Mixing and mastering with headphones

I might (while also agreeing at the same time :)) disagree with the "treated room" thing except that it's mostly true, but probably not exclusively true... but yeah, true in almost every single case. Treatment implies that there are room boundaries that will negatively influence your perception of the direct sound... which is the case almost all the time... except when it's not. I mean, setting up a mix rig in the middle of a very large space like a nice sized barn would pretty much give you all direct sound... unless you played the music really, really loud. :) So much for a whopper of a nitpick. :)

Excellent advice from Big Woody. I think one has to be careful of making definitive statements like "You cannot master with headphones". It is possible to end up with a decent product mixed and mastered in headphones, especially given tools like Isone to assist and then following Woody's advice. It might be a bit circuitous and frustrating this way, but if this is all you have available, I say do it. In a funny sort of way, you could learn a lot more about the mixing/mastering process by going this tortuous route. Don't let anything stop you from putting your stuff out. Brian May made his own guitar because he was broke -- Joe Meek recorded Telstar in his bathroom --- go for it.