Studio headphones (tracking)

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Seeker

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Feb 8, 2010
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Orlando, Fl
I know this must have been discussed but I haven't been able to dig up much via the search.  I'm looking for some suggestions for headphones specifically for tracking.  I'm using some beyer dynamic dt770's and some sonys, but I'd like to find something with a bit more isolation... I'm getting good results most of the time, but sometimes I track with just a click, adding other instruments later, or want to use a vocal track accapella at a point in a song...I've learned to eq my click (use diff sounds etc) to help with bleed, but it seems the next step is different phones.... Am I looking at ear buds at this point?

Thanks
 
I find that even mid-priced IEM ear buds work better when doing quiet recordings where artist needs a good headphone monitoring and I need clean recording with lots of gain on my pres.
Most ear buds made for IEM use have enough detail in the mids so they track very accurately, and if you do a good monitor mix it's all great.
 
Thanks for the reply shot... Any particular models you recommend/have had good results from?  I have next to zero experience with iem...  Also, what do you do about cleaning them between artists?  Just a careful wipe with some alcohol?
 
I don't know the exact model! They came with Shure IEM set.
Cleaning is easy if you do it immediately after the session. Rubber part comes off and I clean it with detergent, the same I use for cleaning coffee cups and glasses (coffee is more important than half of the studio rack!). Just don't let the grease dry. Clean them ASAP!
:)
 
I didn't realize there were so many variations on the DT 770... Mine are definitely not the m version.  At some point I'll have to check them out.

At the moment though , I think I'm going to look into some in ears for the times I need to be maniacal about headphone bleed, thanks for the cleaning tip Shot! 


 
I use a HD380pro from Sennheiser with good results for that task, I bought one for me, as reference and live mixing use, the first one I bought were failed, one of the speakers broken (really bad, screaming) the second pair I get by official agent here has a little difference between left and right (hard to notice sometime, but there is a difference). The third pair was sent to me directly from USA and never asked to send the second pair back, so I have those for tracking while I hear with the good ones the same thing, or use the bad ones for personal use... In any case, I have two of them, really nice ones. It took too much time for me to have the headphones as I wanted but they behave really good in the mid time, no problems since then.

JS
 
The low end is so extended (very flat and precise I think) that at the beginning may sound not so natural, maybe more than others closed back HP, but I use it as reference of what's happening back in there when mixing and they really help, of course final balance of low end must be done with something else, but to glue all together those HP do a great job.
Another thing that I noticed with this ones is the perception of distortion, if something is distorting you'll hear that with those, once in a mastering studio I was able to hear the ADC clipping (they use that as their limiting/clipping instead of plugins, was all analog and a really nice prism converter which clips nice) but in my HP something was wrong, nothing heard on the nice ATC monitors of the studio, I asked to get closer to that part in the waveform and it was clipped much badly than the rest of the track. It was the beginning of the track, adding a loud part before to cut out after so compressors would be compressing when the song starts was all that needed to be made to solve it.

JS
 
Seeker said:
I know this must have been discussed but I haven't been able to dig up much via the search.  I'm looking for some suggestions for headphones specifically for tracking.  I'm using some beyer dynamic dt770's and some sonys, but I'd like to find something with a bit more isolation... I'm getting good results most of the time, but sometimes I track with just a click, adding other instruments later, or want to use a vocal track accapella at a point in a song...I've learned to eq my click (use diff sounds etc) to help with bleed, but it seems the next step is different phones.... Am I looking at ear buds at this point?

Thanks

The Best Isolation Heaphones I used so far,  are the Vic Firth Stereo Isolation Headphones,
they're amazing and far away from a second contender.
It's the only product for your needs that I would advise

Drummers and Bass Players Love them.

http://www.vicfirth.com/products/headphones.php
 
For tracking I have been using Shure earbuds with industrial ear muffs on top of those. Some serious amount of isolation...

Best, M
 
weiss said:
anyone using akg k271?

I have a pair or two...
I feel they don't isolate as good as the mentioned DT770  or HD380 but they're ok.
I usually give the drummer a pair of HD280  as I feel they clamp even harder than the HD380,
but can get tiresome after a while.

//M
 
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