Headphones for vocals

Andy Balham · Post by **Andy Balham** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:17 pm

I'm on the lookout for a new set of headphones for recording vocals. My open existing Sennheisers have got somwhat battered by many a wine-tinged recording sesion and they leaked terribly due to their open design.

What I'm after is a reasonably priced set of cans that have fair reproduction and reasonable isolation. Ideally they would be pretty robust too. The plastic band at the top of the Sennheisr copped it easily when pretty tipsy.

As alway, all help/advice is much appreciated.

Cheers,

Andy

blue · Post by **blue** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:39 pm

just for tracking, any open-back headphone should work fine. if you have good monitoring, closed phones are nice because you won't run the risk of the track or click bleeding back into your take.

ken · Post by **ken** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:59 pm

Extreme Isolation headphones are great for avoiding click bleed.

Ken

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:12 pm

I generally use either Beyer DT100's or Beyer DT880's, though recently I've been using Sony 'in the ear' walkman type things which are actually damn good, and cheap to boot.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:17 am

I like my Senn HD280's (Fluffy uses them too), as the isolation both within and without are amazing. I'll practice drums with them on, so it's not so hard on the ears.

But for a little less money, any of the 1400 series senn's should be allright. I had the 1445's (I think) and they worked great until the plugins to the ears frayed apart.

Audio Technica make some allright ones, too.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:29 am

I have this old-ass pair of 70s era Sony cans which completely isolate all outside noise. I mean, all I can hear when I put them on in is my tinninitus ringing. And like, I suppose if someone fired a gun right beside my head, I'd hear a dull 'pop', but other than that.

Trouble is, they are painful after 20 minutes or so. Also, the sound quality is pretty dull and flat. I use them for doing vocals, because nothing gets past them to bleed back into the track. For any other headphone use, I use my SOny MDR-V5s, which are amazing headphones. They currently have a piece of tape holding them together where they broke. I'll replace them with an identical pair if I can find some.

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:03 am

I use the Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs and they work fine, but sound dramatically different from the open-backed Sennheiser HD-565s I use for reference and mixing. But they don't bleed, so they work well for vox. I believe there is another model, the ATH-B40?, which has a bass boost or something.

More often than not, I just "let it bleed" and use the Sennheisers because it doesn't matter too much for the kind of music I make.

Andy Balham · Post by **Andy Balham** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:42 am

Cheers for all the feedback. I think I may continue to use the Sennheisers for vocals and 'let it bleed' until they finally clap out completely. For recording acoustic against a click track I'll follow Kamakura's suggestion and use my in-ear Sonys which I'd forgotten about.

blue · Post by **blue** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:40 pm

i highly recommend recording vox without monitoring the voice. someone.. George Massey, maybe, was bitching about vocalists who listen to themselves sing and end up chasing their voice in the cans rather than singing the part. at least with our singer, this is spot on.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:43 pm

blue wrote:i highly recommend recording vox without monitoring the voice. someone.. George Massey, maybe, was bitching about vocalists who listen to themselves sing and end up chasing their voice in the cans rather than singing the part. at least with our singer, this is spot on.

Hmmmm

You know, I might be guilty of this myself. So what you're saying is turn the vocal monitoring right off when recording vox? Don't you find this a bit disconcerting? I've never tried doing that myself, but I'd imagine it would take some getting used to.

Andy Balham · Post by **Andy Balham** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 4:49 am

blue wrote:i highly recommend recording vox without monitoring the voice.

I had heard from somewhere that just having headphones over one ear helps the vocalist keep in tune, though I hadn't considered trying not monitoring the voice at all. I shall give it a go, I need all the help I can get

Post by jb » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:16 am

If you don't feed some voice back to yourself you'll wind up oversinging. If you're an expert, fine, but if you're not, give yourself a break and let yourself hear yourself while you record. Also, add a little reverb to the mix to help you keep from oversinging-- it doesn't have to go in the real mix, only the monitoring.

And if you really want to have vocal effects on a track, you should have them running while you record the track, so that you can "play" the effect like an instrument. Much more effective than singing dry and then applying the effect later.

But I guess this has nothing to do with headphones does it... carry on.

JB

Henrietta · Post by **Henrietta** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 12:14 pm

blue wrote:i highly recommend recording vox without monitoring the voice.

I'd be too fraidy-cat to try that. It's hard enough singing on-key live when you can't hear the vox in the monitor... I couldn't record that way.

I'm sure for lots of people, like your singer, working without monitors helps them more than it hinders them.... I think for me though, monitors are a neccesary substitute for being able to hear yourself naturally & acoustically. Your brain needs some feedback to make sure your voice is doing what you imagine (& hope) it's doing.

(I've tried that "vocal monitor headphone covering just one ear" thing, and that works really well for getting enough monitor to stay on pitch... at least I like to think so

)

For headphones, I like my Sennheiser HD-280's.

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:14 pm

blue wrote:I highly recommend recording vox without monitoring the voice.

Drummers eh?

blue · Post by **blue** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:24 pm

jb wrote:If you don't feed some voice back to yourself you'll wind up oversinging. If you're an expert, fine, but if you're not, give yourself a break and let yourself hear yourself while you record. Also, add a little reverb to the mix to help you keep from oversinging-- it doesn't have to go in the real mix, only the monitoring.

i'm surprised to hear that from you.. i figured you'd be well in the camp of "learn the song and sing the bit." have you tried it w/out monitoring?

i read this in tape-op, so it has to be true. 8)

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:34 pm

jb wrote:And if you really want to have vocal effects on a track, you should have them running while you record the track, so that you can "play" the effect like an instrument. Much more effective than singing dry and then applying the effect later.

Yeah, but then you can't take them away if they don't work, right? (Well, maybe you computer guys can, but I can't) I usually have effects on when I'm singing, but not too much because I find I sing flat sometimes when I have effects on--don't know why exactly.

I think I would find it hard to sing a track without monitoring the vocal track, but I can't say I've ever tried. I do so much close-mic singing and at varying volumes--I just don't know if I could gauge the level without a reference. But I'm going to try it because Blue is my friend and he said so.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:44 pm

Henrietta wrote:
For headphones, I like my Sennheiser HD-280's.

me too. i absolutely love them. everything i mix is done with them.

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:38 am

Are there any decent wireless headphones out there? I swear, of all the cords laying on my floor at any given time, the headphone cord is the one I consistently step on. I hate that. They either come ripping off of my head or go flying on the floor when they're laying on the desk. Damn that's frustrating.

Ayway, wireless? Good, bad, indifferent?

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:28 am

Dan-O,
I was having this problem too. I just got a pair of Sony 7506 headphones and they have a coiled cord that doesn't droop down to the floor. They are also excellent headphones for monitoring because they have a very flat response.

Steve

Kamakura · Post by **Kamakura** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:37 am

Dan-O from Five-O wrote:Are there any decent wireless headphones out there? wireless? Good, bad, indifferent?

I have a pair of Sennheiser HDR 120's which are good, though I use them more for vegging out to the tube than recording because there is occasional slight transmission noise. They have a charging station they live on when not in use.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:03 am

So I'm moving offices at work to one with a roommate, and will probably need to get some headphones for listening to music. Figure something that's very comfortable (so I can wear them all day if I need to), doesn't actually go in my ear (that's not comfortable), and isn't closed design so I can hear if somebody talks to me. Oh, also, not crazy expensive since it's for listening, not mastering or something. Are any of the ones mentioned here good for that -or- does somebody have a suggestion?
-bill

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:32 am

Anything in Sennheiser's 1400 series should do the trick. That's what I used to have.