Vocals sound great through headphones but fall flat through computer speakers?

With headphones, the vocals can get "drowned" in with the music, whereas with playing on a loudspeaker, the music disperses out in all directions, potentially causing parts of the recording to stick out.
That sounds like the problem with an untreated listening room - you've got room reflections and resonances giving a false acoustic image when you use your monitor speakers.
 
Are we talking about flat, as in singing below the required pitch - out of tune? or are we talking about flat as in boring, dull, lacking sparkle etc. The original topic was in the main about pitch, not quality?


I've read and re-read and I'm not sure?
 
Are we talking about flat, as in singing below the required pitch - out of tune? or are we talking about flat as in boring, dull, lacking sparkle etc. The original topic was in the main about pitch, not quality?


I've read and re-read and I'm not sure?
An interesting question Rob because many people have trouble judging pitch on headphones, they have difficulty tuning a guitar for example.

So, OP's clip might sound bob on pitch on cans but a bit 'orf' on speakers?

Maybe some guitarists might like to chip in about tuning through cans? I shall ask son tonight if I can get him on Skype.

Dave.
 
When you mix in headphones, it's the same as having your speakers in a straight line with you. i.e. L ----- you ----- R.

When you switch to speakers you're changing the position of the source. The physical speakers are now at two points of an equilateral triangle (you being at the third point).

That's almost certainly why you're hearing a difference. Try damping the room so you can mix using speakers. Get someone to move a mirror along the L wall, when you can see the speaker from your normal sitting position, the sound absorption panel should be placed where the mirror is. Do the same on the right wall. Sound absorption panels are expensive but you can make your own as follows:

1) Make a 3" deep wooden frame
2) Put a rod across the top on the inside of the frame
3) Hang old towels over the rod (or mineral wool) such that the frame is now stuffed with sound damping material
4) Cover the frame with the best looking towel and staple it to the wood

Once you've got the room dead, you can work in headphones but mix on speakers.
 
I swapped my shure SE215 in ears for the better and bassier 400 series and discovered that pitch on the lower strings of my 5 string bass was terrible. Listening to the show recording one song where I used the low G I actually played in Gb as I used to sing at the same time I couldn’t look and just played by feel. It sounded ok in the ears but was a semi tone down thoughout the whole song! My singing was in tune but the bass was not. G and Gb sounded the same on the 415s. Accurate on the less baddy 215s. I went back to them straight away. No idea why they are imprecise at the bottom like that
 
When I first had to fill in on bass at a jam session, I had trouble hearing the notes on the bottom string. Everything was rolled off, so there was little high end to help find the pitch of the notes. Since then I try to use plenty of bridge pickup. It helps me distinguish things.

When I was working out the bass parts for God Bless The Child last summer, I actually worked everything out on the guitar, and then just moved it to bass. Maybe it's part of the aging ear syndrome, but it was easier that way. When I tried at first just working it out on the bass, I could tell something wasn't blending, but I could figure out what it needed.

Maybe Sir Chaunce will grace us with his presence again and we and figure out what the real problem is. So far, he's been a one-and-done.
 
I swapped my shure SE215 in ears for the better and bassier 400 series and discovered that pitch on the lower strings of my 5 string bass was terrible. Listening to the show recording one song where I used the low G I actually played in Gb as I used to sing at the same time I couldn’t look and just played by feel. It sounded ok in the ears but was a semi tone down thoughout the whole song! My singing was in tune but the bass was not. G and Gb sounded the same on the 415s. Accurate on the less baddy 215s. I went back to them straight away. No idea why they are imprecise at the bottom like that
Wow.....I think you just solved an issue our bass player was having in certain sessions where he wore cheap IEM's. I'll have to check that out when we meet tonight.

Mick
 
Are IEMs any better at transmitting lower bass frequencies than consumer earbuds? I've only tried a few buds and they seemed to be useless in their bass transmission. I have found that if I push up from below my ear, squeezing the ear canal, the bass comes booming to life - not unlike bass-heavy headphones. But no matter how tight fitting the buds are, without that squeeze there is very little bass.
 
I also have a fretless, and a double bass. Both ears open is pretty decent pitch control. One ear, less so, but IEMs make pitching virtually impossible. If you take a bass sample from kontakt or other packages. Play from a low F (as in 1st fret on a normal 4 string bass) and record every note down to B, but with a different pitchbend so they are randomly perfectly in tune and others are not. Chop them up and rearrange them. On speakers you can hear the out of tune-ness. On IEMs for me, that accuracy vanishes. I hate it. I have a theory that on the SE215s with their less accurate bass response, I'm actually hearing more harmonics than the fndamental. On IEMS with a more detailed and loud bottom end, this overwhealms the harmonics and my pitch control goes. It needs a few people to try this with their speakers and headphones to see if it's more common. EDIT for Spantini - I think it's just the sealing that is different - audio wise, theyre just the usual variable tone.
 
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