Can someone reccomend a good set of recording headphones?
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Posted on Mar 30, 2009 10:52 am
Indellable
Music Afficionado
Member Since: Aug 12, 2008
Headed to Guitar Center today with a $150 gift certificate and wanted some suggestions on a good pair of headphones for the actual artist recording, not for monitoring in the control room (maybe they should be similar?). Regardless, I am getting way too much leakage from the current set of headphones I have onto the actual recorded track so I wanted to get a pair that is good at keeping the sound contained. I can go a little above $150 is needed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Mar 30, 2009 12:06 pm I just finally finished a day of tracking on the new HD280pro's (Sennheiser) and it was fantastic.
They may not be the greatest as you can spend $500+, but they block a sufficient amount of outside noise and I found the instruments to be very clear and not muddied up like my old standard headphones ($130 Bose Triport).
They were $89 at best buy and I reccomend them fore sure. Go a little above and buy two.
They would work fine for tracking and monitoring in the control room imo. Mixing, I'll stick with monitors.
HippieRockstar Vatican AssassinMember
Since: Mar 20, 2009
Mar 30, 2009 12:35 pm I have a pair of Sennheiser HD210 ($40) for recording. Probably not their best pair, but they sound great and do the job!!! The description reads: Rugged and lightweight; ideal for long studio sessions!!!
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 30, 2009 12:44 pm When shopping for headphones for tracking purposes, the main spec you want to look for is isolation. Sound quality isn't quite as important here, but minimal leakage is.
I've never used these myself, but the Extreme Isolation phones have always looked interesting. Although they seem more for isolating you from external noise and not for isolating leakage from external mics (but it works pretty much the same both ways):
www.zzounds.com/item--DSDEX29
Musician's Friend has a better selection of these:
www.musiciansfriend.com/n...treme+isolation
Or a cheaper option from Vic Firth:
www.zzounds.com/item--VICSIH1
I find that my HD280s have a fair amount of leakage in the midrange. I have to keep the volume down a bit when recording vocals into a sensitive mic. Wonderful headphones, huge dynamic range, not a very accurate bass response though. Great phones for $100 though.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Mar 30, 2009 12:51 pm I would say isolation and quality are equally important and you need both aspects, not just one.
When recording drums to 4 different heavy guitar tracks a headphone that is capable of keeping them discernable is required imo.
On the Xtreme, I would like to try them but from the reviews I took away "great isolation, not so great sound". I can get that with ipod earbuds and my hunting muffs. Not saying that is the case, but nobody offers them local for me to try and that's an expensive gamble.
Tripcunning linguistMember
Since: Mar 19, 2009
Mar 30, 2009 04:07 pm We use the Sennheiser HD212 Pro. For $60 we couldn't be happier.
BTW, our drummer uses them for monitoring during live play. (Rehearsal)
IndellableMusic AfficionadoMember
Since: Aug 12, 2008
Mar 31, 2009 08:35 am Thanks for the replies guys - I went with the Sennheiser 380s - www.guitarcenter.com/Senn...276-i1427306.gc They were on sale for $149.99 and I had that $150 gift card so I figured it was a sign. I tested them real breifly last night in my studio and they helped a good bit with the leakage but not all the way - I am thinking I still need to incorporate either a noise gate and/or a strip silencer after the fact. However, the sound quality is incredible. Should gates be applied during recording or after the fact? Thanks again.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Mar 31, 2009 09:44 am I use a software gate on vocal tracks post-recording for that exact same reason, and that's to get rid of the bit of leakage from my HD280s. Find a gate that has a "listen" frequency and an adjustable attack, release and threshold. That way you can get things set so that the vocals are not affected but the leakage from the phones gets blanked out.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Mar 31, 2009 01:33 pm I would gate afterwards, room for trial and error.
