Headphone Inonation
- Thread starter GT
- Start date
The Green Hornet
New member
Yo GT: {great tonation?]
How do you hear the music on your recorder if you don't wear the headphones? If you listen through the speakers, they will bleed into your voice track via the mic; however, some people like to let the speakers bleed into their vocals. I haven't done that yet.
I like the ambience of the reverb box in the head set; I'm not a vocalist but I like to do comedy stuff set to old time standard songs and I use the headset to get that big nice pffat sound.
I guess whatever works for you is best. All of the vocalists I've worked with use the headset and they stay on key, well, most of the time, and do good stuff. Then, when I mix down the tracks, I might spend 5 hours just playing with different reverb rooms and tweaking knobs to get the best possible reporduction I can with my rig.
Keep twiddling the knobs,
Green Hornet
How do you hear the music on your recorder if you don't wear the headphones? If you listen through the speakers, they will bleed into your voice track via the mic; however, some people like to let the speakers bleed into their vocals. I haven't done that yet.
I like the ambience of the reverb box in the head set; I'm not a vocalist but I like to do comedy stuff set to old time standard songs and I use the headset to get that big nice pffat sound.
I guess whatever works for you is best. All of the vocalists I've worked with use the headset and they stay on key, well, most of the time, and do good stuff. Then, when I mix down the tracks, I might spend 5 hours just playing with different reverb rooms and tweaking knobs to get the best possible reporduction I can with my rig.
Keep twiddling the knobs,
Green Hornet
GT
New member
Hey GH,
I have been recording my acoustic lately, (Guild D50) and singing at the same time. I think that you get a certain interaction this way, that you don't get recording guitar seperate from voice. It's kind of like making love, it's better both at the same time.
As I was telling Dobro, in microphones, I like to record binaurally. This is two mikes (AKG 190E's) spaced less than one foot appart, Panned dead left and right. I set mine up one inch appart, and slightly toed in on a single mike stand with a double mike holder. I mike the guitar on the neck side of the sound hole, as close as I can, without interfereing with my picking hand.
To record my voice, I simply lean up or down over my guitar to get the right level. This seems to give me a very real sounding recording played back through speakers.
As for recording, the only thing I let come through the speakers while I record, Are the drum machine (SR16) and bass (Rickenbacker 4001). The speakers are small one way 5 inch bass reflex GE brand, I got with a cheap stereo. I know this sounds crazy but their the most accurate speakers I have ever had, and I've had a lot. I think it's because there is no crossover and no tweeter, and closer to single point source. Hey Good sound is where you find it!!! I set the volume of the drum machine and bass just loud enough to play along with so bleed through doesn't seem to be a problem, mabey it even helps the sound of the drum machine to have a little bleed through.
I also think headphones tend to give you a false sence of uphoria, that dicipates through speakers.
I have no proccesing yet, not even eq. I'm recording strait wire with gain. Let me know of a proccesor that you think I can't live without, I can only afford one.
Try putting away the headphones, and see what happens.
I have been recording my acoustic lately, (Guild D50) and singing at the same time. I think that you get a certain interaction this way, that you don't get recording guitar seperate from voice. It's kind of like making love, it's better both at the same time.
As I was telling Dobro, in microphones, I like to record binaurally. This is two mikes (AKG 190E's) spaced less than one foot appart, Panned dead left and right. I set mine up one inch appart, and slightly toed in on a single mike stand with a double mike holder. I mike the guitar on the neck side of the sound hole, as close as I can, without interfereing with my picking hand.
To record my voice, I simply lean up or down over my guitar to get the right level. This seems to give me a very real sounding recording played back through speakers.
As for recording, the only thing I let come through the speakers while I record, Are the drum machine (SR16) and bass (Rickenbacker 4001). The speakers are small one way 5 inch bass reflex GE brand, I got with a cheap stereo. I know this sounds crazy but their the most accurate speakers I have ever had, and I've had a lot. I think it's because there is no crossover and no tweeter, and closer to single point source. Hey Good sound is where you find it!!! I set the volume of the drum machine and bass just loud enough to play along with so bleed through doesn't seem to be a problem, mabey it even helps the sound of the drum machine to have a little bleed through.
I also think headphones tend to give you a false sence of uphoria, that dicipates through speakers.
I have no proccesing yet, not even eq. I'm recording strait wire with gain. Let me know of a proccesor that you think I can't live without, I can only afford one.
Try putting away the headphones, and see what happens.
dobro
Well-known member
I'm recording acoustic guitar and voice these days. For voice, I find the binaural configuration which GT talks about produces the most interesting sound for what I want (I've tried 3 different mics, by themselves, and paired). For guitar, I'm still not sure. I think the binaural arrangement is what I want, but I don't have the right two mics yet.
As for recording voice and guitar at the same time or at different times: I like the energy I get when I record them at the same time - it's more exciting. Recording them separately, I like the way I tend to make fewer mistakes on the guitar track, and the way I'm freer to concentrate on the vocal when I don't have to play. I don't think one's better than the other, I think they're just different ways of going about it. A good player will come up with good results using either approach, methinks.
And as for headphones, yeah, I'm reduced to using them for my monitoring as well. So, what I do is stack up a load of tracks I want to compare (I think A/B is the trendy phrase here), and burn them to a CD-R and listen on the stereo. I reckon if it sounds good through headphones and on a stereo, it's as good as I'm gonna get it (nobody'd play the stuff I'm doing now in the car, and boomboxes ditto). I don't think headphones lie, I think they just tell one version of the story.
Those are the news.
As for recording voice and guitar at the same time or at different times: I like the energy I get when I record them at the same time - it's more exciting. Recording them separately, I like the way I tend to make fewer mistakes on the guitar track, and the way I'm freer to concentrate on the vocal when I don't have to play. I don't think one's better than the other, I think they're just different ways of going about it. A good player will come up with good results using either approach, methinks.
And as for headphones, yeah, I'm reduced to using them for my monitoring as well. So, what I do is stack up a load of tracks I want to compare (I think A/B is the trendy phrase here), and burn them to a CD-R and listen on the stereo. I reckon if it sounds good through headphones and on a stereo, it's as good as I'm gonna get it (nobody'd play the stuff I'm doing now in the car, and boomboxes ditto). I don't think headphones lie, I think they just tell one version of the story.
Those are the news.
I like the idea of having someone else sing.
Anyway, when I am the one doing the vocals, I haven't really had problems with intonation when singing *lead* vocals (with headphones as monitors.) BUT, I DO have a LOT of trouble when singing *harmony* lines. I have to take off one ear of the headphones or else I have trouble finding the correct starting pitch. But then again I'm not a professional vocalist or anything like that so maybe I just suck.
Hope that answers your question.
Anyway, when I am the one doing the vocals, I haven't really had problems with intonation when singing *lead* vocals (with headphones as monitors.) BUT, I DO have a LOT of trouble when singing *harmony* lines. I have to take off one ear of the headphones or else I have trouble finding the correct starting pitch. But then again I'm not a professional vocalist or anything like that so maybe I just suck.
Hope that answers your question.