Hear room reverb in cans but not in nearfields

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darwin

New member
When I listen to my recordings, I can hear the room sound or natural reverb of the instruments when I listen through headphones. I use those new Bose noise-cancellation cans. However, I can't hear that reverb in the Mackie HR824 monitors.

I think I have a pretty dead monitoring room. I have bass traps in the corners and high and medium frequency absorption on the walls. The floor is wood. The ceiling is acoustic tile. I plan to put some 3" Rockwool absorption for the ceiling. I also have a fouton behind the listening position that ought to be helping to kill some low end.

I typically use a combination of nearfields and cans for monitoring. I am listening for something obviously messed up from either source. I guess I am just surprised that I can't hear that room verb in the Mackies.

Could somebody offer a hypothesis on what is going on?
 
It apears that your mix room has a verb of it's own that is masking you hearing the verb in the speakers. Definitely add the extra 3" Rockwool absorption for the ceiling. You may need more than that.

cheers
john
 
Wow, an interesting problem...

Don't know much about the Bose headphones, but could the noise supression be doing some sort of weird center channel cancelling that reveals the reverb in the left and right? Kind of like a vocal remover does. Try another set of phones.

let us know what the solution turns out to be.

DAN
 
Dan, you pose an interesting thought by challenging the assumption that the headphones are the "truth-tellers". I have used other cans, and I haven't noticed this with them. I'll have to ponder this.
 
why would you use noise cancelation phones in a studio? how you gonna hear the tape hiss humm and all the other nasties that you got to clean up before mixdown? and for the rec those things were designed for airplane travel
 
how far away are you tracking from your moniters? the fact proably is your so close to your speakers you cant hear the verb from the room cause its the actual sound of the room in your normal listening enviorment but in the cans there is no "natural" listening enviorment thus you hear the room your listening in
 
doulos said:
why would you use noise cancelation phones in a studio? how you gonna hear the tape hiss humm and all the other nasties that you got to clean up before mixdown? and for the rec those things were designed for airplane travel
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If there is tape hiss recorded on the source, it shows up in the noise cancellation headphones. Yes, they were designed for airplane travel, but I am trying them in a studio. I am not rich enough to have a studio in an airplane.
 
doulos said:
how far away are you tracking from your moniters?
Click to expand...

My monitors and my listening position are in an equilateral triangle with about four feet between each piece. In other words, there is 4 feet between the monitors, and there is 4 feet between me and each monitor.

the fact proably is your so close to your speakers you cant hear the verb from the room cause its the actual sound of the room in your normal listening enviorment but in the cans there is no "natural" listening enviorment thus you hear the room your listening in
Click to expand...

I think that you might be on to something here, but I don't quite understand what you wrote. Could you please say that in an other way?
 
darwin said:
Yes, they were designed for airplane travel, but I am trying them in a studio. I am not rich enough to have a studio in an airplane.
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ROTFL...

I had a thought this weekend about your situation. Are you using the headphones while your monitors are turned on and playing? My understanding is that this is what noise cancellation phones do: they take the noise (or in this case music) they pick up in the immediate listening enviroment, invert the phase and introduce it to the program material. In effect cancelling out the noise. Thus, if you have your monitors on it will cancel out some of the music that is playing in the phones. Most prominently the loudest stuff in the mix -vocals drums guitars, and perhaps less prominently the effects and quieter stuff.

DAN
 
I have some noise canceling headphones too. Not the bose, but the same process. They do cut out a lot of room noise but they do add their own hiss since the process is imperfect. It does sound a lot like tape hiss. See what happens thwn you turn the noise canceling off.
 
Dan Merrill said:
ROTFL...

I had a thought this weekend about your situation. Are you using the headphones while your monitors are turned on and playing?

DAN
Click to expand...

Thanks for thinking about my situation. No, I don't have the monitors on.
 
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