Best Headphone with Minimal Sound Bleed

  • Thread starter Thread starter NMHMusic
  • Start date Start date
N

NMHMusic

New member
I am looking for a high quality headphone with minimal sound bleed for vocal recording. I was looking at the Audeze LCD-X. Does anyone have experience with the Audeze or any other suggestion?
Thanks for your help.
 
The Audeze you mentioned are open back headphones, so they will have significant bleed. You need closed back over the ear headphones for isolation.

If you are just looking for something to use while tracking, you really don't need $1200 headphones. I would suggest you look at Beyer DT770s or AT M50x, both of which will give good isolation and are often used for tracking. Sony 7506s are also very common. IT would be best to listen to several different models to find headphones that are a) comfortable, and b) have a well balanced sound. Just like speakers, headphones will vary significantly in their sound.
 
I find Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones to be effective. I recommend upgrading the pads with velour ones from Brainwavz.
 
I have both 7506s and HD280s. I find the Sonys to be somewhat bright, the HD280s are somewhat bass heavy to me. I use the Sennheisers when I get together with my buds and do direct in recordings because they handle the bass very well. However, the drums don't come through as well, which makes it hard for me to lock in on the timing. I tend to lead the drums rather than syncing up with them.

I might try my AKG K270s next time as the open backs would let the acoustic drums come through better. The direct bass and my guitar's volume through the Iridium can be adjusted. Being open back, they wouldn't be the best for tracking vocals although I have used them when tracking. If you keep the volume down to a very reasonable level, the bleed is so minimal as to be completely buried by the actual track. Plus you can always mute any extended sections where there is no vocal.
 
The plush Brainwavz ear cushions lift the ear cups up off the head a little. That might reduce the LF response just a bit.
 
I have the Sony MDR-7506 also. Works well for me tracking guitar or vocals.
 
I use 7506 and have never had an issue with sound bleeding. Sometimes I only monitor with one ear and let the other cup ride on my head and still have no bleed.
 
I've used the Sonys and Sennheisers both, but my favorite for comfort are the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro set. (I may have worn mine out...)

Unless you (or the talent) sing(s) really softly with the monitor feed cranked, I've never heard bleed during the actual vocal take. If you get bleed in the silent parts, it will probably disappears in the mix, but do yourself a favor and clip or gate those parts out if you want to be sure.
 
While the Beyers are most comfortable imo, I use the Senn HD280 for the microphone tracking isolation stuff.
HD280 with some thicker softer pads I bought on Amazon...the pads made them a lot more comfortable and better fitting, imo. It was one of those great $12 buys that really made a bang for the buck improvement.

Tranesca Leather Replacement earpad/Ear Cushion/Ear Cover for Big OVEREAR Headphones (Fits a Great Variety of Headphones) - Black​

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top