Recording with bad headphones?

[David Doggett]

I just had my worst "studio recording" experience ever. It wasn't a real studio, just a practice loft with a few good mikes, a Firefox Presonus A/D converter, a lap top (don't remember the software), and some really cheap headphones. I played my normal rig, an MSA M3, Truetone pickup, Hilton volume pedal, Dual Showman Reverb head, JBL D130 speaker, with a mike on the speaker.

They wanted me to overdub steel tracks on some original alt-country songs. I always have trouble getting the volume pedal subtleties right with headphones, but this was the worst ever. I could not find a good balance where I could both hear myself and the mix I was trying to play along with. For either the mix alone or myself alone, the sound was unbelievably harsh, tinny, and muddy. If I got down on the pedal so I could hear myself, I could not hear the mix. If I backed off to hear the mix, I couldn't hear myself and played horribly. To make matters worse, there were no monitor speakers. The only way to listen to the playback was through the same junky headphones.

The fidelity just seemed really bad - a tinny, staticky mess with no lows. It was just middy mud with no separation of notes, instruments, or anything - like a '50s transistor radio through an ear plug.

If I buy a really good set of headphones and bring them for the next session, is that likely to improve my ability to hear with this setup? Or is their recording setup so bad nothing will help? Would it help if I got some kind of better headphone connection box than the one they have? Is their equipment adequate, but they just don't know how to get good sound out of it? I've been in some cheap studios, but this was just way worse than anything I've encountered before. Any suggestions?

[Bill Hatcher]

When the phone problem is at its worst then move your guitar over by the engineer and listen through the playback monitors. That will usually get you in the ballpark by having the engineer give you what you need to hear through the speakers. Better than a horrible phone mix.

Home recording is the norm now. Get use to it.

[David Doggett]

Bill, I agree that would be a solution. But in this case there is no control room and no monitors. Even the "engineer" is sitting right there next to me with his laptop, listening through headphones.

[Will Holtz]

In bad situations like this it is sometimes helpful to use one ear to listen to the headphones and push the other headphone cup back off your ear. Thus you can listen directly to your amp without any of their questionable gear in the path.

[David Doggett]

Thanks, Will, I might try that. I thought about asking if they could give me the mix in one ear and me in the other. But I'm pretty sure they will say they can't do that (even if they could and don't know how). I asked them to turn down the highs and put more lows in my phones, and they said they can't do that.

[David L. Donald]

One ear one ear off, is SOP for bad cans,
or for singing if you can't hear your head tone right etc.

Get s set of GOOD earphones and carry them.
Especially for these home studio gigs.

I like the Sony MDR- 7506 cans.
Worth every penny you pay.

[David Doggett]

But is it just the cheap headphones, or is the bad sound just inherent to the rest of their low budget system? I sort of thought digital is digital, and all of it should sound pretty good.

[Rick Campbell]

Headphones need something to drive them. If the setup you described is dependent on the audio amp in the laptop, you probably won't get a good sound. You can tell by the sound of the other tracks. If it all sounds bad, then it's either the quality of the headphones, laptop, or both. You might try a headphone amp. You can get one for around $40. It might also related to the ability of the engineer.

[Mark van Allen]

Usually a low budget chain reflects somewhat on the overall ability and quality of the engineer, so I'd suspect the whole recording process to be kind of second rate.
Not always- I did a session last week at a local recording school here, huge SSL desk, top of the line monitoring, large tracking rooms and iso booths, great preamps and mics... but somebody had run off with the headphone extension cables, and we were all forced to crowd around the one junciton box near the control room, headphone cords streched every which way over each other. I had to lean to the side while playing or my phones would come off. Too funny. Even with all that great gear, the tracks didn't sound that good. Maybe they're first year students...

[David L. Donald]

Dave, if the headphones don't give you what's happening,
you are clueless to make changes,
and likely make poor ones.

These days most cheap systems in the right hands can do good work.
The average low end headphone amp is still better
that the high end ones from years past.
They just buy a pre-made chip with all the amp in it,
and wire it in.

Some ARE better than others,
but the basic function is well within the specs
we generally find acceptable these days.

Certainly better sounding the MP3 files...
I love the ad's " MP3 READY!!! "
As if THIS means ANYTHING!

The MAIN issue would be underpowered vs
enough to hear over your amp etc.

BUT the MAIN missing link besides weak technique
is bad monitoring; often chosen because of weak technique.

If you can not tell what's happening because
your listening devices are too crappy,
then you have no clue what to do with what
the electronics CAN do.

I have done recordings bouncing between a
beat to s**t Tascam 4 track 1/4" reel to reel,
and Boom box cassette decks, but PART of the monitoring proccess was on VERY good AKG headphones.

Because I had a passable monitor reference,
I could optimize the best that the crap tools would give me,
and ONE of the tracks got radio play for a time.

We never did tell them it was done on a battery powered boom box and a soooo clapped out Tascam,
that I need a tap and die set to add
a screw to re-align the head asmuth.
Literally that bad.

Also because of this recording,
I was hired for a nice studio recording package
and eventually sold them a studio of their own.
And got paid to train them how to run it.

The difference between impressing them with crap tools,
and creating total crap was the monitoring earphones
that I brought with me.