Hey guys welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof
is in the singing. Actually today the proof
is going to be in the listening and here's why.
I have had a ton of requests from you guys asking me Ken
what kind of headphones do you use and why.
Now II could blow you off and pacify you with a two or three sentence answer and
just say oh man get these things cause they're
cool but um I don't think that'd be responsible on my part and I
always give you guys the goods and I give you my lifetime of experience. Now
I'm different than other people that might give you an answer that don't have
the same experience but as you guys know I have over 40 records
out and I've had the opportunity to work with some of the world's greatest mix
engineers and work in some of the greatest studios throughout the world.
So I've had a lot of different listening environments for headphones
and so I make my headphone choices very very specific and I'm going to explain
this but I want to break this up into two
categories. I want to break this up into a music category
and a singing category because I know I have a lot of music friends and
instrumentalists out there and I have a lot of singing friends so.
Now they're gonna to be some crossovers so bear with me
and stick with me, there might be some technical aspects to this
but it will be well worth your ride I promise so hang in there.
The first thing I think we should do is say you know what do you want in
headphone, like what do you like about your headphones. Well I want them to
sound good, well everybody wants everything to sound good, what does that
mean right, uh the frequency response of this
and all that and you can get in to a lot of technical jargon,
I'm not going to do that but I am going to touch on some key specific points
about the technicality about different frequencies in headphones, how they
relate, how they respond as they're on your
head, open back headphones versus closed back headphones.
So stay with me for a minute but before we go to all of that
I'm going to tell you what I've been using that are awesome and I
mean awesome. These are the NDH 20s by Neumann
and I'm going to, I'm going to discuss why these are so cool. Now you've seen me
wear a lot of different headphones but I'm going to go through this and
and this is going to be key for you guys so hang in there man it's going to rock.
So the first thing I want to talk about is
music. What makes a headphone great like what do we love about them well
the frequency response, that they sound good. Now if you buy a cheap pair of
headphones usually you either get one of two things,
you get someone, a company that's trying to hype out the
frequency of the headphone. So what they'll do is they'll make them
nice and bright so they kind of sound clear but it's deceiving because
the brightness is just that, they're just giving you a lot of extra high end
making you think oh these sounds so much more clear than if I put on another pair
of headphones. So let's say you're in a shooting match
and let's say you're at the NAMM show and you're walking down all these booths
and you get to put on a bunch of different pair of headphones right.
You're going to put on one pair and there's going to be a lot of noise in
the room and a lot of distraction, you're going to put on a pair headphones
you're gonna to go oh wow these are cool, they're nice and bright
and you think they're you know, they're clear just because they added high-end
or let's say you're a bass player or a drummer and you're gonna oh
the low end on these ones rock man that's cool right.
You're gonna go through all these emotions and you're gonna listen to all
these different things you're going to say wow
you know, I like this for this reason but really what we really want
is a true response, a, a pair of headphones
that end to end are going to be even in their sound.
We don't want to put a pair of headphones on and have them be nice and
bassyand tubby and so thick in the low end
that it just notches out or screws with the mid-range
or so, so much high-end in a pair of headphones
where they're so bright and harsh after a while your ears start to fatigue
and you just can't handle it and this is really true for how loud you like your
monitoring source so if you turn it up loud in your headphones you're going oh
wow you know after 20 minutes of listening to these
things, I've blown my ears out because they're so bright and harsh or they're
so harsh in the upper mid end, mid-range that um they're unlistenable
after a while. Now so that would be you know frequency response, it'd be how
even they are in their frequencies and how they respond to volume.
Now I can't go into all the details of the differences between
open back and closed back headphones but I do want to say this,
open back notoriously have been easier on the head as far as fatigue
and putting a pair of headphones on that are gentle on your head because
of the um the way they seat around the ears. Okay now this is really important
because now you're talking about long listening
environments, you're not gonna wear these things for an hour, two hours, three hours,
four hours, whatever that is, do they feel like a pair of vice
grips on your head after a while you're like oh I just got to take these things
off and like rub my ears, massage my ears so I don't feel like my head is going to
explode from wearing these these headphones for a long period of time.
So open back headphones have notoriously been easier on
you know the vice grip effect on your head over time. Now that's changed a lot
over the years and these bad boys ergonomically are awesome on the head.
I'm going to get into that in a minute but it's not just that, we're gonna
talk about you know the, how the frequency
cancellation, canceling out noise and other things that play a big role in
this so um so let's stay with the open back thing for a second. So notoriously open
back headphones have been easier on the ears
but you can't use them when you're using a microphone, a live mic like this
because there's so much bleed from the headphones that if you're only listening
them for the purpose of, let's say you're a musician,
you're in the room recording loud guitar, you got an SM 57 on the cone of a
Marshall 412 cabinet and you know you're just, it's so loud
over there that it could never pick up the frequencies
from the headphones, that's one thing but what you're going to find is, is that
you really want to consider and gravitate towards
close backs because you can use them in any listening environment imaginable. Now
when I say listening environment this is also
really important because like I said I mean I've,
I've worked at Ocean Way, I've worked at the Village, I've worked at Conway, I've
worked at you know the world's greatest studios
and what you're going to find is, is that every listening
environment is different and the reason for the headphones could be entirely
different as well. You might be a bass player, you might be
a drummer, you might be a singer, you might be a piano player. So there's a lot,
lots of different applications for the headphones but and I'm going to get into
that too, I'm on the music side and I'm going to
get into the singing side. So guys again I am giving you for free, lifetime of
experience. I'm not your Joe Blow youtuber guy that oh man I got my earbuds, my
ear candies man they rock you should go check them out.
I'm telling you straight up, you asked me the question what headphones do I use
and why so I'm going to break this down for you. So
I've moved away from open backs okay or even partially open backs
because I can't really use them in any environment that's got a live microphone.
So that has left me to say okay what other kind of
uh of headphones are out there. Well there's a lot and there's some cool ones
but I'm gonna explain why these are really, really cool okay.
Now within headphones people like to monitor
at different volumes okay. Now when you monitor at different volumes,
headphones, frequencies inside the headphones, respond differently
okay. So if you have a really hypey in the upper mid-range or in the
upper high-end, pair of headphones and you turn them up, your ears fatigue
really quickly okay. That's the first thing. The second
thing is now i'm going to move away from open backs and i'm going to go into
closed backs. When you have closed back headphones you
can control the frequency a lot better in your listening environment. Now your
listening environment is really small right.
Now before, before I go on too far, I want to say something that's really cool
about these right. When you have a really great pair of
headphones like this, believe it or not these are so good
you don't have to go out and buy expensive near-field monitors,
these can substitute for near-field monitors.
In fact how much more near can you get but no seriously I'm not kidding. They
sound that good. The frequency response is so even end to end,
even when you crank them up or turn them down, that they're so crystal clear and
even and they're not hyped out and I want to
get into some mid-range funk in a minute because a lot of headphones have a lot
of hypey mid-range, especially with closed backs and can
fatigue the ears very, very quickly and become very harsh and brittle. Now
when I say mid-range, I'm not going to get too technical on
you but I want to discuss what that means.
Now it's, every headphone is different but
usually at the frequencies, somewhere of around 450 cycles,
it's kind of low frequency, up to around 2k, 3k
uh close back headphones as you crank them up or
or wear them for long periods of time, that it actually kind of doubles
and, and it overlaps this frequencies back and forth
inside the headphones themselves as you crank them up, they become more and more
harsh and the high end goes away and the low end goes away and you're
stuck with this, you know piling on of mid frequencies
within the headphones themselves. So that's been a big issue for closed
back headphones. Guess what folks ND 20,
they don't do that, straight up. Try it. Go somewhere, go to a local music store,
put these on and go get a cheaper pair of headphones or another brand even, even of
the same caliber, put them on at different frequencies,
crank them up and see how even these are end end. Now I'm going to
break these bad boys out and I want to show you something and I'm going to get into
the singing part in a minute but I want to finish the music part.
These have, they're ergonomically amazing. So instead of that vice grip effect
that's on your head, they are so comfortable you could wear
these suckers for hours and they don't fatigue on your
head which I'm telling you guys is a big deal
after a while because after a while you got to take a break and like I just got
to take a break, I can't. You don't have to do that with these.
That is awesome. The other thing too is the
the cancellation, the noise cancellation is. That's another
thing that has happened so, so the dilemma for closed backs has been well
we want them to be tight enough on the head and tight enough around the ears
where it cancels out sound in the room right or
there's not bleed from the headphones into a microphone but in order to do
that they have to have a lot of pressure that builds on the
head so what you need is, you need that pressure to cancel out room noise,
or other noise or ambient noise or not have noise from the headphones go to a
microphone, without the pressure mounting on the
head. These rock. So there's that okay. Now I'm
going to finish up the music part and I wanted to get into the singing part.
When you have different pairs of headphones and depending on the
headphones you have and how loud you like your listening environment,
I like my listening environment, environment pretty loud. Now let me
explain this. If you're a drummer and you're
recording as a drummer or if you're a bass player or guitar player, everyone
kind of likes to hear what they like to hear a little differently. So
let's just take a drummer for example okay.
Now the snare drum and I'm not going to get too technical but stay with me guys,
come on, stay with me. A snare drum, its frequency response can
be somewhere around that 400 and, 350 -400
range, 400 cycle range. Usually up to around the
2k, 3k range. Precisely about where you sing,
precisely about where a guitar player plays. Now
bass is different, bass usually resonates quite a bit lower.
Bass can go from you know 8-900 cycles somewhere in there, usually
depending on how bright your bass is, all the way down to 50 hertz. I mean
really low, you can't really hear 50 that great but
you can if you know what you're doing so or know what you're listening for.
So not only can these accommodate that but they accommodate it
evenly. Let me say that again. Not only can they handle the load
but they can handle that load evenly. So you can have
crystal clear bass if you're a bass player and hear your bass parts crystal
clear, or if your guitar player or a drummer
and you want to hear the snare, the hi-hat or things that are
competing for the same frequency, the range is so crystal clear
without the hype of cranking up a bunch of high end in your ear to fatigue your
ears. So that's a big deal. Now I'm going to
move on to the singing part and this is another really important component.
For you singers out there, I like my vocals blisteringly loud. Now
I don't mean ear bleed loud but I mean I like my mix to have
enough groove, kick and snare, maybe a hi-hat or a click or something
where that's fairly loud and then a wallpaper just,
a backdrop of sound for pitch but I want the groove to be there
and I want my vocals blisteringly loud and here's what I mean by that
and by the way as you guys know I have a lot of range, I sing in four octaves so I
sing really low and really high so I need something
that can handle all that different range and all that different frequency.
Very, very, very important but as much as all of that, I can't have something
(sounds) so thick and muddy and mufflly,
that I can't hear through the mix, I can't hear
clarity and I can't hear clarity at different frequency responses.
So you guys asked me the question what, what headphones do you use and why
I'm explaining it so just shut up and listen, this is really important.
So when I sing I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have a pair of
headphones on, listening kind of loud and you just can't hear yourself. How
many times have you put on a pair of headphones you go
just I can't hear myself, I can't hear myself through the mix, I can't,
I can't separate out my voice from x right. Not anymore guys, not anymore dudes
tell you, and dudettes. NDH 20s. Telling you straight up, put them on, try
it. Put your, your, your and again it just depends on a
mic you're using and preamp and how bright your
you know your your actual source is that you're listening to so I'm not going to
say you know if you're only recording you
know 10k of vocals and it's all bright and high indy, that's
not gonna fix that but if you're just, if you have a good mic, a
good preamp like this, of course my Neumann
and you're you know, you have already have a good,
a good starting point right for your your source to get to your headphones,
these are crystal clear. Now they're not just crystal clear
in the frequencies themselves but they don't
fatigue your ears when you lean into a microphone and they get louder. Now let
me explain how this works okay. This is crazy stuff but this is
taking this up a notch for you singers out there so come along with me right
now. When we sing or actually
when any volume goes to the head, the more we turn up the volume,
the more pressure mounts in the head it's natural,
it's a doppler effect. I want you to try and experiment for me okay.
I want you to have music playing in the room, the same source music
in the room and I want you to have that source music,
the same source music in your headphones. Please try this experiment.
This will settle it for you, straight up. It will
settle, it'll cinch the deal for you guys. Have a good monitoring system
playing in the room, put on the headphones
and listen hopefully your monitoring system is worthy and it sounds good,
and listen to how natural the headphones themselves are when you
put them on your head and then you take them off. So put them
on for like 5-10 seconds and have have the volume kind of
decently loud, you know a fairly decent volume in the room
and then put these on, decent volume on the head and then take them on
and off, on and off and go back and forth and listen to how natural and how even
the frequency response is from your listening source here in the room
and the listening source here. That's one thing
but the other thing is, is when you crank the headphones
up, are there any frequencies that stick out, they become
annoying or obnoxious. Very, very important.
In some headphones they become so thick and tubby
because they're hypey in the low end that's so thick you can't hear through
them. All you hear is (sounds)
right or if they're really hypey in the mid-range, they're so bright and
obnoxious they fatigue the ears so quickly, you
can't hear the frequency response. Now for you singers out there, this
is why this is important is because we sing
usually at about 500 cycles to about 2000 cycles, depending on the
range that we're singing in. That happens to be the build-up range of
most closed-back headphones that fatigue the ears. So if you've been
singing, you're behind the booth for an hour and you're going gosh
I don't know why but I just, you're asking the engineer are you sure
you didn't touch anything, are you sure you didn't turn my vocal
down, are you sure you didn't turn the music up. Straight up, you guys
am I right, am I right. Every time you put on the
headphones, are you sure my vocal or can I just cure my, can you turn me up
just a little bit more, just a little bit more.
Now some of that could be a direct byproduct of osmosis, of just listening
loud and your ears fatiguing. That's true, that
can happen but that's not really the majority of what's
happening, what's happening is the build up of this mid range frequency
in the head and then all of a sudden as you're
listening and you're turning it up and you want you know want to feel it in the
room so you want it nice and loud because you want to groove and you want
the energy, as you turn it up, it starts to notch
away in your ears the very frequency that
you're trying to sing, you can't hear, so what do you do, you
have the engineer turn it up louder and louder, it fatigues more and more and
more and you get diminishing returns. That is what makes these so freaking
cool. Okay now I'm not saying again that there
aren't cool headphones out there but you asked me my opinion,
NDH 20 Neumanns, these things rock. Now I want to leave with one more important
point and I'm going to wrap this up. That is
that when we sing in different ranges, the
higher up we go right, the the more you know this
frequency is going to grade on our ears. So the higher up we scream or
the higher we sing or whatever. So it's important also to have a very
smooth roll off and a very smooth rang..
frequency response in the upper register and without that
it becomes very difficult to hear when you're singing in different ranges.
So if you've noticed for you singers out there you've got headphones on and
you're going, my pitch royally sucks right now. I for
some reason I can scream and sing high and kind of
get pitch in the upper register but or or I'm flat as heck you know when I'm
singing up because I can't hear myself, one or the other
right and then when i get into lower registers, I just can't hear myself. Well
some of it could be volume absolutely or some of it could be thickness in the
headphones that are not delivering the clarity of that frequency response
that you need to stay in pitch as a singer.
Okay hopefully this information was helpful guys, I'm telling you this is a
lifetime of information coming your way and I don't know of anybody then, I don't
know of anybody that has had more listening environments
and has tried on more pair a headphones and as a musician, I'm a guitar player
first, singer second, though you guys all know
me as a singer. Guitar was my first instrument.
I have tried this in a lot of listening environments with a lot of different
musicians and closed back NDH 20 Neumanns
rock. Alright gang, until next time God bless you all
peace out.