pitch: headphones vs. speakers

[famous beagle]

I rarely trust headphones when it comes to pitch (intonation), so after I've recorded a vocal (or a vocal of anyone), for example, I always listen through speakers. Often times something can sound ok on headphones but a little pitchy through speakers.

Does anyone else have this experience? If so, and if it's kind of a universal thing, does anyone know what the reasoning could be?

Thanks

 

[grimtraveller]

Yeah, I've had it happen sometimes. But going even further, there's been times when I've recorded vocals or someone else's vocals and listening back, they've sounded OK. Then when I go back a little bit later {it might be a day or five months}, they sound off, even in headphones.
Not that long ago, I did a vocal to a song and it sounded perfectly in tune with the bass. It was only when my friend was doing the harmony vocal that I thought my vocal was off. She thought it was OK but I could tell I was off. In the end, I re~did the vocal and sang to her perfectly pitched harmony which had been sung to my 'off' vocal which she had thought was in tune !
Quite often, when I'm recording the vocal, I'll have one can off my ear so I can hear my voice. What I've noticed is that this happens more when I sing against the bass than when I sing against the guitar or piano.
Maybe it's a combination of being glad it's done and therefore not listening as closely as I should and a kind of ear fatigue. I'm usually pretty sharp at spotting pitchiness in others and myself at the time though.

 

[mjbphotos]

Singing against a bass can often bring pitchy performeances, I guess because it's so much lower than the vocal pitch.

Not sure why there would be a headphone vs speaker pitch difference, though, unless its a factor of ear fatigue from the headphones.

 

[Muddy T-Bone]

With headphones, if you tilt the head to the left, they go flat, to the right they go sharp. Be very careful to keep the head still.