I did a session with a punk rock band (no kidding – mohawk hairdo’s and all) in my studio this past weekend. When I asked the drummer what kind of sound he was looking for his reply was (and I’m not kidding), “Loud.” This set the tone for what turned out to be one of the more memorable sessions I’ve done recently. They tracked 18 songs that day, none of which were more than two minutes long (due to no tempo being under 150 BPM).
Today I ordered some replacement diaphragms for a couple pair of my MDR-7506 headphones. Having recently rewired the studio I was unfamiliar with the new gain structure of the headphone mixes (most of which are driven by Crown amps) and was unknowingly sending ridiculously high levels to them (perhaps I was too gripped in the science of loud drums). How anyone can leave a headphone attached to their head putting out sound levels that high is beyond me, but they did. Too many gigs at the corner bar through a crappy PA? Anyway, the moral of the story, and today’s TTOTD is to always be sure what other people are hearing. It’s important to check the mix in the talent’s headphone out in the studio where you can actually hear what it sounds like three feet from the drum kit. I’ve done this a thousand times before, and had I done it this time I would have avoided blowing up my headphones and (much worse) potentially damaging someone’s hearing. It can happen to the best of us, but it usually happens when we get careless.
On to the finer points. With some experimentation one can learn little tricks to make headphone mixes sound better. For example, you don’t need to put the drum kit in the headphones if the other players are nearby. But you do need to let them hear the articulation of the kit so they can properly play in time. A little bass drum (just enough to hear the attack) and a moderate amount of the overhead mics will do the trick. Without specifically being loud you want the drums to have enough presence in their headphones that their instruments can easily be heard over them, but in context. Take the drums out of the headphone mix and, while they can still be heard, they sound further away and it becomes harder to play tightly. Similarly the drummer needs a good amount of bass guitar, and it needs to sit right in with the bass drum from his perspective. A good headphone mix is everything to getting a good performance. It’s worth paying attention to in the same way you would mic placement or tone adjustments.