Headphones vs. monitors - what do YOU use, and why?

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

Since I'm the one who brought it up, I ought to chime in. Whenever possible, I go sans headphones. I think they can sometimes give you that same sort of false sense of security that singing in the shower does.

Remember the first time you ever heard a recording of your own voice played back to you? You probably said something like, "I don't really sound like that, do I?" Well, after after talking into microphones and recording devices for nearly 40 years, the playback almost always sounds exactly as I expect it to. I know what my voice sounds like and can hear it as I am recording. If I pop a "p" or slur a word, I know it when I do it. If I have to go back and match an inflection from a previous take, I can do it.

It sometimes surprises me when people in the business (radio, at least) don't know what they actually sound like, and I think part of the reason is they always hear themselves with a bit of processing and the volume cranked up and never get a true picture of their "naked" voices.

Lance Blair · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007, 21:16 (GMT) Post subject:

I usually:

Keep one headphone on the far side from the mic, and tuck the other one behind my ear. No bleed...actually less bleed if anything. Also I wind up being a little more in control of my breath that way being able to hear myself in the real world.

I monitor in mono through speakers when dealing with editing raw files for clients. I'll go stereo if what I'm editing is stereo and all dolled-up. If you can make it sound good in a mono speaker you're on to something.

Karen Lehman · **Voice Talent** Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 190

Funny how every post seems to me to have merit.
With h/p, w/out, one on, one off - we find different things work for different situations.
I have used $9 Sony headphones for radio and voiceover. I am able to monitor any musical or vocal cues, and my own voice enough to catch little sounds/slurs I might otherwise miss, and at the same time I can hear my voice in the room, which helps me maintain a more conversational tone. I never have bleeding problems with the little foam-covered earcovering headphones (what I mean is they aren't the kind that go IN the ear, but they aren't cans, either).

Thanks everybody!

Karen Lehman · **Voice Talent** Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 190

Oh - I forgot -
My habit is to use my monitors to edit and mix...

What worked for me was to listen to as many different monitors in my price range as possible (with a cd of my voicework playing), trust my ears, and go with what I felt was an honest representation of my voice.

I have a VIFA Solo kit by Madisound - love 'em! Clean, clear, lovely - on stands at ear-height! And a kit means I was able to afford a better quality than ready-made - I'm very lucky to have a brother that's into building stereo components...

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

I may or may not listen to a read on headphones, but always use monitor to mix. One reason is that it real easy to jack the volume up too much on headphone and subject you ears to fatigue.

I am currently redoing my mixing environment and going to use rigid fiber glass panels as absorber and diffusers. I will most likely need to build two to four Quadratic Diffusers, I will build some bass traps for corners using sealed enclosures with flexible plastic diaphragms. Once I have the room semi correct I want to run Real Time evolution on the room to test for ring and deflection. If that is where it should be. I want to set the tuning to flat and listen then to TXC (Theater X Curve). In the states X Curve is the principle curve in cinema and broadcast. By having my space tuned to the SMPTE standard (Called X Curve) then when I am finished with a mix then I can have some assurance that it will air the same way.

Bill Oxley · **Voice Talent** Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 17

Headphones? Here's what one pro uses...

About ten years ago, I hired Gary Owens to do a spot for my client.

I met him at L.A. Studios up on Cahuenga and it was a thrill for me to meet someone even La Fontaine admires.

Anyhow, we entered the studio and Gary walked into the booth and began practicing the copy. I nervously jumped on the intercom and asked him if he needed headphones. He replied,

"No thank you, Bill. They're built in!"

Surprised

Gregory Houser · **Voice Talent** Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 177

I've also got more than a little respect for Gary, but I'm going to disagree with him on this one...

it's called bone conduction... the reverberation of the sound waves that we produce through the bones in the skull, teeth, nasal passages, etc.

it amplifies the lower frequencies.

some folks aren't that affected by it, but as pretty much everyone here knows, the rest of us do.

When you're tracking (especially if you've not got several years under your belt as a VO or recording engineer), wear some cans.

Ronald T Robinson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 1008

We could always toss this part of the discussion into the mix: "There' ain't nuthin' "natural" about what we do."

We produce practiced, adjusted material with electronic technology that is delivered through an electronic medium. (We are not doing voyeuristic sound-bytes or eavesdropping on the street here.)

Now, while electronically-delivered material is a common, everyday experience, it has little to do with a conversation going on in a natural environment. (Besides, we never know for whom we are auditioning, never mind to whom we might, eventually, be communicating.)

This whole "natural" approach is no more than... an illusion, a trick, a manipulation -- technique. (Radio managers who insist on "natural" are kicking a dead horse... in the hopes that it will not only walk again, but win the Preakness. Smile

)

How we use the available technology to accomplish whatever the illusion may be is still, pretty much, a personal preference. Cans/No cans? Sure. Whatever works and gets the desired result.

Meanwhile, give me a truely "natural", stand-alone read with no effects, music or visuals and I'll have an example of a boring read.

It really is - all about the context.

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

Maybe Mr. Owens overcame bone conduction with this old trick use by announcers. He seemed to like the RCA 44 a lot.

Lee Gordon · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 1549

And Morgle as the friendly Drelb! daumen rauf

Bob Bair · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 274

I feel the need for headphones just because without them I can't always tell if maybe my "P"s are popping a bit or any minor mouth noise that I won't hear on my own. I need to hear what the microphone hears.

Now Gary with his years and years of experience may not need them. I bet when he started his career he used them.

Todd Schick · **Voice Talent** Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 63

With the exception of the odd session here and there....almost all my sessions are being directed while I'm in the booth; pretty hard to hear direction from the producer and/or engineer without cans......pretty hard to hear the music they've picked too, which has huge impact on the read. Plus you'd be wasting their time constantly picking up headphones and putting them on to hear what they've got to say.

I wear cans to listen for direction, pitch, timber, proximity, transients, inflection errors....etc. I also wear them to detect any noise that may be sneaking into the mix....like leaving a channel on that has a cheapo soundcard plugged into it from my Admin machine...LOL! Yep, nothing like the sound of "you've got mail" in the mix..... Wink

I have a talent that comes by for the odd VO now and then. Always asks me to turn down the headphones to almost nothing. She can't hear me, she can't hear herself.....and she costs me tons and tons time editing.

Subsequently, she gets the least amount of work out of all the talents I hire.

Bottom line....VO talent should wear cans all the time for reasons beyond achieving a more "natural" style. Indeed, if you can't get that natural read by wearing cans...then you need more experience listening to your voice with headphones.