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On 2011-05-08 (ScottDorsey) said:
Though one would expect a pair of really good electrostatic
headphones to be superior to any speaker, this is not necessarily
true. WHY, I don't know.
Why?
Because recordings that are miked and mixed for stereo are done so
with the intention of playing them back in a room with speakers. So
there are room effects and crosstalk (well, crosstalk is a horribly
oversimplified way of thinking about it) created, rather than each
channel directly going into individual ears.
If you could simulate those effects (and there are devices out there
like the Sennheiser Lucas and its successors which do some of that),
then you would be able to get more realistic playback of stereo
recordings through headphones.

RIght, and then the "emulations" present their own issues.
THis is also why, for forms of music William doesn't
normally listen to, where the recording process is another
major creative element it's difficult as well to mix on
phones. EFfects such as artificial reverbs, etc. are more
difficult to judge. YOu think the signal is too wet on
phones, and then find that it could be "wetter" whence
listening on your chosen playback system. As with speakers
one learns to judge using a given set of phones after
awhile.

Most of the time when we use headphones in the studio, though, it is
precisely to get that unnatural, focussed, room-free sound.

INdeed, and some performers never quite catch on to using
them. Iirc I provided some anecdotes recently on the
pro-audio list regarding players who weren't necessarily
experts and their troubles in the studio during the overdub
session. MOst of those problems were directly traceable to
the performer having difficulty getting comfortable with
listening to himself and others through headphones. ONe
tried to combat the problem by "more me" always more me. IT
took me the longest time to get him to quit agonizing over
his headphone mix, relax and let me handle that for him. I
was often a better judge of what he needed in his phones by
how well he was following along, but I"d worked with him by
then for a couple years recording a lot of his original
songs for demos that he shipped here and there. LIttle cash
changed hands between us, but he did a lot of other work for
me via barter grin.





Richard webb,

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ON site audio in the southland: see www.gatasound.com