vocal distortion in the headphones issue

T

TKM34

New member
I'm not sure what to make of this. I had a pair of Sennheiser HD 380 Pro's that I really loved, but they eventually started to fall apart (the foam started to break down) and instead of replacing the foam, I went ahead and bought a pair of 280's. I immediately noticed a lot of muddiness and 'thickness' with the new Headphones. I figured it was just a matter of my getting used to a new set of cans and my brain adjusting to the new sonic reality. I'm pretty happy with the way instruments now sound on the DAW through these cans, but when I am singing, my vocals are almost unintelligible. I usually keep one can off to hear myself and I don't apply effects while singing; I like it dry. I never had all of that boominess with the 380's. I bought a new mic, the Beyerdynamic M-88, because I was never really that happy with my vocals through my Shure SM58's and my other mic, the AKG C 214. Everything is sounding boomy regardless of the mic being used.

Here's the thing, though. I was recording with the new mic last night in a new house in a new room where I have things set up. I put up some moving blankets around me. The sound was still thick and rumbly in the cans. I used the settings on the EQ within my Babyface Pro to take out those low frequencies, all to no avail. I shut off the Babyface Pro EQ and put an EQ on the track within the DAW to manipulate those lower frequencies, also to no avail. When I finished the recording and listened back to the track, it was the best my vocals have ever sounded on a DAW!!! Wow! I played the track to my wife through the cans and she commented on how professional sounding the vocals were. I am so excited! BUT, I am still concerned about how rumbly and thick things sound during the recording process. EQ's, mic angles, blankets...it seems like it is the cans. What do you guys and gals think?
 
I suppose you need to go back to an old CD you knew from years back and plug in those rattled 380s and have a listen, then swap them for the new ones. If your favourite tracks sound muddy and horrible, then you will have mixed your new song to sound good on problem headphones. The test of course is to take the track you and the wife like and play it in the car, a stereo, somebody else's stereo, somebody else's hifi - you have lost the common denominator. If you mix on headphones - then what people hear on speakers is vitally important - if the headphone audio is perhaps even faulty, you can boost and cut to solve the headphone issue - but I hate to think what it now sounds like on your old headphones? Post the track up here if you want the results of a lot of listens on a lot of different systems. If everyone says wow - you nailed it, if they all say the opposite of boomy and thick - so maybe tinny and thin, get short of the headphones. I know for me, I put a new pair of headphones on, play a familiar track and then put them on one of two piles - use, don't use (or give to people you don't like)
 
Thank you, Rob, for chiming in. I think I figured out what's going on. Remember, the recording sounded great, it was the actual process of recording the voice that sounded distorted.

I fired things up this evening and at one point I moved my head off to the side and could still hear the low frequencies when I was no longer singing into the mic. I believe the tight seal of the headphones and the vibration through my head and the front of my face is causing the rumble. It isn't being recorded, it's vibration accentuated by the tight seal of the headphones; it's a physical sensation. Has anyone else out there experienced this and would open back headphones possibly solve this dilemma?
 
Hmm that's odd - but I guess it could be a sinus thing - differential in pressure - vs live sound that gets in via the ear canal and your nose? It certainly doesn't happen in my head and I use tightly sealing headphones quite often - both music, and comms style headsets where they squish your skull like a vice! I didn't pick up that it wasn't the headset, just your physical reaction. I figured, to be honest, that the headphones were probably faulty?
 
It sounds a bit like plugging your ears with your fingers and singing. You get bone conduction and it is mostly lower frequencies.

That said, I find the 280s to be pretty dark compared to either my Sony 7506s or AKG 270s. Mine just seem to lack high frequency presence, so I don't try to use them for any mixing checks. They're great for tracking tho.
 
I don't know if this is relevant, but I've come to the conclusion that quite a few things that I'm playing or singing when recording sounds the way it will when actually recorded.
One just gets used to it. A bass drum can sound horrible and 'pocky' to me while it's being played, but when it's recorded, it sounds lovely and 'paddy'. The snare can sound wonderful when being hit, but when recorded, sounds like an egg bouncing on a mattress. And so often, I think singers aren't getting the notes of the song, but when recorded, I realize they were bang on.
What really matters at the end of the day is that recorded sound. Sometimes, one just has to put up with shit in recording. For example, I usually whistle the parts of the melody that's going to be sung or the instrument line that is going to be played. When a session takes a few hours to get the parts done, that whistling induces murderous thoughts in me ! But once the part is laid down, the whistle can be deleted, never to be heard again by man, God or beast. To me, that's the equivalent of your low frequencies.
 
TalismanRich said:
It sounds a bit like plugging your ears with your fingers and singing. You get bone conduction and it is mostly lower frequencies.
Click to expand...

I think that this is exactly what is happening. I threw away the 380's some time ago, though.

That tight seal, which is probably, ordinarily, obviously ideal, but for someone like myself is hindering my ability to hear things clearly. It's not the end of the world and I can work around it.
 
grimtraveller said:
What really matters at the end of the day is that recorded sound. Sometimes, one just has to put up with shit in recording.
Click to expand...

I totally agree.

It's been awhile since I have recorded anything concrete. I just recently retired and the plan was to get back into recording my songs after several years away from that activity. I just needed a reminder that there are many things that happen during the recording process that don't necessarily go smoothly, but are accepted hurdles that one has to jump over along the way in this creative process.
 
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