Vocals: Headphones or Monitors?

[bi0force1]

hey guys, i trying to find out if its better to record the vocals while listening to the music through headphones or monitors.

my local music store guy says monitors while my friends "producer buddy" says headphones.....now i play a basic rock. my harder songs sound like Aerosmith and beatles jams while my "ballads" sound like softer smashing pumpkins and my vocals are pretty deep and very groggy and mumbly.

i currently run a "Y" connecter out of my 001's headphone jack into 2 sets of headphone and i have no monitors (which is why i am posting this)

what do you guys suggest? i dont have a specific budget so just toss out the ideas if you have them, thanks

[English Jim]

Using monitors is going to give you a lot of bleed into the vocal mic, resulting in sync/phase problems and a nightmare to edit. I would only ever monitor through er...monitors if was DI'ing a bass, gtr or keyboard part. Just use (preferably) fully enclosed headphones for tracking vox.

[bi0force1]

see E. Jim, thats what i thought, but this guy kept pushing for me to "try" the monitors.....i hate people who get paid off commition(sp?).

i think i'm just gonna pick up some wireless headphones so i dont have a 7' compatable workspace.

[rpowell]

Originally posted by English Jim:
Using monitors is going to give you a lot of bleed into the vocal mic, resulting in sync/phase problems and a nightmare to edit. I would only ever monitor through er...monitors if was DI'ing a bass, gtr or keyboard part. Just use (preferably) fully enclosed headphones for tracking vox.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Headphones are of course preferred, but some singers give a better performance singing live in front of monitors. I'll take the better performance anytime and work around the issues. One way to reduce bleed through monitors is to reverse the polarity on the leads of one of the monitor speakers. The vocal mic can then be positioned where there will be an acoustic null (not 100%, but reduced in apparent volume).

If this was an impossible problem to work around, there would never be such a thing as a "live" recording, where instrumental bleed thru vocal mics is usually much more of a problem than the controlled environment of a studio! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

RP

[bi0force1]

i like to sing w/ my headphones on....the only problem is that i dont understand EQ worth a damn and i have the 5 band eq on my mixer doing a small zigzag in the middle and it sucks [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] but thats conversation for another thread

[bi0force1]

good point ekko, if i do the monitors thing i will only do vocal over hte guitat track....i'll mute everything else

[silence_of_stone]

I would still recommend headphones anyday over monitors, even if you have taken all precautions to prevent bleeding. A little bit is still going to come through. The problem wouldnt be so much a nominal amount of bleed which would be lost for the most part in the mix. Where problems could arise is adding effects to the vocal track, the reverb, delay, etc would also be applied to the bled-through sounds and could cause some funky unwanted sounds.
I have had a few shy singers that didnt want to sing in the same room with me, some that just thought they sounded bad in the phones, and I have had to try all kinds of psychotherapy on them to get them to sing with the phones on. Most folks are just fine if they cant see you when they sing. Building the comfortable trust in the studio can be a bit difficult. Its always easier to put down something that try to remove it later.
I had one woman once that didnt want to mess up her hair with the headphones. That was tough [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
If you dont have a headphone spitter, there are a few inexpensive headphopne amps out there. I got a behringer (new from Mars before they folded) for about $50 - it had a scratch on it but the warranty is still good. That model runs about $100 new and sounds pretty good.

[Rational Punk]

I stopped using headphones for recording vocals a long time ago...just never really could get comfortable with it. I just have the monitors down at a very moderate level and I don't monitor the vocal I'm recording through them (I find it more comfortable not hearing my voice coming back at me from the monitors, plus it eliminates the phase issue). It basically gives my vocal recording the same relaxed, casual feel you get when you're just singing along with the stereo and, for me, tends to yield better performances.

[English Jim]

Originally posted by rpowell:
If this was an impossible problem to work around, there would never be such a thing as a "live" recording, where instrumental bleed thru vocal mics is usually much more of a problem than the controlled environment of a studio! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

RP

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I didn't actually say it was impossible. Obviously it can be done but it is certainly not the preferred way. Phase inversion, ducking/gating, mic selection can all be used - but they are all a compromise. Do you want to compromise on your record? In nearly 35 years a professional engineer and producer I can count on one hand the number of singers that could not get into using 'phones. Most of them are flipping burgers right now [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] A part of that is getting a good headphone mix/sound in the first place of course. I will always tag the best Verb in the house for the monitor mix.

As a matter of interest, rpowell have you ever actually engineered/produced a true live rock/popular music recording? It is... oh what's the word... a nightmare!!! Especially the lead vocal! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Happy Boxing Day to one and all [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[bi0force1]

im not shy about singing, but my friend (my drummer,bg vocals and only other bandmate) HATES hearing himself sing so he put the headphones on, turns the volume up as loud as he can w/o distorting the sound, puts his vocal track on mute and makes me record him that way........and he usually ends up whispering his track and f**king the whole thing up.

the wierd thing is hes got a voice that matches mine when i sing deep, even his wife has trouble telling us apart [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]