Duncan Hutchins
New member
I am a retired sound engineer with UK City & Guilds qualifications. I work part time for live bands providing sound engineering, audio and video recording and DMX-controlled lighting. I frequently need to use headphones at the mixing desk, not only to monitor the main stereo mix going to the PA which obviously I can hear anyway with 'the naked ear', but also specific sounds which may need to be tweaked, such as an individual instrument or singer within a live performance. The problem I have is that when mixing fairly close to a normally loud rock band, it's nearly impossible to distinguish what's in the headphones from the overall sound coming at me from the PA, on stage amps, etc. Even with relatively high isolation headphones such as the Sennheiser HD250 (?) I cannot stop high levels of the band's s ambient sound reaching my ears, confusing what I'm trying to actually to focus in on. These days there is a good choice of noise cancelling headphones out there, using both active and passive noise cancelling technologies, some quite affordable and some out of my reach price-wise. I have 2 questions: could I simply set up a stereo mic close to where I'm working and put that signal through a small mixer, phase reverse it and then send it into my ordinary headphones, alongside the individual signal I'm actually trying to focus on? My theory is that the ambient sound would cancel out with the same sound being present in my headphones, but phase-reversed, leaving only the sounds I want to hear. I realise that this would never work 100%, but would it produce a worthwhile reduction in 'air born' unwanted sound from the whole band, and to what extent? Second question: Has anyone on this forum had good noise reduction results in live music situations with a reasonably priced noise-cancelling headphone that's available? Assessment, brand and model please. NOTE: when I use the word 'noise' I'm referring to the band's actual front of house sound as heard naturally in 'free air', same as the audience near to me hears, not some nuisance 'hum', 'buzz' or other unwanted electronic artefact. Cheers - Duncan Hutchinson, Devon, UK