphone calibration software have proven to be very effective in creating a system where mixes translate well. Both of those plugins have competitors that are probably just as effective.
That being said I use Grado SR80e for 95% of my headphone mixing. If I’m in a noisy environment I switch to Sennheiser HD380 Pro, but they really benefit from the calibration.
That was a good page worth reading. That being said I’d like to add that your usage habits can certainly inform your computer purchases. for example, if you routinely produce projects with dozens of tracks containing sophisticated synth and sampler plugins then you really will need to invest in a very good processor and a lot of RAM. However if you generally keep your projects to fewer than 16 tracks and you mainly record audio and don’t generally use a lot of resource hungry plugins then in this day and age even an entry level or used machine can do the job. I have a ten year old laptop that is still very capable of handling simple jobs.
I’d like to point out that the purchase of just one issue of Computer Music Magazine comes with dozens and dozens of very useful plugins included. These are often slightly cut down versions of commercial plugins and occasionally full versions. The variety is excellent too.
Oh and I think it’s the best technical magazine for folks like us too, so that’s a nice bonus.
I use NX and I do find it useful for those situations where I’m forced to mix with headphones. I do think that it’s still better to use monitors when possible.
I’ve found that NX is most useful when used in conjunction with the headphone calibration plugin I purchased from Sonarworks. I’ve heard that calibration was in the works for NX, but Sonarworks allowed calibration for my monitors/room and headphones too.
What’s your DAW?